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Gone with the Wind: 65th Anniversary Special 4-Disc Edition (1 Viewer)

TedD

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No, there is only one element. (negative, interpositive, internegative, whichever is used as the source to the telecine process)

Ted
 

DeeF

Screenwriter
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Yes.

I'll give my impression of the process here, and Mr. Harris (or anybody) can chime in with corrections.

Usually, a DVD picture is made by scanning in a color print (or black and white, for a black and white movie). Once the transfer is made, things can be done to it (on the computer) like de-speckling, or edge enhancement, etc. It's best to make the scan at the highest resolution possible (say, 2k, or 2000 vertical lines) even though it will have to be down-res'd (reduced in resolution) to 480 lines for a DVD picture. Most movies on DVD had pictures that were made this way. In addition to the scan, though, remember that a DVD only has so much room, so the transfer must be compressed in certain places, saving "digital" space, so to speak.

Because older movies were copied to prints so many thousand times, the old negatives are often scratchy and speckly, and there's not much to be done. In the case of a number of black and white movies such as Citizen Kane and Sunset Boulevard, a film "restoration" probably takes place, putting together the best possible print from various sources, old prints, negatives, etc., scanning and then cleaning it up like normal. Lowry is involved in some form of digital "cleanup."

Though the original negative of Singin' in the Rain was destroyed, and most prints faded and faulty, it was discovered that 3 fine-grain B&W masters existed (safeties of the original negs, these are positives). These are basically records of the 3 colors in the film, which was a traditional 3-strip Technicolor film made using B&W film. The 3 masters are similar to what you would see if you took a color image and divided it into "channels" in Photoshop. Each master looks odd, because one of the colors of light (red, green, blue) has been filtered out.

Instead of using the 3 fine-grain b&w safety masters to make a print, this new process was developed of scanning each of them *separately* into the computer. The problem with having three separate pieces of film that fit together is that, over the years, they shrink differently, and so, when put together, don't make a perfect fit. One can see "fringing," halos of color at the edges, where it shouldn't be seen. Originally, 3-strip Technicolor was a very exacting process, exact to 1/10,000 of an inch. But the shrinking variations are serious when blown up on a big screen.

The "Ultra-Resolution" Process solves this problem. Each of the masters is scanned separately, and then the shrinking variations are fixed, *digitally.* They combine perfectly. Each is assigned the appropriate color, cyan, magenta, or yellow, and one has a perfect print in the computer for applying the various filters, despeckling, etc.

In the case of Singin' in the Rain, after the process was complete, a new negative was printed from the composited digital file.
 

Nick Laslett

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The PAL transfer was performed by Lowry Digital Inc especially for the European market. It used an earlier version of their process and is a much better transfer the the US release.

My source for this info is an article I read on Lowry Digital around the time of the release of Casablance. The article talked about other notable transfers Lowery had produced the PAL version of GWTW being one of them.

There were no details about the source of this print. I have this version, so any questions please ask away.
 

Rob Tomlin

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Excellent news.

I will no longer need to watch this movie (my wifes all time favorite) on the current DVD, which Mr. Harris had previously described as looking like "an out of focus cartoon"!
 

DeeF

Screenwriter
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The current DVD of Gone With The Wind isn't that bad. I'm pretty sure Mr. Harris said that about the 1998 restoration of the movie, not the current DVD.
 

Bill Huelbig

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Wasn't the ultra-resolution process also used on the NORTH BY NORTHWEST DVD, or was that some other process? It sure looks like something special was done to it.
 

DeeF

Screenwriter
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North by Northwest was the first DVD project done by Lowry. What they probably did was fix-up a transfer made from a print. The actual negative of the movie has not been touched (and it is apparently in dire straits).

This is not the "ultra-resolution" process. NxNW utilizes a large-format negative (VistaVision). The "ultra-resolution" process has been developed for older 3-strip Technicolor movies, so only movies like Gone with the Wind will need it, at least for now.

I agree with you though, that it looks very good on DVD.
 

ZacharyTait

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Just to let everyone know, I was being sarcastic in my comments in my first post on the first page. Some people thought I was being serious. I put smileys by some of the things I said to show I was being a smart ass. :)
 

Brian W.

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Which shots are these? I might be able to verify (or not). But I need to know what I'm looking for, so I need a description of what I should be seeing and what I should not be seeing.

However, as I recall, these weren't terribly obvious on the old DVD, were they? I remember really noticing one of them in the theater, as there was a black band on the bottom of the screen.
 

ScottR

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These are the ones I recall:

1. Shot of Scarlett running down the driveway at the end of the first scene.

2. Shot of slaves returning home from the fields after work.

3. The sign at Twelve Oaks at the beginning of the barbeque.

4. A couple of shots of the wounded soldiers at the train depot, including the final shot of that scene, leading into the dissolve.

.....I think that is it. There may be one or two more that I can't recall off hand. The problem on the dvd is that the recomposed shots often cause a vertical pan and scan when the scene lap dissolves into the next.
 

Brian W.

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Hmm... are you SURE about these, Scott?

If these are the shots, then NONE of them have been restored. I was able to A/B shots from the new master with the current DVD, and except for overscan on the DVD that is not present in the copy of the new master, there's no difference.

I ran across a review of the last theatrical release, and it mentioned a shot of Scarlett "running down the hill to meet her father" as the most obvious of the few cropped shots in the film, so if that's one, then I did not compare that one. It said that when it was released widescreen, they had certain scenes printed "up" one sprocket hole, so as not to lose any "important" information, and that these scenes or shots only survived in poor condition prints.

But I thought I read, way back in the mid-eighties for the first home video release, that they had discovered an old negative of the film in a mislabeled canister that had never been used for printing, and that's what they used for the original VHS & laserdisc.
 

ScottR

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If you watch the next shots after these scenes, you can see a slight panning downward to compensate (ie. the cattle going down the hill after Scarlett runs down the driveway) It is possible that the shots were cropped further for dvd, so there really is no way to compare on disc.
 

Jay Pennington

Screenwriter
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Apr 18, 2003
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My recollection is that that was a print, not a neg, but it still looked better due to how much handling the neg had received.
 

Alejandro

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Jul 19, 2004
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Hi all,
I'm holding my breath on this Special Edition. Does anyone know when it's likely to be announced? If the intention is a november '04 release, I can't hardly wait to see the artwork for the box set. As in other recent releases Warner is using vintage poster art (see Robin Hood) will they be using it with GWTW?
Since I saw Olivia de Havilland coming back from her retirement (she lives in Paris) to present an award in last year's Oscars (or was it the year before?), I'm wondering if they have asked her to do an audio commentary. After she left Hollywood in the late sixties she's been very private about her life and career, but if she accepted the Academy's invitation, does it mean she is ready to talk about one of her career's highlights?
Besides the shots likely to be reinseted in the film, how about the alternate ending they mention in the Turner docummentary. There are pictures that show Scarlett walking through Tara (just before the silouet of the final shot). To see that ending would be a dream, and since the Selznick archives have all the screen tests and staff, would it be likely they have that footage?
Questions, questions...
 

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