From the recent comments made in a post online at "The Home Theatre Forum" the "Sound" shorts [ 80 in total ] and Bonus material and features would be spread over 6 volumes. Hopefully 2021 sees a Volume 1 release officially announced, and then scheduled....from Classic Flix. Sure hope that all of the "Silent" shorts will see a Restoration at much later date. Please!
Yeah, the first 11 shorts on the first volume as opposed to the 22 that would have been done if the fundraiser had been successful and 6 volumes instead of 3.
Another new update was posted on Indiegogo site today.... Little Rascals Preservation & Restoration Project December 7, 2020 Two Almost Hads- Why Preserving The Rascals Now is Important Wanted to share with you two "Almost Hads" today. The goal for this project is to give the best presentations possible for each short, and that means testing out as many film elements as possible to get the best results. Sometimes that means we can find elements that are superior and perform full scans on them. Other times, we find superior elements, but can't use them because they are too far deteriorated. We had two test scans performed recently, one of the 15th Our Gang sound short HELPING GRANDMA and the other of the 27th: THE POOCH. Both test scans looked promising, but today we learned they both are so brittle and quite literally disintegrating, that the full shorts are not able to be scanned. You can see from the raw scan of HELPING GRANDMA, especially when compared to the current DVD, that it is generally sharp, and has a lot more information on it. In spite of its flaws, it would have been great to attempt to restore from this element, but it is wholly unusable and we'll have to look for other elements.
On THE POOCH, the element is so clear and beautiful, even before restoration, that it is truly awful we can't perform a full scan. We were, though, able to scan the first 6 minutes or so of the first reel and we're going to attempt to scan the second reel and perhaps use other elements to patch in missing parts of the first reel. However, it is too early to tell. While we didn't hit our goal in this crowdfund, we'll be announcing Volume 1 this week and ask for your support. By supporting our Rascal releases, you're literally preserving these shorts for posterity prior the film elements deteriorating and helping us "get" the best presentations possible by turning an "Almost had it" to a "We got it"! - David (Classic Flix)
The Little Rascals - The ClassicFlix Restorations, Volume 1 (Blu-ray) - ClassicFlix Pre-order now! approximately April 2021 EXCLUSIVE: The Little Rascals - The ClassicFlix Restorations, Vol. 1 - ClassicFlix
From the ClassicFix website: ** Please note that while this set may go wide retail at some point in the future, it is currently exclusive to and only available at ClassicFlix.com. So, that leaves out anyone who doesn’t live in the United States. (I’d really like to support this company, but their exclusionary policy leaves me cold.)
Usually they say it's a rights issue, I can't remember if they said that about this particular release (shouldn't it be public domain by now?) But if you want maybe someone here can help you via ebay.
The copyright on films is 95 years, so all the talkies are still not in the public domain. And I'd wager someone is lobbying to get that extended as I type.
Amazon has no problem sending blu-rays snd DVDs outside the USA. ClassicFlix already sells the bulk of their releases via Amazon. If ClassicFlix is trying to garner support for their Our Gang restoration project, limiting themselves to just the United States seems counterproductive. As for eBay or relying on friends, I think I’ll let Frank Costanza express how I feel about ClassicFlix:
I can't speak for ClassicFix, but it's possible there are licensing issues for the Our Gang shorts, outside of the United States. They may not have the authorization to sell the blu-rays in any other country.
For the original project, they stated the following... "Will the set be shipped outside the United States? No. Contributions are welcome from anywhere in the world by clicking the "Back It" button on the main page, but due to licensing restrictions and shipping logistics, Volume 1 will only be shipped to contributors within the United States. However, the release will eventually be accessible via all major retail outlets." Interpret that how you may. I pre-ordered my copy.
They've mentioned this numerous times but I can't remember if it was specifically regarding Our Gang. This is def a thing though. UK companies can't ship Shaw Brothers titles to the U.S.The current Dawn of The Dead set has restrictions to the U.S. Hell, I can't even get Blue Oyster Cult's previous two studio albums in the U.S. and they're an American band! Sucks, but this goes both ways.
Then how/why is My Girl Friday in public domain? That film is only 80 this year butt has been PD for some time.
Someone at Columbia Pictures likely didn’t file the paperwork to renew the copyright. RayS is correct - most sound films are still under copyright, including most of the Our Gang films. There are a couple exceptions - MGM forgot to file a renewal on one of their shorts. I think Hal Roach also forgot to file renewal on a couple.
Classic Flix upload some more raw silent footage from the 26th short "Hook & Ladder" as they continue to search and check footage quality sources for their project to release all 80 Sound "Our Gang" shorts!
Classic Flix upload this week the raw footage for "Choo Choo" as they continue the Restoration for all the Sound "Our Gang" shorts!
The previous two BOC albums USA rights are not (yet?) held by Frontiers, so they cannot offer them directly to US customers. However, you can get them thru 3rd parties at a premium, like amazon.co.uk. (That's what I did.) I never bought them from the original rights holder, and, surprisingly they're still out of print; I thought for sure they'd leverage the publicity BOC was gaining from their new 2020 offering, and that they'd ride their coattails and reissue them.
Has there ever been an attempt to collect all of the silent shorts of Our Gang? Also, I have the 2008 "complete" set from Genius Entertainment which features 80 shorts. However, on Wikipedia, they state that there were 230 total shorts. Is there some tangled rights issues going on here? Or, are there some shorts not included because they are considered de-legitimitized?
ClassicFlix has stated the Sound Shorts will be spread across 3 Volumes. Then hopefully after they will begin the process of Restoring "Silent" era Shorts from the best source elements....and let's all hope they are fortunate to have access to best material to do it!