Mr. Sparkle Restores Cheap Trick: Live at Budokan

[mr. sparkle]

Frame Grab of Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick

Check this out. I got a call this week to restore and color correct "Cheap Trick: Live at Budokan". I just completed the work and it looks awesome! The back story is that the 2" videotape reels were lost for years. Recently, they were discovered in a vault in NYC and I was chosen to restore the picture for the re-release.

I just finished color correcting two other live concert gigs for a production studio in Santa Monica: Jewel and Moby. So they liked me enough to get me aboard with the Cheap Trick Project.

I'm pretty stoked I was in charge of the final look for the project. The good news is that the raw video looks great on the scopes, meaning that the original engineers and the guys doing the dubbing from the 2" to Digital Betacam did a bang up job. Blacks are truly black. The whites and midtones are bang-on. Unfortunately, a few shots are blown out and I couldn't optimize any color information in those cases. The reds have quite a bit of noise in the darker shots and a wee bit in the bright shots as you can see in the frame grab.

I heard that back in the 70's, NHK completely outfitted Budokan for professional sound and video for concerts (and sumo!). Looking forward to seeing the final product with its 5.1 Surround mix.

Cheap Trick fans are gonna be so happy to see the concert again. It's truly a milestone in rock history.

[GuyJean]

.. I got a call this week to restore and color correct "Cheap Trick: Live at Budokan"..

They know only Mr. Sparkle can make it really sparkle. congrats!

GJ

[Taro Toporific]

...Frame Grab of....

[SIZE="7"]MORE!!
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[Ptyx]

What are you using to color correct this ?

[Greji]

Cheap Trick fans are gonna be so happy to see the concert again. It's truly a milestone in rock history.

Good Show Spark. Looking forward to seeing it.
BTW hurry back to the old turf. GJ needs help. As you may recall he has trouble operating his reel to reel....

[AssKissinger]

Congrats

The versions of I Want You to Want Me and Surrender on that album embody everything that is right with the universe.


It's actually the main reason I fell in love with Japan. Those girls screaming like Beatlemania times a million still make me cry. They were the coolest kids to ever live.

[DrP]

Wow - they shot that in quad? Must have a been a fun job to de-interlace and correct. I'm surprised they didn't use a VPR but then, this <was> Japan. Can't wait to see the results!

[Charles]

Trick: Live at Budokan". I just completed the work and it looks awesome! The back story is that the 2" videotape reels were lost for years. Recently, they were discovered in a vault in NYC and I was chosen to restore the picture for the re-release.

Wow, I didn't know anyone still used 2in tape, even at that time. The last time I saw any 2in tape decks was back around 1980 at CBS on Melrose, they were sitting in a dusty storeroom and hadn't been used in many years.

Anyway, good job and glad to see you back on FG, don't be such a stranger.

[Mulboyne]

What a great project to work on. Well done, mate.

Cheap Trick must be one of the only non-Japanese bands to owe their popularity in the West to a performance in Japan. That Budokan album was a real breakthrough for them.

[DrP]

They could have been using these .... http://www.lionlamb.us/quad/tpr10.jpg I had a TPR-10 to go along with my Nagra IV-S as my ultimate 'Mobile Set'. Then eventually went full Nagra with the 1" version. http://www.labguysworld.com/My_VPR-5_007.jpg

I still have the IV-S, but sadly the VPR-5 was sold to finance a downpayment on my house in Seattle... back in 1989.. sigh..

[mr. sparkle]

They could have been using these .... http://www.lionlamb.us/quad/tpr10.jpg I had a TPR-10 to go along with my Nagra IV-S as my ultimate 'Mobile Set'. Then eventually went full Nagra with the 1" version. http://www.labguysworld.com/My_VPR-5_007.jpg

I still have the IV-S, but sadly the VPR-5 was sold to finance a downpayment on my house in Seattle... back in 1989.. sigh..

I have a feeling it was shot on 1" and mastered in 2". A dub of this edited master is what I was working with.

Cheap Trick must be one of the only non-Japanese bands to owe their popularity in the West to a performance in Japan. That Budokan album was a real breakthrough for them.

You said it. As AK can coincide, it was one of the biggest records of the late 70's in the U.S.. Almost every American kid had a copy of it.

I wasn't on the Cheap Trick bandwagon back then. It wasn't until later when I did college radio that I could appreciate them.

