A Few Words About A few words about...™ The Sound of Music -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[RobertSiegel]

 

[haineshisway]

Well, a little green here, a little yellow there, voila.

 

[B-ROLL]

View attachment 34688

One could argue that most of the shots above the caption were taken on location daytime in Austria whilst the lower image is in Hollywood shot inside in a scene that is supposed to be night interior ... or she is singing about raindrops on roses with appropriate hair to match ! Only her hairdresser knows for sure !

The (intended) source light appears to be that oil(?) lamp to on the nightstand to the left which would be redder ..
Shot on location in Austria ..

Shot in the studio in Hollywood ...

 

[Rob_Ray]

Her hair (and Nicholas Hammond's for that matter) has always been darker in MY FAVORITE THINGS because it was the first scene shot and the bleaches used to lighten the hair hadn't completely done the job. Her hair got lighter throughout the location shoot and was at its lightest in the opening scene, shot last in Austria before returning to Hollywood.

 

[RobertSiegel]

Her hair (and Nicholas Hammond's for that matter) has always been darker in MY FAVORITE THINGS because it was the first scene shot and the bleaches used to lighten the hair hadn't completely done the job. Her hair got lighter throughout the location shoot and was at its lightest in the opening scene, shot last in Austria before returning to Hollywood.

That's true but if you compare the 40th anniversary edition with the blu-ray transfer, most scenes her hair is much redder and much less blonde. This blu-ray was the first time in all of the transfers, and there were many going back to VHS, that had reddish in other scenes, especially in Austria.

Yes I do agree with you on My Favorite Things scene, I'll use a different reference and repost the picture because even Julie said for the first scenes they had trouble with the color and it was darker.

 

[moviebuff75]

Is the Salzburg, Austria title shot supposed to remain golden for its duration, or is it supposed to have the colors drained down? Seems as if I read someone who worked on a remaster with Mr. Wise, and he told the to keep the color drained and tonot touch that knob!

 

[KPmusmag]

Is the Salzburg, Austria title shot supposed to remain golden for its duration, or is it supposed to have the colors drained down? Seems as if I read someone who worked on a remaster with Mr. Wise, and he told the to keep the color drained and tonot touch that knob!

I well understand that previous video editions are not to be relied on as examples as to what is correct, that being said, I have two video versions of SOM from actual film prints (as opposed to later restorations) that seem to demonstrate that the tone of the color does change in that title. The first is from a 1978 TV broadcast (I still have the VHS) and the first widescreen laserdisc release - both are from actual prints as evidenced by dirt and scratches. IMHO, the change of color is partly about the "Golden" years, but in addition the sun is going down, because Maria is so late returning to the abbey. Also, Eric, I do recall Robert Wise saying that the engineers wanted to "correct" that color change, and he told them it was intentional. Unfortunately, after searching for an hour, I cannot find that quote. I will continue to search, as it is quite vivid in my memory.

Another interesting observation is that the 1978 TV broadcast, includes the TODD-AO credit - which I understand was not included in the 35mm prints - but in 1978, I don't think they were doing scans of 70mm - so how that happened is a mystery to me. The laserdisc version, obviously 2.35, therefore 35mm, as opposed to 70mm 2.20, does NOT include the TODD-AO credit. Curious.

Here is a link to the 1978 and laserdisc versions of that title.

 

[Joe Caps]

Fox can not restore the sand pebbles 17 minutes and edit it into the good looking short master
1. The film was shot in 35mm and fox restored the 35mm negative. the extra footage was found n a blow up 70mm release print.
Insert the extra footage in the short master and the aspect ratios will not match.

 

[moviebuff75]

Interesting. I think I prefer the way it is on blu, with the entire shot golden. The change during a title is a bit distracting...you are reading something, but the frame is changing...where should the attention be?

 

[warnerbro]

Robert Wise requested that the shot go golden on the quote, "The last golden days of the thirties." It has always been that way on every print I've ever seen. However, on the blu ray it's not quite as much. This was done after his death.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Fox can not restore the sand pebbles 17 minutes and edit it into the good looking short master
1. The film was shot in 35mm and fox restored the 35mm negative. the extra footage was found n a blow up 70mm release print.
Insert the extra footage in the short master and the aspect ratios will not match.

