Williarob

JayArgonaut said:

captainsolo said:

Like all the non-scope Bonds for the SE DVD, GF was cropped to 1.78:1. While this is still around the safe limits for framing flat matted widescreen the SE DVDs did crop a bit too much on all five done this way and the 1.66 is the best ratio for the initial three in terms of composition.

Thankfully the 1.66:1 OAR was restored for the GF UE.

Here’s a fun fact: 1.66:1 is not the original theatrical aspect ratio for the first three Bond films, the correct AR is 1.85:1. Since the mid-fifties, the most common AR in the UK was 1.75, but Kinematograph Weekly specifically lists 1.85 as the intended ratio for the first three Bond films. This documentation is from a British trade journal at the time of principal photography so it’s as good as gospel:

A big thank you to Bob Furmanek of the 3D film Archive (http://www.3dfilmarchive.com/) for pointing this out to me this weekend.

Now, like most of you, I like minimal cropping, so I’m glad there are 1.66:1 versions available, but it’s also nice to know how people saw it in theaters in 1962. Looking at an original IB Tech film frame from a 1962 print, we can see that there is slightly more picture information available, my math puts it at around 1.58:1 if you include all of it. I believe it was hard matted in camera to 1.66:1 so there is probably a little more picture information on the sides on the original negatives than made it onto this print.

Waifu2x is another option, and it’sdesigned specifially for upscaling anime… Plus it’s free!

http://waifu2x.udp.jp/

Servanov said:

NeverarGreat said:

I feel like there has to be an easier way to clean a static starfield.

Since the automated dust cleanup presumably erases stars, have you considered stabilizing the shot, running the cleanup, and layering it over the original on ‘darken’? Then if you had just a single frame manually cleaned, it could be overlaid on top of that with the blending on ‘lighten’, which would return the accidentally erased stars.

True. This is actually a trick we’ve been taught at my film restoration business. We make two copies of the frame, and on one we apply an automatic dust and scratch removal, which removes some detail, but then put the dirty layer on darken and the quality is kept while only removing the dust.

So, limited success on this one… The main problem is that both the dust and the stars are “light”, so using the automatic cleanup and blending it with the original won’t work here. Most of the dark dirt is lost in the blackness of space.

To illustrate the problem, here is a raw frame (this is from the pandown, to make it more obvious which stars are missing, but the same is true during the crawl where perhaps only a single star is accidentally erased):

And here is the same frame after automated cleanup:

Now If I put the original frame on top of the cleaned frame and set the blend mode to Lighten, all of the stars return, but so does the red line - in fact it looks identical to the original uncleaned frame. If I set it to Darken, it looks identical to the cleaned frame - the line is gone but so are all those stars. (This is a technique I’ve used before, and it works very well on a lot of shots, but unfortunately not this one.)

However, Using a static stars frame (one taken from right before the pan down), and placing it above the auto cleaned layer with the blend mode set to “Lighten” does work pretty well for most of the shot - though of course it can’t be used until the Star Wars logo has gone, or it adds stars to the black area inside the words:

And it’s only good until the pan down, but that’s still a lot of frames.

Every frame will still need to be checked, but this should save me some time painting out the dirt and dust, so thank you for your suggestions.

I’ll give it a try!

The $325 has been raised, the 16mm print has been scanned, and is ready for use as a color reference and for repairing/replacing damaged frames. The Fuji print has also been scanned, so now it is just a matter of time, rather than money - unless somebody has 6 figures they can throw our way, so that we can quit our day jobs and work on this full time.

Cleanup is very time consuming, as this real time video demonstrates:

https://vimeo.com/338040925/ca9015d4f8

In 13 minutes, about 30 frames (or just over 1 second of film) is cleaned. The frame is advanced, forward and back repeatedly, because it’s very difficult to see which white specks are dust and which are stars without checking to see which ones persist across multiple frames and which are only there for a single frame.

It’s quite boring to watch and it’s quite boring to do, but it’s also why there are so few updates about the project. This opening crawl sequence is 2000 frames and will likely take at least two weeks to clean. We all have full time jobs and family responsibilities, so an hour or two per day is the most we can usually devote to projects like this one. Two films in, this is all routine to TN1 at this point, so unless a new technique or new software is being tried, or something weird and unusual is spotted in the footage, time isn’t usually wasted creating videos or posts to update people about what’s happening. If this post takes 5 minutes to compose, that’s 10-15 frames that didn’t get cleaned.

Progress is slow, painfully slow, but it is happening. Every day more frames are being cleaned, color corrected, stabilized, deflickered, and repaired or replaced. (Though not necessarily in that order!)

Different reels are being worked on simultaneously by different people around the world, which makes tracking progress difficult. But don’t worry, when we have some news, we’ll let you know.

Thank you to everyone who has donated, and to those who are still willing to donate. At this point, if you’d like to make a donation to help projects like this one, I would recommend you donate to one of Poita’s projects - last I heard he needed the money for Hard Drives, without which work cannot continue, so donating to him will actually help get some of his projects get off the ground, e.g.:

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/The-Original-Trilogy-restored-from-35mm-prints/id/49756

paypal.me/poit

Though of course donations to us are also always welcome 😃 We always need more software, Hard Drives, and other computer hardware.

