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Special Feature Trailers w/ better picture than feature-what gives?

post #1 of 12
12/14/01 at 10:40pm
Thread Starter 
I noticed on several DVD's lately that the trailer in the special features actually had a better picture than the movie itself. Sharper, and with better color and contrast. Why do they do this? Makes you wish you could have seen the movie that way. One was The Grinch. The trailer was sharp and clear, while the feature seemed hazy and softer in focus. Maybe that is the way it was supposed to be in the feature, but I preferred the way the trailer looked.
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post #2 of 12
12/15/01 at 9:19am
All Quiet on the Western Front.

The feature looks rough (Universal needs to have a certain digital restoration company work on this one), but the trailer looks a lot better.

I'm not saying it's bad. It's a good presentation of what the existing elements look like. If Universal is having The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) digitally restored, they need to have many of their older films restored before its too late.

Nitrate won't wait!
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post #3 of 12
12/15/01 at 10:18am
[size=]I've noticed this on a few. Notably the Star Wars TPM trailer looked better than the feature and I thought that the LOTR trailers looked better than Rush Hour 2.[/size]
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post #4 of 12
12/15/01 at 4:27pm
Trailer's are not color timed or supervised by the director and director of photography. Therefore they do not convey the intended look of the movie.

Color timing is a process of washing the film with chemicals and printing with filters to create and maintain a color scheme (although now it can be done digitally). Basically, it's used to keep things like the color of the sky consistent between shots completed hours or even days apart. But, it's also used to darken a picture, lighten a picture or give it a 'gritty' feel (or in the case of 'The Grinch' give it a soft focus) to the filmmaker's preference. The color scheme of a film goes a long way in creating a mood.

So although a film may look more vibrant in the trailers, its the wrong scheme and not the intended look.
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post #5 of 12
12/16/01 at 8:34am
I am curious as to whether people experiencing this problem have a widescreen TV or a standard TV. I notice this problem on my standard TV and I chalk it up to downconversion. Colors are one thing...but that "softer" look you get can simply be downconversion. "The Grinch" I believe was intended to have that softer look. However, there are many other films like JP3 or Superman where the featurette looks so much more detailed it makes you think....
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post #6 of 12
12/16/01 at 8:42am
Thread Starter 
Christopher,

You bring up a good question. I also have a 4:3 set, and to test this phenomenon, I set the DVD player for a 16:9 TV, which eliminates the downconversion. I still get the same result, with the trailer a lot better looking, at least to me, than the feature.
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post #7 of 12
12/16/01 at 7:39pm
A lot of people don't understand why some films look "soft" instead of totally hard. Many reviews of Superman stated that the transfer was too soft. The film itself used lots of fog filters, so it was intentional.

This is another reason why a good understanding of film technology needs to be known when reviewing films like this.

After all, we can't critizize the "March of Time" segment in Citizen Kane for having too many scratches and lines.
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post #8 of 12
12/16/01 at 11:56pm
And the trailers for The Matrix don't look too green!
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post #9 of 12
12/17/01 at 4:23am
Did anyone shout DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE?
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post #10 of 12
12/17/01 at 4:41am
Check out Snatch!
No not that the movie/trailer
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post #11 of 12
12/17/01 at 5:34am
Also, trailers might have been preserved in better conditions?
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post #12 of 12
12/17/01 at 6:21am
I'm suprised nobody has mentioned American Pie. The trailer is so clear and colorful and the film itself is so dark and not colorful.
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