Current Events > 90% of American films made before 1929 are lost

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_film

How sad is that?
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Sad for you
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Meh
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It's more sad that they tore down the Opera set to make a Harry Potter ride
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Would you be in favor of time travel if some guy volunteered to record this lost footage?
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The oldest one I've seen was 1927's Metropolis, and yeah, it was a mess because of missing footage. The version I saw was actually a fairly recent expansion including some footage that they had previously lost but finally found a reel of in like Brazil. The restored portions were grainy and stuff, and even with the expansion there were still parts that we left out where they had to have a screen with text explaining what happens.

It's a good thing they found that footage, actually, because there was the scene where the machine explodes was one of the best movie scenes I've ever seen, and it was part of the part that was lost.
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Just think of all the video games that will be considered lost soon. Especially with online services dying. Hell, you already can't play a true replica of the Original World of Warcraft (non Blizzard servers always have significant errors with them)
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meh. 99.9% of them are probably garbage no one alive would want to watch. but there were probably a few lost master pieces that maybe didn't connect with the audience of the time. oh well.
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YellowSUV posted...

Hell, you already can't play a true replica of the Original World of Warcraft (non Blizzard servers always have significant errors with them)

that's coming back. Blizzard announced Vanilla. it's just not out yet. might be another year still

as for the movies, yea, that's sad. I was thinking of watching some old monster movies recently and wanted to start at the beginning but then i realized that some of the early stuff is just gone

KILBOTz posted...

meh. 99.9% of them are probably garbage no one alive would want to watch. but there were probably a few lost master pieces that maybe didn't connect with the audience of the time. oh well.

Quite a few that were well-received too. I'm varying degrees of sad about it.
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history must be preserved.
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KILBOTz posted...

meh. 99.9% of them are probably garbage no one alive would want to watch. but there were probably a few lost master pieces that maybe didn't connect with the audience of the time. oh well.

Even if the films aren't that good it still can be useful from a historical perspective. For example, the sequel to "Birth of a Nation" is lost. Now it was supposedly a terrible film, but it would be interesting to see how they did a cash in attempt to follow up to one of the most important movies ever in 1916.
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This is why we need a International Archiving Service / Organziation.
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YellowSUV posted...

KILBOTz posted...

meh. 99.9% of them are probably garbage no one alive would want to watch. but there were probably a few lost master pieces that maybe didn't connect with the audience of the time. oh well.

Even if the films aren't that good it still can be useful from a historical perspective. For example, the sequel to "Birth of a Nation" is lost. Now it was supposedly a terrible film, but it would be interesting to see how they did a cash in attempt to follow up to one of the most important movies ever in 1916.

Not just that but even if the purpose isn't to educate, it's basically impossible not to leave behind anthropological evidence, and it tends to be the kind of thing that tends to be glossed over by history books. If you ever watch any old television or movies, it's really pretty enlightening.

Like in It's a Wonderful Life, it blew my mind when George's little brother is said to have been born in 18-something. It was a real eye opener about exactly how quickly the world changed in the early 20th century.
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DevsBro posted...

Not just that but even if the purpose isn't to educate, it's basically impossible not to leave behind anthropological evidence, and it tends to be the kind of thing that tends to be glossed over by history books. If you ever watch any old television or movies, it's really pretty enlightening.

Like in It's a Wonderful Life, it blew my mind when George's little brother is said to have been born in 18-something. It was a real eye opener about exactly how quickly the world changed in the early 20th century.

It must've been REALLY amazing to see all the innovations that happened at the turn of the century until now.

Especially for current day elderly people.
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YellowSUV posted...

Just think of all the video games that will be considered lost soon. Especially with online services dying. Hell, you already can't play a true replica of the Original World of Warcraft (non Blizzard servers always have significant errors with them)

Yeah, pretty soon a bunch of games that were only released or rereleased on the Wii Shop Channel are going to potentially be lost forever; they already are for people who didn't add funds to their wallet by the end of March.
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Solar_Crimson posted...

YellowSUV posted...

