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FACE/OFF - complete 35mm scan opportunity (WIP)

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 (Edited)

Me and a few other generous members have been putting money towards a 4K scan of FACE OFF from 35mm, a copy that is in very good shape and that can finally show us how the film looked originally in theaters and yes, it’s pretty different from any home video release. Most noticeably, the lack of heavy DNR seen on BluRay and HD-DVD to the point that close-ups of the actors’ faces look like wax statues with rubber ears (very much like the faces seen in the infamous BD of Predator), one would never guess that Nic Cage had a 5 o’clock shadow when he finds himself in jail, but there it is on the 35mm, in its whole grainy glory. Comparison shots also show a different color palette in many parts of the movie and a radically different use of light. It seems like the home video releases were also zoomed/cropped to some extent compared to theatrical release.

Here’s some examples of the theatrical look compared to HD releases

35mm / HD-DVD

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(whole gallery here https://postimg.org/gallery/2kbxkbtni/63897c6b/ )

We have the rare opportunity to scan it with professional equipment for a very cheap price all included, this means there won’t be further expenses involved afterwards… and we are barely 100 euro away from the goal. W’re kinda short on time to make this happen so anybody feeling generous and wanting to help us out feel free to contact me in private for a donation. Any little helps.
There’s a tight deadline on this print because it has to be returned to its owner. If the money isn’t raised by the end of the month we loose the opportunity to have it scanned!

The files will be passed on to PDB who’s gonna take charge of the project once the scan is complete (thanks PDB!) and eventually release it the way all preservation projects get released, but in the immediate future a direct BD-25 release will be made available very shortly after the scan (limited to those who donated). We only have so much time, thanks in advance for your help.

Edit: THIS PROJECT HAS BEEN ABANDONED due to the scanner disappearing on us.

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Only a few days for the last 75 euro, after that we’ll miss out on the occasion for a complete scan at a low price.

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The print looks to be in great condition.

But according to this review the HD-DVD has an “excellent video transfer”!? LOL. The Bluray’s not much better either.

thxita said:

There’s a tight deadline on this print because it has to be returned to its owner. If the money isn’t raised by the end of the month we loose the opportunity to have it scanned!

Where are all the OT philanthropists? The time to donate is now!

[ Scanning stuff since 2015 ]

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I’m sure the transfer itself was great (from negative that’s for sure), before they erased details with DNR, increased the brightness in every single dark spot and recolored 😛

If would be a shame to miss out on this opportunity. We’re only missing around 75 euro and everyone who donated so far already invested as much as they could. If anyone else would like to help out this project let me know ASAP.
I remind you that this is for a complete scan and delivery, there won’t be additional costs later on!

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thxita said:

I’m sure the transfer itself was great (from negative that’s for sure), before they erased details with DNR, increased the brightness in every single dark spot and recolored 😛

But it’s an older transfer, so the DNR could have been applied directly at the time of scanning on a telecine rather than done later. The brightness is actually pretty good on the transfer, but that’s about the only thing they got right. They’ve clearly fucked the colour grading, and everything else.

There’s a trailer on eBay by the way, pretty cheap. If anyone’s interested in obtaining it and having it scanned send me a message and I’ll make it happen. You’re looking at about $25 for purchase AND scanning of it delivered in a 2K Prores file (about 2GB) electronically.

[ Scanning stuff since 2015 ]

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Which country is that print from? I mean, in what language are the credits? No burnt-in subtitles here and there?

What’s planned about the audio? Do you have the theatrical dts CD to go along with it? Are there missing frames? Is it going to be Bluray-sync friendly (and if so, Paramount or Buena Vista?) so that we can add any audio tracks we want?

I know I’m asking a lot of questions, but for 75€ to spare, I’d like to know what I’m buying.

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It’s all in English, no subtitles, either US or British release. We don’t know yet if there are missing frames, it’s supposed to have no splices. It’s early to say which BR version PDB will synch it with, in any case we expect to propose it both with multichannel track from BR and optical audio from 35mm (in the final release). The first “raw release” won’t be synched with anything yet, it will be a direct transfer, just to give you something while waiting for the final one.
We do not have a theatrical DTS CD, we haven’t found it yet but we’re always looking.

We’re not asking you to spend the whole 75 but even a smaller portion would be good. 😉
Thanks for your question and for your help if you wish to give us a hand.
Cheers

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@Beber- Did it even have DTS? I know it had SDDS. Digital audio isn’t too important anyway since the Bluray will have better quality audio than cinema DTS. You’ll have the optical audio though if you want to listen to that.

Hopefully if thxita gets more than needed for this he can get the trailer scanned too!

