Location of King Kong 1933 Original negative, Foreign lavender and M&E tracks (2 Viewers)

[sbjork]

The biggest issue with the existing Blu-ray is neither the scan nor anything else to do with the transfer itself, but rather the encode. The grain is sometimes intermingled with noise, especially during any scenes with fog.

The grain itself could doubtless be reduced if the OCN or other better elements were discovered, as it is very pronounced on the disc. But better encoding would make a world of difference even with what we have now.

 

[Bartkong]

Maybe these pix will transfer (in reference to my Harriet Hagman post above). Doesn't seem to want to take JPEG files.
Bart

 

[dagover]

I have loved the 1933 King Kong movie since seeing it as a kid in the 1950s. My wife and I saw the 1976 movie in a theater and hated it. After liking what Jackson did with LOTR, I looked forward to his 2005 Kong. I hated it, and haven't watched a Jackson or Kong movie since.

Besides having The Making of King Kong book since it's release in the 1970s, I've owned various vhs, dvds and even the blu-ray of the 1933 Kong. I hated the blu-ray. My favorite dvd of the 1933 King Kong is still the Two Disc Collector's Edition in the Steel Book case.

 

[Johnny Angell]

I have loved the 1933 King Kong movie since seeing it as a kid in the 1950s. My wife and I saw the 1976 movie in a theater and hated it. After liking what Jackson did with LOTR, I looked forward to his 2005 Kong. I hated it, and haven't watched a Jackson or Kong movie since.

Besides having The Making of King Kong book since it's release in the 1970s, I've owned various vhs, dvds and even the blu-ray of the 1933 Kong. I hated the blu-ray. My favorite dvd of the 1933 King Kong is still the Two Disc Collector's Edition in the Steel Book case.

What’s wrong with the 33’ blu ray?

 

[JoshZ]

I hated the blu-ray. My favorite dvd of the 1933 King Kong is still the Two Disc Collector's Edition in the Steel Book case.

The Blu-ray comes from the same master as that DVD (which was in a tin case, not a SteelBook, FYI), so I don't know what there was to hate about it.

 

[dagover]

What’s wrong with the 33’ blu ray?

I'll have to dig that one out and rewatch. As I remember, I think the imperfections and handprints to move Kong were just too
distracting on the blu.

 

[Drew Salzan]

The Blu-ray comes from the same master as that DVD (which was in a tin case, not a SteelBook, FYI), so I don't know what there was to hate about it.

You are correct. The DVD was remastered from a high definition scan of a pristine print, complete and uncut discovered in Great Britain I believe. It has never looked better on Blu-ray.

 

[dagover]

I found my Kong blu, which I hadn't watched in 10 years, and compared portions to the 2-disc dvd in tin case (not steelbook. JoshZ is right. I have UK silent films in Steelbook and should know). So after comparing the scenes from when Kong takes Wray, until after the T-Rex fight, here's what I noticed. The dvd fills up the whole screen on my 65" 4k TV and player without looking distorted, whereas the blu-ray has 6-7" of black border on each side. The blu may be a little sharper, but when you're in your mid 70s, bigger is better and sharpness isn't that much of a factor. In the end, it's one of the greatest movies ever made, and lucky for us all, we have choices.

 

[TomTom]

I've done some comparisons between the blu and the dvd and the blu has various darker scenes--on the island--I was surprised by this--I have to assume WB is aware of this--and went in that direction.
I also did the same procedure on son and MJY---those 2 titles matched exactly in video levels.

 

[Johnny Angell]

My two very best disc packages are the DVDs of Forbidden Planet and the original KK. And they didn’t charge an arm and a leg for them. FP has a little Robby the Robot (which is still in the original, sealed packaging. Both cases are steel or tin and now contain the blu rays. Jeez, I wonder what KK would look like in 4K?

 

[TomTom]

here--attached-- are some of my screen grabs--the scope on right displays the luminance value

 

[Dick]

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[JoshZ]

The dvd fills up the whole screen on my 65" 4k TV and player without looking distorted, whereas the blu-ray has 6-7" of black border on each side. The blu may be a little sharper, but when you're in your mid 70s, bigger is better and sharpness isn't that much of a factor. In the end, it's one of the greatest movies ever made, and lucky for us all, we have choices.

The movie was photographed at an aspect ratio of 1.37:1, which is narrower than a 16:9 HTV screen. It should have blacks bars on the left and right. Both the DVD and Blu-ray are mastered with the correct aspect ratio.

If your DVD fills the screen, that's something you are doing with a setting in the TV. Every TV brand has different names for their aspect ratio settings, but geometry is geometry and there's no way to make a square fit into a rectangle without distorting it. You must be doing one of the following:

1) Cropping the top and bottom off the image and zooming up the middle, losing considerable picture.
2) Stretching the entire picture sideways, making everyone look short and fat.
or
3) Using a non-linear stretch, which stretches the picture less in the middle and more on the sides, and usually also crops a little off the top and bottom.

If you say you haven't noticed distortion, you're probably using #3. One of the tell-tale signs of this is pronounced fish-eye effect during horizontal motion or camera pans.

 

[Christian D66]

Just rewatched my blu of KK for Willis O'Brian's bday and I still think it looks great, especially the opening where you can really see New York by night. The deep background miniatures in that film are so beautifully lit, shot and designed. But my dreams are of the spider pit footage with the lost spfx reel and the shots of Kong climbing down Skull Island and jumping on the rooftops of New York...

But what is this workprint?

 

[TomTom]

I am hoping Criterion Collection will follow up with 4k disc following their Citizen Kane announcement.

 

[Robert Harris]

I am hoping Criterion Collection will follow up with 4k disc following their Citizen Kane announcement.

There’s nothing even remotely 4k about the film.

 

[Lord Dalek]

There’s nothing even remotely 4k about the film.

There's nothing even remotely 2k about the film at times for that matter.

 

[Dave H]

So, does the ON for King Kong 1933 exist?

 

[TomTom]

So, does the ON for King Kong 1933 exist?

From 2005 Robert Harris reported:
"King Kong was a victim of its own success... The large number of prints... manufactured... probably wore out Kong's negative. The earliest surviving material on Kong is a master positive made from the camera negative in 1942. This print was the backbone Richard Dayton [of YCM Laboratories in Burbank, CA] relied on in preparing new master elements on Kong. The history of heavy negative use is printed right into this 1942 master."

also look at beginning posts on page one of this thread

 

[Dave H]

From 2005 Robert Harris reported:
"King Kong was a victim of its own success... The large number of prints... manufactured... probably wore out Kong's negative. The earliest surviving material on Kong is a master positive made from the camera negative in 1942. This print was the backbone Richard Dayton [of YCM Laboratories in Burbank, CA] relied on in preparing new master elements on Kong. The history of heavy negative use is printed right into this 1942 master."

also look at beginning posts on page one of this thread

Location of King Kong 1933 Original negative, Foreign lavender and M&E tracks

Hi Robert, My name is Bart Pierce and I to worked in film restoration during the time you were doing the same. I worked for 20th Century Fox Video and produced the majority of their special editions on the laserdisc. I am probably best known as the designer of special photographic effects for...

www.hometheaterforum.com

RAH:
"As to the OCN, it may also survive in someone's hands, as there seem to be no annotations of destruction."