Just think of all the video games that will be considered lost soon. Especially with online services dying. Hell, you already can't play a true replica of the Original World of Warcraft (non Blizzard servers always have significant errors with them)

Yeah, pretty soon a bunch of games that were only released or rereleased on the Wii Shop Channel are going to potentially be lost forever; they already are for people who didn't add funds to their wallet by the end of March.

It will be worse for consoles with horrible emulation. Good luck playing OG Xbox and Saturn games in the next few decades for example.
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90% of American films made before 1929 were awful trash.
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pogo_rabid posted...

90% of American films made before 1929 were awful trash.

Unless your some kind of historian movie major I find it hard t believe you know what you're talking about.

90% of current movies are trash but I know what I'm talking about.

Wait maybe 90% of all movies are trash.
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pogo_rabid posted...

90% of American films made before 1929 were awful trash.

How is that any different than from today's films?
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Oh shit, London After Midnight! That's the name of one of my favorite early 90s goth bands. Listen to this track, it will change your life:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB8TnjMQxAI" data-time="
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Solar_Crimson posted...

pogo_rabid posted...

90% of American films made before 1929 were awful trash.

How is that any different than from today's films?

It's not. The worthwhile ones will float to the surface and be remembered. Just like how a literal shitton of movies from previous decades are lost to irrelevance.
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pogo_rabid posted...

Solar_Crimson posted...

pogo_rabid posted...

90% of American films made before 1929 were awful trash.

How is that any different than from today's films?

It's not. The worthwhile ones will float to the surface and be remembered. Just like how a literal shitton of movies from previous decades are lost to irrelevance.

The only films (or games or any media) that tend to be forgotten are the mediocre or average ones.

The great films are fondly remembered for their quality.
The terrible films are remembered for how bad they are (and may develop an ironic cult following because of it).
The decent films in between are the ones that are lost to the public mind.
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YoungMutual posted...

Meh

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ClunkerSlim posted...

History is actively deleted on a daily basis.

Mandela!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Homeboys in Outer Space should never be forgotten
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with the whole "games as a service" thing, this is probably going to start becoming more common in video games as well. I can already think of some games which are essentially lost now
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok-rhTZK0kE" data-time="
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Yea, nobody took care of films back in the day. Even some films that survived are probably damaged from over the years.
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DuranOfForcena posted...

DevsBro posted...

The oldest one I've seen was 1927's Metropolis, and yeah, it was a mess because of missing footage. The version I saw was actually a fairly recent expansion including some footage that they had previously lost but finally found a reel of in like Brazil. The restored portions were grainy and stuff, and even with the expansion there were still parts that we left out where they had to have a screen with text explaining what happens.

It's a good thing they found that footage, actually, because there was the scene where the machine explodes was one of the best movie scenes I've ever seen, and it was part of the part that was lost.

i saw that version too, just a year or two ago. great film for the time. a very important one to watch for any movie buff or sci-fi fan.

I believe I saw that on TCM awhile back myself.
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Archaic copyright and similar laws are an obstacle to preservation. Just imagine how much more could be saved without them. Also, a lot of old BBC shows were lost because they saw no value in keeping them since actor clauses only allowed shows to be re aired a few times.
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ClunkerSlim posted...

Look at all the amazing and surviving stuff thats posted to YouTube, only to get deleted for copyright infringement. Theres people who had like entire Saturday mornings recorded and that stuff isnt coming back.

History is actively deleted on a daily basis.

Dang. When you put it that way, it's super depressing.
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Moving from physical media to microchip storage will ensure all data has a lifespan

Naysaspace posted...

Moving from physical media to microchip storage will ensure all data has a lifespan

It had a lifespan to begin with, really. Using digital storage will mean that lifespan can be renewed as often as people bother to do it.

The chief advantage to digital storage and transmission is that it's highly resistant to decay. Not that decay doesn't happen, but since digital is "either this or that" by nature, when it does, it's easy to reconstruct.
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ClunkerSlim posted...

Its not like today where theres multiple copies of things floating around.

There are already lost things on the Internet despite the Internet supposedly "never forgetting."

