So where is this 40th anniversary fan restoration of The Exorcist at? Or is this whats on the blu-ray?
Don't know if I could post a direct link, but search for "Dr Sapirstein" and you'll find it in the first positions...
Sadly my projects are lost due to an HDD crash… 😦 | [Fundamental Collection] thread | blog.spoRv.com | fan preservation forum: fanres.com
Turisu said:
penguinofgreatness said:
Turisu said:
I hope you reconsider the special edition; the extra scenes kill the perfect pacing of the film and the theatrical version is Cameron's original director's cut since he had final cut of the movie on release.Actually, for Aliens, the Special edition is Cameron's director's cut. He prefers that cut of the film and the studio forcibly created the theatrical cut. (Of course it's up to you what cut you prefer.)
In the case of Alien, the theatrical cut is the director's final cut, and the so called "director's cut" is just an alternate cut Ridley Scott did for the dvd.
Can you link to your source? I have never heard of any studio intervention in the theatrical cut of Aliens. Cameron had final cut on all of his movies during this period and has only subsequently stated that he now prefers the special edition to the theatrical cut. He did the same thing with T2 on which he also had final cut.
http://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=2558663
"The original version, however, was too long for the producing studio so it demanded several cuts to tighten the plot. Especially the American audience was not trusted to have the ability to sit through a movie of 148 minutes. So Cameron went to the cutting room, again, and lost more than 15 minutes of footage. It was mostly character development of Ripley or background information about what had happened to Newt's parents. But also some of the action got cut out, it might not be elementary but for people who want the entire experience it is still part of the movie. Among the fans there are two fractions, one preferring the Theatrical version and one preferring the Director's Cut. The advantage of the Theatrical version is that it is more flowing and faster. The Director's Cut, however, offers more depth and information. This is also the opinion of the director James Cameron who prefers the Director's Cut, also called "Special Edition", because he thinks it is the better and more exiting version of the movie. Also leading actress Sigourney Weaver made clear which version she prefers. She threatened to never shoot an Alien-film, again, if the longer Director's Cut was not released, as well.:
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I would not quote MC.com they get stuff wrong all the time
Back when the special edition dvd's first came out I seem to remember Cameron mentioning in the commentary track that even he felt the film was pushing the limits of a theatrical run time. Of course the studio wanted the shorter cut... especially in '86. It was a big no no back then to offer a film like this in anything over 2 hours. A lot has changed since but that's the way it was back then. Whatever the case, the theatrical version is lean and mean and wastes no time getting to the point. It's a combat film. I'd take a color-corrected version of either one though. That would be awesome and I don't care which. As far as Escape From New York goes, I have to say that the U.S. BD trumps the HDNet broadcast and the Special Edition DVD as far as image quality. Yes, it's a bit darker but that is correctable in this case by adjusting your display because the information is there in the frame. The blacks are solid and the colors vibrant, whether that is the intended vision of the film by its creators or not... to my eyes it's the best version visually.
Andrea, it appears that the screenshot you used to compare was from the UK Escape From New York BD, not the U.S. version. Those are night and day different. I'm not saying the color timing is correct or incorrect in either case. I'm just saying that particular HD capture was from UK not U.S. Here's the source:
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film3/blu-ray_reviews51/escape_from_new_york_blu-ray.htm
Just scroll down to the screen shots and you'll see the U.S. captures appear third in the group shots. The UK BD is just a green mess. I don't know what those guys were thinking with that boosted contrast. That film is supposed to be dark. Now the U.S. BD screenshots may appear darker, but that is easily fixed by adjusting your display.
This is a great thread. Thank you for starting it. Does Blade Runner belong on this list? I think I can remember seeing both the directors cut and the final cut on cable at the same time and that the directors cut had a very "red" tone to it, while the final cut had, of course, the teal tone.
