Author Topic: "Live from the Moon: The Story of Apollo Television"  (Read 6826 times)

Offline collectSPACE

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New documentary follows the broadcast "Live from the Moon"
http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-012709a.html

In the new documentary, "Live from the Moon: The Story of Apollo Television", astronaut and capsule communicator (CAPCOM) Joe Allen ponders out loud what Galileo, Kepler and Newton might have made of the news that humans had traveled into space.

"They would think it might be possible," expounds Allen. "If we would then tell them that we humans had captured images, where the motion was captured as well, they would think that's a miracle."

It is the story of that "miracle" that director Mark Gray set out to tell in "Live from the Moon."


[The above link includes an exclusive first look at the "Live from the Moon" high-definition trailer.]

Offline GLS

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Re: "Live from the Moon: The Story of Apollo Television"
« Reply #1 on: 01/29/2009 02:22 pm »
Very nice!! Too bad it's another 4:3-to-16:9 chop job...
GLS is go for main engine start!

Offline collectSPACE

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Re: "Live from the Moon: The Story of Apollo Television"
« Reply #2 on: 01/29/2009 04:15 pm »
Too bad it's another 4:3-to-16:9 chop job...

I asked director Mark Gray to respond:

Quote
All of the original acquisition material was shot in 16:9. All of the CGI is rendered full raster HD and 16:9.

All of the film archival material is transferred in HD and formatted for 16:9.

While the television is in 4:3, it has been scaled up using advanced image processing and is being presented in 16:9. Naturally there are limitations in the television, being that it was originally acquired in 4:3 and the program is in 16:9. There are some aspects of the program where the television is presented in 4:3 with a black border around the television. This is done to demonstrate quality differences in the television and to make comparisons.

So it isn't a "4:3 to 16:9 chop job." Great care is being taken to make decisions on the best presentation method for each shot.

Offline comethunter

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Re: "Live from the Moon: The Story of Apollo Television"
« Reply #3 on: 01/30/2009 12:32 am »
Would it be fair to say "GLS Safing is in progress?"

Offline simpl simon

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Re: "Live from the Moon: The Story of Apollo Television"
« Reply #4 on: 01/30/2009 09:08 am »
Is this related to the original tapes of the Apollo TV transmissions that NASA "lost"?

Offline GLS

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Re: "Live from the Moon: The Story of Apollo Television"
« Reply #5 on: 01/30/2009 04:06 pm »
First off thanks to Mark (and Rob) for weighing in.

My... "frustration" comes from wanting to see the whole picture, without aspect-ratio changes, crops or other *solutions*... So 4:3 film or video should be displayed (IMHO) like on "Moon Machines"... not like on "When We Left Earth"! But that's just my 2 cents...

Anyway, thanks for all your work digging up all of the good old stuff!

GLS safing is complete! ;)
GLS is go for main engine start!

Offline collectSPACE

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Re: "Live from the Moon: The Story of Apollo Television"
« Reply #6 on: 01/30/2009 04:48 pm »
Is this related to the original tapes of the Apollo TV transmissions that NASA "lost"?

No, at least not directly; nor were the tapes that were lost the original Apollo TV transmissions, but rather slow-scan recordings. The scan-converted imagery that everyone watched on TV live is preserved.

"Live from the Moon" is about the people and technology behind the lunar surface (and space) broadcasts as well as the impact it had on the missions themselves -- both at the time and in hindsight. Consider it a behind-the-scenes "making of" documentary rather than what Spacecraft Films' has released over the past seven years, which has been the TV transmissions themselves.

Offline comethunter

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Re: "Live from the Moon: The Story of Apollo Television"
« Reply #7 on: 01/30/2009 05:03 pm »
I'm looking forward to it...pretty good timing, too!

Offline OM

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Re: "Live from the Moon: The Story of Apollo Television"
« Reply #8 on: 02/26/2009 02:06 am »
My... "frustration" comes from wanting to see the whole picture, without aspect-ratio changes, crops or other *solutions*...

...My sentiments exactly. "Chopping" just to make a 4:3 image fit the 16:9 format isn't making a better picture, it's actually cheating the viewer out of a full image by chopping off the top and bottom of the frame. I've seen samples of the HD "chop job" planned for the Blu-Ray release of Space: 1999, and when you compare them to the original frame you can see that while the resolution may be high, the chopping makes the camerawork look sloppy as hell. A better solution is, of course, the "boxing" where the 4:3 ratio is maintained, and the viewer is expected to accept that this is old footage and therefore a smaller format.


Offline ddichiera

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Re: "Live from the Moon: The Story of Apollo Television"
« Reply #9 on: 11/20/2009 01:32 am »
I just watched the HD trailer and noticed there is a shot at 1:13 that is definitely horizontally stretched.

I hope this is an abberation on the pre-release master and not indicative of what will be on the release BD.

I'd rather watch material in its original aspect ratio and most definitely not streched, even if that means putting 4:3 in pillarbox within a 16:9 program.

Offline grakenverb

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Re: "Live from the Moon: The Story of Apollo Television"
« Reply #10 on: 03/25/2013 06:03 pm »
I just finished watching "Live from the Moon" and would recommend it highly to anyone who has an interest in the Apollo program.  Putting aside the "4:3 16:9" controversy, the program itself is excellent and highly informative. It contains interviews with Chris Kraft, Alan Bean, Tom Stafford, Andrew Chaikin, Jack King,  and the technicians from the observatories who received the transmissions from the moon.  It was amazing to see the progress made in the quality of the TV from the moon in just 3 years, from the ghost-like images of Armstrong in 1969 to being able to see Gene Cernans face in color through his helmet visor in 1972. 

Offline saturnapollo

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Re: "Live from the Moon: The Story of Apollo Television"
« Reply #11 on: 03/25/2013 06:16 pm »
Quote
My sentiments exactly. "Chopping" just to make a 4:3 image fit the 16:9 format isn't making a better picture, it's actually cheating the viewer out of a full image by chopping off the top and bottom of the frame.

I agree entirely. The recent excellent BBC documentary on Neil Armstrong preserved the original material's image ratio and I think I'm right in saying that all material from the Apollo era was shown in 4:3 ratio as it was taken with film cameras (probably 16mm). So not sure how any of it could be in 16:9 format.

I might add that it came as a pleasant surprise that the documentary was presented in this manner with no fancy camera work or hyperbole. A nice "old fashioned" if you will, documentary.

Keith

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