A Few Words About A few words about...™ High Noon -- in Blu-ray (2 Viewers)

[FoxyMulder]

Originally Posted by JParker /t/322358/a-few-words-about-high-noon-in-blu-ray/90#post_3951545
Thanks Bob! Are they watching on their IPhones or IPads? No disrespect intended...
Amazing!

It was probably Universal, they still only have HD DVD players, it explains why no one checks the quality of some of their Blu ray releases, and yes folks i am being sarcastic.

 

[Doctorossi]

They did not have access to a Blu-ray player.

Pop an $80-special into the mail to them, with a "No one's going to respect your catalog for you" note, and you may get their attention.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

Mr. H, I'd no idea you were being ironic in your prior reply. If I understand the UCLA library, and searched correctly The Quiet Man film hasn't been checked out either...
God bless Mr. Crisp and his team for doing Lawrence right!
Well, perhaps if this is on sale, I'll compare to the DVD that I have; but I can see how fantastic, for example, the restoration of All About Eve looks on my smaller Panasonic plasma display; no DVD looks this great, amazing per your info in your review the negative was lost and they created this beautiful Blu-ray! I think one can even tell a quality difference on a calibrated, quality, smaller flat screen.
Do hope you give us your take on Grapes of Wrath. My fingers are crossed!
Best wishes,
J.

Regarding THE QUIET MAN, please see this post for the UCLA info: http://www.hometheaterforum.com/t/311707/coming-soon-from-olive-films/930#post_3951295

 

[JParker]

Regarding THE QUIET MAN, please see this post for the UCLA info: http://www.hometheaterforum.com/t/311707/coming-soon-from-olive-films/930#post_3951295

Thanks, Bob. The post says

"Mister Lime" who does not claim to work for Olive but seems to have some inside information about them said on an earlier page that the UCLA restoration ran into problems and was never completed, but that Paramount had solved their problems and was funding a new restoration. If that is not true, that and Robert Harris's complaints about the blu of High Noon do not bode well for The Quiet Man blu. If there is one title Olive should get perfect, it's The Quiet Man.
As for UCLA, what's the deal with their restorations? Do they always charge for them? I think I recall reading that WHV chose not to use the UCLA restoration when they licensed Stagecoach. Who funds the UCLA restorations? I thought the funds came from private donors.

Makes me wonder too. Perhaps he really meant that problems arose getting access to the UCLA elements.
Either way, I'm getting worried too. We've waited long enough for even a "good" home video presentation which has, so far, eluded us. And in this day and age, "good" is no longer good enough.

And Crawdaddy wrote above: http://www.hometheaterforum.com/t/322358/a-few-words-about-high-noon-in-blu-ray/90#post_3951500

Very true! With all historical value aside while protecting their film history, if the studios were making mucho profits on releasing these classics on BRD, they would be releasing these titles themselves and in greater numbers with better PQ.

With all due respect, Paramount, which he provided information from the New York Post stating "it's not our film" did wonderful work on True Grit (Wayne's) and even tried with Hondo. I cannot believe with proper marketing a Blu-ray of The Quiet Man (excerpts in Spielberg's E.T., Blu-ray this fall) would not sell as well as True Grit or better than Hondo.
We'll just have to wait and see; can't be any worse than the DVD, which looks like videotape? Maybe AMC will broadcast it again.

 

[ackbak]

Furthermore, the vast majority of consumers shopping at BB or Walmart don't have 100+ inch screens and probably don't read forums like HTF so they're happy as a "pig in crap" with their ignorance on these PQ issues.

Well I think this is part of the problem (people not really thinking grain is a good thing and preferring a DNR look). Looking at packaged media sales in recent years it is obvious that it is becoming more and more a collectors realm, especially for catalog titles and especially on Blu-Ray. I don't know how many copies of "High Noon" will sell on Blu-Ray but I can't imagine it will be a huge number. The general public will most likely be perfectly fine with either the DVD copy they already own, streaming it on Netflix, or buying the DVD vs the Blu-Ray unless the prices are close. If the studios want to charge considerably more for a Blu-Ray vs a DVD, then they should be targeting the collector mentality.
As Robert Harris outlined, the cost would not have been astronomical to do this title right. And it is not just Blu-Ray that benefits from doing the right thing. Cable/sat, downloads/streaming, packaged media, etc all benefit.
And it is not all studios. Most of the time Warner and Sony really try to do the right thing, and as a collector, I don't really have an issue paying more for a quality release that is done right. If the release is sloppy (like "High Noon") I either skip buying it outright and rent it, or I buy used or wait for a $4-7 deal.
And we all know DVD was not perfect either, I have always had to rely as much as possible on trusted review sites, and people like Robert Harris. Certainly appreciate HTF and Mr Harris for the efforts here. Saved me some money

 

[Doctorossi]

I cannot believe with proper marketing a Blu-ray of The Quiet Man (excerpts in Spielberg's E.T., Blu-ray this fall) would not sell as well as True Grit or better than Hondo.

I don't have any numbers, but that's hard for me to believe, as well.

 

[FoxyMulder]

Originally Posted by JParker /t/322358/a-few-words-about-high-noon-in-blu-ray/90#post_3951593
[COLOR= rgb(24, 24, 24)]"Mister Lime" who does not claim to work for Olive but seems to have some inside information about them said on an earlier page that the UCLA restoration ran into problems and was never completed,[/COLOR]

Maybe Penton-Man now "works" for Olive, sorry i just could not resist that one.

I sure hope they do a great job on The Quiet Man, everytime it gets shown on television over here it looks poor, all yellow and faded looking.