Also, almost every Chris Reeve Superman blu-ray suffers from the teal color, as well as the contrast being way overdone. With the exception of the extended cut of part 1, and the Donner Cut of part 2. Here's a side-by-side for S2. This youtube page has done all 4 movies:
Turisu said:
Aliens: Teal, teal & more Teal. :(
NOT ON BLU-RAY - Orange and Teal, or How “Re-Mastering” is Distorting Our View of Classic Films (link from OP) shows this stupefying Aliens Blu-to-DVD comparison:
Fortunately, it can be easily color corrected with a few histogram settings (in a paint program):
HISTOGRAM
RED Gamma 1.6 Midtones +15
GREEN Gamma 1.1 Midtones +20
BLUE Gamma 1.1 Midtones -3
_,,,^..^,,,_ said:
Speaking of Aliens (Extended Edition, though)... what about a spoRved version?
Your use of the Avisynth ColourLike() should do short work of Aliens -- except the problem areas of crushed blacks and blown-out whites, which this Blu-ray has.
BTW, I was impressed by your nice work on The Matrix correction and tried that filter (in your ColourLikeFBF function) ... but kept getting an error message "Evaluate: System exception - Access Violation ([ScriptClip], line 5)". What did you do to solve this?
The Jurassic Park movies also had the wrong colour cast throughout (blue push). The restoration done on the first movie in 2013 corrects the colour to the original yellow/orange warm toned image, but goes a bit overboard, particularly in some scenes.
Terminator 2:Judgement Day & Terminator 3: Rise of The Machines have a blue and ash-blue tint respectively. Original 35mm colours were warm toned (yellowish).
Superman Returns- Original colours were gold-toned and sparkly, creating a 80s feel. Bluray colours are flat and dull! Look at the Return to Krypton deleted scene and you'll notice how glorious the colour grading is.
The Mask- The Jim Carrey comedy was originally warm toned (orange-ish). The Bluray is not much of a violation, but not the original colour either. The colour saturation of the Bluray is a bit extreme in my opinion.
There will always be many more...
Flexicon9 said:
. Hopefully Dean Cundey fixed the new Halloween Blu-ray.
Wish Dean Cundey was involved in restoring Jurassic Park as well.
Papai2013 said:
The Jurassic Park movies also had the wrong colour cast throughout (blue push). The restoration done on the first movie in 2013 corrects the colour to the original yellow/orange warm toned image, but goes a bit overboard, particularly in some scenes.
Terminator 2:Judgement Day & Terminator 3: Rise of The Machines have a blue and ash-blue tint respectively. Original 35mm colours were warm toned (yellowish).
Superman Returns- Original colours were gold-toned and sparkly, creating a 80s feel. Bluray colours are flat and dull! Look at the Return to Krypton deleted scene and you'll notice how glorious the colour grading is.
The Mask- The Jim Carrey comedy was originally warm toned (orange-ish). The Bluray is not much of a violation, but not the original colour either. The colour saturation of the Bluray is a bit extreme in my opinion.
There will always be many more...
T2 was only warm in places all night scenes were the same blue tint, we have 35mm cells they are correct the bku is just a crappy Ip master
Dean Cundey is a revisionist. The transfers he supervised of both Halloween and The Fog have ridiculous amounts of blue added to many of the night scenes. Fair enough if people prefer this look but there is no way Halloween was *that* blue back in 1978 as confirmed by several reports from people who have seen original prints.
I would love to see a regraded Jurassic Park though using the colours from the 2013 3D version as a source.
George creates Star Wars.
Star Wars creates fans.
George destroys Star Wars.
Fans destroy George.
Fans create Star Wars.
Turisu said:
Dean Cundey is a revisionist.
I would love to see a regraded Jurassic Park though using the colours from the 2013 3D version as a source.
Didn't know he was.
Well, though JP now (2013 3D version) looks close to how it looked. But the fact that this was digitally graded is obvious. It doesn't have that tangible feel that photochemically graded film has. Also the digital grading is wrong in a few places, like when the Mano De Dios Amber Mine legend appears on screen.
dvdmike said:
T2 was only warm in places all night scenes were the same blue tint, we have 35mm cells they are correct the bku is just a crappy Ip master
Well, the blue tint in the night scenes were a different type of blue than the one in the DVD and Bluray. The 35mm blue was denim blue in shade than the dazzling indigo blue tint that the revisionist dvd/bd colour has.
