Blind Guardian - Imaginations Through the Looking Glass

Blind Guardian's first live DVD, filmed at the band's own festival, the Blind Guardian Open Air in Coburg, Germany, on June 13 and 14, 2003. Sixteen other bands were on the bill, Rage, Soilwork and Grave Digger among them. The festival was staged for the cameras: the band had thought of filming on the A Night at the Opera tour, then judged that the production they wanted could not be taken on the road. The setlist came from a fan vote on the band's website. Five songs were announced for both nights - "Mirror Mirror", "And Then There Was Silence", "The Bard's Song (In the Forest)", "Valhalla" and "Imaginations from the Other Side" - and thirty more were split between them. Everything announced was played except "Battlefield".

No song on the disc cuts between the two nights. Six are from the 13th: "The Script for My Requiem", "A Past and Future Secret", "Punishment Divine", "Mordred's Song", "I'm Alive" and "Somewhere Far Beyond". The other fourteen, "War of Wrath" included, are from the 14th. "Lord of the Rings" was played again on the second night because the first night's take fell short, and "The Script for My Requiem" was played on both after Hansi Kürsch announced it by mistake on the first, in place of "Valhalla". The liner essay gives a way to tell the nights apart on screen: André Olbrich wears a red T-shirt on the 13th and a black one on the 14th.

Münsterland Film Germany produced the film and Matthias Knézy-Bohm directed it, with Uli Blömker as director of photography and Vasco Tjong-Ayong as editor. At least nine cameras and three camera cranes covered the stage, besides handhelds, and the band led the edit. Charlie Bauerfeind and Alexander "Chester" Kalb recorded and engineered the sound, with Gaga's recording mobile, and Bauerfeind mixed it at the Twilight Hall Studio in Grefrath/Oedt. The disc's credit roll gives the line-up as Hansi Kürsch (vocals), André Olbrich (lead guitar), Marcus Siepen (rhythm guitar) and Thomen Stauch (drums), with Oliver Holzwarth on bass and Michael "Mi" Schüren on keyboards as guest musicians.

The second disc, billed as the Bonus Disc, holds:

• The making of "The B.G. Festival Coburg 2003", in nine chapters: *The

Beginning - Preparing the Stage*, And Then There Was Light, Into the Storm - A Rain Disaster, The Gathering of the Bards at the Camping Grounds, Impressions of a Festival Day, A Night at the Opera - The First B.G. Show, The Night After or A Journey through the Dark, And Day Shall Come Again - The Second Day and The Final Chapter - And the Festival Ends.

• An interview with the band, cut with backstage scenes from the 2002 A Night

at the Opera tour and with live clips the sleeve names: "Bright Eyes" at Gelsenkirchen in 2003 and at Wacken in 2002, and "The Bard's Song" at Wacken in 2002.

• A slideshow of photographs by Hans-Martin Issler.
• Four bonus songs that are not from Coburg: "Majesty", from the

Wacken Open Air on August 3, 2002, and "Into the Storm", "Welcome to Dying" and "Lost in the Twilight Hall", from Stuttgart on May 7, 2002.

• A trailer for the film, shown at preview screenings in Europe and hidden as

an Easter egg on the disc's settings screen. The packaging does not list it.

This copy is the Japanese edition, issued by Victor Entertainment on October 6, 2004 as VIBP-31~32 at ¥6,090 including tax. The sound is English, and the only subtitle track is Japanese. Disc 1 is dual-layer, 126 minutes long, 16:9 letterboxed, with Dolby Digital 5.1 and stereo; disc 2 is single-layer, 95 minutes, 4:3, in stereo; both are NTSC, region 2. The two discs sit in a case with two clear trays inside a slipcase. With them come a 20-page booklet and a folded slip sheet. The booklet carries the Japanese title, both discs' contents with per-song writers, a liner essay by Naomi Ohno (大野奈鷹美) of BURRN! dated August 30, 2004, and the lyrics. The slip sheet carries the menu guide and the only English credits in the package. The booklet's front cover misprints track 8 as "Bunishment Divine" (バニッシュメント・ディヴァイン) in both scripts; the lyric pages and the case print it correctly.

