Tape Territory
@tapeterritory.com
Audio description for old film that never had any. Scripts written by AI that watches the film, reviewed by a person, voiced synthetically or in our own studio. A listed provider in the ACB's Audio Description Project, alongside Netflix and Prime Video.
For decades every copy of Detour in circulation was a dupe of a dupe, which somehow suited it. Poverty Row, barely over an hour, no money anywhere on screen.
The Academy Film Archive's 4K restoration is the first time most people have seen what it actually looked like.
The Academy Film Archive's 4K restoration is the first time most people have seen what it actually looked like.
September 12, 2026 at 2:15 AM
For decades every copy of Detour in circulation was a dupe of a dupe, which somehow suited it. Poverty Row, barely over an hour, no money anywhere on screen.
The Academy Film Archive's 4K restoration is the first time most people have seen what it actually looked like.
The Academy Film Archive's 4K restoration is the first time most people have seen what it actually looked like.
The American Council of the Blind keeps a directory of everything with audio description. Prime Video has 8,333 titles in it. Netflix has 3,228.
We got added last week with thirteen.
All free, no account, described and captioned.
tapeterritory.com
We got added last week with thirteen.
All free, no account, described and captioned.
tapeterritory.com
September 11, 2026 at 11:36 AM
The American Council of the Blind keeps a directory of everything with audio description. Prime Video has 8,333 titles in it. Netflix has 3,228.
We got added last week with thirteen.
All free, no account, described and captioned.
tapeterritory.com
We got added last week with thirteen.
All free, no account, described and captioned.
tapeterritory.com
We got added to the American Council of the Blind's Audio Description Project directory this week. It lists 25 providers and the others are Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, that sort of company.
We are on it with 13 films. Prime has 8,333. Still counts. adp.acb.org
We are on it with 13 films. Prime has 8,333. Still counts. adp.acb.org
September 11, 2026 at 1:20 AM
We got added to the American Council of the Blind's Audio Description Project directory this week. It lists 25 providers and the others are Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, that sort of company.
We are on it with 13 films. Prime has 8,333. Still counts. adp.acb.org
We are on it with 13 films. Prime has 8,333. Still counts. adp.acb.org
Spent this morning in the copyright renewal records. Plan 9 from Outer Space is not public domain. Somebody renewed it in 1986.
The reason nobody knows is that the renewal is filed as Plan nine from outer space, spelled out. Search the name on the poster and you get nothing back.
The reason nobody knows is that the renewal is filed as Plan nine from outer space, spelled out. Search the name on the poster and you get nothing back.
September 7, 2026 at 1:47 PM
Spent this morning in the copyright renewal records. Plan 9 from Outer Space is not public domain. Somebody renewed it in 1986.
The reason nobody knows is that the renewal is filed as Plan nine from outer space, spelled out. Search the name on the poster and you get nothing back.
The reason nobody knows is that the renewal is filed as Plan nine from outer space, spelled out. Search the name on the poster and you get nothing back.
Localizing a silent film cost almost nothing. Swap a few title cards and you had a German version by the afternoon. Exhibitors abroad rewrote other people's jokes freely.
Then sound arrived. Universal shot the Spanish Dracula at night on the same sets, because localizing meant remaking the film.
Then sound arrived. Universal shot the Spanish Dracula at night on the same sets, because localizing meant remaking the film.
September 6, 2026 at 7:53 PM
Localizing a silent film cost almost nothing. Swap a few title cards and you had a German version by the afternoon. Exhibitors abroad rewrote other people's jokes freely.
Then sound arrived. Universal shot the Spanish Dracula at night on the same sets, because localizing meant remaking the film.
Then sound arrived. Universal shot the Spanish Dracula at night on the same sets, because localizing meant remaking the film.
The Little Shop of Horrors was shot in two days on sets that were about to be demolished. We restored it and wrote an audio description track for it, which took a good deal longer than two days. youtu.be/44QjX7hjGic
September 6, 2026 at 1:47 PM
The Little Shop of Horrors was shot in two days on sets that were about to be demolished. We restored it and wrote an audio description track for it, which took a good deal longer than two days. youtu.be/44QjX7hjGic
The Little Shop of Horrors, 1960, is on our YouTube with a full audio description track. 303 cues, and not one of them talks over the dialogue.
Almost no horror is described. It is the genre that needs it most and the one that almost never gets it.
youtu.be/44QjX7hjGic
Almost no horror is described. It is the genre that needs it most and the one that almost never gets it.
youtu.be/44QjX7hjGic
September 5, 2026 at 10:55 PM
The Little Shop of Horrors, 1960, is on our YouTube with a full audio description track. 303 cues, and not one of them talks over the dialogue.
