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A Few Words About A few words about...™ Bram Stoker's Dracula -- in BD (1 Viewer)

Dave Mack

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Thanks Douglas!

For many years I worked the stage door at a B'way house. Had a ball, met alot of famous celebs, (I literally could write a tell all and make a bundle as I know some decent dirt on some biggies...) Still freelanced in film and video though, worked on a few shoots and shot some industrials and did sound and recording.
Then we moved to Berkeley and I wound up doing all kinds of freelance things and stagehand work at a regional theater. We had a kid, (mini-Mack!) and 3 grandparents to help out back in NYC was too tempting to pass up. But I did get my album done out there which is now out!


:) d
 

Douglas Monce

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Nice! You should write down all your stories. Glad to see the strike is over and you can get to work. Has anyone heard if the writer's strike is over?

Doug
 

Douglas Monce

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Yeah I have some friends that work on a tv series, they aren't out of scripts yet, but it's getting pretty thin. My guess is that if its not over yet, it probably won't be until the producers run out of scripts.

Doug
 

Douglas Monce

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A buddy of mine said they still have enough for a few more weeks. Episodic TV shows like With out a Trace and ER are normally several months ahead of the air dates of the episode being shot. At least this early in the season, when they get to March they sometimes have to run a rerun because the show has fallen behind.

I know it was reported that some shows had enough scripts to finish the whole season.

Doug
 

TravisR

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There's still episodes that haven't run yet for nearly every series but most have shut down production because the writers haven't been writing for about a month and most shows don't write that far in advance.

Sorry about continuing to run off topic. :)
 

Cees Alons

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Will you please stop side-tracking this thread any further at once!

Thanks!



Edit: OK, Travis apologized just in time. :)


Cees
 

Matt Hough

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I just got to this tonight, and I thought it looked simply wonderful. I saw the film at the theater and a time or two on pay cable, but I've never owned a home video copy of it until this Blu-ray.

I couldn't be more pleased with the release.
 

Michel_Hafner

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I finally watched this 'controversial' transfer last night... As far as I'm concerned: Much ado about little to nothing,
Is it soft? Yes. No 1080p detail there. Maxes out at 720p most.
Is it dark? Oh yes!
Is it perfect? No. There are even some scratches and some dirt at times.
Does it look bad and hardly better than the DVD?
Hell, no.
The transfer is beautiful. It's film like. Black levels are deep. Shadow detail is at times plenty, at times supressed. Images are sometimes very dark and any display without excellent contrast and black levels will strugle, but if the display is up to the job it looks great. I would not want to watch this on any LCD monitor or older plasma though. Ideally you need a CRT with real blacks.
Some shots and grading decisions can be discussed endlessly. It's the film makers call how they want things to look. This is not a botched transfer. If it's not to everybody's liking, so be it. Move on to another film or stick to the older versions.
 

Grant H

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I watched it on a direct view CRT and the blacks are still crushed. Too dark and totally different (computer-adjusted) colors that betray the original look of the film IMO.
 

Michel_Hafner

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The blacks are NOT always crushed, they are sometimes crushed. You are aware that crushed blacks are not something bad per se, are you? It's a stylistic choice, just like no crushed blacks.
 

Robert Harris

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Thank you Mr. Hafner

I was waiting for a proper response

In precisely the same manner, a negative that may appear to be heavily over or under exposed is not if that is precisely where a DP places his or her exposure

It is correctly exposed

RAH
 

Dave Mack

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Except that in some of these deliberatley "crushed blacks" shots, there were effects that were purposefully done which are now virtually invisible. Changes the shot, the feel and I believe the original intent. These were created for a reason.

 

Romier S

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No. The horse doesn't just need to be beaten Jeff. It needs to be poisoned, stabbed, shot, hung, stretched, disemboweled, drawn and quartered.
 

Michel_Hafner

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About the intent only the film makers can give definitive answers. Fact is that both versions can serve a purpose. And it's not unheard of that someone changes his mind as well concerning some points, years after the original was made. Especially if new technical means become available. I simply don't agree that the transfer as a whole is botched. There are some shots where it would be interesting to hear Coppola comment why he went this way and not that way. But overall this version works well for me. My only complaint is that my current projector has still not the black level I would like to have watching this transfer. To be watched again for sure with uncompressed sound and deeper blacks, sometime in the future.
 

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