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"A Hard Day's Night" 50th Anniversary restoration Criterion blu-ray confirmed... (1 Viewer)

lukejosephchung

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TCM/Turner Classic Movies is world premiering the newly-minted 4k restoration sourced from original camera negatives as part of this year's film festival...the work was done by Janus Films, the parent company of the Criterion Collection...there's also a brand new true 5.1-channel music surround mix created from the original multi-track session reels and work parts at EMI Studios by Giles Martin, son of the Beatles' record producer Sir George... :drum:
 

Ruz-El

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Nice seeing as I just bought the Canadian blu last year! I'll grab this one too, the films too good not to get it in it's best quality.
 

Robert Harris

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Interesting release. Wonder where TCM located the missing camera negative elements?

RAH
 

David Weicker

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While it is great that a new restoration is being shown at the TCM festival, I don't see how this 'confirms' that a Criterion Blu-Ray is coming.

Yes, some of the evidence points that way, but it is not 'confirmation'.
 

Rob Mac

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I can understand messing with the audio so as not to impact sales of Hard Days Night CD's and LP's. Why does anyone need to buy the soundtrack when it is in beautiful digital glory on the blu-ray. I hope this time they don't "process" the music audio and ruin the HDN film experience once again.
 

lukejosephchung

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Rob Mac said:
I can understand messing with the audio so as not to impact sales of Hard Days Night CD's and LP's. Why does anyone need to buy the soundtrack when it is in beautiful digital glory on the blu-ray. I hope this time they don't "process" the music audio and ruin the HDN film experience once again.
It IS being "messed with"...in a GOOD way...read my original post for the full details, but they are using original multi-track stems to create a 5.1-channel surround mix for the music!!! This project has been in the works for all of 2013!!!
 

Yorkshire

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lukejosephchung said:
It IS being "messed with"...in a GOOD way...read my original post for the full details, but they are using original multi-track stems to create a 5.1-channel surround mix for the music!!! This project has been in the works for all of 2013!!!
Right, it's a while since I read the books on the Beatles recording history. I'm pretty sure that the album wasn't recorded just in mono, but I don't know if there were enough tracks to do anything like full 5.1. If I were to guess, it'll have been recorded in 4 track, absolute maximum.

For me, I'd look at it another way. I do specifically remember that the film had its own mono mixes created for ity, which are different to the mixes put out on LP at the time. I'd love to have those on an isolated score track.

EDIT: A quick bit of research, this from George Martin:

"With the great advance of four-track we were able to overdub and put on secondary voices and guitar solos afterwards. By the time we did A Hard Day's Night we would certainly put the basic track down and do the vocals afterwards. Invariably, I was putting all the rhythm instruments onto either one or two tracks (generally one track) so you would have bass lumped with guitar. It wasn't until later still that we began putting bass on afterwards as well, giving Paul the opportunity of using his voice more."

So the 4 track recording technique was just used to bonuce down as much as possible. It's quite possible that all that remains is two track, with vocal in one channel and instrumentation in the other, or at most 3 track, with vocals in one, bass and guitar in the second, drums in the third.

Steve W
 

Patrick McCart

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AHDN was the first of their albums recorded in 4-track (after a few 4-track singles). I think only "Can't Buy Me Love" required a bounce-down.

Knowing that Janus is now distributing, I'm looking more forward to the eventual theatrical showings. This is pretty high on my list of films to see in a theater. The Blu will be welcomed since Miramax's DVD holds up incredibly well visually, but the 5.1 track doesn't. I wouldn't be worried about Criterion leaving off the mono track since they included both mono and 5.1 on films like Head and Easy Rider (as well as newer remixes like Anatomy of a Murder and Seven Samurai).
 

lukejosephchung

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In regards to the audio soundtrack...it's my understanding that the original mono soundtrack will be included on the blu-ray for historical purists along with the new 5.1-channel remix. Moreover, the original audio work parts(that is, the isolated bounced tracks)for the music were located over a decade ago at EMI's tape vaults for the 2006 "Love" Cirque Du Soleil project, so they are using absolute FIRST GENERATION multi-track stems to do the surround remix...so it's good news all around for lovers of the Beatles' music...
 

Lord Dalek

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Might as well go all the way and throw in the 1982 Dolby mix just for historical curiosity value.
 

davincihorse

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Would Robert Harris ( ask Criterion) know what was proper projected aspect ratio?MPI VHS/Laserdisc/DVD was Full-Frame. Is there a conflict on what forthcoming AHDN for Bluray will be?
 

Bob Furmanek

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Like most UK productions at the time, it was 1.75:1.

More information on widescreen in the UK can be found here: http://www.3dfilmarchive.com/home/widescreen-documentation

From the original 35mm academy leader advising operators of the intended ratio:

AHDN_5Bcrop.jpg
 

David Weicker

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In the past, Criterion was very tight-lipped about unannounced releases (with those in the know sworn to secrecy). Where is this specific (understood) information about the Blu-Ray coming from?
 

Alan Tully

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Well the remastered CD sounds fab, & unlike the old one is in stereo. It's my favourite Beatles album, chock full of short catchy pop songs. Not sure if I'll buy the Blu-ray, it could be one of those films I enjoyed in the day, but no so much now. I use the Marylebone train station a couple of time a week & often wonder what it was like then when they filmed the Beatles there.
 

davidmatychuk

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