David Jay

SpacemanDoug said:

David Jay said:

MGM recently published this clip on YouTube and I thought it might be of some interest to members here. These clips from The Terminator look very different to the current Blu-Ray master; some good detail but overall looking rather soft, lacking contrast, and with a heavily desaturated colour palette. The black level looks greyish and “milky.” The colour grade lacks the teal emphasis of the 2012 Blu-Ray.

I wonder what elements this was sourced from. It almost looks like a totally ungraded scan from the camera negatives or perhaps an interpositive. The overall look is vaguely reminiscent of some of the early home video masters, but in widescreen HD.

Perhaps this is the raw scan done for a 40th anniversary reissue due next year. If that’s right, I hope a high quality copy of the original theatrical mono soundtrack will be included too. I’d also welcome an isolated soundtrack option for Brad Fiedel’s synthesizer score.

The Milan CD includes the wrong version of Escape from the Police Station, and the mastering for some reason is quite rolled off in the high end. Maybe an attempt to reduce tape hiss, but I think they went a bit overboard in that regard leading to an overly dark tonal balance. It lacks top end sparkle compared to the earlier Edel CD, which I think is better in terms of sonics… but wrong artistically as Fiedel has pointed out. He had no say in the mix done for that CD, and the end result didn’t reflect all the detailed editing he carried out during the postproduction and dubbing process back in 1984 for the film itself.

https://youtu.be/aQaHOqFGrgg?si=UUEqWf9jzMjKQfN8

That is not what it is at all, that’s very much a very poorly SDR converted version of an HDR grade, I’ve seen the effect before

However that could only mean a 4K master was completed

Thanks very much for your insight; I’m surprised that the video was published in such a state, as the overall effect of the botched HDR to SDR conversion is to make the picture so washed out and muddy. But point taken re this indicating the completion of a 4K HDR master. That’s encouraging.

MGM recently published this clip on YouTube and I thought it might be of some interest to members here. These clips from The Terminator look very different to the current Blu-Ray master; some good detail but overall looking rather soft, lacking contrast, and with a heavily desaturated colour palette. The black level looks greyish and “milky.” The colour grade lacks the teal emphasis of the 2012 Blu-Ray.

I wonder what elements this was sourced from. It almost looks like a totally ungraded scan from the camera negatives or perhaps an interpositive. The overall look is vaguely reminiscent of some of the early home video masters, but in widescreen HD.

Perhaps this is the raw scan done for a 40th anniversary reissue due next year. If that’s right, I hope a high quality copy of the original theatrical mono soundtrack will be included too. I’d also welcome an isolated soundtrack option for Brad Fiedel’s synthesizer score.

The Milan CD includes the wrong version of Escape from the Police Station, and the mastering for some reason is quite rolled off in the high end. Maybe an attempt to reduce tape hiss, but I think they went a bit overboard in that regard leading to an overly dark tonal balance. It lacks top end sparkle compared to the earlier Edel CD, which I think is better in terms of sonics… but wrong artistically as Fiedel has pointed out. He had no say in the mix done for that CD, and the end result didn’t reflect all the detailed editing he carried out during the postproduction and dubbing process back in 1984 for the film itself.

https://youtu.be/aQaHOqFGrgg?si=UUEqWf9jzMjKQfN8

Hi, 

Just joined the forum. There are some great projects going on here! I'm a big fan of the Terminator films and the detailed info in this thread caught my eye. 

I guess this is tenuously related to the restoration of these films, as it's to do with an edit to the music on The Terminator. I've just been listening to the "Definite Edition" of Brad Fiedel's excellent soundtrack for The Terminator (released by Cinerama in 1994) and noticed that the remix created by Bill Wolford for this release features some music cut from the film at the request of director James Cameron.

Definite Edition on Discogs: http://www.discogs.com/Brad-Fiedel-The-Terminator-The-Definite-Edition/release/529146

On this CD, track 11 - 'Escape from Police Station' - includes the heroic theme which James Cameron thought would detract from the tension of that scene... Brad Fiedel explains all in the "Terminator - Other Voices" documentary, but you don't get to hear the original music he's referring to.

It was a pleasant surprise to hear exactly what Fiedel was referring to on the Cinerama CD. I guess this was inadvertently included because they remixed the soundtrack from the multi-tracks for this disc. I just put together a brief audio file featuring a clip of Brad Fiedel talking about this music edit, along with an excerpt of the track in question.

Would be happy to share this with the community if it's of any interest? Not sure if it's possible to attach files to posts here. I could put it up on dropbox if you prefer. Thanks for any info on this.

David.