Papai2013 said:
dvdmike said:
T2 was only warm in places all night scenes were the same blue tint, we have 35mm cells they are correct the bku is just a crappy Ip master
Well, the blue tint in the night scenes were a different type of blue than the one in the DVD and Bluray. The 35mm blue was denim blue in shade than the dazzling indigo blue tint that the revisionist dvd/bd colour has.
So the 35mm cells are wrong?
dvdmike said:
Papai2013 said:
dvdmike said:
T2 was only warm in places all night scenes were the same blue tint, we have 35mm cells they are correct the bku is just a crappy Ip master
Well, the blue tint in the night scenes were a different type of blue than the one in the DVD and Bluray. The 35mm blue was denim blue in shade than the dazzling indigo blue tint that the revisionist dvd/bd colour has.
So the 35mm cells are wrong?
No! The 35mm cells would be right, and I prefer that. The revisionist colour would be a modification!
Spaced Ranger said: NOT ON BLU-RAY - Orange and Teal, or How “Re-Mastering” is Distorting Our View of Classic Films (link from OP) shows this stupefying Aliens Blu-to-DVD comparison:
The teal on the BD is certainly excessive, but the DVD looks far too pink. Something in the middle would be interesting to see.
Papai2013 said:
dvdmike said:
Papai2013 said:
dvdmike said:
T2 was only warm in places all night scenes were the same blue tint, we have 35mm cells they are correct the bku is just a crappy Ip master
Well, the blue tint in the night scenes were a different type of blue than the one in the DVD and Bluray. The 35mm blue was denim blue in shade than the dazzling indigo blue tint that the revisionist dvd/bd colour has.
So the 35mm cells are wrong?
No! The 35mm cells would be right, and I prefer that. The revisionist colour would be a modification!
As I said in my first post apart from looking like crap the blu matches the 35mm cells bar bad contrast
Escape from New York: I deleted the previous screenshot comparison; now I compared HDTV HDNET Vs US Blu-ray
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison.php?id=39478
differences are not dramatic like previous HDNET Vs UK Blu-ray, but still present. Also, it seems that BD is a bit horizontally stretched.
Interisting note: each version has some more details on one side vs opposite one... so I thought to do a fast test (really rough, just to have an idea) - click each image to see HD versions:
HDNET:
US BD:
US BD with HDNET colors:
US BD with HDNET colors (first pixels on the left) + HDNET:
got it? (^^,) - I'm waiting your comment about this brand new technique! (I must find out some strange, exotic and ugly name for it...)
*** *** ***
Aliens: http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison.php?id=37139
why bother to use BD and change its colors, if it has crushed blacks and clipped whites? If I'll do a [spoRv] project, I'll use the HDTV video - as dvdmike, I prefer it to BD! And it will be with LD audio soundtrack(s), of course...
Spaced Ranger said:
...but kept getting an error message "Evaluate: System exception - Access Violation ([ScriptClip], line 5)". What did you do to solve this?
avoid to use SetMTMode: it should work. By the way, on "The Thing" I used only my ColourMatch and ColourMatchYUV scripts; on "The Matrix", almost all movie will be done with ColourMatch, and only the scenes with some artifacts will use another color matching script - to be tested, don't know if I will use ColourLikeFBF or a very experimental script, ColourMatchRGB... the latter is very promising, but stops working if the scene is too long... keep an eye on "The Matrix" thread for future info.
Video Collector said:
Brightening AvP:R would also be welcome, but I don't think using the spoRv process is the best way to go about it.
the process I used for the thing is a simple color re-grading, using the script I mentioned in the answer before - spoRv=special preserved or Restored version (the best acronym I found out, open to change it but the meaning should be the same). I used this acronym not only for its meaning, but also because it means Sparrow in norwegian (what a coincidence "The Thing" was the first [spoRv] project...) and I like the simple logo I made only with characters; sporv is a five letters, one syllable word, like sport, easy to remember; and this is only the beginning of a bigger project... when it will be ready, I'll write more in a proper thread.
