Frank Zappa Documentary & Vault Preservation Kickstarter

[syncopatico]

...and yes time is money...

looking forward to the "complete audio of the Roxy performances"!

[Hobo Chang Ba]

How much more Roxy audio is there?

[syncopatico]

How much more Roxy audio is there?

well, we know they did 5 shows at the Roxy: one *test run* show on Dec. 8, and two shows each night on the 9th & 10th. (I think this is right?) oh course, there was a lot of overlap on the material performed, but also some songs that haven't been included on the DVD (and the 'Proxy' CD), like Pygmy Twylyte, Montana (a show opener of Montana > Dupree's Paradise from one of the nights is already available on video on Zappa.com), etc..

[unclemeat]

Some of the video not used on the Roxy DVD remains available and "will be assessed" for a possible future release...
In the Kickstarter "countdown" webcast, backers were treated to the 'King Kong / Chunga's revenge / Mr Greene Genes' medley,
a clear example of the issues they had with this film (in this case, no cameras working for a solid 90 seconds). Good enough
for an official bootleg, imo.

[Mister Triscuits]

In the Kickstarter "countdown" webcast, backers were treated to the 'King Kong / Chunga's revenge / Mr Greene Genes' medley,
a clear example of the issues they had with this film (in this case, no cameras working for a solid 90 seconds). Good enough
for an official bootleg, imo.

After all, FZ himself released this, and inserted the silly street performer footage to resolve similar issues.

[unclemeat]

After all, FZ himself released this, and inserted the silly street performer footage to resolve similar issues.

And Bruce Bickford is still around...

[Mister Triscuits]

And Bruce Bickford is still around...

THERE you go!

[Troopers For Sound]

Favourite thing from the live broadcast on the last night of the kickstarter was the audio clip of The Purple Lagoon from Dec'76 that featured an amazing instrumental version of the chorus from Any Kind of Pain. And they seemed to suggest that a more comprehensive release of the Palladium 76 shows would be a distinct possibility. Oh, and FZ's proposed soundtrack music for The Fly was pretty cool too!

Matt.

[unclemeat]

From AW's update #41 :

"Preservation work has already started on our first batch of material: 200 reels of film footage and audio recordings, and about 100 reels of videotape!

Now, keep in mind: There is a lot of stuff to get through, so this is going to be happening for many months. But as we start to dig in, and find out more about what's in there, I'll keep you posted, and try to share more about the process.

Today, I just wanted to give you a few more details about exactly what's happening.

What happens now?
TRANSPORTATION. The first step for a lot of this material is simply getting it to the the right place. Some of the material has already been transported – very carefully! – to archival facilities where the work will be done with state-of-the-art equipment. And some of the material is too delicate to be moved, so the archiving work will happen in the Vault itself.

HIRING EXPERT TEAMS. After that, the specific steps are a little different for each type of media. As we get farther into the work, I'll try to give you a look at how we're dealing with a lot of the different formats… but for now, I want to make sure you know that we're not taking any chances with this stuff: Working with Joe and a lot of expert advisors, we've done a ton of careful vetting and selected some of the best preservation experts and teams in the world to get this done, and get it done right.

CONVERTING TO MODERN FORMATS. And remember, the work isn't just to preserve the Vault: We also need to convert what we find into a form that we can use for the documentary – and save for the future – because a ton of this material was captured on media that hasn't been used (or even available) for a long time.

DIGITIZING & ARCHIVING. So, we also need to digitize the media, and archive it in a fully uncompressed format, which is often an analog-to-analog process. That means that some of the media doesn't just go onto tape drives, hard drives and into the cloud, but onto fresh analog media. Plus, everything is being backed up to high-end LTO digital tape, which has a shelf life of 30 to 50 years! You can probably guess, but all of this requires an enormous amount of tape and hard drive space.

AUDIO BAKING. As part of the process, some of the audio reels are also being baked, which means exactly what it sounds like – we go through a literal baking process that removes moisture absorption from the tape without disturbing the precious audio. Fucking cool, right?

What are we saving?
So, one of the weird things about this whole process is that we don't even know for sure what's on a lot of these reels. Many of them are labeled, but as Joe told me, there's a really good chance that some things got mislabeled decades ago, or that we'll find more stuff on the tapes than we're expecting from the 2-3 word labels. And since we need to preserve and restore the film and tape before it's safe to watch or listen to it, we won't have a complete idea of what we've got until we're done saving it!

But I can already tell you how much we're saving, and how many different media formats we're working with. This part will make your head spin, because FZ was a rigorous archivist who started saving everything right at the beginning of his career, and was constantly moving older recordings onto new master tapes for safe-keeping. So, in a nutshell...

AUDIO

U-MATIC DIGITAL TAPES (1,000+): Each tape is 60-75 min.
MULTI-TRACK MASTER TAPES (1,200): Each tape is an hour.
1/2" FOUR-TRACK TOUR MASTERS (750): Each tape is about 30 minutes.
2" MULTI TRACK TAPES: There are hundreds. Still getting an exact count.
VIDEO & FILM

35mm, 16mm, SUPER 8 FILM: Hundreds of reels.
D2, BETACAM (Digi & SP), ¾” TAPE: Hundreds of hours.
VHS (STANDARD + SUPER): Hundreds of hours in NTSC and PAL.

