Yep.... I'm starting the slooooow process of remastering every single standard-def clip from our first 7 years of existence.... and why not go back to the beginning??

Volume 1. An actual Motel 6. No backdrop. No lighting. No clue what I was doing.
Miracle of miracles, Liz turned out to be the easiest and most laidback model anyone could ask for. I've said this many times before, but if she'd been any kind of diva or projected ANY kind of unease, then SlapstickStuff basically begins & ends with this shoot.

But.... Well, you all know how the story goes. With me remastering two-decade-old scenes before the Super Bowl!

All the SS01 clips are now in MP4 format (and not awful WMV) at SlapstickStuff.vidown.com or the UMD Store. If you're streaming, you'll see the new versions automatically. If you bought these early on, give me a shout and I'll redo the codes for you.

Even more than the HD clips, these do look significantly better in MP4 with a higher bitrate. And as a bonus, I attached the second camera angle (which looks like crap, but hey!) to all clips except Scene 4. (Cuz I guess I didn't roll it for that one?!? )

And finally, I will NOT be attempting to fix all my past mistakes during this remastering campaign, or I'll be here another 20 years. BUT Scene 5, with Liz as a cute baker and some great early hits.... That one always bugged me with the bad framing and bad lighting.
So I fixed it. It's still rough, but at least now the picture is resized so Liz is centered, and it's bright enough so you can see what's happening. It ain't CGI Star Wars, but it's something. Check the pic below for how it looks now.

More to come, as I have time of course.... Enjoy! And don't think about how old we are!!

That's so awesome! You're the man, Rich!

Truely the face that launched a 1000 clips! We are forever in your debt Rich!

I sure hope so (that you'll be around another 20 years)

Back then you were aiming for a PG13 rating. Now your clips are often Rs. What other changes have you seen, both in SS and WAM in general?

I doubt I'll still be shooting in 10 years, much less 20.... But who knows?? That kid back in 2004 probably didn't envision still doing this two decades later!

I could write a book about the changes, BUT.... When I started I was fully PG. Not even sure I had a true bikini scene until the SS20s!
Of course there was still R-rated WAM even then, but everything was a little sillier and goofier. MessyFun and WAMTEC scenes still had a setup and a plot even if it ended with the models rolling around naked in the mess. You couldn't even post a penis on the UMD back then!
So obviously everything has become more hardcore across the board. SlapstickStuff is more sexualized now as well, although I still think 90% of my stuff is still PG-13 in terms of tone and nudity (or lack thereof). I mean, I still keep everything goofy, and I still have characters and scripts and (long) setups.
But that's a rarity now. To use a music metaphor, I'm still thinking in terms of full albums when all the big names have moved on to singles and playlists.

It's OK tho. I was going against the trend a bit in 2004 and I'm back to that now. I will say I miss how loose and fun and "low key" my shoots were in the early days.... Relatively little money involved, I'd usually meet with the models beforehand and after (lots of post-shoot dinners!), and the great models hung around for years (Deana, Toshia), so we could experiment with crazy ideas cuz we had a history.
Especially in the age of OnlyFans, everything feels very transactional. The models willing to shoot WAM expect to get paid, and paid well, and if a different element of their career catches fire, they're gone. I've had models I've known for 5 years or more simply close up shop without any notice. And I mean, good on these women for having more control over their content and careers, but us producers in the middle are slowly being fazed out.

ANYWAY. Not to be all negative or long-winded! It's also different for different people. The Man & Wife remind me of my early days.... Very loose and fun and self-contained, using mainly their friends and women who are just curious about WAM, so you get that sense of playfulness that I (usually) can't achieve anymore when every model wants $150/hr or more.

"No clue what I was doing!" has been the tagline of my entire adult life!

Rich, I like many others love you, love all the girls you've shot with over the years, my only wish is that I knew you personally and that I could share in your adventures, look forward for more to come

This!

A quick heads up that SS02 & SS03 have also been upgraded now.
That 2nd angle really sucks in terms of video quality in these first few.... I think SS04 is when I upgraded that 2nd cam so it's gonna get a little better.

Just had another shoot blow up so I got time this week, expect to see more Year One vids getting upgraded in the days ahead.

Can't wait!

Rich, how would you say the quality of the upgraded early clips compares to the quality we would see if we were in possession of the DVD-R versions you used to sell (and maybe still do)?

Still sell DVDs and BluRays! Not often, but they are there.

Just as a reference: These days, I render each edited scene to a BluRay quality MPEG. Usually about 8GB or so. Those are used to make the BluRays. At the same time, I use HandBrake to make an MP4 version for download or streaming, rendered at 6000kbs. There's very little difference I can spot between the two.
The "older" HD clips were 720p and 3000kbs. I went back to the original BluRays to re-render. Upgrading them to 1020p made a difference, 3000 to 6000 less so. Those were rendered pretty well the first time... Thanks to Handbrake.

The OLD standard-def clips were rendered into WMV, which is a crappy format. And I can't remember what program I was using for that. Switching to Handbrake and MP4 makes for a significant upgrade, moreso than 720p to 1080p and increasing the bitrate.
Much like the HD clips vs. BluRay, I compare the original DVDs to the remastered MP4s using VLC Media Player and don't detect much (if any) difference. Big change from the WMVs, where I remember comparing one to a DVD a while back and being shocked at how much worse it looked.

If anyone's bought some of the "later" standard-def clips, from about SS90 or so.... Those are the same MP4 format and bitrate as these remastered ones, to give you an idea of the comparative quality.

Just FYI, it doesn't look like the new versions with second camera made it to the streaming page. It calls out a new video length, but the streamed clip is still the shorter one.

Which one? Vidown or UMD?

Oh, vidown

Try it now.
Without getting too technical, I uploaded the new files to the secure downloads area, fixed the listings, and dumped the out-of-date WMVs. However, I didn't realize there was ALSO a separate streaming area, with its own set of streaming MP4s, so those needed to be replaced too.

That looks like it worked! Those do look much improved!

Awesome! Glad I caught that early.
Also looks like the later SD clips I upgraded a while ago weren't all transferred over to streaming either, so I'll do that now. Really just trying to get rid of the older streaming files that came from WMV, as the newer MP4s should look better across the board.

The UMD files were simply swapped, so those should be good for streaming already.

Curious then did your updates to 1080p make it to the streaming side as well?

Yes, but you probably won't notice.... Like most streaming media (audio and video), everything is compressed to avoid interruptions and ease bandwidth.
The upgrades there would really only be noticeable if you buy the downloads.

Makes sense. Almost deleted that comment right after I made it since I was thinking the same thing and was just thinking out loud. Sounds good!

What a lovely trip down memory Lane. I think Kathleen was the first SS volume I ever bought, and it was great to buy the enhanced versions. Such a cutie, and the pie sandwich at the end of the first scene is still up there as one of the all time greats for me.

Obviously don't want you to give away the store, but any chance we could get a few preview shots of the new angles when/if they're available? I was always bummed there wasn't a wide angle in the slime-focused bikini scenes from those first 10 or so volumes.