Escape From New York [spoRv] *BD-25 RELEASED* — Page 2

Flexicon9 said:

Carpenter and Russell were a perfect team.  This film represents both in their prime... for that reason alone I can't argue that it may very well be their best.  The Thing is damn good but Snake Plissken is the most iconic anti-hero of action cinema.

“Call me Snake.”

The project is on standby for the moment, because I need a new HDD, as the one reserved only for project is almost full - the same of all the others...

When the german and french soundtracks will be available, I could start it - probably in the next week. I'll try to finish before Xmas - at least, to release it, so it could be watched before the end of this year.

Also, "Halloween" sucked away all of my creative energies left, so I need some rest... (^^,)

That's ok, we have THX Halloween to keep us entertained in the meantime.

error

Hi everyone, I'm back to work!

Now that I'm applying the script I tested to the whole movie, I realize how much added "sliced" quality differs from scene to scene... where in one is almost perfect, in others is way off and really noticeable...

I'm trying to obtain an acceptable version - it will take a very loooong time if I try to find out a perfect preset for each scene; instead, I forced myself to use few presets to make it in a "human" time...

If I will fail, I think a plain HDTV version will suffice, because color grading and contrast are really better than BD - apart few scenes, where I think I should use BD grading instead.

Plus, an anonymous user sent me the german PCM laserdisc soundtrack - don't know if I will use it "as is", or make an AC3 version to spare almost one GB in favour of better video compression - the latter is my preferred option.

MERRY XMAS from Snake Plissken...

Andrea, just go with the HDTV version from HDNet.  That added slice from the BD framing was a risky method as you suspected initially.  Not worth the trouble.  Most people hold the HDNet broadcast in high regard.  I do prefer it because it has the correct brightness and the color is awesome.  Just go with that and save yourself a big headache.  Looking forward to it as with all your projects.  Happy Holidays!

Are you suggesting they used the 4.0 master as the basis for the track? 35 mm Dolby Stereo was a matrixed 2 channel system.

I love difficult challenges - that's why I did The Matrix project... why, oh why I did that... (^^,)

Well, testing and fixing and fixing and testing, I reached an acceptable level in most scenes, but not in all, so my usual "idea bulb" suddenly lighted up, and... why can't I use the color regraded BD, plus an HDTV "slice"? Well, because it's better (and it shows) to use a small "slice" of regraded BD near the untouched (color wise) HTDV, instead of the contrary... but, in some scenes, this last solution is quite good...

So, I'm going to do the last test: using the BDslice+HDTV for most of the scenes, and BD+HDTVslice for the others...

About audio: I just thrown the HDTV AC3 soundtrack into Audacity, and it HAS both active subwoofer and stereo surround tracks, so it's NOT 4.0, but 5.1. If it's different from the BD mix, I don't know, but probably I'll add it to the project anyway.

MERRY XMAS!

PROJECT UPDATES

I regret to inform you that I decided to NOT use the "slice technique"; despite the fact the technique itself is working - and I showed it in this very thread - it's really hard and time-consuming to reach a perfect color and position matching; I discovered that in many shots, the first one or two frames in the HDTV wobbling, with variable spacial width and direction, and small color variations, making almost impossible to find out proper spacial and color settings to do a perfect match... I'm really sorry, because first tests were quite good!

So, I will use only HDTV as video source, plus the MGM logo at the beginning and end to match the blu-ray soundtrack.

BUT... I want you forgive me for this fact, and so I thought to do, apart the normal restoration, an extra fan-edit version, using the deleted scene put at the beginning, plus replacing the credits with a custom version I found on the net - a wondeful one - in an additional BD-25, along with extra material... what do you think?

Now I need laserdisc and DVD commentaries; while I could do myself the former, I need the latter (by Debra Hill and Joe Alves), because my PAL italian DVD has not it - AFAIK, both are available on DVD.

Even if I continue to think that this "mere" 3% of added image is still important, I must admit I can't (and don't) want to spend so much time to fix it - until John will pay me to do it... (^^,)

The fan-edit idea will take not so much time, as video is almost ready; I thought to use only the laserdisc PCM soundtrack, as the added scene is only in english and not multichannel; I will add subtitles eventually; the extra scene is not in good condition, I'm afraid, but I'm sure to enhance it a bit and let it "watchable"; plus, the new credits will act as a "break" between the past (the bank robbery added scene) and the present (or, to be exact, a future past...); so, a rought past Vs a "bright" present... well, a LOT brighter than BD!!!

Happy New Year to everyone!

PROJECT UPDATES

Finally & luckily, I found both commentaries... it's (almost) time to release!

Now my poor old PC is compressing the video, and the last thing I should do before multiplexing is to fix subtitles - it will take an hour or two, don't worry - so probably I can release the main project within two days... for the fan-edit, you should wait a bit more, though.

If Halloween [spoRv] was my Xmas gift, think about EFNY as my Befana's gift... (^^,)

Bad news... today, one of my &#$ਠcats jumped over my external hdd... luckily it's still working, but processing was interrupted, and file corrupted... so, I started again - it will take some other hours...

Meanwhile, I've finished to design the BD covers - really similar to Halloween, as I thought to give Carpenter's movie a unique and shared design - they are in the first post.

The cover with the classic poster is excellent. That's exactly what should be on the cover of this movie.