ELTON JOHN VIDEO ARCHIVE PROJECT
I took this project through seven production stages over the space of twelve months. I researched, co-ordinated, production managed, produced and - in the case of Concerts, which existed inun-edited multi-cam form - I directed. I also directed and produced a short "Anthology" of Elton's Best Audio/Visual output. I had a total budget of £220,000 and brought the whole thing in at £60,000 under! (Having managed to pull everyfavour imaginable.)
I remastered to Digital Video:
- 54 Pop Promos
- 16 Concerts
- 12 Documentaries
- 21 Live Hits on video
Location & Acquisition of Masters
Many of the Masters listed in these files were copies or 'dubs' of Original Masters. Consequently, I endeavoured over a 12 month period, to locate - from across the globe - as many Broadcast Master tapes as possible in order to find Original Masters or nearest surviving tapes to Original Masters. Prior tostarting, Vanderquest and PolyGram were holding 36 Pop Promos only.Many were inferior copies and most had poor quality mono audio! Elton now has 54 Pop Promos in remastered digital stereo and mostare 'clones' of original Edit Master Video Tapes.
Several rare and unseen performances have also been located and acquired for WAB (Elton) and these, such as Your Song -The Pop Promo and Elton On The Mancini Generation, are now assigned to Elton in perpetuity; i.e. he owns the Digital Video Image aswell as the song/the performance/publishing etc.
Digital Video Remastering
The Pop Promos
The inferior audio on the Pop Promos has been replaced by Commercial Disc Master Audio and Commercial Disc Remaster Audio (where appropriate). Any original 'live' effects or differences from the original recordings have been retained ormixed across in dubbing. In other words Elton has the original recordings, but now much closer to the reproduction that was originally intended. All of Elton's lip-synchronisation is as good as was - in fact possibly even better than the original versions! Video London Sound Studios re-synchronised the CD audio to the Pop Promos using, in some instances, Synclavier Post Pro, or Apple Mac Avid Audio Vision. This 'front end' technology allows re-synchronising without affecting or impairing the audio or the image!
Concert Performances on Film & TV
Radio 'Simulcast' ¼ inch Masters
Up until the mid 1980's television and video tape audio was pretty poor and usually in mono. Fortunately, major artistes often attracted the attention of Radio Broadcasters who decided to do Simulcasts with TV Broadcasters; i.e. 'turn down the poor TV Audio and turn on the stereo radio Simulcast!' However, the Broadcast Master Video Tapes retained the poor TV Audio because the tapes were never married to the radio quarter inch stereo recordings, which were always recorded using superior equipment and better sound engineers. In essence, two entirely different audio recordings, using different audio engineers, due in part the mono audio facilated TV technology of the period and the restrictive practices of Trade Unions at the time - both of which have since been surpassed, leaving Simulcasts as an item of history.
I located the original quarter inch master audio tapes from BBC Radio 1, Radio Clyde and Radio Forth. Chop Em Out Cut EmOut's Simon Heyworth eliminated tape hiss/tape hum/staticand live microphone 'pops' using Cedar Audio reprocessing and Sonic Solutions Wave Form Analysis, having transferred the masters to Digital Audio Tape formats. The tapes were then processed through the most up -to- date digital equipment at 20 Bit Resolution using the Prism Super Noise Shaper. (This 'enhances' rather than 'colours' the sound). Video London then married the DAT Remasters to Digital Video via Synclavier Post Pro.
Gus Dudgeon Produced Mobile Recording Studio Masters
In the instance of Live at Wembley Night & Day (1984) GusDudgeon produced ¼ inch final mixes existed. These were 'cloned' to DAT and were taken to 20 Bit Resolution usingthe Sadie Digital System at Chop Em Out Cut Em Out. These DATs were then taken to Video London Sound Studios where they were re-synchronised to the Broadcast Video Remasters using Apple Mac Avid Audio Vision equipment.
Gus Dudgeon Unmixed Multi-Tracks From the Rolling Stones Mobile
Unedited video taped performance of Elton's debut ofHonky Chateau existed on two inch Broadcast Video Masters. These tapes were edited together, having been transferred to Digital Beta Video Tape, ready for the audio 'lay-back' from Mobile Recording Studio Masters. I found a 16 track master which was unmixed. This concert had never been mixed down to afinal mix! BAFTA award winning television sound mixer George Foulgham mixed the tracks with me at Video London SoundStudios. DATs of the new final mix were then 'laid-back' onto the Digital Video Remasters, using the TV Audio Track as a guide and re-synchronised using the Synclavier Post Pro at Video London Sound Studios.