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THX 1138 "preservations" + the 'THX 1138 Italian Cut' project (Released) — Page 21

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Yeah, it's not a huge difference but the US one will most definitely be the base, the Japanese is a little brighter and it also have clipped white levels in some shots, you can also see that it have some chroma noise of some sort in the first cap I posted, it appears in other shots as well.

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

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You are keeping these things organized by which player was used for the transfer, right? ;)

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Where were you in '77?

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Yes, no problem, I do keep them well organized, with so many transfers it's a must so you don't end up crazy. ;) Sorry, forgot to mention it, those comparisons I posted were from your PR 8210 player which overall produced the best results IMO.

Now I just want to finish the Italian TV-cut, so I can begin work on these LD-transfers...

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

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Sorry if this has been covered already. Has anyone attempted to use the blu-ray to do an "original-ish" cut that follows the laserdisc cut as much as possible? I'm trying to figure out what the most crucial "lost shots" are, ones that are just gone from  the movie altogether. (The big ones off the top of my head being the rat that donald pleasance sees, and the underground animated monkey)

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I have no idea if that has been attempted, but it could be kind of nice if someone had the editing skill to pull it off, blending LD footage with blu-ray footage doesn't sound like a good idea though, but a closer to original edit as you suggested could maybe be done succesfully.

There are however many more shots than those you described that isn't included in the 2004 cut, many flipped shots, alternate takes and dialogue and much digital manipulation going on in the scenes that are still there, so the situation is quite similar to that of the Star Wars trilogy.

Here's a nice comparison list: http://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=541751

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

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Well if there is a lot of differences, then using the BD footage probably is not a good idea for the base then, I agree with you.

WOW, and looking at that link you posted, there sure does seem to be a lot of changes.

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Supposedly, older (specifically analog) American and Japanese TVs have slightly different black levels (about a 10% difference) which would explain the differences in brightness: the LDs etc. were adjusted to best fit the region. This is supposedly still common practice.

A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em

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That comparison list is not entirely complete and accurate though, we have in this thread also found out that the earlier transfers had green colored opening titles just as the '04 cut for example.

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

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A question to those in the know how, any ideas why I get a little pop/click in the beginning on my audio files when I transcode audio files with BeLight, I just used it to slow down the sped up audio on the Italian cut, the audio file comes out fine but there is a little audible click in the beginning.

Is it a bug in that program or what? Any thoughts or suggestions, maybe a different program or method is recommended?

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

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Ok, I received the UK transfer, Nerfherder kindly sent me. It was a pretty damn good capture, nice to see a transfer without the nasty edge-enhancement/haloing the other discs have. Unfortunately it is softer and much less detailed than its US/Japanese counterparts:

US

UK

US

UK

US

UK

US

UK

 

US

UK

As you can see, the UK transfer is also cropped differently than the US/Jap transfers, often losing quite a lot of picture information on all sides, which is unfortunate as the US/Jap transfers was quite badly cropped on the sides in some scenes to begin with. I will post more comparisons between all the different transfers from the various players later...

A quick update, I am currently encoding the Italian cut as I type so that one should be done quite soon, and I'll also send out copies of these fine LD-captures to dark_jedi, so that he can help me out with this as my lousy computer will take years to finish this project on its own. Thank you, d_j for helping out!

 

An April 8, 1971 review of THX 1138 in The Village Voice: http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2010/11/thx-1138_george.php#more nothing exciting, but a vintage review of the original film nevertheless, something you don't see that often on the net.

A nice little interview with the hologram Don Pedro Colley conducted in 1999 or 2000 I think: http://www.lucasfan.com/thx1138/interv.html

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

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That interview is a priceless insight of George Lucas whom (for me) has changed from childhood hero to despicable character in the span of a few years.

Thanks for posting it.

 

As fot the PAL/NTSC... what's your thought? Are you planning to just use the NTSC source then or use the PAL for the EU version nonetheless?

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Could the PAL version be sharpened slightly, without introducing halos like the US capture?

'tis a pity about the extra cropping on the UK LD. Ah well - it served me well for a number of years ;)

- John

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Nerfherder said:

Could the PAL version be sharpened slightly, without introducing halos like the US capture?

That's a good question. But I think you would get even better results if you tried to reduce the halos on the US without making it too soft, take the first cap for example, where the details in the walls above the doorways are completely gone in the UK transfer, you can also see the sligthly clipped white levels on the lights above the robot.

I don't know, I guess we will have to experiment and test to see what is getting us the best results. Fortunately we have a lot to work with, thanks to you and Silver. :)

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

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erri_wan said:

That interview is a priceless insight of George Lucas whom (for me) has changed from childhood hero to despicable character in the span of a few years.

Thanks for posting it.

You're welcome, and I know what you mean.

erri_wan said: 

As fot the PAL/NTSC... what's your thought? Are you planning to just use the NTSC source then or use the PAL for the EU version nonetheless?

Maybe I misunderstand your question now, but the plan is to just make one optimal NTSC version, then when it's finished someone can easily make a NTSC to PAL conversion if that is desirable.

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

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Hey folks, sorry i haven't posted about the cover art in awhile, been busy. I actually can't remember what i was supposed to put on the front top, right now it says "Laserdisc Preservation + Italian tv brodcast bonus feature" Maybe it needs to say just "italian (European?) tv brodcast version"? And i added thx looking on at the sunset on the bottom of the back, had it off to the left earlier, but when centered it kind of ties the design together.

Thoughts?

OT-DAWT-COM nieghbour and sometime poster (Remember, Tuesday is Soylent Green day!)

