Jonno

The second review suggests that it is letterboxed, not 16:9 sadly.

Sorry, forgot to feed back.

To be honest I wasn't wowed by either film's DCP presentation. Mad Max was probably as good as that film is going to look - it seemed sharper than the (now fairly old) BD, but still a little soft overall (perhaps an inevitable by-product of the low budget photography). The colours were appropriately muted, so no problems there.

Mad Max 2, on the other hand, had a great deal more detail - impressively so, in fact - but it still suffers from the uncorrected colour timing of the Blu-ray. If this is indeed a new transfer, and the studio has paid any attention at all to the feedback on the earlier HD releases, it's disappointing that this hasn't been addressed. As such, this was hardly a definitive or archival restoration - more a higher format release of the versions we're used to seeing.

Bring on the spoRv...

Yes, though it now occurs to me that the earlier 2003 scan (used for the director's cut and quadrilogy DVDs) may have had a life in HDTV too.

In either case, the colour adjustments done for the DC largely remain in the theatrical cut (something that will hopefully be addressed in a spoRv - or similar - project at some point).

The teal-ish balance of your landing leg room grabs suggest the 2010 master.

So it turns out the first two films have had new restorations - I'm going to see them in a double bill tonight:

http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/film/Mad_Max_1_2_Double_Bill/

It will be interesting to see which MM2 colour grading has been used on this DCP - fingers crossed the proper warm tones have also been 'restored'.

I think the issue is less the difficulty of doing an individual patch job, and more the logistics of doing so to every GOUT-synced soundtrack that folks might want to use.

I can't believe people are seriously advocating a painstaking, time-consuming and ultimately artificial process just so they can pretend that those few pixels haven't been permanently removed.

Hyperbolic analogy time: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus

It's probably a good idea to acquaint oneself with 35mm cropping/framing in general before making any sweeping judgements.

There's a fairly lengthy discussion about it here. The quick version is that cropping isn't a binary thing - cropped vs. uncropped - but rather a sliding scale affected by a number of factors from photography through to printing through to projection (and more if video transfers are factored in).

Cropping is right and proper, because you aren't supposed to see every grain of information on the 35mm frame. TServo2049 posted some excellent comparison frames in that thread which show the SMPTE aperture standards - 5% and 10% - and their effect on the 35mm image when properly projected.

The new 35mm scans being used will certainly need such cropping, unless the intention is to show parts of the image that were never expected or intended to be seen. I expect that the effect of the curved mask on the Blu-ray footage is also comfortably within that 5%-10% range, since it's a fairly conservative scan.

So, is this an accurate preservation of every possible piece of picture information in ESB? No. Is it an accurate preservation of a projected, cinematic experience? Yes, and though that won't be enough for some people, I for one am very happy with it.

captainsolo said:

Joker's reveal is a great example of how to do this. No matter what I put my levels at, no transfer can have the face in complete darkness. There is an outline where you can make out a face just barely, and if you are looking closely enough you can make out a faint ghostly visage. That's about what I think the print would have resembled. It also feels like something Burton would do-almost Grissom's A Christmas Carol for a brief second.

 This is in fact exactly what the release print looked like - you could just about see the face, but it wasn't possible to make out the makeup until he stepped into the light. At the time I was wondering if the transformation had simply left him 'messed up', and then the makeup would be subsequently applied to disguise the fact (an idea that Nolan's Joker would employ nearly 20 years later).

That's just wrong piled on top of wrong.

The theatrical cut of Léon (or The Professional, as it was retitled in the US) was the same the world over, including France. It was Luc Besson's own cut - it just happened to discard some of the scripted and shot scenes (mostly for pacing reasons, except for one which was deemed a little near the knuckle for international - particularly US - audiences).

The version intégrale reinstated the discarded scenes to create an extended version, but not a director's cut per se (if I recall correctly, its cinema release was Besson and Gaumont's gift to bored office workers in the summer of '96!)

I saw the original on its cinema release, and the extended version a couple of years later when it had a UK screening. It was an interesting experience, and one that I still enjoy from time to time, but it's by no means an improvement on the taut, streamlined original. You may prefer the longer version, but the original is 'completely shite'? Come on.

