Tweet Trail of the Octopus now on DVD

Hey folks, just a couple of heads up about some silent serials. I did a couple
of write ups and wanted to share...

The Trail of the Octopus is shipping NOW. I've been waiting a couple of years to see this happen and am pretty excited about it. BTW, for the folks who take umbrage at Serial Squadron recreations, this wound up not happening for Trail. There are a four missing scenes and one missing episode (ep nine). For the missing parts I believe there are some stills and text to keep the flow and story continuity going, but no reenactments. If you haven't seen the sample footage, it is pretty outstanding. You can check out a part of chapter one, all of chapter two and another except at youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=trail+of+the+octopus&oq=trail+of+the+octopus&gs_l=youtube.3..0.96.2343.0.2408.14.7.0.5.5.0.173.711.4j3.7.0...0.0...1ac.1.YTX6i6pZJdc
http://thepulpreader.blogspot.com/2012/09/trail-of-octopus-hits-dvd.html



Also some footage from another amazing looking, yet mostly lost serial The
Mysteries of Myra will be streaming on the web starting October 27th
http://thepulpreader.blogspot.com/2012/10/mysteries-of-myra-update.html

All absolutely amazing stuff - OCTOPUS is a cool film in every way, and MYRA was instrumental in the development of the horror film. It was, in fact, the first film to ever center around the paranormal in then-modern day. It is also my personal holy grail of silents.

There's now a trailer for the Mysteries of Myra showing. So you can see a little glimpse of the footage now!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Hw9rH10Ug2s

Wow! From what little there is there, and from what I already know of the film, it seems I'm in for an even bigger treat than I expected!

Trail of the Octopus? Is it any relation to the greatest film ever made, Sh! The Octopus?


Jim

No. It's better. It's weird, but better.

No. It's better. It's weird, but better.

I'm waiting for Mike S. to rebut you...

Jim

My favorite character in the serial was the lecherous little "Ape Man". It was a good supporting role, but the actor was uncredited. Does anyone know if this is John George? You can see him clearly around 1:44 at

Yep, it is indeed John George.


RICHARD M ROBERTS

That's interesting. I was considering buying this, just the cost is a bit much for me. Everything I saw and read lead me to believe that these were DVD's. I read on the silent era website they are DVDR's.
http://www.silentera.com/video/trailOfTheOctopusHV.html

DVD-Rs and standard DVDs actually have the same picture quality. I've never understood why people refuse to buy DVD-Rs. The picture quality is exactly the same if they're made right and not just home-burned from a duped VHS tape.

DVDR's have a SIX TIMES LESS life expectancy than a factory pressed DVD. That is my problem.

DVDR's have a SIX TIMES LESS life expectancy than a factory pressed DVD. That is my problem.

Oh really? And we know this how?


RICHARD M ROBERTS

I know people who have home-burned discs from the dawn of DVD that still play great. And since Serial Squadron DVDs are made with a high-quality professional burner, I can only assume that they would last even longer than my friend's homemade discs.

Haven't had a DVD-R fail yet. Only the odd stillborn failure at burning. I do look after my stuff and can't remember my last failed CD, DVD etc. Quite a few years ago.

I've had dozens of DVDR's that I've had to throw in the trash.

Yep, it is indeed John George.


RICHARD M ROBERTS

Is Paul Ringo in the film, too?

Jim

I've had dozens of DVD-Rs that I've had to throw in the trash.

Were they home-burned or from eBay sellers? (99% of eBay sellers who sell DVD-Rs burn them with home DVD recorders.) Home DVD recorders use less powerful lasers than professional burners, so the discs they make won't last as long as others. If they were from reputable sellers like Serial Squadron or Grapevine, I would be very surprised.

[Danny Burk]

Disc brand also makes a difference. No-name stuff can be bad as soon as it's burned. Not to say that any brand can't have the occasional clunker, but a good brand such as Taiyo Yuden should be much more reliable. I use the latter and haven't had any go bad.

Nosferatu, is your statement based on actual published research, or a quote from "some guy on the internet"?

According to the research study performed by the Library of Congress' "Optical Disc Longevity Study": "there was a significant variation in the longevities among the DVD products, although most life expectancies were greater than 30 years."
http://www.loc.gov/preservation/resourc ... gevity.pdf
The study only looked at recordable CD and DVD discs.

Of course, storing them in high humidity or high temperature will reduce the lifespan, so if you live in an area of high humidity, or have your DVD's on a shelf above a heat source....

[quote="Bruce Long"]According to the research study performed by the Library of Congress' "Optical Disc Longevity Study": "there was a significant variation in the longevities among the DVD products, although most life expectancies were greater than 30 years."[quote]



And we know how accurate those longevity studies are, considering their original study for film estimated that all nitrate film should have decomposed by now and all safety film was stable and would last hundreds of years.


RICHARD M ROBERTS (and is plastic lasts five hundred years, why do so many of our toys break the day after Christmas?)

No. It's better. It's weird, but better.

I'm waiting for Mike S. to rebut you...

Jim

Sorry to be late to this, but: nothing is weirder or better than SH! THE OCTOPUS. This is irrefutable fact. So there.

Mike S.