Well, ladies and gentlemen, here it is! The long awaited movie of the original 1971 production of the Stephen Sondheim musical, Follies, starring Alexis Smith, Dorothy Collins, Gene Nelson, John McMartin and Yvonne De Carlo.
You know, I think we will never be able to revive 'Follies' to match the original because those kinds of people genuinely don't exist any more and some of the life experience they carried just can't be imagined now.
"That is truly awesome. You know, I think we will never be able to revive 'Follies' to match the original because those kinds of people genuinely don't exist any more and some of the life experience they carried just can't be imagined now."
Bartlett Sher and Christopher Wheeldon say hello.
But I guess we could never again have a production like the 1971 production of FOLLIES but that won't stop other people for trying their hardest to come close.
To me what really stands out from these films is Dorothy Collins. Others have played Sally, but she IS Sally. Adorable, delusional, crazy, tragic- what an actress.
I have to repeat my question from the other thread.
Why the watermark over the whole thing? Why would you take all the time and trouble to sift through and assemble all this wonderful footage, then slap it up with the title in boldface font over the ENTIRE VIDEO?
It really mars what would be an otherwise wonderful viewing experience. I can't fully share in the above posters' appreciation and prefer the unwatermarked originals:
And actually - I just noticed you do this on all your videos. Why?!? You have such amazing material and it's so awesome that you're even sharing it (unlike some other notorious folk)! Please stop tagging it with digital graffiti!
(Edited after the fact to sound slightly less cantankerous.)
Perhaps I'm coming across harsh but it is a pet peeve of mine. It's like when people upload YouTube videos in the wrong aspect ratio and it's either stretched out or squashed. Some people don't care but it bugs the tar out of me. Or when TV stations play a movie slightly too fast to squeeze it in.
So if I may, a calmer suggestion. YouTube allows an "Annotations" feature, where you can put things like titles and bits of info onto videos but it's not printed onto the video file itself, it's added onto the video by YouTube and it can be turned off even if it's a default setting. I might humbly suggest that in future uploads from this user's amazing collection, perhaps any relevant info be put onto the video using that feature rather than burning it onto the source video.
Never for a moment let it be thought that I'm not thrilled and awed that this footage exists and people are willing to share it and that we live in an era with the technology to do it.
Dear Temms, I did not mean to upset anyone this way. The only reason I put it in rather big letters is because I was the one who created this video and I don't want other people to use it in other ways I wouldn't want my video to be used in. And that is true for all the other videos I have on my channel too: I restored the audio quality, I improved the colour and image quality, I re-trimmed the borders if they were extensively slanted, and all those kinds of things. I wouldn't want other people to take credit for things I did.
[Trimmed this - I ranted about how I disagree for a few paragraphs in a ranty disagreeable fashion and choose to remove it as to not make Broadway a more negative place than it already is.
Summary - Blah blah blah angry ranting stuff, I hate watermarks, thank goodness the original footage from which this project was assembled didn't have them.
I won't. This is the exact same attitude that's keeping the Miles Kreuger footage locked up, rotting and at risk of fire/flood/Act Of God. The whole "Well, I found it so I get to control how and where people see it." I've seen it in other avenues than Musical Theatre footage, in rare studio tapes and television shows. It's a frustratingly common attitude.
I'm sorry, but I still don't think you understand what I'm saying: I made that film, and it is my private work. Since there is no real way of putting a copyright on a video shared on Youtube, I had to put a simple title at the bottom, which does not interfere too much with the video itself. It's like any other film/documentary that is produced. Take for instance Six by Sondheim: a lot of the footage there was put together to make an overall film. That however does not mean that James Lapine is giving free permission to other people to change his work. He created it, and he deserves the credit and ownership of the creation. Just like me, I own the full creation put together, but not the individual footage.
"I won't. This is the exact same attitude that's keeping the Miles Kreuger footage locked up, rotting and at risk of fire/flood/Act Of God. The whole "Well, I found it so I get to control how and where people see it." I've seen it in other avenues than Musical Theatre footage, in rare studio tapes and television shows. It's a frustratingly common attitude."
But I am not doing the same thing as Mr Kreuger is: whenever I find something of that sort, I immediately share it with other people. Why should I not take credit and control over my restoration work?
Anyway, I'll stop now because I see we are going nowhere.
Some people seem upset that your work exists. For what it's worth (not much), as an attendee (twice) of the original production, I'm not among them. I will never get enough of the 71 FOLLIES. So thank you.
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
Look, clearly we all love this stuff, otherwise we wouldn't be spending our time on earth combing through grainy footage and noisy old audio tapes. I've done restoration as well and have come to the opposite conclusion re:credit and control.
The final thing I'll say since we fundamentally disagree about the issue: if you feel you must have credit, is there not a more unobtrusive away of doing it? Had there just been a little bug in the corner I wouldn't have even opened my big fat mouth. It's the prominence of it more than anything.
You did a wonderful job editing all the FOLLIES footage that was available and I was really happy that "Live, Laugh, and Love" actually does have some footage even though it wasn't the full thing. Michael Bennett's choreography is such a wonder to watch even if the quality is blurry.