Joel said:
msycamore said:
Do you really want a film look like a 4k scan from the original negative, when nothing close to that was ever seen in theaters? The generational losses that occur in the stages from original camera negative to release prints works miracles for sets, costumes, models and special effects. I fail to understand why anyone would like to see these films straight of the negatives when they were never made to be seen that way, that's making the films a huge disservice. You would see mattepaintings, make-up and effects work for what they really are instead of blending in nicely with the rest of the footage.
There is an assumption here that the print is the intended product, which isn't totally accurate. Just because people don't see the O-Neg in a theater doesn't mean that the print is the ultimate viewing experience.
The O-Neg is the intended finished product, not an unfinished product waiting to be somehow "corrected" by generational loss.
To make an audio analogy, HD audio releases come from the master tapes because that is as close to the original event as possible. They don't come from a recording of the released vinyl or cassette whether those were the intended release formats or not.
So to answer your question: Yes - I, personally, want to see the O-neg scanned in 4K because I want a document that is as close to the original event as I can get and that has suffered as little generational loss as possible.
That's not an assumption, the theatrical release prints was the finished and intended product. Home-video and its future advancements wasn't on anyone's mind when making films back in those days. And this generational loss was very much something you took into account when making films back in those days, especially with effects laden films. An artform in itself. And I'm not arguing that you shouldn't scan the negative in 4K or 8K, that's great if it's done.
In the end this is a matter of opinion and taste I guess but do expect to see stuff that was never intended to be seen that's visible on the O-neg but was never visible on prints. This is something studios recently have realized when releasing some of their classic catalog titles, where they instead aim for something that is more representative of what would have been seen in theaters instead.