logo Sign In

Post #927750

Author
poita
Parent topic
Help Wanted: '2001: A Space Odyssey' - 35mm Preservation (original 1968 prints obtained) (* unfinished project *)
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/927750/action/topic#927750
Date created
11-Apr-2016, 9:12 PM

AllAboutThatSpace said:

Don’t have much to contribute except support.
I’ll try to donate in a couple of months when I have some more moola.
I saw this in 70mm at the Prince Charles cinema in London. The remarkable thing about film that I hadn’t noticed before is that it highlights detail you want and disguises detail you don’t. On the blu-ray, in the Dawn of Man prologue, you can clearly see paint roller strokes or cleaning marks on the back projection screen behind the savanna sets. It’s distracting and annoying and you think why would such a perfectionist and pedant as Stanley Kubrick put up with that when it’s so obvious? I was looking out for those marks on the 70mm print (because I’m a nerd) and they just plain don’t show up. The film print just ignores them. The print’s sharp as a knife alright, but only in areas of intense bunched up detail or bright highlights. Same kinda thing with Star Wars, the green screen and effects mattes just blend better in the release prints when compared to the blu rays.
In many ways scanning in high def from the camera negative is not a restoration of an old film in any way. It’s a preservation for sure, but it’s getting back to a raw material that wouldn’t ever have been seen. Kubrick didn’t pick up on those marks, because even on 70mm they weren’t a problem. That’s why these scans of release prints look so good, the generational grain binds the images together to give you an intense feeling of ‘story’ rather than ‘photography’, that’s why we like em so much 😉

I first noticed the patchwork background of the front projection screen when viewing the film in 70mm, I haven’t seen the blu-ray, but I notice it every time in the cinema.