NEW ACQUISITIONS ADVENTURE INFO.

In a previous post I was talking about a mad greedy collector in Ankara who owns 100's of 16mm films, most of them obscure titles that were considered to be LOST.

Some of them are the superhero films RUZGAR HAFIYE, BOMBALA OSKI BOMBALA, KAMCILI KADIN (KINOVA 3) or Cuneyt Arkin's LOST 60's actioner CEHENEMME BIR YOLCU.

Too bad the costs were so gigantic that I decided to buy ONLY the aforementioned 2 titles, RINGO GESTAPO'YA KARSI & that secret LOST KILINK film.

That guy demanded a fortune just to RENT his films.
Then, another fortune was needed for the cleaning of the films and the Telecine Transfer.
And of course, the relevant License money.
Oh, and another huge amount for my DEAREST Kunt Tulgar who travelled 3 times to Ankara, and then to Greece, for me!

First he went there to check on the films
Second, he went there again to get the films
Third and last, he went there to return the films.

BUT, that greedy collector had him sign an astronomical check (10 times higher than the rent fees!!!) so that in case he lost or damaged the films he would HAVE to sell his house to pay the madman!

And Tulgar gave the films to my EXCELLENT brother Ali Murat Guven who would take care of them and give them for the transfer to a good studio he knew.

Now, the days during the cleaning + telecine work were big hell for everyone involved!!

1- For Tulgar because Ali Murat was delaying and he was anxious to get the films back to Ankara as the mad guy was pressing him.

2- For Ali Murat because he had to deal with some problematic films and Tulgar was pushing him too.

3- For me because I heard all of them were acting like crazy over the films and because I HAD ALREADY SENT THEM THE MONEY and I had no idea what the result would look like.

Finally, I will just let you see some extracts from Ali Murat's emails that describe his adventure with those damn films:

{He bringed both films WITHOUT ANY REELS. Both films are naked, noo reel, millions of splices, and most important, both films are covered with an oily material. When you touch them, you feel a dirty thing on your hands.

I said to him first: "Your flims general condition are tragic. Specially, Ringo is terrible... Firstly before telecine, I will make a big re-animation operation on these films."

"He always says, I am in a hurry I must give the reels to the owner in Ankara within 2-3 days. Don't spend time with them. Make an express telecine and let's send them to Vassilis immediately."

I SAID MANY TIMES, "NO, I CAN'T. Because Vassilis is my friend and his money is my money. I can't send him a rubbish."

He never understands my feelings and fastitious appoach to you.

Despite his millions of calls and bla bla bla's,

1) I bought 3 pieces of quality 16 mm American reels and rolled the naked films on them.
2) I spliced both films' broken parts and repaired spockets at least 3-4 days again. I made at least 250 new splices.
3) I cleaned both films at least 3 times. Because the were covered with full vaseline (an oily thing. Some people shoe shines with it!)
4) Finally, I made the best telecine of Turkey for them. It is my best, because, both films, specially Ringo is a real rubbish.

I GIVE KILINK'S GENERAL CONDITION 7/10
This film starts with titles, all the titles are okey, generally good splices, you may understand the story, brillant black-white, a few vertical lines, and it finishes with the "end"...
It is acceptable condition. And I MADE IT BETTER after my surgery operation. The telecine service also tried to his best. Now, you may make an acceptable DVD with it. I am almsot happy for this title. There is only a sound problem (too much noisy recording) in the part 1, it takes nearly 10 minutes and turns to normal again.

BUT, I GIVE TO "RINGO" 4/10 TO RİNGO. BECAUSE IT WAS A REAL ZOMBI WHEN IT ARRIVED TO MY HANDS.

I cleaned it 3 times, I spliced its all broken parts. I also made my best in the teleciune service. The technician rolled it on the machine 5 times again a and again. But, that's all. It's general condition is like your first film "Kiling İstanbul'da.".

To make you happier, I resarched and bought 15 frames of lobby cards of this film from Turkish eBay.This collection can make the DVD richer as a "photo gallery".

In this peiod, THIS GUY ATE MY BRAIN, REALLY AET BY BRAIN.

I need time for repairing, cleaning, telecine, controls...

BUT HE CALLS ME EVERY DAY, EVERY HOUR, EVERY HALF AN HOUR.

Today was our randesvous day.

Yesterday I said him "Leave me alone, I will call you when everything completed succesfully. I can't send a bad thing to Vassilis. I must be my best. And this effort needs more time."

Now, the final meeting...

Tonight, at 19.00 pm, we met each other in the high way at the Anatolian side of Istanbul.

I gave him:

1) His original 16 mm films. This time, CLEAN, ON THE QUALITY REELS WITH HEAD STRIPES and TOTALLY REPAIRED! THEIR EVERY FRAME!

2) YOUR 2 BROADCAST MASTER BETACAM SP TELECINE CASSETTES. One of them is KILINK. The other is Ringo.

3) Your 15 frames of Ringo loby cards. Also + 2 copeas of CD's (they includes the high quality scans of the photos)

After this delivery, I said him "NEVER MR. TULGAR, NEVER AGAIN... Let's be cinematic friends forever. But, not trade partners..."

So, I kept my promises one more time.

I SPENT 10 DAYS, minimum 500 USD (tarnsportation, in every step, I rented a car and a driver, 100 USD per visit to the town) FOR TYOUR EFFORTS.

I also bought for these poor films 3 reels, it was 150 USD total.

HE ASKED ME THAT "what do you want for your co-operation buddy?"

I said him "Nothing Mr. Tulgar, because Vassilis is my friend and I am a Turkish cinema lover. Sometimes, we help each other with him. This is not a trade for me."

The last warning about Betacam SP masters...

KILINK is quite good as I said before. It starts at 02'00 and runs approx 65 minutes without any problem. In 3 point, it shakes for a moment, but not important. These parts are broken sprockets's areas.

BUT RINGO... The technician was becoming crazy when transferring it. He stopped three times Betacam SP, because the film was going like water on the screen. No sprockets, no normal periodic rythm... 3 times, there are problem points on the betacam. We stopped on these points. We repaired the film. We revinded the dreel 1-2 minutes. And we recorded again.

You must edit these 3 points on your editing suit. There is no loose of footage, only a replay part. Cut the further parts and add the correct pictures on the editing suit. This is not a big problem for you.

Normally, if you stop the Betacam cassette, you must start from the first frame again. The technician was loosing his mind, I said him "never mind brother, let's repeat only last 30 seconds part on recording." And he did the same thing.

Because, TULGAR WAS CALLING in every 5 minutes in this period.

That's why, you CAN NOT SEND to DVD mastering process directly RINGO...

You must upload to editing suit's memory it first in highest quality (In fact, I don't know what is highest quality on a film like this!) and an asssistant must cut its 3 parts and add. Then you may process the result for DVD.

WE HAD NO OTHER WAY ON THE FIRM. Because, it is impossible to run this reel in one time.

Well, I am so tired ... }

Well, I think you got a picture of what kind of shit me and lots of nice folks went through to revive those films and present them to an UN-CARING audience.
I feel like a total idiot now and then..

FINALLY, YESTERDAY I TOOK THE 2 BETAS WITH KILINK AND RINGO TO MY STUDIO HERE AND I'M EXPECTING COPIES SO THAT I PERSONALLY CHECK THE RESULT.
WHATEVER IT IS, I WILL DEFINITELY APPLY A STRONG REMASTERING HERE SO THAT I GET THE BEST POSSIBLE RESULT.

MORE NEWS ABOUT THEM ANY DAY NOW...