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Info & Info Wanted: John Carpenter movies - restoration needed?

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As someone of you has certainly noted, I like John Carpenter movies - actually, I’ve watched all of them, and I own almost all of pre-2000 movies on laserdisc (forgive me John, I’m looking for the missing ones to complete the collection…).

Well, this is a list of the movies directed by John Carpenter:

Films - year, title, blu-ray.com video/audio rating, notes

  • 1974    Dark Star    3.2/3.4
  • 1976    Assault on Precinct 13    4.0/4.0
  • 1978    Halloween    4.7/4.2    -> [spoRv] in progress
  • 1980    The Fog        3.9/4.1
  • 1981    Escape from New York    3.5/3.9    -> [spoRv] in progress
  • 1982    The Thing    4.2/4.2    -> [spoRv] released
  • 1983    Christine    4.5/4.4
  • 1984    Starman    3.8/3.8
  • 1986    Big Trouble in Little China    4.2/4.2
  • 1987    Prince of Darkness    4.8/4.8
  • 1988    They Live    4.0/4.1
  • 1992    Memoirs of an Invisible Man    (US BD TBA, italian BD available)
  • 1995    In the Mouth of Madness    4.2/4.2
  • 1995    Village of the Damned    (not found)
  • 1996    Escape from L.A.    3.0/3.5
  • 1998    Vampires    3.5/3.5
  • 2001    Ghosts of Mars    2.9/2.5
  • 2010    The Ward    3.8/3.2

Television - year, title

  • 1978    Someone’s Watching Me!
  • 1979    Elvis
  • 1993    Body Bags
  • 2005    Masters of Horror episode “Cigarette Burns’”
  • 2006    Masters of Horror episode “Pro-Life”

I’d like to know which ones eventually need a restoration (with further info), and which ones has a proper commercial release at the present day. This is because IIRC I read somewhere that there are at least a couple of other movies which will benefit from a restoration/preservation; am I right?

Sadly my projects are lost due to an HDD crash… 😦 | [Fundamental Collection] thread | blog.spoRv.com | fan preservation forum: fanres.com

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Having seen Dark Star on Blu recently, I thought it looked as good as it possibly ever could be, especially since it was filmed on 16mm and blown up to 35mm for theatrical release. (The HD master being a 35mm print.) I had the original DVD release from a decade ago, and that was inferior to the Laserdisc version though.

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Where were you in '77?

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There's also Body Bags, which I haven't seen.

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OK, I edited the first post and added television features list.

Sadly my projects are lost due to an HDD crash… 😦 | [Fundamental Collection] thread | blog.spoRv.com | fan preservation forum: fanres.com

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What is the original audio format for Big Trouble?

Why do the DVD releases have a 4.1 rather than 5.1 mix? Is it because that was similar to how it was played theatrically or just what was decided for DVD?

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NeonBible said:

What is the original audio format for Big Trouble?

Why do the DVD releases have a 4.1 rather than 5.1 mix? Is it because that was similar to how it was played theatrically or just what was decided for DVD?

 

Big Trouble was also released in 70mm so certainly should have had a six-track mix originally.  The Blu-Rays all appear to have 5.1, including the upcoming Arrow Video set.

When you say "which ones has a proper commercial release at the present day", do you mean retail versions, or finished fan restorations?

Adding blu-ray.com scores for the TV stuff:

  • 1978    Someone's Watching Me!  -  MIA on Blu-Ray
  • 1979    Elvis  -  3.5/4 (exact same disc available in both US & UK)
  • 1993    Body Bags  -  4/4
  • 2005    Masters of Horror episode "Cigarette Burns'"  -  2.5/3
  • 2006    Masters of Horror episode "Pro-Life"  -  apparently available on Spanish BD?

 

Here's a bonus that didn't make it onto the film's Blu-Ray release - the theatrical trailer for Elvis, used for its cut-down cinema release outside the US.

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djsmokingjam said:

When you say "which ones has a proper commercial release at the present day", do you mean retail versions, or finished fan restorations?

to me, commercial release = retail version

Sadly my projects are lost due to an HDD crash… 😦 | [Fundamental Collection] thread | blog.spoRv.com | fan preservation forum: fanres.com

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Here's an idea: The German Assault 13 have the best colors, but not the best compression. Since it uses the exact same master as the recent edition, perhaps you should apply the colors to a better encoded master.

+ the german dub have about 20mn of additional music in the film. How about recutting that music in the US soundtrack?

+ put in there the LD soundtrack music (and use it for conforming the german audio music to the US soundtrack) and LD sound.

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...interesting idea... well, let's wait for someone who could state that another BD version (or an HDTV rip) is better than the German BD, and I could think about it!

20mn additional music... could you explain better? About LD, I'm lucky to have it, so there will be no problem to use its soundtrack.

Sadly my projects are lost due to an HDD crash… 😦 | [Fundamental Collection] thread | blog.spoRv.com | fan preservation forum: fanres.com

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The movie came out in 1979 in germany. Somehow, many previously silent parts of the film have Carpenter music added in the german mono dub. Rumors is that Carpenter may have done it, thought publishers deny it as there is no proof on the web he did it.

It's all done professionaly and mixed to perfection, so my guess is that Carpenter didn't like the silent part, and added music to make the film drag less.

It's the same cues as the music soundtrack, so I'm guessing it should be easy to reconform the US mono soundtrack by adding them and mixing them in. I can provide you the german mono if you want :)

 

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...now "the thing" (^^,) is becoming REALLY interesting!!!

Maybe the laserdisc soundtrack is the same?

Now we need only a confirm that the german BD colors are better than US (or HDTV)...

Sadly my projects are lost due to an HDD crash… 😦 | [Fundamental Collection] thread | blog.spoRv.com | fan preservation forum: fanres.com

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_,,,^..^,,,_ said:

Now we need only a confirm that the german BD colors are better than US (or HDTV)...

The German disc does indeed look a lot better here:

http://caps-a-holic.com/hd_vergleiche/multi_comparison.php?art=part&x=455&y=222&action=1&image=5&hd_multiID=68&cap1=11065&cap2=11057&disc1=1147&disc2=1146&lossless=#vergleich

Shout! Factory claim their version is the same master as the Image disc, but I'd be intrigued to see if screencaps bear that out colour-wise.

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The german disc looks like it has more detail, however I read some people complaining about the compression.

My guess is wait for the Shout version and compare.

At worst, do the additional soundtrack version in english (or better, do it so that you can mix it with the other foreign languages too)

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A few John Carpenter classics are being released on 4K blu ray…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu1s5UNK3zg

 

HMV & Amazon are doing a 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray Collectors Edition for £30 - https://store.hmv.com/film-tv/4k-ultra-hd-blu-ray/they-live & https://www.amazon.co.uk/They-Live-Collectors-Ultra-Blu-ray/dp/B07H54NY5L

 

Zavvi have 4K Ultra HD blu ray steelbooks of They Live! going for £25 - along with a few other John Carpenter films available too (https://consequenceofsound.net/2018/09/john-carpenter-4k-restorations/):-

https://www.zavvi.com/offers/john-carpenter-the-master-of-horror.list?


 

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