I’d always make certain my framing knob was centered before I’d lace up, and unless I mistakenly threaded incorrectly, seldom had the need to use it, except to touch-up slightly.
Because knowing what a film originally looked like can be a great deal of research and heavy lifting. It is not guess-work. There are always clues, but that isn’t enough.
I’m not referencing extreme HDR. Look at Aurens, MFL, Godfather 2008, Vertigo et al, and you’ll see the reference print At 98%.
For older productions, I’m a great believer in waving the HDR above the project, akin to a good martini. Take a look at MWKTM, which the team at Uni restored to...
No. They were not.
Absolutely, and positively not.
The age and/or production values, film stock, capturing mechanism and optics, as well as projection technology, has nothing to do with the ability to reproduce its original look on 2 or 4k disc.
The only artifact that remains unique to film...
This may be the proper time to relate a story that references color and filmmakers.
It was probably mid-April of 1988. I had been in LA for months working on El Aurens, and Freddie Young and David Lean had joined my team to help.
They knew the film as well as anyone.
I brought them to...
There is only a single reference “hero” toward new editions. Is other prints matching that hero are found, that’s great. But many films, be they set for restoration, or just a re-mastering do have hero reference prints.
To be clear, I believe that any Academy Award winners of Best Picture or Best Cinematography should be restored to the original appearance at the time of release.
An updated / more in tune with the times, version is fine as long as the original is properly represented. The Exorcist was...
It all depends upon decisions from either the filmmakers or top execs. When we restored Vertigo, we requested (of both Paramount and Universal’s Tom Pollock) to re-instate the original Paramount logos. Both agreed. Vista opening was part of OCN. Tail logo was quite faded, and we ended up using...
My comments meant that the colors/densities look fine. Far better than fine, actually. I just have no idea how they might relate to the original answer print.
The interesting thing is that the majority of the prints we viewed at an original release probably had little relevance to the approved answer print.
It was just a print with color good enough to be commercially acceptable.
Actual reference on most films is a rara avis.
I'm going to do my best here not to fall into various potential traps in reviewing WB's new 4k UHD release of Mr. Friedkin's The Exorcist.
There have been numerous variants of the film created for the past half century, with changes to color timing, effects, audio platforms, et al.
AFAIK...