Re: Rodemich, Sharples & the Chaplin Mutuals -- who did what?
Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 9:33 am
THE CURE was scored by Rodemich.
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Skretvedt wrote:I still have my Image laserdiscs which contain the Van Beuren scores in very nice sound. I wonder if these weren't slightly slowed down in tempo; it seems to me that the films in these video transfers are running at about 20 to 21 fps, and even though the soundtracks seem to be in their original pitch, the tempo seems a bit slower. I could be wrong; it's been years since I've seen the old "Chaplin Carnival/Festival/Cavalcade" compilations in 16mm.
These were basically the Van Buren versions, except that I made new main titles and historical titles to precede each one of the films. At that time, when the prints were brand new, before they went into service, I made one-inch videotape masters and began to license them for television through TV Cinema Sales Corporation. I didn't have any idea how they would do, but they are what they are - works of genius, but works of genius in black and white without sound. But the company did all right with them, and we put out those versions on home video, as well, through a company called Media Home Entertainment which distributed laserdiscs through Image Entertainment. This was the beginning of my relationship with Image.
As I recall, I didn't have the rights to put them out that way on video under my deal with Blackhawk, but I made some kind of arrangement with them to split the income, and they were glad for the extra income and gave permission. So that was the first video edition of them - basically the slightly modified Van Buren versions.
The other modification associated with the video release was to slow them down to 20 frames a second which is the right speed - or at least in my opinion is the right speed - and to reprocess the Van Buren tracks through an analog device that existed at that time which was called the Eventide Harmonizer which allowed us to raise the pitch so that when we slowed the music down, we could get the pitch back up and it simply sounded like the orchestra was playing slower - not like you were playing a 78 rpm record at 45 or a 45 rpm record at 33.