Anyway, since both have their (occasionally hyperbolic) supporters it is right for them both to be included in future releases. An accurate 4K transfer would be very welcome, but I don't imagine it's terribly high on Sony's list at present.

As for Memento, there have been two transfers, haven't there? Are they both equally poor?

While some would argue that the best way to learn is to make mistakes (and I'd normally agree), it just seems that you're throwing yourself into a project you don't really understand, while all the time telling us - not asking us - what you don't know. It's like a twitter feed from a pinball.

To answer your initial question, yes - I for one would love to see a preservation of the 1997 VHS tapes, which I fondly remember going out and buying in my first month at university and then watching with a group of friends on a 14" TV.

But now we've bounced from pan&scan VHS tapes, which you didn't know very much about (until Wikipedia helped out), to letterboxed laserdiscs, which you know even less about.

There are some incredibly dedicated and knowledgeable folks on here, turning out work of astonishing quality - if you want to play in the same sandpit, at least make a basic effort to do some research and fill in the gaps in your own knowledge.

And, as I frequently remind the nine-year-olds I teach, if you want to be taken remotely seriously, work on the grammar. Your last post suggests that you know at least the basics of full stop / period placement, and since it makes the difference between appearing competent and incompetent I'd really advise that you use them.

IMO, FWIW etc.

Report card

Grammar D
Technical knowledge D

Laserdisc History F

SilverWook said:

Would be interesting to see a Cinerama Blu Ray in Smilebox displayed on one of these sets.

Why would you need to? Smilebox simulates a concave screen for flat displays - if you have a curved display you should be quite content watching the regular transfer (which does of course assume that the degree of curvature on a Samsung is comparable to that of a Cinerama screen, which may not be the case).

The approach that works for me is to convert the DTS to WAV (using TFM audio tool) and just sync and link the sound to the picture in Premiere.

Original trailer up for auction:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/35MM-AMERICAN-GRAFFITI-73-IBTECH-ORIGINAL-RELEASE-TRAILER-VERY-RARE-/321421625618

Is anyway an adjective these days? I'm so behind.

Who'd have thought that the makers of RotJ deliberately set out to make an underwhelming film? I'm learning all sorts today.

Which reminds me, I have some things I need to send you Mr P. Hope your various schedules aren't too punishing at the moment!

Released 10 days ago, apparently. The rumoured Netflix and BD versions have yet to appear.

Thanks for the PM, Feallan. I'll let you know how I get on :-)

So Black Angel is here:

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/movie/black-angel/id870578336

I'd really like to get this incorporated into an ESB trailer reel - watch this space.

... more lightsaber mutilations than the first two films combined, Palpatine's disfigurement, Anakin strangling his wife...

And hardly of this stuff was even necessary to show. Its nastiness is tonally inconsistent with the other films (though AotC was heading in that direction) and just comes across as bad taste.

Episode VII should have an appropriate lightness of touch for two reasons:

1. These are family films, and shouldn't be designed to appeal solely to whiny 20-year-olds and

2. RotS demonstrated definitively that 'dark' does not equate to 'good'

This reminds me of that discussion between Lucas and Marquand regarding the rebel briefing room in RotJ - the one in which Lucas declared that the rebels were winning because they had the best equipment (can't remember which thread that was cited in - perhaps this one?)

There's no logical reason why the Empire, with their unlimited reach and resources, would purposely field an inferior fighter as an absolute standard - even taking the argument that the first-line flyers are disposable, how come we never see the big guns?

Worse, the idea that X-Wings are just better ships serves to further undermine the whole ethos of the rebellion. As far as the films present the situation (and that's where I personally draw the line), the X-Wing vs. TIE match is at the very least equal, and the outcome of a dogfight entirely depends on pilot skill and courage... and that's the whole point. Or at least it used to be.

The letterboxed UK PAL master from the 1990s got a fair bit of exposure at the time - first on the VHS and laserdisc from Tartan video, then on Warner's own releases (including the edition in the link above).

It was also one of the main attractions in an SF season on Channel 4 in 1995 (letterboxed scope being a relative rarity in broadcast at that point). I think I still have a recording of this if it's useful for posterity...

Pretty sure the first TPM trailer was before Prince of Egypt in the UK.