Terminator 1 & 2 Projects (Released) — Page 2

Just found out on myspleen a preservation of T2 in full screen pan & scan from a foreign DVD. Awesome!

I would kill for a preservation of Aliens Full Screen as well as Terminator, and Titanic.

Note: these versions show more top & bottom picture. Were supervised by Cameron. Hence the interest.

Terminator 1 and Aliens were not shot in Super-35. They were shot mostly hard-matted (1.33 Academy, with a roughly 1.66-1.85 matte box in front of the camera lens). If you watch the trailers in 35mm unmatted, some shots are full 4:3, and some have black bars. The bars might even change size from shot to shot. There may also be FX animation that spills over into the black areas.

So from all I understand, full-frame home releases of those two were cropped to get a garbage-free 4:3 image. If you still want them, there were full-frame laserdiscs - I think the best-quality ones would be the first Image LD of Terminator (not the original Thorn-EMI-HBO, which may have been time compressed?) and the early 90s Fox Video release of Aliens (not the original CBS/Fox one)

For Terminator, look for the one with the poster art in front of a big picture of laserdisc - the standard Image cover art style of that era. For Aliens, look for the one with an all-black cover, no blue stripe at the bottom with the Fox logo.

To get true "open-matte" versions of Terminator and Aliens (with the in-camera black bars, and open matting for whatever scenes weren't hard-matted) you'd need a print. I know Derann sold full Super 8 versions of both (they also sold T2 - it was the regular scope version, and was apparently in mono, but it could be a good color reference.)

Holy crap, I think that German version might be a straight transfer of a theatrically-timed source. It seems to match up quite well with the colors I've seen in the 35mm trailers I've seen projected, as well as the Derann 8mm excerpt that's on YouTube. Still has the trademark Cameron blues, but it's more of a mix of blue and teal than the pure blue of the other older DVD/BD transfers. And it has that blown-out, overly contrasty look that seems to be a hallmark of older (and particularly non-major-studio/non-North American) video transfers of high-contrast sources.

For all people get down on the new "teal and orange" Blu-ray transfer, but I am wondering if it's less pure revisionism and more an exaggerated/bastardized version of the theatrical timing. This is why I think a Derann print should be sought out, it could be a very good reference for what the photochemical print timing looked like.

TServo2049 said:  Holy crap, I think that German version might be a straight transfer of a theatrically-timed source.

I'd certainly love to get my hands on it.

For all people get down on the new "teal and orange" Blu-ray transfer, but I am wondering if it's less pure revisionism and more an exaggerated/bastardized version of the theatrical timing.

That's been my suspicion for a while.

The blue/teal mix does fit in well with the general trend of color timing (and particularly night-scene blue-boosting) in 80s films I've seen in 35mm. Streets of Fire, Lethal Weapon and Evil Dead II, they all had nighttime/dark scenes that looked sort of like that in the prints I saw.

Obviously, the color wouldn't have looked as washed-out when actually seeing a print projected in a theater. That pasty, blown-out look does seem to have been a common problem with telecine transfers of high-contrast sources timed and intended for theatrical projection (as opposed to low-contrast interpositives).

It's also on Amazon.de: http://www.amazon.de/Terminator-1-Arnold-Schwarzenegger/dp/B00004RYC8

If you're in another country and have an Amazon account, you can still get it as long if one of the sellers ships to your country.

And there are some clips on YouTube recorded off a TV: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XKD2OW0a8o

Notice at the end that there's no Harlan Ellison acknowledgment, and Donna Smith's credit scrolls up at the head of the credit roll after the last shot fades out, instead of fading in over the last shot. I think these are the original theatrical end credits...

nafroe said:

How might I be able to get myself a physical copy of these discs?  

I am only asking because my printer is not suitable for printing these covers or disc labels.

 I would love to find out as well and wouldn't mind helping to seed this project. This looks great! T2 is still one of my all time favorites. I really wish the theatrical trailer sound mix was real and available.

Sorry but what does all this have to do with our project?

Nothing, sorry that I contributed to derailment.

Sorry didn't mean to derail this thread.

Mods, can you take page 2 posts and put them into their own thread?

"James Cameron open matte transfers" thread

Thank you

Just a heads up re T2, this is how the opening bar scene was color timed in the theatrical prints back in 1991. On all video transfers, Cameron changed the color timing so that the scene could be clearer on then tube TVs.

I think any remaster should restore back the original theatrical color timing.

Where did you get that?

I saw last summer a 35mm screening in Paris, France, and I definitely don't recall this shot to be that blue. I can tell you that the movie was darker than the Blu-ray, "tealer" (if that word exists) and a bit purple (might be because of the age of the print). Also, I remember a large shot in the steel factory, when Sarah and John climb some stairs, that was pretty much all yellow with no orange whatsoever in the background.

Are these Terminator 1+2 projects currently uploaeded somewhere?

Thanks.

A print from 1991 should still retain all its color in 2015. Maybe the "purple" could be due to being a Fuji print? I know Fuji low-fade stock has a slight purple cast, much like how Kodak LPP has a slight yellow cast.

I don't want this thread to go off on another tangent, the projects are already done, so I assume color discussions don't really belong here anymore?

TServo2049 said:

A print from 1991 should still retain all its color in 2015. Maybe the "purple" could be due to being a Fuji print? I know Fuji low-fade stock has a slight purple cast, much like how Kodak LPP has a slight yellow cast.

I don't want this thread to go off on another tangent, the projects are already done, so I assume color discussions don't really belong here anymore?

Exactly.

Thanks

The Terminator is now live at our new Home, and I am now using my seedbox(thanks to Vinnie and Psycho4151) so it is moving FAST! also thanks to HiDeFZeN for helping me get it set up lol.

Thanks dark_jedi.

Ive been looking forward to this release.

All the best with your projects.

CSchmidlapp said:

Thanks dark_jedi.

Ive been looking forward to this release.

All the best with your projects.

Thanks, T2 will follow shortly.

*edit, as a matter of fact thanks to my seedbox it will go up tomorrow, so Terminator 1 & 2 will be yours this weekend!

Looks like I'll have to purchase a new hard drive... and a blu ray burner... and some blank blu ray discs...  Haha!

Thank you kindly!!  :-D

Great, been eagerly awaiting this one!