The Future Was Fantastic DVD.

Two years too late!

http://shado-forum.com/THE-FUTURE-WAS-FANTASTIC-now-available-td4022933.html#a4022936

Marc, any chance you can do a copy for me? I'll happily pay whatever price you quote plus postage on top.

I just need a DVD-R to play on my Oppo Blu-Ray player and watch on my TV, not computer.

Thanks very much!

Sorry, I'm not one to make copies of things that people don't want copies made of... at least, I know people were quite upset when unauthorized copies were being made and sold on eBay a couple of years ago.

This is a more general problem, however, as there have been fan productions related to UFO made over the past several decades, and of course most of these are unobtainable other than the rare eBay auction.  

I recall in one case, I wanted to post some audio excerpts of a 1980s Fanderson UFOria convention (from cassette tapes that were sold in the 1980s), and I was surprised to find that Fanderson objected to that, even though this was decades later and Fanderson has not sold those cassettes in decades, nor have they since.

But certainly a lot of the stuff that I put on my website, ufoseries.com, has fallen into this category -- "old stuff that you can't really get anywhere anymore"

Marc

That's fine, Marc, I completely understand.

But can I just ask:

1. Do you know for certain if the makers would be upset if you were to make a copy for me?
2. Is there any way I can contact them to ask?
3. Do you know if they intend to put out any more copies in the future?

I only ask as it's not really surprising copies were being issued when so few official DVD's were actually available at the time. I'm not saying that that's right or a good thing or justified, just that it's a shame that so few official DVD's were actually available and they all probably disappeared rapidly.

But if my missed my chance, then so be it....

Do you want to swap something for mine?  Maybe the Fanderson disc from your duplicate US megaset?

Just wanted to say thanks to Massdream for exchanging DVD's without a hitch.

I don't think we've upset anybody as no money was exchanged - it was just a straightforward swop for items we bought legitimately elsewhere.

And what do you think of the DVD?  :-)

Marc

It only arrived today!

Will watch and report back in due course.

I know Massa watched his straightaway!

Okay, finally managed to put aside two hours away from the Tennis and Football and watch this. And I really enjoyed it.

It helps that I am interested in those "Behind The Scenes" extras on DVD's, the ones that look at the nuts and bolts of production, that focus on the people behind the camera as much as the people in front of it.

It's quite a technical documentary mainly focused on locations, props, artwork and the processes of making TV, so it can come across a bit dry and not for everyone. But it would make a great extra on the forthcoming Blu-Ray set.

Sad to see Straker's iconic car in such a state. Any news, Marc, on what's happened with that as well as Foster's car?

And I wonder if Mike Billington's son still thinks the programme's "crap"? I doubt it, at least, I very much hope not.

> It's quite a technical documentary mainly focused on locations, props,
> artwork and the processes of making TV, so it can come across a bit dry and
> not for everyone.

Yes, it's definitely not for everyone... but was glad to see it finally come out, as most of the work on this was done in the late 1990s I think, and then Jeff got distracted by other things before it ever got released.
 
> Sad to see Straker's iconic car in such a state. Any news, Marc, on what's
> happened with that as well as Foster's car?

Yes, Straker's car did not have a good life after UFO... it's still in that back yard... someone did invest a lot of money to make casts of the outer shell before it fell apart completely, but they had estimated that the whole car would have disintegrated by now (so unable to be restored).

I have not heard an update on Foster's car, so I will assume the same thing.

Ironically, some vehicles from UFO are in pretty good shape -- an original SHADO jeep was restored recently, and is now being shown at fan events (it was shown at smallspace 5 this past weekend in the UK).  And the other jeep is in Italy, not fully restored but it was driveable the last time I checked).  I saw the Model T from IDENTIFIED (and "The Secret Service") at a Fanderson convention in 2000, so presumably that's still around somewhere too.

Marc
 

>  But it would make a great extra on the forthcoming Blu-Ray set.

Yes, although since it's not in high definition, that may prevent it from making it to the upcoming Blu-ray.

But Jeff Smart has produced extras for past Gerry Anderson DVD sets... for example, he produced two of the commentary tracks for the USA UFO DVD release (for KILL STRAKER with Alan Perry and Micheal Billington, and TIMELASH with Sylvia Anderson and Wanda Ventham)

Marc

The 'powers that be' are aware of Jeff's documentary and I suggested it to them as a possible inclusion on the UFO release a couple of months ago.  

However, I am 100% certain that if anyone is interested in it, then Jeff would probably be happy to run off more copies.  It is an incredible documentary and has proved to be very, very popular.  

Just wondering - would Jeff make more money from selling it individually or as an extra on the Blu-Ray Box?

I mean, he'd probably reach a wider audience if it were included as an extra and maybe it would produce a steadier income, like royalties on a hit song or something.