A Few Words About A few words about...™ The Searchers -- in High Defintion (7 Viewers)

[Into The Archives]

If Deadline is correct, the new restoration of The Searchers will be presented in 70mm at the TCM Fest.

TCM Unveils 2024 Programming Slate, Events, and New Podcasts For 30th Anniversary

The 30th anniversary of TCM is jammed with events, podcasts, tours and movies

deadline.com

 

[Stephen_J_H]

If Deadline is correct, the new restoration of The Searchers will be presented in 70mm at the TCM Fest.

TCM Unveils 2024 Programming Slate, Events, and New Podcasts For 30th Anniversary

The 30th anniversary of TCM is jammed with events, podcasts, tours and movies

deadline.com

I think I’d rather see a DCP, as this is likely a digital restoration.

 

[Robert Crawford]

If Deadline is correct, the new restoration of The Searchers will be presented in 70mm at the TCM Fest.

TCM Unveils 2024 Programming Slate, Events, and New Podcasts For 30th Anniversary

The 30th anniversary of TCM is jammed with events, podcasts, tours and movies

deadline.com

That’s already been posted in this thread back in November about the TCM film festival and The Searchers.

 

[PMF]

May this TCM event be wildly successful.

 

[Into The Archives]

That’s already been posted in this thread back in November about the TCM film festival and The Searchers.

Yes....but I'm pointing out that it's being shown in 70mm from the new restoration, which was just announced to my understanding.

 

[Jim*Tod]

Glad to see THE SEARCHERS and NORTH BY NORTHWEST being restored. For those of us who cannot make it to the festival can only hope 4K discs of both are in the offing. Ah.... VistaVision!!!!

 

[Robert Crawford]

Glad to see THE SEARCHERS and NORTH BY NORTHWEST being restored. For those of us who cannot make it to the festival can only hope 4K discs of both are in the offing. Ah.... VistaVision!!!!

I think there is little question that both of those films will have a 4K/UHD release this year.

 

[Robert Harris]

If Deadline is correct, the new restoration of The Searchers will be presented in 70mm at the TCM Fest.

TCM Unveils 2024 Programming Slate, Events, and New Podcasts For 30th Anniversary

The 30th anniversary of TCM is jammed with events, podcasts, tours and movies

deadline.com

Not something I would support.

 

[Tino]

Not something I would support.

Why?

 

[SeanSKA]

I think there is little question that both of those films will have a 4K/UHD release this year.

Two of my Most Wanted titles on 4K (especially since I've bought both of them on every prior home video format)

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Why?

RAH has written at length about this, starting in the Murder on the Orient Express thread. A film out isn’t going to look as good as the DCP of a digital restoration, for reasons that could bore you to tears.

 

[Lord Dalek]

70mm seems like a waste for a movie in mono.

 

[Dennis Gallagher]

RAH has written at length about this, starting in the Murder on the Orient Express thread. A film out isn’t going to look as good as the DCP of a digital restoration, for reasons that could bore you to tears.

I expect many of us here wouldn't be bored.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

The short version is more or less that going from digital to film means that you’re taking a master that (in theory) has been brilliantly restored, that’s rock steady and stable, with color that can be accurately reproduced by any properly calibrated digital projector, and you’re printing it out to film which can introduce a slew of analog artifacts not inherent to the restoration, and projecting it through a mechanical device that can introduce further anomalies not inherent to the restoration.

A very rough analogy might be to image having a great album on CD, and having a car stereo that has a CD player and a cassette deck, but instead of simply putting the CD into the CD player, you instead make a cassette copy and play that in your car instead.

From a niche business perspective, though, 70mm is much rarer than digital these days, so in big cities and festivals, a 70mm print might allow the venue to charge more per screening and bring in a different and maybe larger crowd.

But from a technical position, the argument against it is you’re taking a completed restoration and instead of playing it back as is in a quality identical to what the restorationists were looking at, you’re instead looking at it a generation removed from the restoration work without a clear reason for doing so. And none of the attributes of modern 70mm print stock match those of the original film stock from the 1950s, so while you might get some film grain or whatnot, it’s not representative of what an original print would have looked like.

 

[Robert Harris]

The short version is more or less that going from digital to film means that you’re taking a master that (in theory) has been brilliantly restored, that’s rock steady and stable, with color that can be accurately reproduced by any properly calibrated digital projector, and you’re printing it out to film which can introduce a slew of analog artifacts not inherent to the restoration, and projecting it through a mechanical device that can introduce further anomalies not inherent to the restoration.

A very rough analogy might be to image having a great album on CD, and having a car stereo that has a CD player and a cassette deck, but instead of simply putting the CD into the CD player, you instead make a cassette copy and play that in your car instead.

From a niche business perspective, though, 70mm is much rarer than digital these days, so in big cities and festivals, a 70mm print might allow the venue to charge more per screening and bring in a different and maybe larger crowd.

But from a technical position, the argument against it is you’re taking a completed restoration and instead of playing it back as is in a quality identical to what the restorationists were looking at, you’re instead looking at it a generation removed from the restoration work without a clear reason for doing so. And none of the attributes of modern 70mm print stock match those of the original film stock from the 1950s, so while you might get some film grain or whatnot, it’s not representative of what an original print would have looked like.

Nicely worded. I can add a few points.

A 70mm (or any analogue print) is two full generations removed from the data file.

As grain structure in modern stock is extremely fine, a reasonable facsimile of the original grain, as captured, should still be evident, but smoother.

Since many venues will not have properly trained staff, those attempting to run 70mm for marketing sizzle - which is all it is - can have an extremely expensive experience.

 

[Joseph Goodman]

Are there even any 65/70 film recorders around that aren't 15-20 plus year old CRT-based things like the Celco recorders?

 

[JPCinema]

Any word or reviews about the showing of THE SEARCHERS restored version at the TCM Film Festival ?

 

[Alan Tully]

Are there even any 65/70 film recorders around that aren't 15-20 plus year old CRT-based things like the Celco recorders?

I'd be astonished if there was any CRT scanners still working. All of the Rank Cintel Telecine machines I worked on for years were thrown into a skip decades ago. I think there was a bit of a shortage of 65mm gates for film scanners, but I wouldn't think that's the case now.

Ha, a reply three months after the post.

 

[Into The Archives]

Any word or reviews about the showing of THE SEARCHERS restored version at the TCM Film Festival ?

For what it's worth, postings on X and Facebook have said it was “a near-religious experience”, “Unbelievable”, “gorgeous”, “best film print I have ever seen” and the “OCN was scanned at 13K”.

 

[Robert Crawford]

All of a sudden today, The Searchers stream has been deleted from Max. The old stream was there yesterday and today it is gone from that streaming service.