Second Sight Films (UK)

[Glowingwabbit]

I hope this means a release date for Martin will be announced soon.

[Finch]

VVitch 4k delayed to June 20 as per Second Sight's email to customers:

Unfortunately we need to delay our release of The Witch until June 20th. We have made this decision in order to create a new HDR grade for the 4K UHD release, working closely with director Robert Eggers who will be supervising. This is going to take some time but we felt it was an important decision to make and will allow us to present the film in the best possible way.

[Calvin]

Second Sight's Facebook administrator mentioned a few days ago that the owners of the longer cut of Martin (not Rubinstein) are asking for too much money so it seems unless this can be re-negotiated, the longer cut is off the table for now.

Totally forgot about this and a complete bummer. Hopefully someone puts it out, especially if it's truly Romero's "preferred" cut. A massively different film too - 3+ hours (!) and completely in black & white!

The owner has put it up for public sale. "If the films are not sold by April 10th, 2022, I am placing the films with Julien’s Auction for a summer auction."

I can't imagine that anyone is going to offer more than Second Sight, other than perhaps an institution like MoMA or The Film Foundation, but I guess the owner is playing the field and holding off for the best offer.

[hearthesilence]

Nitpicking, but it's kind of a bummer it's 16mm. Wish the OCN was somewhere.

[MichaelB]

Nitpicking, but it's kind of a bummer it's 16mm. Wish the OCN was somewhere.

Not only was the film shot on 16mm in the first place, but it was 16mm reversal stock, so there never was an “original negative” of this film.

[bad future]

Just flashed to a whimsical nightmare of it being bought by some rich rando with no interest in film preservation or distribution, just for bragging rights... like the film's "pharma bro" namesake, with the Wu-Tang album. $5000 tickets to a backyard screening where it promptly burns up, something like that. Does Romero have much cultural currency these days? Maybe it pays to have a hobby no one cares about.

[MichaelB]

$5000 tickets to a backyard screening where it promptly burns up, something like that.

Luis Buñuel once fantasised about doing that to every surviving copy of his own films, so that his work would die with him. For obvious reasons, I'm very glad he didn't, but I can see the appeal.

[hearthesilence]

Nitpicking, but it's kind of a bummer it's 16mm. Wish the OCN was somewhere.

Not only was the film shot on 16mm in the first place, but it was 16mm reversal stock, so there never was an “original negative” of this film.

Well shut my mouth! Hopefully it gets a buyer who likes sharing?

[Calvin]

I can't imagine any label other than Second Sight even putting a bid in, as they wouldn't have the licence to distribute it.

[swo17]

So what are the odds this is just extra hassle but Second Sight still eventually get to include this cut in their edition?

[dwk]

I'd say 0% chance the long version ends up on the Second Sight release. They likely just don't have the time left on their license to wait for the auction and then whomever buying it completing a scan/clean up.

Also, lets assume someone does buy the long version, they wouldn't be under an obligation to share it with Second Sight, so Second Sight would still have to pay them to have access to the long version and, I would assume that anyone that buys the materials would want to make their money back. So, we have circled back to where we started.

[hearthesilence]

I'd say 0% chance the long version ends up on the Second Sight release. They likely just don't have the time left on their license to wait for the auction and then whomever buying it completing a scan/clean up.

Also, lets assume someone does buy the long version, they wouldn't be under an obligation to share it with Second Sight, so Second Sight would still have to pay them to have access to the long version and, I would assume that anyone that buys the materials would want to make their money back. So, we have circled back to where we started.

Let's hope a museum or film archive will buy it and be more amenable to getting it out there rather than holding out for a big return.

[dwk]

Let's hope a museum or film archive will buy it and be more amenable to getting it out there rather than holding out for a big return.

The most important thing is preserving the elements. So if someone buys it, I hope it is an institution or person that will let something like MoMA or The Film Foundation access and preserve/restore the film.

[Calvin]

It also appears that they haven't allowed any assessment of the condition prior to selling it. So caveat emptor.

[colinr0380]

$5000 tickets to a backyard screening where it promptly burns up, something like that.

Luis Buñuel once fantasised about doing that to every surviving copy of his own films, so that his work would die with him. For obvious reasons, I'm very glad he didn't, but I can see the appeal.

I'm just imagining a Peter Greenaway version of this idea! Although maybe involving the film director/patron wanting to take an entire company of actors with him at the same time as he is interred, like a Pharaoh!

[domino harvey]

Sylvia Plath infamously burned the only copy of her follow up to the Bell Jar, and for all we know Ted Hughes may have binned any other manuscripts after she died

[MichaelB]

Sibelius's Eighth Symphony met a similar fate (not at the hands of Ted Hughes).

[dwk]

It also appears that they haven't allowed any assessment of the condition prior to selling it. So caveat emptor.

I would assume the auction house would have to inspect the items before auctioning them off right? Although it would be perversely funny if they only had empty film cans and pulled a scam like that guy on eBay that sold an empty XBox box to some lady.

[colinr0380]

The big scam at the moment is Logan Paul losing $3.5 on fake Pokémon Cards. I'm choosing to believe that this is karma for him being an idiot in Japan a while back.

[Q Pete Mitchell]

Hopefully one of the essays will go into detail on the history of cars in movies, because lord knows that's the kind of hard hitting scholastic input I need.

I dunno, that sounds like a fantastic Thom Andersen essay/doc waiting to happen. It's a ripe subject in my opinion, cars being almost exactly the same age as cinema, sharing similar chronological leaps in technology, and the representational issues of consumption/promotion inherent in both auto advertising and film...

Seems silly to dismiss the idea when cars have featured so prominently in films by Lynch, Mann, Hellman, Linklater, Sarafian, Halicki, Anger, Tati, Godard, Kiarostami and others, and car culture itself actually consists of scores of subcultures, often class- or ethnically-based.

[Finch]

Dog Soldiers pre-orders up at Second Sight: 4k LE at £40, 4k standard at £25 and Blu-Ray at £16.

[therewillbeblus]

I’ve noticed that Second Sight’s Dawn of the Dead UHD standard edition is out of stock at every site I know of that delivers to the U.S. (their own direct site has it in stock but won’t ship here). Can we expect them to restock at Diabolik, Rarewaves, etc or is this typical practice for Second Sight to make SEs exclusive?

[swo17]

Won't ship here? I just barely placed an order, though strangely it wouldn't give me any shipping options if I had too full of a cart

[therewillbeblus]

Won't ship here? I just barely placed an order, though strangely it wouldn't give me any shipping options if I had too full of a cart

Their website says it only ships to UK addresses and when I ignore this and attempt to enter my address it won’t calculate a shipping rate

[swo17]

Ah, I see that message now. It's specific to that one title. To clarify, I just barely placed an order for some other things from Second Sight