Sadly my projects are lost due to an HDD crash… 😦 | [Fundamental Collection] thread | blog.spoRv.com | fan preservation forum: fanres.com
I still love the grain in the Aliens blu-ray and would prefer that over the hd-tv broadcast. We just need to see how many clipped white scenes there are. I still enjoyed watching it in motion though and it never really bothered me. Though it would be neat to see the colors changed for the blu-ray.
_,,,^..^,,,_ said:
Aliens: http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison.php?id=37139
why bother to use BD and change its colors, if it has crushed blacks and clipped whites? If I'll do a [spoRv] project, I'll use the HDTV video - as dvdmike, I prefer it to BD! And it will be with LD audio soundtrack(s), of course...
I see what you mean about the blacks and whites in that particular shot but I don't think the BD should be so quickly dismissed as a source due to extra amount of fine detail over the HDTV version. Take a look at the hairs on Hicks' arm; that couldn't be replicated by simply adding a layer of fake grain.
To me the difference looks as great as the original Terminator BD vs. the remaster which (teal argument aside) everyone pretty much agrees is a far superior transfer.
George creates Star Wars.
Star Wars creates fans.
George destroys Star Wars.
Fans destroy George.
Fans create Star Wars.
Turisu said:
Can you link to your source? I have never heard of any studio intervention in the theatrical cut of Aliens. Cameron had final cut on all of his movies during this period and has only subsequently stated that he now prefers the special edition to the theatrical cut. He did the same thing with T2 on which he also had final cut.
Ok, I looked it up. There was no major studio intervention (he had final cut but it had to be under 130 minutes.1), but Cameron always wanted to do a longer version ('cuse he looooves long films).
From the Special Widescreen Collector's Edition LD (1992):
The concept of a special cut or edition of a film is a new and exciting development, made possible by the specialized markets created by video. The economic realities or feature film exhibition, at least domestically, demand that a commercial film not exceed two hours. Every minute beyond that magic number carries the penalty of lost revenues. Aliens pushed the envelope with its release length of two hours and seventeen minutes, and I am grateful to 20th Century Fox for supporting the film at that running time.
Now, however, it is my pleasure to release an alternate version of the picture, one which could exist only on video because of its length. Almost twenty minutes of footage has been reinstated, footage which broadens the narrative scope and enriches the emotional impact of the film.
I felt at the time Aliens was the best possible theatrical release version of the story I set out to tell, just as I believe this special edition is the best possible version of the film in absence of time constraints. I hope you enjoy it.
I like the faster pacing of the theatrical cut, but I also like some of the scenes found in the extended cut, and can watch either with no problems.
1. [From the dvd commentary]
Spaced Ranger said:
Turisu said:
Aliens: Teal, teal & more Teal. :(
NOT ON BLU-RAY - Orange and Teal, or How “Re-Mastering” is Distorting Our View of Classic Films (link from OP) shows this stupefying Aliens Blu-to-DVD comparison:
Fortunately, it can be easily color corrected with a few histogram settings (in a paint program):
HISTOGRAM
RED Gamma 1.6 Midtones +15
GREEN Gamma 1.1 Midtones +20
BLUE Gamma 1.1 Midtones -3
_,,,^..^,,,_ said:
Speaking of Aliens (Extended Edition, though)... what about a spoRved version?
Your use of the Avisynth ColourLike() should do short work of Aliens -- except the problem areas of crushed blacks and blown-out whites, which this Blu-ray has.
BTW, I was impressed by your nice work on The Matrix correction and tried that filter (in your ColourLikeFBF function) ... but kept getting an error message "Evaluate: System exception - Access Violation ([ScriptClip], line 5)". What did you do to solve this?
What are the chances of a similarly easy correction for Great Escape?