by Mike Gebert, NitrateVille.com
To find out about what has to count as one of the year's most ambitious releases, a complete HD remastering of Buster Keaton's solo shorts as a star and director for blu-ray and DVD, I went to the source— Bret Wood. Bret produces DVDs and BluRays for Kino Lorber Inc., specializing in their silent releases. That means he consults on the selection of titles, helps create and coordinate special features, supervises film transfers and the preparation of the video masters, and even designs the menus and packaging. He comes to this work not only as an enthusiastic film fan but as a filmmaker in his own right whose third feature, THE LITTLE DEATH, is scheduled for DVD release in September 2011.
NITRATEVILLE: What were your goals in returning to the Keaton shorts for this video release versus the Keaton releases that were done by David Shepard and released by Kino in 1996, which seemed more or less definitive at the time?
BRET WOOD: The main reason for remastering and re-releasing the Keaton shorts was to present them in HD. Everything in the set was newly mastered at 1920x1080; nothing has been up-converted from the previous SD masters. Every film began with the transfer of one or more archival 35mm elements. Some films were supplemented with material from 16mm prints and negs (for missing shots, original intertitles, etc.).
As you know, we've been gradually re-issuing the Keaton features as special edition DVDs and BluRays, which has caused some of the shorts to go out of print (since they were previously packaged with the features). For instance, the 1996 release of THE GENERAL included COPS and THE PLAY HOUSE, but the 2008 re-issue did not. Releasing a collection of shorts allows us to keep all the two-reelers in print. And we have, for a long time, wanted to bundle the shorts in one package, in chronological order, instead of having them spread out over nine discs.
I think it's fascinating to watch them in chronological order, so you can see Keaton's artistry evolve. Sometimes he's clearly paying homage to the films he made with Roscoe Arbuckle. Sometimes he's cultivating ideas that would come to fruition a few years later when he began making features. And some films are simply perfect as they are (ONE WEEK, THE PLAY HOUSE). We're fortunate that all the films exist (in some form or another), so that we appreciate them as a body of work. Other silent filmmakers should be so lucky!
So if you're doing them in chronological order, what's his first short— ONE WEEK, or THE HIGH SIGN (which was actually completed first but not released until later)?
We start the series with THE HIGH SIGN, even though Keaton withheld it from release for several months. Co-starring Al St. John, you could say the film still has one foot in the Arbuckle comedy world, so I prefer to begin with it. And it the only one of Keaton's two-reelers not to co-star Joe Roberts (who would make his debut in ONE WEEK and appear in all the remaining shorts).
What condition would you say the shorts are in as a whole? Clearly Kino must think there's good enough material to be worth blu-ray overall, but I'm sure in many cases it's not as nice as what exists on, say, THE GENERAL.
Overalll, I'd say the shorts are in great condition. Some of them (THE GOAT, for example) are amazing to see in HD. For that title, we were fortunate to be able to transfer a nitrate original print at the Library of Congress. Even the poorest-quality elements (CONVICT 13, HARD LUCK, THE FROZEN NORTH, THE LOVE NEST) can benefit from the added sharpness of HD. Those have been marginally improved by the remastering.
In most cases, we're transfering from the same archival elements used for the 1996 release. But a number of titles were remastered from significantly better 35mm film elements than were used 15 years ago: ONE WEEK, COPS, THE BOAT, THE GOAT.
What have you had to do with some of the shorts to get them ready for this edition?
Almost every short required some tinkering to get it ready for release. In some cases, the master film element at the Rohauer Collection / Douris UK Ltd. (the company that represents the films of the Keaton estate) were incomplete, and we had to integrate footage from another source -- either from other film elements at Douris, from an archive, or from a collector. In several cases, the original titles were missing (THE PLAY HOUSE, THE BALLOONATIC, THE PALEFACE), and we were able to locate copies from other sources. In those cases where the original titles don't seem to exist, we recreated title cards in a font that closely resembles the original. Sometimes the films had scenes that were cut in the wrong sequence, and we were able to put those shots back in the proper order (THE PLAY HOUSE, COPS).
It was a huge effort to do this much digital restoration work, and I am indebted to everyone in the silent film community who helped. Bruce Lawton was a restoration consultant for the series and went to great lengths to help put the films back together again. Other people who helped include Jack Dragga, Ben Model, Patricia Eliot Tobias, just to name a few.
