| Tech Note | Grateful Dead
8-27-1972
Old Renaissance Faire Grounds
Veneta, OR
Benefit for Springfield Creamery
DVD/VCD1 : [395MB]
Prankster clips - Acid tests
Setting up - Playin in the Band (background music)
Water and the Heat
Promised Land
Crisis
China Cat Sunflower >>
I Know You Rider
...what ever happened to the truck that was going to spray the crowd
Jack Straw
VCD2 : [489MB]
Oregon Insanity (Please help us Jerry and Bob)
Dark Star >>
El Paso
...and no one was hurt
Endings - Greatest Story (background)
Concert film by John Norris, Sam Field, and Phil DeGuere
Loosely shot, this 100-minute film captures an incredibly youthful Grateful Dead playing outdoors
at a creamery benefit in Veneta, Oregon.
The following text is from http://www.sfherald.com/columnists/...apozzola08.html
"In sitting down to watch 'Sunshine Daydream,' one gets a sense of revisiting history. Because
this was an era of unprecedented accessibility, the Canis Major crew were able to station their
cameras squarely on the wings of the stage, mere feet from the band. The resulting footage allows
the viewer to stand almost shoulder-to-shoulder with a very young Bob Weir, age 25, strumming a
cherry-red hollow-body guitar; a bushy-haired Phil Lesh, dressed more like a surfer than a
bassist, and belting unexpected harmony vocals; a fuzzily bearded Garcia, age 30, smiling, not a
gray hair in sight; and, a tough-looking Bill Kreutzman, sitting squatly on his drum stool,
chewing gum and wearing a railroad conductor's cap. Where most Dead fans only witnessed these
musicians 20 years later, and from the remote mezzanine deck of a Checkerdome-Enormodome-
Superstadium, here suddenly is Garcia's boot tapping on a rusty foot pedal, Phil Lesh leaping in
front of Kreutzman during a jazzy drums and bass solo, and Bob Weir stepping timidly to the
microphone after a long, haunting jam.
One can only speculate on just how psychedelically engaged Norris, Field, and DeGuere (along with
third cameraman Lou Melson, and soundman Charlie Barreca) were as they recordeded the day's
proceedings. The concert itself was organized by Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, which helped
to ensure a day of genuine acid craziness. But shot with synchronized, handheld cameras, the
Canis Major team succeeded in capturing both the blissful playing of the musicians and the
general ecstasy of the audience. The camera eye becomes almost a running commentary of the
respective filmmakers' interior monologues. A close-up of Garcia's leather boot stepping on a
wah-wah pedal jumps suddenly to a Christ-like figure perched precariously on a wooden pole above
the stage. The camera tracks the fellow as he dances rabidly above the music, then cuts to two
women walking a child behind the stage. A dog runs past them. Suddenly the music changes gears
and the camera swings back to the stage, to blonde-haired Phil Lesh at the precise moment he
strums a booming chord on his bass. And then the other camera takes over, offering Bob Weir
baring his teeth and straining to sing a high note as he chops harsh chords on his guitar. Weir
falls backward as Garcia begins to solo and the camera suddenly jumps again to a topless girl
dancing nearby in the tall grass.
Such chaotic filming succeeds precisely because of its extemporaneous nature. Almost accidentally,
it captures the day's events in whirlwind fashion, fortuitously recording all the peripheral
"noise" of the festival. In editing the film, DeGuere, Norris, and Field wisely provided some
breathing room, interspersing performance clips with vintage moments of Kesey and the Pranksters.
Additional background footage delivers candid shots of the festival's organizers as they try to
cope with a water shortage amidst the day's 100-degree heat. The camera pans to crowds of men and
women sharing plastic jugs of water. Overdubbed walkie-talkie chatter reveals the stage crew
trying to bring in a fire truck to hose down the crowd.
