David Cronenberg: I have to make the Word be Flesh (1999)

There it is... the VHS rip of David Cronenberg - I have to make the Word be Flesh (1999) - over an hour of fascinating one-on-one interview with our favorite director, made in 1999 and broadcasted on the french TV channel ARTE.

It took me a long time and quite a few attempts to rip this one the way I wanted to. I think the result came out good. One of my own requirements was a strict file size, because I wanted it to fit right into 1 CD with the (future) rip of the documentary Naked making Lunch.

This interview isn't built in "segments" nor does it focus on a particular movie. Instead, the focus is on Cronenberg's philosophy and his unique view of life. That what makes this interview so interesting and different than most of the others.

As the people who worked with him testify, Cronenberg is clearly one of the most intelligent film-makers working today. This interview demonstrates it very well - The philosophy, the innovation, the variety of fields of interest. You won't find them in many of today's film-makers.

Technical specs:

Source:	VHS (TV Broadcast) with French subtitles
Video:	592x352, 25 FPS, DivX 5.0.2, 800Kbps
Audio:	mp3, 64Kbps CBR mono
Length:	66 Min
Size:	393MB

Name:	David Cronenberg: I have to make the Word be Flesh
Year:	1999
Type:	Documentary (interview)
Length:	66 Minutes
Rating:	10 out of 10 - extremely interesting!
Link:	Mono, 66 Min @ 64Kbps CBR mp3

This excellent documentary was broadcast on the french TV channel ARTE, and I had it recorded on VHS. Now, my TV capture card is a real piece of c**p (see snapshots below), and it's almost impossible for me to rip a movie with it. so instead of making a bad-quality DivX, I decided to record the audio (using a direct cable from video to PC) and release it for you guys in mp3 format. I did my best to have the noise reduced, and I think it came out rather good.

Q: Why is the mp3 in mono and such a low bit-rate?
A: Since the source of this movie is a mono VHS and the movie is a documentary, you won't gain much in high bit-rate. But the main reason is that the recorded WAV file has a terrible high-pitched noise that would drive you crazy after one minute. I tested many different bit-rates (including VBR), and encoding to 64Kbps CBR using AudioCatalyst gives clear dialog while LOSING the unwanted high-frequency noise.

Q: What are all the noises/talking/music in the background?
A: As you can see in the snapshots, Cronenebrg and the interviewer are sitting in front of 2 TV sets constantly broadcasting his movies. These are the noises/dialogs you hear. Yeah, sometimes it's just annoying...