Technology Connections

Hello again! A few people asked what the EPCOT film was. Well, if you'd like to see it in its entirety, here it is. Plus it has the best Walt Disney Home Video bumper that hits me right in the feels.

Why share a VHS copy? Because it's genuinely better than the film. I bought the film on eBay hoping that it was going to be worth preserving, but as I watched it I realized things were... off. Frame rate seemed really jittery, the picture just wasn't that sharp, and I couldn't put my finger on why.

Well, I later realized that there was *video noise* in the dark scenes! That's right, that film was — for some reason — kinescoped, and the actual production happened on videotape. However, since some shots were originally captured on film, those were transferred onto tape with 3:2 pulldown and putting them _back_ onto film must be what caused the weird motion in some shots. Plus, the audio fidelity of 16mm film, while decent, just isn't up to snuff compared to VHS.

I can only assume it was put to film as it was early days for home video. Or possibly, on the film version it is presented by "Walt Disney Educational Media Company" so it may have been produced primarily for schools - although my particular copy belonged to a public library system. If this was ever released on Laserdisc that would be the best source for preservation, but it doesn't look like that happened.

I may attempt a better capture of the film and try and sync the VHS audio with it at a later date, but for now - enjoy!

vor 1 Jahr | [YT] | 893



@ThemeParchive

Thank you so much for sharing this Alec! After seeing it in your video, I went searching for a full version somewhere and found this same upload. It’s such an interesting piece of Epcot history.

vor 1 Jahr (editiert) | 12

@yuri4281

Thank you for linking this. On a related note, thank you again for your capture and edit of IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth. The EPCOT Center of my youth is quickly being replaced so it’s nice to revisit it every once in a while.

vor 1 Jahr | 7

@zacksh33

This is cool! I remember as a kid in the late 90s we would be sent these weird advertising/promotional VHS tapes for Disney World. They got a shocking amount of play

vor 1 Jahr | 5

@mfaizsyahmi

The Christmas gift that keeps on giving. Thank you, Alec. 🎁

vor 1 Jahr | 0

@anonimenkolbas1305

Do you happen to know what the film about coding was? I couldn't for the life of me recognize that language... Though it was refreshing to see that they were discussing workplace ethics and gender equality in computer science all those years ago!

vor 1 Jahr | 5

@mattheww2797

Love the Epcot Easter eggs as always!

vor 1 Jahr | 1

@setharnold9764

Uhoh. Sounds like you need to do a video on format conversions and archival conservation :) there's just so many things in the world to get moderately ranty over!

vor 1 Jahr (editiert) | 3

@theSuitMusic

That intro just isn’t the same without the flutter at the end. Thank you.

vor 1 Jahr | 1

@daniel-pablo

Love all the work that you do. Thanks to your efforts I can genuinely say that a 20 minute video on the color brown can be highly interesting - but I just can't stop laughing that YouTube doesn't support italics bold and strikethrough in community posts when they've had it forever in comments

vor 1 Jahr | 2

@jerryldavis1823

I think your channel is great. Sticking to its roots.

vor 1 Jahr (editiert) | 0

@GrandDawggy

Being from the UK the only thing I knew about the Epcot was from a kool Keith song Mr. Nogatco - bionic fuse Bionic fuse First man on the moon Orlando, Epcot Center Walking around with space shoes Bionic fuse First man on the moon Orlando, Epcot Center Walking around with space shoes

vor 1 Jahr (editiert) | 1

@dlczar

Heyya! Not sure how else to contact ya, but have you looked into the Delco-Light system? Lead acid glass batteries used to create electricity in rural houses.

vor 1 Jahr | 1

@jatdesign4495

When my family visited Disney in 1993 there was a tourist video that came through the travel agency. Maybe this was it I don’t know. It seems like I’ve seen this before but being I was 3 it’s hard to tell

vor 1 Jahr | 0

@douglascodes

I am actually more curious about the programming tutorial film. Was that COBOL?

vor 1 Jahr | 0

@giacomovalenti8619

And the thumbnail shows the PAL VHS! So would that be a 60 to 50 fps conversion or a sped up 25 fps telecine of the film version (probably the worst way of exporting content from NTSC to PAL video, but who knows!)

vor 1 Jahr | 0

@mercster

Hope you're OK buddy.

vor 1 Jahr | 0

@campaug

I can’t tell you how much I’ve watched this tape. An estimate would be over 3k times.

vor 1 Jahr | 0

@Maniac536

There was a pretty decent 16mm rip of a different copy already published on YT a few years ago. It’s not perfect the film degraded a bit but it’s plenty clear

vor 1 Jahr | 0

@VAXHeadroom

FYI: you got shout-out on the "Making It" podcast this week :)

vor 1 Jahr | 0

@RayquaSr.

Cheers mate.

vor 1 Jahr | 0