Much to our chagrin, there were a few pieces of footage that have surfaced since the 1996 release that we were not able to obtain for our remasters (the "Chinese family" ending of HARD LUCK, the police bandstand scene of DAY DREAMS, some golf course footage of CONVICT 13). But we have managed to integrate material that was not in the Kino/Arte editions, with original titles, additional footage, plus a small selection of outtakes.
The Goat.
Film speed is a constant point of contention here, but it seems like the earlier video releases and your blu-rays have hit a pretty happy medium with Keaton, fleet of foot but not frenzied which would be all wrong for his thoughtful style of comedy. How did you handle the question of speed?
Actually, we felt the previous editions ran a bit too slow, so all the films in this collection (with one exception) run faster than in the 1996 release. For this reason, some of the running times are shorter than in the previous release. Some films, such as COPS, run at 24 frames per second.
The one exception is ONE WEEK, which was mastered about two years earlier than the other films, and was transfered at a speed that, in hindsight, we found to be too slow. Because of the way in which the master was created (1080i) we were not able to vary the speed from that at which it was initially transfered. So that one film runs a bit slower than the rest. And it was the only film presented on BluRay at 1080i/29.97. All the other films were mastered 1080p/23.98.
Well, I'm sure we'll be hearing about that one! I noticed that the box art says some of the shorts are also presented in additional digitally enhanced editions. Tell us what those are (as opposed to everything else on the set which is, I presume, in some sense digitally enhanced).
The digital enhancement on select titles (THE HIGH SIGN, COPS, THE BOAT, THE BALOONATIC) is a high-tech version of digital video noise reduction, that wipes out a lot of the dust, dirt and scratches from the HD source master. It also stabilizes a jumpy image. On one level, it really cleans up the picture, but we felt that by smoothing out the texture of the grain, it was compromising the integrity of the 35mm celluloid (eliminating some of the detail). Rather than abandon the process, we applied it to the four films that it would benefit the most: those that have nice sharpness/contrast beneath the pesky layer of dirt and scratches.
That's pretty great that you give people the choice of regular or extra digity, basically. Music is another big point of contention with video releases of beloved films like these. Were you able to reuse any classic scores for these films?
Most of the scores from the 1996 release are being reused in the 2011 edition. We commissioned new scores (by Ben Model, playing his Miditzer virtual theatre organ) for ONE WEEK, COPS, THE BOAT, THE BALLOONATIC and THE BLACKSMITH (contractual issues kept us from reusing the scores and masters of those particular titles).
With this release Keaton will probably be the classic era star with more blu-rays out than anybody (passing Humphrey Bogart, I believe). So silents and this blu-ray thing seem to be going pretty well together, no?
So far so good (knock wood). But a greater test lies ahead of us, as we delve into the less famous Keaton titles, such as BATTLING BUTLER and GO WEST, which will debut on BluRay in Fall 2011. Regardless of how these titles perform, we will continue with the Keaton remastering until all the films have been reissued on DVD and BluRay.
Okay, let's end with the impossible question, the one that will really put you on the spot. What's your favorite Keaton short?
A favorite Keaton short? That's really tough. Going into this project, I would have said THE PLAY HOUSE, simply for its raw energy and cinematic daring. But now that I've seen each one, forward and backward, several times, I may have to go with ONE WEEK. We see so many of Keaton's signature touches in that film -- his use of mechanical props of all sizes, and trains. It's hard to believe it was only his second solo short.
There's also something else about the film I hadn't noticed previously. For this release, we invited a number of Keaton experts to write brief introductions to selected shorts, which we edited into "Visual Essays." Ken Gordon wrote a piece on THE SCARECROW that discusses the three films co-starring Sybil Seely -- one of which is ONE WEEK. I can't describe it, you'll have to see it for yourself, but it was very poignant, as it showed that in the Seely films, Keaton allowed his character to be in love— and to be loved back. Unlike Keaton's other leading ladies, Seely is affectionate, not stand-offish.
Knowing this makes those three films (THE BOAT is the third) very touching. I think ONE WEEK captures the brilliance that was beginning to emerge from Keaton, even as it captures the last flickers of his innocence.
Buster Keaton and Sybil Seely in ONE WEEK.
I don't see any mention of SEVEN CHANCES?
