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A Few Words About A few words about...™ Deliverance -- in BD & HD (1 Viewer)

Stephen_J_H

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Gordon McMurphy said:
Robert Harris, do you have any thoughts on the vast differences in the colour timing and contrast of the new transfer to the previous transfer? Here's the DVD Beaver comparison. Any idea why the title on the opening credits is different, ie. in all CAPITALS?
I'd like to know about this too, since there's an indication in this thread that Deliverance is a "flashed" film.
 

Douglas Monce

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Stephen_J_H said:
I'd like to know about this too, since there's an indication in this thread that Deliverance is a "flashed" film.
This might very well be true as this film was shot by Vilmos Zsigmond who used flashing on McCabe & Mrs. Miller the same year. However the flashing would effect the original negative I believe so the effect should be visible in any version of the film.
Doug
 

Douglas Monce

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Gordon McMurphy said:
transfer, but it is likely, seeing as he had worked with Warner before.
Its possible that they used digital grading to "correct" the flashing. They may have thought that the original film was fading or something. But if they used their brains at all they should be able to tell that the film was flashed.
By the way the negative is flashed before the film is run through the camera.
Doug
 

Robert Harris

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From Camera Guild:

Zsigmond: "One day, John Boorman accidentally wandered into the projection room at the lab, and he was intrigued by the look [of McCabe...]. He contacted me about working with him on a film called Deliverance. It was a totally different kind of a movie. But we did desaturate the film. We decided this film needed more contrast and a little bit of a black and whitish look. Since we were working with Technicolor, we used the dye transfer technique. They made three color matrices and then a fourth black-and-white one. That gave us more control over the blacks and whites. We decided certain scenes would have 10, 15 or 20 percent more black and white, and we were able to manipulate the look and mood of the movie that way."
 

Jim*Tod

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Thanks Mr. Harris---I was beginning to think my memories were getting desaturated! I knew I was right about the prints I saw first run.
 

De Rk Nwerty

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Jim*Tod said:
Did anyone see DELIVERANCE in its original release? As I recall the first run prints were in desaturated color... almost black and white. This was a short lived trend in the early 70's. Two other examples were FAT CITY and THE THREE MUSKETEERS. Does anyone else remember this? I doubt we'd see the color timed this way for dvd, but as I recall, that was the intent for some films of that period. (Lester had reportedly wanted to shot MUSKETEERS in black and white and the muted prints were the compromise.)
Hm. Interesting :)


Imdb trivia: 'Much of the film had to have its color desaturated as the river simply looked too pretty.'

"The film's downbeat mood is sustained in its cinematography as well as its dramaturgy. Seeking to lend what he called an "ominous quality" to the "pleasant and restful" greens and blues of sky, river and trees, Boorman (in conjunction with Technicolor) developed a new color desaturation technique for Deliverance. The result is a film shot in threatening grey-greens, not so much washed-out as evacuated of conventionally pretty nature imagery. Although the big Panavision images of river, cliffs, and forest are impressive enough (there are some breath-taking moving compositions of the two canoes, exploiting both the format and the long lens's flattened perspective) the desaturated color always ensures that they do not become merely picturesque. As befits a story of liberal complacency confronted by brutal antagonism, it is the struggle to survive that predominates, the big screen used more to document that in close-up than to celebrate the pictorial splendours of the setting.

Read more: http://www.filmreference.com/Films-Dah-Deu/Deliverance.html#ixzz2cnwdXRrC



As was 'the ending of Taxi Driver"; color desaturation as a compromise in bloodiness apparently (audio commmentary).

Later, the brown-discolored look of 70's movies was due to deterioration - need for restoration. Digital times have a great future (4 and 8k..) !

Also, perhaps 'independent cinema' used faster film and cheaper production - i'd expect a difference with Technicolor studio productions :)
 

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