In true Deadhead spirit, the film preserves an event that seem awfully remote in today's world of
cable TV, Internet ticketing, and heavily policed gatherings. Early in the movie, an eager crew
can be seen building a simple wooden stage. No cops, no security force trolling the grounds. No
bags being searched, no one ejected for cigarette smoking. What one witnesses as the movie gets
underway is 30,000 folks raving about in a big, sunny meadow while the local band plays on a
hastily erected platform. Two flinty piles of amplifiers broadcast loud rock 'n roll out to the
countryside. Amidst such casual planning, it seems forgivable that the festival's organizers
forgot to incorporate stage lights. Providentially, this lack of concert lighting works to
stunning effect later in the film. As the sun sets, and a cool breeze settles on the day's
revelry, Garcia can be faintly seen crooning the plaintive "Sing Me Back Home," a mere silhouette
of dark hair and beard against the gathering dusk.
Such a pastoral scene, of dogs and babies and children eating ice cream, hearkens back to a
bygone era. 'Sunshine Daydream' never lectures, though, never complains that such days have
passed. But in its quick cuts to footage of the Merry Pranksters, and their 1964 bus slogan "A
vote for Barry [Goldwater] is a vote for fun," one sees the timeless political viability of
street theater. And cutting back to the Dead in blazing performance, one is reminded that the most
essential American liberty is freedom of expression."
Source
Video
Capture was performed by Dan Blank using Joe Estades vhs tape (2nd generation vhs of original).
Audio:
Bertha Remaster of the Braverman/Dank 16 track source.
SBD>>MR>>DAT>>SS>>CDA>>EAC>>SHN>>DAW(Bertha)>>CDA/SHN - Sound A(Between songs from the two-track master reels)
Digitally remastered using a custom built, Dual-DAW, nicknamed Bertha, by jashley@deadacated.com on January 4, 2004.
Thanks to Peter Braverman for his fine work.
From the Braverman text file and prior to Bertha Remastering:
Source:
SBD>16 Track Master Reels>DAT@44.1K>DAT>DAT>WAV>SHN>
DAT>WAV via Sony SDT-9000 DDS drive using VDAT 0.6f WAV was edited in Soundforge 4.0 (crossfading
of reel cuts between songs, no music was disturbed except for Sugar Magnolia) WAV>SHN via CDWAV 1.53>MKW 0.97b
Note: After capturing the video, the audience soundtrack (from the video) was exported and then
loaded into Adobe Audition along with a copy of the sbd audio. Then, an unique note at
approximately 1 minute intervals on the video soundtrack was found and matched to the same note
from the sbd. Some modification (ie stretching or shrinking) to the length of these segment was
required in order for the sbd to flawlessly match the captured video. The original video audience
track was then muted and the sbd tracks imported as background music prior to creating the master
dvd.
The video was captured at 720x480 resolution (DVD) at 6000bits\sec to create the original mpeg2
file. After the sound was imported and the dvd burned, the mpeg2 file was rendered to 352x240 to
make VCD disks. Takes either (1) dvds or (2) vcds.
Audio\Video Flaws:
1) First 2 minutes 58 seconds of video used the video soundtrack as no matching soundtrack is available.
2) Some vocals\talking during the Playin in the Band segment were mixed in from the video soundtrack.
3) The last 1 minutes and 38 seconds of Playin in the Band was added from the audio soundtrack to give a better flow. Video was filled in using clips from the movie slowed down by a factor of 3.
4) Between Playin and Promised Land, video soundtrack was used as no matching audio from soundboard.
5) Between Jack Straw and Dark Star, video soundtrack was used as no matching audio from soundboard.
6) About 23 minutes into Dark Star, 2.9 seconds were missing from the video - inserted transition with no loss of sound.
7) Between El Paso and Greatest Story, video soundtrack was used as no matching audio from soundboard.
8) No other flaws noted during show
Brokedown House Productions
Original VHS supplied by Joe Estades
Video Capture and Conversion by Dan Blank
Audio CDs provide with thanks by Jay Ashley via /tol
'Bertha' remastering performed by Jay Ashley
Audio SBD imported and synced by Kevin Tobin
DVD layout and mastering performed by Kevin Tobin
imported and synced by Kevin Tobin
DVD layout and mastering performed by Kevin Tobin |
