Indeed it can!
I just got home from surgery, rather battered and very,very sore, but glad to be home again. They are cautiously rating it as a 'success', will see more over the next 6 weeks or so of recovery.
Now you can all go back to your rooting, in its many and varied forms.
Just as an interesting cultural difference between North America and Australia. 'Rooting' appears to mean 'cheering' or 'supporting' as far as I can tell in Northern America, but in Australia 'rooting' means 'having intercourse'...
So I am hoping you are from America :)
tbird97 said:
dave88 said:
Why are you guys so keen on this release?
I don't mind to reply.
For me, this hits my Star Wars sweet spot. This was the last release of the movies before the Special Editions took more liberties with the movies.
I'm not interested in a "despecialized" or recreated experience (not knocking the effort that went into creating them). I want to recall the movies just as I grew up with them and liked them.
I've seen several people state they felt this was the best version (at least at the time) of the laserdisc transfers to DVD. It has uncompressed sound and a widescreen anamorphic picture. Other than making the picture anamorphic, it's my understanding this presents the definitive edition laserdiscs just as they appeared. I own the limited edition 2006 DVDs and watch them from time to time (I prefer them to my Blu-rays). I look forward to hearing the uncompressed audio on my home theater and watching the anamorphic picture and getting sucked into the movies all over again.
I now have two sons and I want to show them Star Wars as I first saw it and loved it. I can't speak for everyone, but that's the reason for my interest.Thanks to all involved in these projects.
May the Force be with you.
I think the X0 raw captures were probably better, and they are out there somewhere, but personally I think the Technidisc ones are better.
EyeShotFirst said:
I grew up watching old Fleischer cartoons from the 30s and 40s, and you'd see characters like Popeye and Superman fighting really racially stereotypical characters. I saw basically every flavor of racial stereotype from as early as I can remember, but I didn't pay any attention to any of that at the time I watched it. It was re-watching them as an adult that made me see what was in the picture. Did it have any negative affects on me, as to how I see different races and cultures? Absolutely not.
The problem with censorship; you are pretending that the time the piece was created, there weren't views like that. I don't see the point in restoring a censored scene, only to change it further. In fact, I never payed any attention to the badly altered scene until it was brought to my attention when I was trying to work on my own edit of Fantasia a ways back.
The problem with Fantasia is the fact that there isn't really any true original version. That film has been hacked and re-arranged from the second it premiered. And knowing how "well" Disney preserves things, it's a wonder we even have the film in it's butchered state. If you're going to restore something, restore the audio. People are trying to hard to preserve the Fantasound, which has always sounded like shit to my ears. I'd like to hear the best possible source used, instead of these heavily scrubbed recordings that sound like a bad phaser on a guitar pedalboard.
I know for a fact that the reel to reel soundtrack from around 57 (I believe) sounds much better than any home video release in my lifetime. It's getting your hands on it at a reasonable cost and condition; that is the real struggle.
I really feel like Disney had a good idea when they made Fantasia, but the technology just wasn't there yet.
I don't know what sources Disney has at their disposal, so it's probably unfair for me to dog them, but I've just never seen all that good out of any restoration Disney has done lately.
I have the reel to reel tapes if anyone wants to take a crack at it, and it is in good condition.
titanic said:
Sorry if I sound anxious (can't help it), but is there any update on this?
(and Alice in Wonderland that was mentioned)
The scans are all done of Fantasia and Alice, just looking for anyone that wants to handle the restoration, I really do not have enough time even if I cloned myself. The files are currently in the US.
Oh, and Harmy's last one is about where I would put it.
I know I keep banging on about this, but...
1) The IB Techs are all too green, Senator print included.
2) Photos from on set are mostly useless, different film stock, and most likely balanced by the photographer for his own 'look', and usually will tend towards neutral tones, usually will have nothing to do with the look the DoP is going for, and will be completely different.
3) Photos taken of screened movies (e.g. the Senator photos) are almost completely useless, the camera used will most likely blow out the highlights and the white balance setting on the camera will completely change the colours.
4) The Home movie releases all have their own colour problems, and are taken from (generally) a faded source, and have completely different exposure settings to the films.
5) There is no 'original colours', the Tech's are all greenish, the Kodak prints have all faded to red, the LPP is of questionable heritage, and the original grade of the film is all over the place anyway.
6) Every print, and every screening would have looked different.
Star wars is fairly neutral as far as the grade goes, so research into costumes an props can help, but one as to be careful, as they may have been purposely lit to look a different colour.
I'm really enjoying the tech behind all of this, being able to match the look of on version to another is really useful, especially with faded prints, but grading Star Wars now is really down to the individual.
The only things we know is that Darth should generally be black, the stormtroopers white and the skintones in most scenes should look natural, and the laserbolts red and green, and space as black as possible. If the troopers have a colour cast during 'outside' day shots, and there is no obvious source for the cast, then it probably needs fixing. If the skintones aren't right and they are not, say, in the trash compactor for example, then it probably needs fixing. If the makeup is overly visible then the saturation needs adjusting.
The rest is down to knowing the era, the film stocks, finding out as much about the shoot as possible, and having a light touch. Every print, and every screening would have had somewhat different colour, there is no original colouring as such, so our job now is to get something that doesn't look 'wrong' so that effectively, the colour is not noticed and just serves the story.
Everyone will have different opinions, those that grew up on the home video releases, or the newer more contrasty/punchy films will probably find a grade that is closer to the originals to look odd.
There is no right answer, but if the skintones are off, or you have tinted troopers, then you are probably going in the wronf direction.
The Program Dre is doing is great, as you can effectively pick a look, and then use that as the starting point for a full grade.
I'll do a proper correction when I get back home.
The problem is your troopers are also headed to beige, and Darth is browning up.
I'm not at my colourist panel, so this is a very dodgy example, but is closer to the look.
The top is your beige troopers and set, below is closer to how it looks.
TServo2049 said:
Weird, I always thought those pictures looked greenish too, but if you think they don't...
I know the Senator print had color differences from the IB print(s) the reference stills come from - the shots in the light saber duel of Ben and Vader in front of the big doorway looking out toward the Falcon had an overpowering blue tint, but there is a picture of the same scene from the Senator and the colors looked more "normal".
This is most likely due to the automatic white balance on the camera taking the photos of the screen.
They actually do have a very slight mint tint, I've seen some of the panels in person, and although faint, it is there.
However the green skintones on the IB Techs are a result of the shitty state of the Technicolor facility by the mid 70s. The tech prints are great because they haven't faded, but the colour isn't quite right on them, it should be a little less green.
I hope to have some more samples up before my surgery next week.
The 35mm are 21TB each
Now there is a blast from the past.
I think I still have it somewhere.
If a 4K OUT comes along, even if it is done studio-style, I'm still excited for them. Worst case it gives us 4K material sourced from the negatives to work with.
Keep in mind that each film is a few terrabyes in size.
Which film?
here is the correct one
Oops, I uploaded the Empire reel by mistake
I think a modern human being can watch Fantasia and understand it is a product of its time, and anyone that can't, well the edited version exists from Disney.
Whitewashing these scenes now seems far more offensive to me than watching it with the scenes intact.
Reel 2 audio
Erm, you want to paint out the non-white people?
Direct links are not allowed AFAIK.
At least they have a good archival scan of it.