The cover painting is credited to Nikolay "Dr. Venom" Simkin, Leo Hao and Dennis "Sir" Kostroman, and the essay says Leo Hao, a Russian artist, volunteered for it. It is a festival in Middle-earth. Gandalf takes pictures with a digital camera on the front, the dragon is Smaug, and on the back Legolas, Gimli and a green Sméagol queue at the ticket booth. The ticket in the artwork is dated exactly a year after the festival, which the essay gives as the film's European release date.

Recorded

May 7, 2002 – June 14, 2003 · 4 shows

Recorded at

Wacken Open Air, Blind Guardian Open Air

Running time

3 h 40 min

Format

DVD · 2 discs

Disc Contents

Disc 1

Disc 2

Specifications

Runtime

<DISC 1> 126min. / <DISC 2> 95min.

Layers

DISC 1 片面・二層 / DISC 2 片面・一層

Video

MPEG-2

Aspect

DISC 1 16:9 LB / DISC 2 4:3

Audio

DISC 1: 1 ドルビーデジタル 5.1chサラウンド オリジナル(英語), 2 ドルビーデジタル ステレオ オリジナル(英語) / DISC 2: ドルビーデジタル ステレオ オリジナル(英語)

Colour

COLOR

Subtitles

1.日本語字幕

System

NTSC 日本市場向

Restrictions

複製不能 レンタル禁止

Discs

Personnel

Transfer & Authoring

1st Cameraman

Peter Klein

All Artworks

Sir, Leo Hao, Dr. Venom

All Slideshow Pictures Taken By

Hans-Martin Issler

Artwork

Sir, Leo Hao, Dr. Venom

Audio Recording

Hans-Jürgen Steffen, Marc Schettler, Thomas Kukuck

Backline Truck Crew

Jörg Maurer, René Hennig

Best Boy

Christian Umlauf

Camera Assistants

Daniel Schulze-Niehoff, David Lengersdorf, Malik Aziz, Patrick Grzanna, Sara Buschmann, Simon Kock

Cameramen

Joky Lambertz, Jürgen Weißberg, Matthias Klösener, Patrick Günther, Werner Meisig, Werner Parplies

Coach Driver

Armand Hupfauer

Coach Service

Stephan Scherer

Crane Camera Operators

Bernhard Carduck, Martin Dreesbach

Crane Technicians

Frank Blume, Jochen Amann, Michael Furch

Crew Bus Driver

Bernd Gerdemann

Digidesign Support

Johannes Maul

Director

Matthias Knézy-Bohm

Director of Photography

Uli Blömker

Drum Technician

Olli Grassmann

DVD Authoring and Programming

Ann-Kathrin Wolfgarten, Singletray

Editing

Vasco Tjong-Ayong

Engineer

Chester, Charlie Bauerfeind

Engineered By

Chester, Charlie Bauerfeind

Festival Artwork, Layouts

Sir

Festival Office

Alexandra Murphy, Julia Orth

Festival Producer

Jürgen Ebert

Festival Promoter

Henry Klaere

FOH Sound

Uli Thiessen

Graphics and Design

Sir, Leo Hao, Dr. Venom

Guitar Technician

Jesus

Guitar Technician, Stage Set

Pedda

Lighting Crew

Harry Ehret, Joey Ringel, Tobias Harms

Lighting Designer

Andreas Fiekers

Local Promoter

Gaby Heyder

Merchandising

Jörg Seidel, Sascha Wischnewski

Mixed By

Charlie Bauerfeind

Monitor Sound

Achim Zell

Monitoring

Detlef Maler

PA/Light

Dirk Holzhäuser

Photography

Hans-Martin Issler

Presswork

Anke Schneider (Virgin Records Germany GmbH), Gabi Heidenfelder (Veranstaltungsservice Bamberg GmbH)

Production Assistants

Singletray, Michael Friedrich

Production Manager

Lukas Pietzner

Publicity

Holger Hübner

Pyroengineers

Lars Hollstein, Renzo Cargnelutti, Länglich

Pyrotechnics

Nicolai Sabottka

Recorded By

Chester, Charlie Bauerfeind

Security

Marco Rizzoli

Sound Crew

Höppi, Johan Schreuder, René Köppke, Uli Schwandge

Stage Manager, Rigging

Thorsten Klein

Technical Directors

Jan Reichold, Jürgen Ebert

Tribal Dragon Artwork

Markus Mayer

Virgin Records

Andreas Daermann, Michael Wolf, Renate Freter

The Object

From the Booklet

Chosen from the book that came in the box, with its English. The rest of the book is not reproduced here.

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