For example here are some small lists.

http://lostmediaarchive.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Lost_Internet_Media

https://lostmediawiki.com/Category:Lost_internet_media

Hell, there is already something lost from 2014 I'd like to see. Brad Jones did a spoof on Channel Awesome's infamous "Demo Reel" and to my knowledge its been missing since blip.tv went down.

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Also, this may be an Internet urban legend but it is said Christine Chubbuk's lost on air suicide video used to circulate on the World Wide Web in its early days but it has been re lost.
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YellowSUV posted...

ClunkerSlim posted...

Its not like today where theres multiple copies of things floating around.

There are already lost things on the Internet despite the Internet supposedly "never forgetting."

For example here are some small lists.

http://lostmediaarchive.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Lost_Internet_Media

https://lostmediawiki.com/Category:Lost_internet_media

Hell, there is already something lost from 2014 I'd like to see. Brad Jones did a spoof on Channel Awesome's infamous "Demo Reel" and to my knowledge its been missing since blip.tv went down.

....

Also, this may be an Internet urban legend but it is said Christine Chubbuk's lost on air suicide video used to circulate on the World Wide Web in its early days but it has been re lost.

Yeah I frequent the LostMedia site. I remember reading about the Christine Chubbuck video and then another forum where people claimed to have seen it in the 90s/early 2000s. The video was found but it is in the hands of a legal firm right now so we'll probably never see it unless someone there leaks it.
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YoshitoKikuchi posted...

YellowSUV posted...

ClunkerSlim posted...

Its not like today where theres multiple copies of things floating around.

There are already lost things on the Internet despite the Internet supposedly "never forgetting."

For example here are some small lists.

http://lostmediaarchive.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Lost_Internet_Media

https://lostmediawiki.com/Category:Lost_internet_media

Hell, there is already something lost from 2014 I'd like to see. Brad Jones did a spoof on Channel Awesome's infamous "Demo Reel" and to my knowledge its been missing since blip.tv went down.

....

Also, this may be an Internet urban legend but it is said Christine Chubbuk's lost on air suicide video used to circulate on the World Wide Web in its early days but it has been re lost.

Yeah I frequent the LostMedia site. I remember reading about the Christine Chubbuck video and then another forum where people claimed to have seen it in the 90s/early 2000s. The video was found but it is in the hands of a legal firm right now so we'll probably never see it unless someone there leaks it.

I think the version in the legal firm has been locked away forever. The one on the web was said to be from some FBI/CIA/alphabet soup training video.
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We very nearly lost Monty Python's Flying Circus to the ages. If I remember what I read correctly, it was the policy of the BBC to destroy / recycle all light entertainment filmstock after a few years, and John Cleese either fought hard to keep them preserved, or had them copied on the sly.
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masterpug53 posted...

We very nearly lost Monty Python's Flying Circus to the ages. If I remember what I read correctly, it was the policy of the BBC to destroy / recycle all light entertainment filmstock after a few years, and John Cleese either fought hard to keep them preserved, or had them copied on the sly.

I don't think they were purposely destroyed but rewriting to save money on tape was the practice. It was done in America to. For example, lots of Johnny Carson episodes were lost do to rewriting. NBC was so cheap that until they started preserving episodes the picture quality of the Tonight Show declined as it went on since they kept reusing the same tapes.
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I thought it was more that VHS was expensive and could only hold 2 hours of video back then, so it made sense to constantly tape over them.
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YoshitoKikuchi posted...

I thought it was more that VHS was expensive and could only hold 2 hours of video back then, so it made sense to constantly tape over them.

VHS wasn't around in the 60s. They mostly used tape reels.
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YellowSUV posted...

YoshitoKikuchi posted...

I thought it was more that VHS was expensive and could only hold 2 hours of video back then, so it made sense to constantly tape over them.

VHS wasn't around in the 60s. They mostly used tape reels.

I was referring to 16-BITTER's comment, who didn't specify a decade, but I was referring to the 1970s and part of the 1980s when VHS tapes were being wiped.
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