Young Talent Time-The Collection (1971)

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General		Extras
Category	Dance	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Menu Audio Biographies-Cast-Johnny Young and The Young Talent Team Short Film-Caravan Holiday Music Highlights-Kylie & Dannii Minogue - Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves Music Highlights-The Young Talent Team -You Can't Stop The Music Music Highlights-Song Clip Sequence - Johnny Young & The Young Talent Team Featurette-TV Commercials Featurette-Jamie Redfern - Colour TV Test Featurette-Before They Were Stars Featurette-Nicole Kidman - Guest Appearance Gallery-Photo-30
Rating
Year Of Production	1971
Running Time	70:14
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Garry Dunstan Terry Higgins
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Johnny Young Beven Addinsall Tina Arena Rikki Arnot John Bowles Sally Boyden Vikki Broughton Debra Byrne Michael Campbell Jamie Churchill Juanita Coco Courtney Compagnino Nicole Cooper
Case	?
RPI	$34.95	Music	None Given

    The corny songs and dance sequences, the really bad lip synching, the outrageous outfits - I was almost embarrassed for them when I watched this! I was only a primary school kid back when I eagerly watched this show every week, so perhaps my innocence has been lost. But even my parents, who dropped by while I was reviewing this, couldn't believe the show was this........strange.

    In any case, to the DVD itself. The main feature that is presented is the Young Talent Time Tells All documentary that has been previously shown on television. It goes into quite a lot of detail into the experiences of each team member; the tantrums; the jealousies; the infatuations, the tragedies; the teenage angst of it all. It is actually quite interesting to hear about the behind-the-scenes antics of the team, and to see where they are all now in life after YTT. The bonus features are pretty comprehensive too, with detailed biographies and little clips.

    All in all, this DVD is a great trip down memory lane to revisit one of the legendary Australian television shows. Someone just please explain to me why we all liked it?!?

Video

    The video is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 (obviously not 16x9 enhanced). This is acceptable for clips from the TV show since it was made for television back then. What is annoying is that the interviews are shot in widescreen but are added to the main feature by using different colour bars at the top and bottom of the screen. I'm not sure why they even shot it in widescreen. For interviews, the 1.33:1 ratio would have been sufficient considering the rest of the feature is in that ratio.

    The picture quality for clips during the show are all quite bad, even the later shows in the 1980s, and are at best equal to VHS quality (in fact, some clips were actually taken from recently discovered VHS recordings of the show). Sharpness in particular is lacking, with some clips in the 1970s appearing quite blurry. Even for this blurriness, there still appeared to be some edge enhancement with lots of ghostly outlines against the costumes.

    Colours for the most part looked muted, but there were occasions when the colour was definitely over-saturated and colour bleed was the result. The black and white footage from early episodes is quite bad, with fuzzy whites and dull blacks, but this all comes down to the age of the material.

    Film artefacts apply only to the Caravan Holiday short movie that they produced, which I discuss later. Video artefacts abound, and pretty much cover most of the artefacts detailed on the site's Video Artefacts page. With the VHS quality footage presented here, you will see occurrences of chroma noise, cross colouration, low level noise, and overmodulation. This is all pretty pedantic, though, considering the source is old tapes from TV back in the 70s and 80s. The quality during the recent interviews with the team members is much better, and is on par with recent television broadcasts.

Video Ratings Summary

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Audio

    There is very little stereo separation, and for the most part the soundtrack sounds quite mono-like. The dialogue quality matches the age of the material, with the older material sounding scratchy while the more recent footage has clearer sounding audio.

    The music comes across adequately, but the lip synching is terrible. A lot of the lip synching is out, but this is not a problem with the transfer. It would have been good to have the team sing live to the audience, but it appears the songs were pre-recorded and simply lip-synched to during the show.

    The subwoofer and surround speakers were all pretty much silent throughout the feature.

Audio Ratings Summary

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Overall

    A large amount of extras accompany this DVD and provide some good value.

Caravan Holiday - 21:46

    This is the short movie (presented in an aspect ratio of 1.66:1) that the YYT team filmed during 1972 and which was shown briefly in theatres. A brief introduction indicates the film had been cleaned, regraded, and restored and it does look OK for the most part. The beginning pre-credit sequence that was found later and included here has not been cleaned, and film artefacts abound to produce an almost snow blizzard effect. Luckily, the feature is much better when the opening credits roll. The feature itself is boring and rather lame. The only interesting point is the cameo by John Farnham.

Music Clips - Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves

    This shows Kylie and Dannii Minogue recording the song in the studio, and then segueing into the actual show in front of the audience. It is funny just to see the ridiculous hairstyles the sisters had back then.

Music Clips - You Can't Stop the Music

    This shows the team from 1980 performing the hit Village People song. The video quality is rather bad, and this is coupled with terrible lip synching.

Music Clips - Song Clip Sequence

    This shows Johnny Young and the team singing and dancing. This is really just all the music clips in the team biographies linked into one feature.

TV Commercials

    This shows various commercials that the team were involved in, ranging from pillows to electrical appliances. Rather embarrassing if you ask me.

Jamie Redfern - Colour TV Test

    Shows Jamie Redfern at the Royal Melbourne Show in 1968 being the subject of a colour TV test. It is interesting to note that colour TV didn't begin until 1975, around seven years after this test. In any case, Jamie does a great job, and has a voice that puts to shame many contestants on the Australian Idol show.

Before They Were Stars

    Shows some clips from the team members as contestants, including Vince Del Tito and Dannii Minogue.

Nicole Kidman - Guest Appearance

    Nicole Kidman appeared on the show to promote her movie BMX Bandits. She doesn't look like she has aged at all from this footage.

Photo Gallery

    Includes 30 photos of the team throughout the years.

The Young Talent Team

    Profiles of each team member, with most including an interview clip, music clip, and detailed biography. Great for fans.

Johnny Young

    A profile of Johnny Young, also with interview clip and music clip.

    This is a great package for fans of the Young Talent Time show. The main documentary itself gives some great information about the show and its team members. The extras are detailed and provide good value. All-in-all, this is a great trip down memory lane, and should be fun for all those fans out there. Someone just please explain to me why we all liked it?!?

    The video quality suffers, but due to the age of the material, the lack of quality is acceptable.

    The audio is reasonable, and does an adequate job.

    Extras are detailed and informative.

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