Almost no horror is described. It is the genre that needs it most and the one that almost never gets it.
youtu.be/44QjX7hjGic
Almost no horror is described. It is the genre that needs it most and the one that almost never gets it.
youtu.be/44QjX7hjGic
King of Jazz, 1930, was shot entirely in two-strip Technicolor: reds and blue-greens, no true yellow. Universal cut it for a 1933 reissue and the trims went missing for decades. The 2016 restoration put most of them back. It entered the public domain in January.
September 5, 2026 at 3:20 PM
King of Jazz, 1930, was shot entirely in two-strip Technicolor: reds and blue-greens, no true yellow. Universal cut it for a 1933 reissue and the trims went missing for decades. The 2016 restoration put most of them back. It entered the public domain in January.
The Library of Congress counted the surviving American silent features. 70 percent are gone. Of what is left, 11 percent exists only as a foreign release print. The film survives. The version you would have watched in 1924 does not.
September 5, 2026 at 2:26 PM
The Library of Congress counted the surviving American silent features. 70 percent are gone. Of what is left, 11 percent exists only as a foreign release print. The film survives. The version you would have watched in 1924 does not.
Made a list of regional horror. Films shot a long way from any industry by people who had a camera and a town.
Herk Harvey borrowed the crew from his day job. Don Dohler shot his with neighbors in Baltimore County.
letterboxd.com/tapeterritory/list/horror-made-where-nobody-was-watching/
Herk Harvey borrowed the crew from his day job. Don Dohler shot his with neighbors in Baltimore County.
letterboxd.com/tapeterritory/list/horror-made-where-nobody-was-watching/
September 3, 2026 at 1:19 AM
Made a list of regional horror. Films shot a long way from any industry by people who had a camera and a town.
Herk Harvey borrowed the crew from his day job. Don Dohler shot his with neighbors in Baltimore County.
letterboxd.com/tapeterritory/list/horror-made-where-nobody-was-watching/
Herk Harvey borrowed the crew from his day job. Don Dohler shot his with neighbors in Baltimore County.
letterboxd.com/tapeterritory/list/horror-made-where-nobody-was-watching/
Victor Miller died this week at 86. He wrote Friday the 13th, then spent most of his last decade in court proving a screenwriter can claw their copyright back from the company that owned it. Won in 2018, won again on appeal in 2021.
Most of the obituaries treat that as a footnote.
Most of the obituaries treat that as a footnote.
September 3, 2026 at 1:16 AM
Victor Miller died this week at 86. He wrote Friday the 13th, then spent most of his last decade in court proving a screenwriter can claw their copyright back from the company that owned it. Won in 2018, won again on appeal in 2021.
Most of the obituaries treat that as a footnote.
Most of the obituaries treat that as a footnote.
Made a list of shot on video horror. Features that exist because a camcorder got cheap, not because anyone gave permission. Shot in the director's house, friends holding the lights.
letterboxd.com/tapeterritor...
letterboxd.com/tapeterritor...
September 2, 2026 at 6:17 PM
Made a list of shot on video horror. Features that exist because a camcorder got cheap, not because anyone gave permission. Shot in the director's house, friends holding the lights.
letterboxd.com/tapeterritor...
letterboxd.com/tapeterritor...
We describe films for people who cannot see them. It is slower than it sounds. You write into the gaps between lines, and old horror does not leave many. The upside nobody mentions is that you end up watching the film four times and noticing everything. The bad edit. The shot done twice.
September 2, 2026 at 4:24 PM
We describe films for people who cannot see them. It is slower than it sounds. You write into the gaps between lines, and old horror does not leave many. The upside nobody mentions is that you end up watching the film four times and noticing everything. The bad edit. The shot done twice.
We launched this week, so the catalogue is small and grows every day. Restoration is the slow part. Inner Sanctum came off a VHS transfer with head switch noise rolling through the top of frame. Crop that out, deflicker, deband, denoise and level the audio. The film underneath was fine all along.
September 2, 2026 at 12:30 AM
We launched this week, so the catalogue is small and grows every day. Restoration is the slow part. Inner Sanctum came off a VHS transfer with head switch noise rolling through the top of frame. Crop that out, deflicker, deband, denoise and level the audio. The film underneath was fine all along.
