The Aluminum Falcon

Hello everyone.

In honor of the 40th Anniversary of the initial Godfather, AMC has been broadcasting the Godfather movies this whole week. To my surprise, I learned that today they are broadcasting the Godfather Saga Extended Version… restored in FULL HD using the new Coppola Restorations! I’ve been watching these broadcasts all morning and they look fantastic; plus, they have great-looking deleted scenes inserted as well (not sure if they’re the same ones as on the BD). The custom credits (opening and credits) for each “episode” of the saga are presented in better quality than I’ve ever seen them. I had no idea that they would ever consider making such a restoration of this version.

Each episode will be shown twice today. Is anyone planning to cap this in HD? I know ModernKnife has his edit out here but an HD version of this would be fantastic.

Hmm... I didn't realise that the color timing had changed for the HDTV masters. I did think that BTTF looked a but dull and not colorful though. I'd be interested if someone undergoes the color timing restoration project.

Bump. I found an English version of the HDTV broadcast on thepiratebay. I haven't fully downloaded it yet but it's in the same format as the one on rutracker: about 10 GB and 3 MPG parts. PM me if you need the link.

EDIT: CRAP! Apparently, as a kind ot.com member pointed out to me, there are actually no seeders. My Torrent Client lied to me and was saying something was downloading under that torrent. It must have just been a glitch... Anyway, apologies for getting anyone's hopes up. Hope someone will eventually seed.

I must unfortunately recant my opinion that Project Blu V1 takes the GOUT to its maximum potential. Judging from this clip, Project Blu V2 has done so much more!!! Dark_jedi and You_Too, your work on this has been superb judging by the sample clip.

Great, great, great job. The contrast and sharpness are better on this than V1. Everything is very clear now. I'm really loving the whiteness of the Tantive IV halls. It has an even more "Technicolor" feel to it now with You_Too's corrections. The red levels seem to really be at a better level than the base GOUT, making for an even color palette. Skin tones never get too red for me; they always look pretty natural albeit pleasantly saturated. The detail mustered out is astounding too. Your script shows a definite improvement in getting fine things out. The grain structure is pretty intact... there's no sign you over-scrubbed it. It never looks coarse as one might expect it to for such an old master. Tatooine's dunes never looked better; an inherent problem with the Lowry restoration was the removal of the grit and dirt from some of these scenes which made it feel like a Western (in Space, that is). The Death Star interiors are pleasantly saturated but never sickly. Stars are visible in space but not blooming or off-white. If I were to have one criticism, it would be that the GOUT's inherent DVNR is visible, though remarkably less so then in Project Blu V1. Something you did must have helped this.

It's worth mentioning that the audio sounds nice. I definitely enjoyed the music. Kudos to ABC for that. All in all, this sample seems like a fun little demo disc to use to display the quality originaltrilogy.com users can produce. Keep up the good work, gentlemen. You've done fantastic jobs.

Well, sorry for everyone who hasn't downloaded this yet, but, in the recent surge of file-sharing site takedowns, it appears this upload has been a casualty. I also don't have the DVD files anymore because I deleted them right after uploading. :-(

I've changed the thread title.

If anyone is really desperate for this, I found an AVI on thepiratebay of these same 2 DVDs. If you have trouble finding this, just PM me, and I'll send you the link.

bttfbrasilfan said:

I've found a theater capture... I don't know...

Wait... where did you find a theater capture?! It looks pretty good from that screencap. I don't know how accurate the DVD/BD is to that but... how did you get that if you don't mind me asking?

Harmy said:

OK, I'll just come out and say it: I did! And I'm not changing it. I added some light grain to the scenes where the static grain was a big issue; the desert sequence until the canyon wipe and the selling the droids sequence. It's there in the last WP and I think it works great.

Didn't know you actually did it. In any case, that sounds good. As I said before, a more "alive" picture sounds promising than a mildly sterilised one.

csl said:

 

An idea came to mind earlier: have you considered "regraining" ? Aside from giving it more of an authentic classic aesthetic, it'd sort of alleviate a big issue with the 2004 Lowry masters which is the grain freezing they suffer from. Grain will stop moving and start moving in the background and it's sort of jarring.

 

That option was discussed and put to the side a few pages ago. Theoretically, it would be interesting to make the picture seem more "alive."

I haven't downloaded the workprint but the colors of the pictures posted look gorgeous to me. The movie's palette really has changed. Everything's very vivid but in a retro way, not a revisionist way. It's obvious you're working with a very reliable source, Harmy. Kudos to getting it and utilising it as a reference to its full potential in your work..

klokwerk said:

Having said that, I know Jamie would like to tackle Back to the Future at some point. If you're doing one of these as part of a class, apart from making sure that you can do so (some schools might frown upon the copyright-infringing nature of these projects, mine did), you might be better off going for a film that you enjoy that has significance in film history and those Welles suggestions are a good place to venture towards.

If I recall correctly, some of Welles's films are public domain, so that would kill any legal issues possible. The Stranger is definitely PD, having had tons of releases. I'm pretty sure that Mr. Arkadin and The Trial are PD too, but it's under dispute so it's not readily available on a site like archive.org/Internet Archive.

Hmm... that's interesting that Netflix would show the US version... in HD, for that matter. Bill Conti's score was a very interesting alternative to the norm as I recollect. I only have it on LD: does anyone plan to kindly cap it?

dark_jedi said:

Yes I still have them, just need to figure out how to share now that the filesharing sites keep going down, I will figure something out, any suggestions?

Rapidshare still seems to be up and going strong; I really hope it doesn't go down soon. You could always just post these to torrents, like your SW V3 Trilogy; private trackers like MySpleen would probably appreciate them...

