Greg Nicotero's ED2 behind the scenes camcorder footage

[EvilDeadChainsaws]

This was a 2016 project to transfer all 8-1/2 hours of Greg Nicotero's ED2 behind the scenes camcorder footage from a set of BetaBamSP tapes, to DVD.

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For those who don't know, during production, a member of the make-up effects team; Greg Nicotero, captured much of the effects prep & on-set work on his camcorder, but only a small amount of this has ever been formerly released. The footage begins with the prep work in California, moulding the various cast members and prototyping many of the later make-up & effects, then runs through the main shoot & re-shoots, along with skits and hi-jinx shot by the make-up effects & wider crew. Highlights include Henrietta in her rocking chair becoming possessed, Linda's snake tongue, Ash's face reverting from deadite to normal, and Chop-top Ed, along with many unseen behind the scenes moments.

On October 12, 2016, president of Elite Entertainment Vini Bancalari offered a few items for sale on the 'Evil Dead Collector's Initiative' Facebook group. They were four restored-version D2 master tapes for the 1999 The Evil Dead Elite laserdisc (catalogue number: EE7264), and more interestingly, six Fuji 90min BetaCamSP tapes, labelled as 'Elite, Evil Dead II, Behind The Scenes Bump UPS, 08/21/97'. On the possibility that these set of six tapes may be unedited transfers of Greg Nicotero's Evil Dead II behind the scenes camcorder footage used in the creation of the Behind The Screams featurette on the 1997 Evil Dead II Elite laserdisc (catalogue number: EE3845REG), a French fan bought the set.

He sent the set on to myself, arriving on October 25 2016, in order for them to be transferred to DVD (thanks entirely to Ash in the Shepperton Sound Department who had the professional equipment). The tapes did indeed turn out to be Greg's camcorder footage. Upon viewing, it becomes obvious why it would be impossible for any DVD producer to release anything but a carefully edited 'highlights' package. Over the running time, the amount of people seen on screen (from the cast & crew, to family members, visitors and passers-by) is huge. Identifying, tracking down and obtaining clearance for a DVD release from every one of them, would be impossible. Plus you have all the copyrighted workshop radio background music, off-the-cuff remarks, swearing, impressions, in-jokes and other assorted unsavoury material which some may not be keen on having out there all these years later.

Tape one runs at 1h 32m 15s, two 1h 24m 05s, three 1h 30m 06s, four 1h 33m 53s, five 1h 31m 33s and Tape six 1h 02m 33s, giving a total of 8h 35m 12s of footage. Tape one is entirely workshop & prep footage in California, as is the first 38m of tape two, and the first 25m of tape three. The remainder of the running time in tapes two, three, four, five & six is footage shot entirely in North Carolina. While on the whole, the majority of the footage seems to play in chronological order, some sections do chop and change, while other short sections are repeated, mainly the California prep footage on tape one. It's entirely possible that Greg shot the footage across a fair few tapes, and swapped between them during the shoot, so some of the footage plays out of sequence when each tape is watched start-to-finish, and while they were being dubbed from the camcorder onto VHS at the time, some little sections were accidentally repeated. Each 90min tape was transferred to it's own DVD, making a six-disc DVD set.

You can see screenshots from tapes 1&2 below, with 3&4 and 4&6 in consecutive posts

[EvilDeadChainsaws]

Screenshots from tapes 3&4

[EvilDeadChainsaws]

Screenshots from tapes 5&6

[GraveShift]

Man! I can look at this stuff all day!