And what is on all this stuff? Like I said, we won't have an exact list until we're done preserving it, but we've got a pretty damn good idea of some of what we'll find: Concert recordings, recording outtakes and masters, unseen interviews, movie outtakes… and then, a whole lot of boxes where we simply have no idea what is in them. "

[JKL2000]

This guy's gotten a bit quiet, hasn't he?

[Mister Triscuits]

This guy's gotten a bit quiet, hasn't he?

There was an update email just two days ago.

[Joe F.]

There was an update email just two days ago.

Jed demands an hourly update, dammit.

[rcarlberg]

So just to make sure I have this right:

• The Zappa Family Trust is not running this project?
• If the Kickstarter campaign hadn't succeeded, Frank's vault would not have been preserved?
• The Zappa family is squabbling like chickens over money, and licensing, and Zappa trademarks, yet
• They let an outsider decide what's worth saving in the vault?

Something doesn't smell right here.

[Troopers For Sound]

So just to make sure I have this right:

• The Zappa Family Trust is not running this project?

• Correct. They've granted Alex exclusive access to the vault, but they have no say on how the final film/book etc turns out
  
  As I said in another thread I think, there was certainly an element of hyperbole in the whole "Save the Vault" pitch. But...Gail instructed that the house be sold which means that the physical location of the vault was definitely under threat, and I would imagine a giant relocation of many thousands of reels of tape wouldn't exactly help their chances of surviving for further use. Plus there are of course tons of items in there in a genuinely perilous state and the ZFT would presumably have had no budget with which to deal with a mass archiving project on the current scale.
  
  
  
• They let an outsider decide what's worth saving in the vault?

Something doesn't smell right here



As far as I'm aware they are saving EVERYTHING! So no deciding is needed. Alex is then allowed to use whatever he wants for the film project and the ZFT can then use any saved audio or film for future Zappa releases. Plus, the really important part is that Joe Travers is basically Alex's right hand man down in the vault...so it's in seriously safe hands.

Matt.

[unclemeat]

And now this.

http://www.juliensauctions.com/shop/...t_detail&p=162

[Phlakaton]

And now this.

http://www.juliensauctions.com/shop/...t_detail&p=162

Well well well. Nice find. Interesting - I wish I had a c-note!

[JKL2000]

They sent out emails for people to confirm their shipping address and pay for shipping for the first backer perks to be sent out. I think it's the shirt, some optional stickers, and maybe a few more things depending. But I'm still unclear if they raised enough that the movie's actually being made? I pledged for the download of the movie, but I'm unclear on when/if there will be a movie. Anyone understand this better than I do?

Another perk is the Vault Pass, and I'm not clear on if this is something that's being provided soon or not.

[Phlakaton]

They sent out emails for people to confirm their shipping address and pay for shipping for the first backer perks to be sent out. I think it's the shirt, some optional stickers, and maybe a few more things depending. But I'm still unclear if they raised enough that the movie's actually being made? I pledged for the download of the movie, but I'm unclear on when/if there will be a movie. Anyone understand this better than I do?

Another perk is the Vault Pass, and I'm not clear on if this is something that's being provided soon or not.

Early 2017 is all I could find about any potential vault material. I'm pretty much with you in the - slightly confused about what is actually happen parts.

[JKL2000]

Maybe I paid $50 for a t-shirt and some stickers...

I guess preserving the contents of the vault is something too.

[JKL2000]

They just processed postage charges. Still not sure what I'm getting or if anything's available from the vault yet. The Kickstarter page is confusing as hell! This guy really doesn't seem to think logically.

[Mister Triscuits]

They just processed postage charges. Still not sure what I'm getting or if anything's available from the vault yet. The Kickstarter page is confusing as hell! This guy really doesn't seem to think logically.

Yeah. If I'd known then what I know now, I would have been a bit more circumspect about buying into this project. I was enthusiastic at the start. But the campaign happened just before the big Z-kids schism went public. All I know for sure about the rewards is that I'm supposed to get some kind of grab-bag of unspecified memorabilia/ephemera, some guitar picks, and a book.

[JKL2000]

Looks like they're shipping the stuff out soon - confirm your shipping address if you haven't already. I don't care about the physical crap, but I'm curious to see what the vault pass will get us.
Oh, and it says we get a download of the movie, but I'm not even clear on if they've made the movie?

[Steve F.]

There's a huge amount of new and previously available ONLY from ZFT CDs dropping into regular distribution in something like 3 weeks. And at much better pricing than when it was only available from ZFT (imagine that!)

Frank Zappa Plays The Music Of Frank Zappa
Everything Is Healing Nicely
FZ : OZ
Joe's Corsage
Joe's Domage
Joe's Xmasage
Buffalo
Hammersmith Odeon
Carnegie Hall
Joe's Camouflage
One Shot Deal
Greasy Love Songs
Feeding The Monkies At Ma Maison
Roxy By Proxy
Dance Me This

[MudShark22]

Steve: you'll have some of these in the shop (e.g. Carnegie Hall)?

[Steve F.]

Steve: you'll have some of these in the shop (e.g. Carnegie Hall)?

ALL of them. That's how I know about them; I pre-ordered them today.

Thank you for asking.