STENDEC said:

Personally, the collector in me says I would be very happy to own every version of the films restored to the maximum possible quality - the originals, the '97 Specials, the '04 Specials and the '11 Specials. I wouldn't mind all the different audio versions too - 35mm, 70mm, '93 mix, etc. However, the only ones I'd really want to watch would be the original cuts. The option to watch the others would just be a pleasant bonus.

I would definitely love a set like this. Despite the fact that the Special Editions are not nearly as strong as the originals, they're still interesting versions to have. Blade Runner is always the example I cite for having got it right; every version is available on one (very reasonably priced) set, even if you don't want some versions: they're there. It would be unique to have an official set with all the possible soundtracks for the original, though I doubt this will happen; we'll probably only get theatrical audios.

The '97 Special Edition would be a nice thing to have on set since the color timing is less revisionist.... It does have a Special Place in my Heart since it's the one I grew up with. I find it much less offensive than the '04 and '11 cuts. Additionally, there actually may be a possibility that '97 is what we will get packaged with the originals on a home medium at 2K or 4k resolution. A fresh scan of the '97 revised negative would probably be required at that point since wasn't the '04 scan, upon which they added changes digitally, only at around 1080p?

davewozere05 said:

Citizen Kane

Sounds great. Though since there have already been official documentaries on it, it might by nice to see a documentary on one of the other great Welles Films: Magnificent Ambersons, Othello, The Trial, or Chimes at Midnight, all of which are extremely underrated and lacking proper released documentaries.

Kushami said:

I'm a little confused at the thread progression; Did those caps used in the Primative Screwhead fan-cut ever surface anywhere? I've been hoping SciFi would re-air it so I could DVR it, but this has yet to happen... or at least I kept missing it. :(

They never showed up online to my knowledge at least. I believe that the cap did make it's way through the DVD trade routes though. It'd still be lovely if someone properly uploaded it though...

Hope this edit reaches full completion. It really is interesting... especially the major dialogue and music changes, which some editors shirk away from.

As someone who indeed loved your original Star Wars: Renascent, I can't wait for this! It sounds fantastic. I'm sure that even the ROTS segments will be enjoyable.

What do you plan to use as a base for ESB? Will you wait for Revisited to come out or use a theatrical version like Harmy's?

This sounds great... I can't wait for it. An Adywan and Puggo Collaborative Release can't be anything less than magnificent.

Brilliant job on the lightsaber and the adjusted Ben Kenobi shot. They're utterly outstanding. Bravo, Harmy!

You_Too said:

Ok, with the blessing of DJ, here's a little update/teaser for you guys.

Me and DJ decided to work on this together, and during the time his computer has been broken I wrote a new script from scratch, which I've worked with a lot lately.

What V2 will most likely feature is a color corrected, carefully upscaled, slightly shake-stabilized, slightly anti-aliased, dirt-cleaned and grain-preserved GOUT. I've spent many hours on perfecting the dirt-cleaning part of the script, which removes a lot of dirt in all three films but preserves all detail. Still needs some more testing though.

This looks utterly amazing! To think that V1 already looked great... wow... the script you're using truly does preserve detail. This made my day. Great job, you two!!!

(by you two, I mean: Dark Jedi and You_Too) :-)

TheDerider said:

Is this something you are aware of, willing to fix, capable of fixing?

I believe that was already fixed by Lucas himself for the '04 Special Edition, so it's certainly do-able. I'm not sure whether Adywan intends to un-fix it though... I would guess that he would keep it fixed.

perfectlovehere said:

Did you make that? Looks cool if so good job!

Agreed. That's definitely a nice trailer.

I'll be interested in Alien: Revisited whenever it eventually comes to fruition.

I'm sorry about your father, xeno_alpha_07.

Your edit does sound interesting though. The Blu-Ray audio is most impressive compared to the original

And what about the original re-cuts.  Are these available in their original form?

I'm not sure about the British and French Cut, but the American Cut has definitely been transferred. I believe the public domain versions usually are slightly longer than the heavily trimmed American Cut. A man who does several releases based off of relatively good quality 16mm transfers is selling a copy of the 94 minute American Cut:

http://reelclassicdvd.com/silent_era.htm

Just keep scrolling and you'll find it.

What was the story that they cobbled together in these re-cuts.  From what I read, Moroder's version was the first to actually reconstruct the original story structure.  So what were the others like then?

No idea. I believe they just cobbled certain scenes in a hard to follow fashion. Moroder's version tried to restore a plot, even at the expense of cutting scenes which were no longer intelligible to other cut material unavailable at the time.

What's the significance of Moroder's version in the grand scheme of Metropolis's history?

Moroder's version revived interest heavily in Metropolis. By doing a theatrical release, he inspired a new generation to try to preserve Metropolis. His... interesting... score also helped to attract the masses. More Metropolis restorations followed afterwards, with more footage being discovered.

What versions are these public domain prints? 

These versions I believe are slightly extended from the US Cut. They run around 115-122 minutes, so they definitely have some material. They can be sourced from 16mm prints, normally in rubbish quality. The link here gives a good run-down on all DVDs, including public domain versions:

http://www.silentera.com/video/metropolisHV.html

I would recommend the site above. They list the releases of many silent films. Hope some of this helps...

I downloaded this but it unfortunately is in Russian and split into 3 parts. It's in MPG format; I'll convert it to MKV. The frame rate is 29.97 so I'm curious if the initial DVD's audio will sync with it. I'll try it out and tell you guys if it works.

Hmm. That's interesting! I do like the Matrix, and I knew that the color timing was changed but not to the extent as shown by your comparison. I'd definitely be interested in this HDTV Broadcast. You_Too, can you kindly PM me the links please (if it has been uploaded)?