 

[JParker]

Maybe Penton-Man now "works" for Olive, sorry i just could not resist that one. 
I sure hope they do a great job on The Quiet Man, every time it gets shown on television over here it looks poor, all yellow and faded looking.

Foxy, can you get sales figures on these Olive releases, aren't you Mr. Stats? We do know High Noon is OK for now at Amazon...

 

[Bob Furmanek]

All they have to do is access the UCLA restoration elements which were done by the legendary Bob Gitt in 1989.

 

[FoxyMulder]

Originally Posted by JParker /t/322358/a-few-words-about-high-noon-in-blu-ray/90#post_3951608
Foxy, can you get sales figures on these Olive releases, aren't you Mr. Stats? We do know High Noon is OK for now at Amazon...

No, i just Googled it, ask Kosty he is the one for sales figures. In fact i used this site.

http://www.the-numbers.com/weekly-bluray-sales-chart

 

[JParker]

No, i just Googled it, ask Kosty he is the one for sales figures.  In fact i used this site.
http://www.the-numbers.com/weekly-bluray-sales-chart

D'OH! Sorry! Yes, Kosty for costs. We'll see if he's reading this. Sorry I confused you two, you look like twins!

 

[FoxyMulder]

Originally Posted by JParker /t/322358/a-few-words-about-high-noon-in-blu-ray/90#post_3951619
D'OH! Sorry! Yes, Kosty for costs. We'll see if he's reading this. Sorry I confused you two, you look like twins!

I'm the good looking one.

He does sales figures for another forum which shall remain nameless here, i would like the info too and i'm sure he has it.

 

[JParker]

All they have to do is access the UCLA restoration elements which were done by the legendary Bob Gitt in 1989.

But from Mr. Harris' remarks above the answer seems to be...no? They won't. Unless I'm missing something.
Not that that would be a first! (Is there a blushing Happy Face here somewhere?)
Have you seen this on Mr. Gitt, Bob?
http://old.cinema.ucla.edu/newsletter/Archive05.pdf

 

[Robert Crawford]

Originally Posted by JParker /t/322358/a-few-words-about-high-noon-in-blu-ray/90#post_3951593
Thanks, Bob. The post says
And Crawdaddy wrote above: http://www.hometheaterforum.com/t/322358/a-few-words-about-high-noon-in-blu-ray/90#post_3951500
With all due respect, Paramount, which he provided information from the New York Post stating "it's not our film" did wonderful work on True Grit (Wayne's) and even tried with Hondo. I cannot believe with proper marketing a Blu-ray of The Quiet Man (excerpts in Spielberg's E.T., Blu-ray this fall) would not sell as well as True Grit or better than Hondo.
We'll just have to wait and see; can't be any worse than the DVD, which looks like videotape? Maybe AMC will broadcast it again.

With all due respect, it's not my mind set, but apparently it is for some that work for Paramount. Also, True Grit was an original Paramount release. Furthermore, John Wayne sells well and I've never disputed The Quiet Man won't do the same, but classic films on the whole don't sell well which is the reason why the MOD became a reality.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

Thanks, Bob Gitt's a good man. I worked with him on the ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET CAPTAIN KIDD restoration.

 

[Robert Harris]

Originally Posted by Bob Furmanek /t/322358/a-few-words-about-high-noon-in-blu-ray/90#post_3951670
Thanks, Bob Gitt's a good man. I worked with him on the ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET CAPTAIN KIDD restoration.

I would never use the word "good" in relation to Mr. Gitt. "Great" sounds more appropriate.

RAH

 

[JoHud]

Why on earth would Paramount farm one of the best, most revered films in their catalogue out to some rinky dink outfit (no offfense Olive) instead of releasing it themselves?

It's a bit unusual when you consider the king's ransom likely spent on the Wings restoration, an academy award winner with arguable less commercial appeal than High Noon, whereas High Noon is more well-known with a more widely recognizable star.
It's more of the fact that Paramount was rarely been in direct control of the Republic library as it is almost always sub-licensed to a 3rd party. That's probably why they never appear to care about that catalogue. I'm more surprised there are even HD transfers being done for these Olive titles, as I had long been convinced they were content at pawning off those VHS-era transfers for nigh-eternity.

 

[Robert Harris]

Originally Posted by JoHud /t/322358/a-few-words-about-high-noon-in-blu-ray/90#post_3951737
It's a bit unusual when you consider the king's ransom likely spent on the Wings restoration, an academy award winner with arguable less commercial appeal than High Noon, whereas High Noon is more well-known with a more widely recognizable star.
It's more of the fact that Paramount was rarely been in direct control of the Republic library as it is almost always sub-licensed to a 3rd party. That's probably why they never appear to care about that catalogue. I'm more surprised there are even HD transfers being done for these Olive titles, as I had long been convinced they were content at pawning off those VHS-era transfers for nigh-eternity.

High Noon is an orphaned film, with a copyright attached.

No one really wants it.

RAH

 

[Doctorossi]

High Noon is an orphaned film, with a copyright attached.
No one really wants it.

Does this mean that the rights holder will only ever offer termed distribution deals (as opposed to the outright sale of rights), so the distributors are unwilling to invest?

 

[JoshZ]

Josh, you keep repeating that anecdote, but I still haven't seen you provide any evidence that the monitor in the featurette was even one of those used to produce the Blu-ray, let alone the only one.

IIRC, Friedkin says right in the featurette that he's at the facility that did the color-stripping/recoloring. It's the colorist he worked with sitting at the console next to him.

I just don't like to see assumptions made about a particular example. There are some facilities which very much understand the value of viewing on larger screens and make sure to include it in their production workflows.

I'm not trying to make a generalization that every studio is like this. Just that, sadly, it does happen.