[ Scanning stuff since 2015 ]

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Ok, funding is complete! Thanks to everyone who joined in! Couldn’t have done without you. I’ll add all the names in the list of members who helped us out in a future thread. Shouldn’t be long until we get a first release!

(I’ll change thread title in a few days when I’m back home)

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RU.08 said:

@Beber- Did it even have DTS? I know it had SDDS. Digital audio isn’t too important anyway since the Bluray will have better quality audio than cinema DTS. You’ll have the optical audio though if you want to listen to that.

Hopefully if thxita gets more than needed for this he can get the trailer scanned too!

The ending credits show the “Digital dts sound in selected theaters” logo. Movies tend to be remixed for home theater purposes, so it’s cool to have the true original sound as an option if we can get it.

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We always keep an eye for those disks. If the film doesn’t miss any part it should be easy to match it with its CD

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Beber said:

The ending credits show the “Digital dts sound in selected theaters” logo. Movies tend to be remixed for home theater purposes, so it’s cool to have the true original sound as an option if we can get it.

OK fair enough. As the scan is funded now, that just leaves the trailer. Total is $25 to scan in the US or $35 in EU. That’s a great price - the usual rate for trailer scanning with the EU guy is $50, plus the 35 to send it there = $85 total. He’ll scan it at no extra cost as thxita is having the film scanned at the same time.

[ Scanning stuff since 2015 ]

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Sorry I never got back to you on this, thxita. I’ve been spread out too thin lately. Glad you got it funded. 😃

If you’re trying to track down the DTS discs, Jetrell Fo is your man.

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

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No problem, Silver. I imagined!

RU, can you PM me the eBay link to the trailer? I’m running around and I’m not in my own country at the moment so I’ll try give it a look in 24 hours. I hope there is time for the trailer.
Cheers

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As you know I’ll have a hard drive with the scanner waiting until I get BATB funded, so it can always be put on there. It should be less than 20GB at 4K Prores - that’s easily manageable to upload for anyone that wants the raw scan.

[ Scanning stuff since 2015 ]

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I honesty don’t know what’s the story behind this print other than it was owned by someone in Europe (not in Britain) but we’ll know soon enough.

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JayArgonaut said:

Hopefully it’s not the UK release because that was censored and remains so to this day.

Yeah the BBFC were batshit crazy. Even Attack of the Clones was censored!

[ Scanning stuff since 2015 ]

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RU.08 said:

Yeah the BBFC were batshit crazy. Even Attack of the Clones was censored!

Thanks for reminding me, I forgot about that. In part though, it was due to Lucasfilm/Fox aiming for a PG rating and the headbutt requiring a 12A. It was still absurd because the average British child witnesses far worse than that… The BBFC are still batshit crazy, some of the films that they’ve outright “banned” and the grounds for doing so, truly beggars belief.

The legacy of a government facing re-election, pandering to batshit crazy Mary Whitehouse and her uptight army of loonies.

thxita said:

I honesty don’t know what’s the story behind this print other than it was owned by someone in Europe (not in Britain) but we’ll know soon enough.

Finger crossed, it’s good news and I’ll look forward to retiring my Laserdisc. 😃

“Logic is the battlefield of adulthood.”

  • Howard Berk
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I’ve asked, the print was located in Germany and has German writing on the cans but the whole thing is in English, so it was either for original sound projections or for some US NATO base. Either or, I think it’s unlikely to be a British cut

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Excellent news, thanks for finding out!

“Logic is the battlefield of adulthood.”

  • Howard Berk
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Great find indeed and “classic” as well worth being preserved.

That weird UK censorship is really beyond ridiculousness, instead of messing around with dozens of altered releases worldwide, these morons should better concentrate on releasing it in a decent way once.

Unfortunately I just saw this thread so could I still somehow sign up for the ride and get a copy? Financial contribution as a matter of course.

However, another thing I see here all the time:

If already taking all the effort to preserve that kind of stuff - why the hell the limitation to some at least ten year old media such as BD-25? I mean who burns Blu-rays these days?

25GB might be halfway decent considering the runtime just for the main movie but I don’t see any rational reason to limit the bitrate that way if we could easily bump it up to 40 GB.

If there’s anything cheap these days, then it’s internet traffic and storage space.

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little-endian said:

Unfortunately I just saw this thread so could I still somehow sign up for the ride and get a copy? Financial contribution as a matter of course.

You can donate to my project, if I get enough money it’ll be scanned very soon on the same equipment. I’m not sure I can get you an “early access” version of Face/Off, but I’m sure they’ll put a release up for everyone eventually.

[ Scanning stuff since 2015 ]