The LPP used for the SSE had more picture information on all sides than the Tech prints:

http://www.framecompare.com/image-compare/screenshotcomparison/KL6WNNNX

Sky_ said:

Omni said:

What other version would they have? I’m pretty sure the deleted scenes as found on the Bluray are the best quality we’re going to get for a while.

Williarob said:

TN1 does not have a better version of the scenes. Surprisingly, the deleted scenes were not on any of the theatrical prints that were scanned.

I saw The Team Negative 1 of the deleted scenes, even though they was damaged like the ones on Bluray, they were much more Sharper a lot more detail, it was somewhere on these forums, cant remember the link, so I wrote to them and not had a Response, most likely they never saw my messages, that why i need help in getting contact with them… 😦

These ones?

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Star-Wars-Deleted-Scenes-Reincorporated/id/13512/page/9

That’s from the bluray. Unless you have access to the Lucasfilm archives, there’s currently no better source for these deleted scenes than the official bluray. If they look cleaner and sharper, it’s because we cleaned and sharpened them, but as far as I know, we never completed the project - as you know it’s a ton of work.

TN1 does not have a better version of the scenes. Surprisingly, the deleted scenes were not on any of the theatrical prints that were scanned.

As far as we can tell, there is no uncut version of Dr No, at least not outside of EON’s vaults.

Thank you!

Me too.

TK-423 said:

Thanks for the clarification! Is the version you’re referencing the “Star Wars: 4K77 v1.4” release I’m seeing floating around? Want to make sure I’m actually grabbing the version we’re discussing.

Yes, that’s the one.

TK-423 said:

Total noob question here. Is a regrade essentially just a frame by frame recoloring? So this is essentially a version of 4k77 that an editor has gone through and recolored frame by frame for consistency or whatever?

So the original 4k77 release was “as is” whereas you could view this a version of 4k77 that has had specifically the color “remastered”?

Thanks!

Yes, I think that sums it up quite nicely. This has indeed been remastered, because Sanjuro was kind enough to send me his project files, and I could therefore apply his new grade to the lossless master and generate a new version - which is better than what usually happens, where somebody takes the h.264/5 version and regrades that, resulting in a slight generational loss.

SilverWook said:

Not sure where else to post this.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1960s-James-Bond-16mm-Promotional-Films/264238076448
Are these on the DVD/Blu Ray extras?

Don’t know, but I’ll bid on it and see what happens…

Crunko said:
How do you make your cover appear on a Blu Ray case? Is it a program or legit photography?

The program is called Imandix Cover Pro (http://www.imandix.com/), The free version will add a watermark, but it only costs $19.

Ok, I’ll transfer it from the DVR later today…

Skyfall does appear to have been broadcast open matte:

Bluray:

SyFy:

Certainly a little more image top and bottom.

Not sure how useful it is though, obviously it runs 180 minutes with commercials, it has a logo in the corner, and may have been edited for television.

Would it be better to try and get it from Epix or Amazon Prime?

5.1 surround sound is the common name for six channel surround sound audio systems. It uses five full bandwidth channels and one low-frequency effects channel (the “point one”).

kchrules said:

… this 16mm clip on eBay which I can’t afford: https://www.ebay.com/itm/16mm-IB-TECH-Film-CLIP-GOLDFINGER-1964-James-Bond-003-Now-with-DIAMONDS/113659583367

Yeah that’s been on the bay for a while now - $200+ for 33 seconds of footage! I keep waiting for the price to drop, but he seems to think that’s what it’s worth, and maybe it is, but I can’t afford it either.

It was actually quite fun - I’d never really tinkered with the inside of a VCR before - they were all too expensive back in the day, I didn’t want to break it (or accidentally electrocute myself!), but Q seems to know what he’s doing.

Thanks SilverWook, I contacted the CED Magic group on facebook and they checked three discs for me!

The results are in. Did that '82 Betamax tape or CED contain an uncut version?

http://www.the007dossier.com/007dossier/post/2019/02/21/Dr-No-Rare-Uncut-Version-1st-BetaVHS-release-1982

DrDre said:

This is some really nice work, and in record time! Congrats! I think your shot by shot can also be used as a great basis for further tuning to cater to each and everyone’s personal preferences. Here’s my little effort, starting from the last shot of the film. I personally feel the color grading could use a little warmth to bring it more in line with the technicolor references.

sanjuro_61:

DrDre:

I applied this adjustment to the two sets of sample frames I found:

It might need a little tuning here and there, to get to a final version (I see a few frames with some excess magenta), if there’s an interest, but you get the general idea.

Here’s the LUT:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hDo_XIiozzDanx5B1WAn-GuG31UwHlYW/view?usp=sharing

Cool - thanks Dre!

I was the only bidder on an auction for an '82 RCA CED of Dr No this weekend ($0.99) which I have sent to -1. His CED player (like most of them these days) is very hit and miss, and the discs can be equally troublesome, so there are no guarantees that he’ll be able to play it at all, but with a little luck he should be able to confirm or deny the existence of any deleted scenes on the disc.

Brodnation said:

Is 4K77 GOUT Synced?

Yes it is.

I wonder why it says “music recorded at…” BETWEEN the frames.