Everybody knows Lugosi died before Plan 9 was underway. The part people skip is that the footage of him is real, shot for a different project, and Wood built a horror film around a few minutes of a dead man because he did not want to waste him. Made out of genuine affection. #horrormovies
September 1, 2026 at 8:13 PM
Everybody knows Lugosi died before Plan 9 was underway. The part people skip is that the footage of him is real, shot for a different project, and Wood built a horror film around a few minutes of a dead man because he did not want to waste him. Made out of genuine affection. #horrormovies
WWE bought the AWA library from the Gagne family in 2003 for three million dollars. Footage back to 1961. Do that enough times - World Class, Mid-South, Florida, Smoky Mountain, ECW - and the territory era survives because one company kept buying tapes. Nobody is buying the indies. #indiewrestling
September 1, 2026 at 6:54 PM
WWE bought the AWA library from the Gagne family in 2003 for three million dollars. Footage back to 1961. Do that enough times - World Class, Mid-South, Florida, Smoky Mountain, ECW - and the territory era survives because one company kept buying tapes. Nobody is buying the indies. #indiewrestling
Detour, 1945. Sixty-eight minutes, shot at a poverty row studio on a schedule counted in days, on sets that were already standing. It is in the National Film Registry now. Half the American films that hold up from that decade were made by people not given time to be careful. #filmsky
September 1, 2026 at 6:50 PM
Detour, 1945. Sixty-eight minutes, shot at a poverty row studio on a schedule counted in days, on sets that were already standing. It is in the National Film Registry now. Half the American films that hold up from that decade were made by people not given time to be careful. #filmsky
Sony argued this week that reasonable consumers know they do not own the digital games they buy. Film is no different. The strange exception is public domain - there is no license to lapse and no rights to revert, so nothing can be quietly removed from you later.
September 1, 2026 at 6:25 PM
Sony argued this week that reasonable consumers know they do not own the digital games they buy. Film is no different. The strange exception is public domain - there is no license to lapse and no rights to revert, so nothing can be quietly removed from you later.
People assume restoring an old film means making it look new. Mostly it is subtraction. Scratches from a hundred prints of wear, splices where a projectionist cut a snapped frame, hum a tape transfer added in 1987. You are not adding anything, and you stop before you flatten the grain.
September 1, 2026 at 1:26 PM
People assume restoring an old film means making it look new. Mostly it is subtraction. Scratches from a hundred prints of wear, splices where a projectionist cut a snapped frame, hum a tape transfer added in 1987. You are not adding anything, and you stop before you flatten the grain.
We describe films for people who cannot see them. It is slower than it sounds - you write into the gaps between lines, and old horror does not leave many. The upside nobody mentions is that you end up watching the film four times and noticing everything. The bad edit. The shot done twice.
September 1, 2026 at 11:30 AM
We describe films for people who cannot see them. It is slower than it sounds - you write into the gaps between lines, and old horror does not leave many. The upside nobody mentions is that you end up watching the film four times and noticing everything. The bad edit. The shot done twice.
Before streaming, if you wanted to see a promotion two states over you knew somebody who taped it. Third generation, tracking lines, the station's timer bug still burned into the corner. That is what the name is about. Not the picture quality. The fact that somebody bothered to pass it on.
September 1, 2026 at 11:27 AM
Before streaming, if you wanted to see a promotion two states over you knew somebody who taped it. Third generation, tracking lines, the station's timer bug still burned into the corner. That is what the name is about. Not the picture quality. The fact that somebody bothered to pass it on.
The reason it is public domain is a title change. It went out as Night of the Flesh Eaters, the distributor swapped the title card late, and the copyright notice went with it. No notice meant no copyright. The most influential American horror film of that decade belongs to everybody now.
September 1, 2026 at 11:11 AM
The reason it is public domain is a title change. It went out as Night of the Flesh Eaters, the distributor swapped the title card late, and the copyright notice went with it. No notice meant no copyright. The most influential American horror film of that decade belongs to everybody now.
Before the national expansion the map was carved up. A wrestler could work Memphis until the crowd knew every one of his tricks, then drive to Florida and be a new man by the weekend. New main events every few months because the talent kept moving. Then it consolidated into one company.
September 1, 2026 at 2:16 AM
Before the national expansion the map was carved up. A wrestler could work Memphis until the crowd knew every one of his tricks, then drive to Florida and be a new man by the weekend. New main events every few months because the talent kept moving. Then it consolidated into one company.
Something you notice cataloguing public domain horror: the Archive builds each thumbnail from a frame of the file, and for anything pre-1960 that frame is almost always the cast list. Hundreds of classics online, represented by grey text on a black card. #filmsky #horrorsky
August 31, 2026 at 7:17 PM
Something you notice cataloguing public domain horror: the Archive builds each thumbnail from a frame of the file, and for anything pre-1960 that frame is almost always the cast list. Hundreds of classics online, represented by grey text on a black card. #filmsky #horrorsky
Seeing video stores trending. The part I miss is not the tapes, it is the staff pick shelf. One person with taste, a marker and an index card, pointing you at something you would never have picked yourself. No algorithm has managed to replace that. #filmsky
August 31, 2026 at 3:49 PM
Seeing video stores trending. The part I miss is not the tapes, it is the staff pick shelf. One person with taste, a marker and an index card, pointing you at something you would never have picked yourself. No algorithm has managed to replace that. #filmsky