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Wow fantastic cover - I like it!

Just to nit-pick though, it should read "features a unique prologue", not "features AN unique prologue"

;)

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I'd like to see the poster art in color, but that's just me. :)

I like the addition of the sunset on the back cover. If that was the only thing in color on the whole design, that might be really striking.

Also, neither version is in stereo, (as it was originally) so "Dolby Surround" would be misleading. May I suggest "Dolby Mono"?

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

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Really, really excited to see the progress that's been made on this project...particularly regarding the Italian Cut and the revelation that the 16mm version is different.  Just saw the extra SEN footage - what a find!

Some of you have seen this already, I'm sure, but for those who haven't:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TnjmIMyG1M

A Queen/THX 1138 connection...who knew?

--SKot

Projects:
Return Of The Ewok and Other Short Films (with OCPmovie) [COMPLETED]
Preserving the…cringe…Star Wars Holiday Special [COMPLETED]
The Star Wars TV Commercials Project [DORMANT]
Felix the Cat 1919-1930 early film shorts preservation [ONGOING]
Lights Out! (lost TV anthology shows) [ONGOING]
Iznogoud (1995 animated series) English audio preservation [ONGOING]

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Rogue-theX, sorry but I really don't know how we are going to present this right now. But I'm leaning towards a separate disc for the Italian cut. I think that will be most fitting, it's only George Lucas who presents the main feature as an extra. ;) if you guys agree of course. I actually made this preliminary cover some time ago, it's far from finished though.

 

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

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Maybe combine the best of both designs?

And nice find, SKot! That's one Queen video I've never seen before.

Their video for "Radio Ga Ga" payed homage to the other famous dystopian future movie, Metropolis.

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Where were you in '77?

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msycamore I love the simplicity of the cover and the fact that you used both exclusively Italian posters and writing. Italians would surely appreciate having a separate disc. I never thought about having separate disc and cover... if it doesn't happen I would still love to have it in my private collection so keep it saved somewhere because I'll ask for it in due time ;-)

Speaking of else, I don't think I ever told you guys but I once downloaded a THX preservation DVD (from laserdisc source) with printable cover through a link from imdb forum. The art cover was simple but nicely done, with a medicine cabinet on the front. Was anyone from this forum involved with that production? Do you need pics of the DVD that I burned and printed?

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erri_wan said:

msycamore I love the simplicity of the cover and the fact that you used both exclusively Italian posters and writing. Italians would surely appreciate having a separate disc. I never thought about having separate disc and cover... if it doesn't happen I would still love to have it in my private collection so keep it saved somewhere because I'll ask for it in due time ;-)

I'm glad you liked it, but as I said, it's far from finished. About me using the Italian title, well this isn't the regular THX 1138, it's "The man who escaped from the future!" ;) did I get the translation right? Also is it one of those accent marks or something after the letter I in FUGGI?

And I just noticed it... take a close look at THX eyes on the Italian poster art on my cover and compare with Rogue's cover art... an alteration made by the artist perhaps?

erri_wan said:

Speaking of else, I don't think I ever told you guys but I once downloaded a THX preservation DVD (from laserdisc source) with printable cover through a link from imdb forum. The art cover was simple but nicely done, with a medicine cabinet on the front. Was anyone from this forum involved with that production? Do you need pics of the DVD that I burned and printed?

It sounds like it's the ANGRYSUN version by Rikter Blaksvn. IIRC he was a member here. It's a pretty nice cover.

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

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LOL I just noticed the eyes... I have no explanation really haha.

Your translation of the Italian title is correct. There was a tendency in Italy to alterate some titles to give an imediate indication of the genre, the choice of the new title would come from previous famous movies.

I give you an example. Since 2001: Odissey in Space, a lot of movies have had the futuristic year put before the title to indicate a sci-fi movie, so we get stuff like "1997: Fuga da New York" ("1997: Escape from New York" instead of just "Escape from New York"). "2022 - I Sopravvissuti" (2020-The Survivors) instead of "Soylent Green" (yuck!).

The explanation of "The Man Who Escaped From The Future" comes from another classic sci fi movie, "Time Machine" (1960) which in Italy was released as "The Man Who Lived in the Future". So they made THX as the man who escaped it. Funny uh? I've recently opened a blog just about all this stuff lol

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Nerfherder said:

Just to nit-pick though, it should read "features a unique prologue", not "features AN unique prologue"

;)

 Ah, thank's for catching that!

SilverWook said:

I'd like to see the poster art in color, but that's just me. :)

I like the addition of the sunset on the back cover. If that was the only thing in color on the whole design, that might be really striking.

Also, neither version is in stereo, (as it was originally) so "Dolby Surround" would be misleading. May I suggest "Dolby Mono"?

 All good points, i'd like the suset in color to work, don't know if it will though. As for audio, how about "monaural" or something?

Myscamore, love your cover!!! That's gonna look awesome. If released as two seperate dvd's maybe have a similar design for both covers but with different art used for each one, so that when sitting on the shelf they look like they are part of a set? Personally i'd like to see this as a two dvd set, more room for bitrate on each disc and i really like Myscamore's cover!

msycamore said:

 

And I just noticed it... take a close look at THX eyes on the Italian poster art on my cover and compare with Rogue's cover art... an alteration made by the artist perhaps?

 I did that, wondered if anyone would notice :D I wanted to have thx looking at the displays on the dashboard.

OT-DAWT-COM nieghbour and sometime poster (Remember, Tuesday is Soylent Green day!)