Wow, I didn't know anyone still used 2in tape, even at that time. The last time I saw any 2in tape decks was back around 1980 at CBS on Melrose, they were sitting in a dusty storeroom and hadn't been used in many years.

Anyway, good job and glad to see you back on FG, don't be such a stranger.

I think it was shot on 1". By '80, I'm sure the US post houses were moving to a full 3/4" Umatic workflow. Cassettes were easier to deal with than the open reel formats.

I have been busy trying to set up shop in LA these past 2 years, so that is why I haven't been around much. It hasn't been easy in the down economy, writers strike and now SAG strike. But I keep pushing.

It's actually the main reason I fell in love with Japan. Those girls screaming like Beatlemania times a million still make me cry. They were the coolest kids to ever live.

Ha ha! That's awesome. I tried to brighten some of the audience shots to bring out some of those screaming faces. You get a glimpse of the kids during the Japanese credit roll (which was cut from the video) and they look so innocent.

I was hoping that we'd include both the credit roll and the very end of the concert where CT runs out to awaiting cabs right before the credits, but they were cut.

Good Show Spark. Looking forward to seeing it.
BTW hurry back to the old turf. GJ needs help. As you may recall he has trouble operating his reel to reel....

Oh, he's just fine with his splicing block and razor blade.

What are you using to color correct this ?

I'm a little embarrassed to say–Final Cut Pro. I just used the 3-way Color Corrector filter as I have been for the past 4 or 5 years. Sometimes the RGB Balance and Levels (smoother mid-tones adjustment) filters, as well. As I said, I only had to make minor adjustments as the master tape was in fine form. Dead on with the Scopes.

I wanted to use Apple Color but explained it would take me 30% longer since I'm just getting my sea legs with the program and am not as speedy with it as I am living in FCP–I was honest about this. Also, they were under time pressure, as well as, not wanting to pay me 30% more to complete the task. Although I explained we'd have the potential for a slightly higher quality, they told me to do it using the methods I'd used for them in the past.

Looking back, I should've negotiated this point with them a little harder, as the quality may have been a bit higher and I would've gotten some good experience with Color. A side benefit is that Apple takes notice of projects like these and I could've gotten some positive press from them, but I didn't even think of that. On the next project for these guys, I will break out Color and tell them that we need to go that route, even though it may take a little longer at first.

I may ask them to keep the project on the drives so I can experiment a little with the footage and Color. I honestly cannot say how much better the shots would've been if I had used it. I didn't even have time to perform a test, as I said, there was a lot of time pressure to get the job done quickly.

The producer also had another request: film look. I wasn't too happy about that at first, as I would've liked to have the video look as close to the original as possible. After some experimenting with FCP native tools, I couldn't find the look that they wanted. The next day, I tried adding G Filters' "G Film" and got a slightly stuttery film motion look that they were very pleased with. It makes it look as though it was shot on film. I liked the look, and so did they, so they signed off on it. There are about 12 shots w/o G Film on them: the title cards which are burned into the master tapes. G Film just mangles them! I don't think people will notice the difference between the shots too much. I hope not anyway. My feeling is that G Film improved the overall look of the piece. Its film "feeling" draws the viewer in much more than the starker look of video. It has kind of a dreamy quality if you can dig that.

MORE!!

You got it!

They know only Mr. Sparkle can make it really sparkle. congrats!

It's "Sparkle-riffic!"

I wrapped out the project yesterday and now it is off for a 5.1 surround mix.

Thanks a lot for the comments guys. Miss ya'll and hope to be back in Japan again. Doesn't look likely any time soon, but you never know!

[kamome]

Are you allowed to post any of the finished product on here? It would be cool to see the video, but I'd understand if this was considered a no-no. As a substitute, you could post the purchase information here.

[mr. sparkle]

Are you allowed to post any of the finished product on here? It would be cool to see the video, but I'd understand if this was considered a no-no. As a substitute, you could post the purchase information here.

It's a Sony Product-o. I'd get sued from here to Tokyo if it got pre-released. I have the first :45 of "Surrender" for my reel though.

I'm doing another Cheap Trick thing soon. It's a live concert of them performing Sgt. Peppers at a NYC hotel. Think it's the Waldorf. They did a similar thing at the Hollywood Bowl.

I have the raw footage right now. I'm gonna have a look after dinner.