Good to see you around here again, Joe. IIRC [emphasis on "recall correctly'], the only way to come close to matching the AR would be to strip the mag track from the 70mm print which (1) is heresy; and (2) would likely damage the emulsion underneath, rendering the exercise pointless.

 

[moviebuff75]

The blu stays golden for the entire shot.

 

[warnerbro]

I wonder what the progress is on the 4k version. Does anyone know?

 

[Indy Guy]

Emotionally the fade was timed to the reading of the films set up card. The slow fade dramatized the film's theme...Austria was at a moment of change and things would never be the same. The BR's abrupt cut destroys the impact of the statement by appearing unintentional rather than a deliberate transformation from the beauty that precedes it.
It now looks like a mistimed camera shot rather than the slow emotional fading of a once glorious Austria.

 

[RobertMG]

I wonder what the progress is on the 4k version. Does anyone know?

Disney needs to just sell off these films if they have no interest - they even havent done Poppins in 4K Disney loves streamiong just do a deal with KINO to release blu rays

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

I saw Sound of music over 130 times in the theaters on a big screen over the years.

This aint it. Shadow detail does NOT look good to me, The colors are way off what they were in the theater.
The picture starts way too blue, then often goes too red on thei ndoor scenes.
In the opening number, on thel ast dvd, the sound of Julie slapping her apron was missing. incredibly,it is still gone on the english tracks but is on all of the foregn tracks and themusic and effects track has it too.
The foreign tracks have a nice high end, completely missing from both of the english tracks. Not good. I was less than impressed with this new transfer. Think I'll stick with the fortieth anniversary edition.
The new extras are not a new doc, but a hunt and peck thinkg that quickly grows tiresome.
save your money for the 50th anniversay edition, which I am sure that, even now, they are planning.

I had always missed this thread for some reason, and Robert Harris, if you are still subscribed, I would like to ask you a question about this. Many people who have projected this movie in theaters have complained on threads here at HTF and other sites that the sound on the film is still not as good as was originally presented. Now in the short "restoring the sound" they show them at computer screen remastering this soundtrack, and one of the men shows us how they cut everything off above a certain level because it is "noise" on the high end. So we see him removing everything above a certain line. But if you look closely, there are signals there as well (above the lines). I submit to you that this was where the original tape hiss was (because there was no Dolby noise reduction in those days).

Now I have not heard of any modern day magic that can remove tape hiss without removing everything else in that area of the signal. Many complaints that the high end is missing here, and it is. Listen to the gold laserdisc CD and even the soundtracks on all versions up to the blu-ray restoration and the upper end is there. I do not hear, nor do many other SOM fans the extreme upper end which would include mainly instruments like horns on the blu-ray soundtrack. Have they cut out the very high end by taking the tape hiss and removing it? I think Fox wanted a "hiss free" soundtrack which this should not be.

Personally, I would much rather have the tape hiss still there and retain the very high end. I think so much was hurt by doing this. The chorus at the end singing "Climb Every Mountain," and so much of the orchestra recording. Listen to the 40th anniversary edition or the laserdiscs. That high end is fantastic. The richness of the recording is better now, but I will always feel that we have lost the very high end of the recording of this soundtrack and I really feel Fox should correct this and remove the filters that were used on the high end to cut it off at a certain point to eliminate the original tape hiss. Joe Caps certainly agrees and he has worked in remastering and knows his business. He hates the new soundtrack for its loss of high end.

Does anyone else agree? Mr. Harris, any input? I Mean your My Fair Lady has a much better high end as does Oklahoma, recorded 10 years earlier. I really want Fox to correct this and don't know how to get this heard.

RE: the audio, presumably, the 50th anniv edition BD has the exact same encode (and for video as well) -- I tried checking both here and BR.com and don't see otherwise.

Interestingly, I just decided to check out the 50th anniv soundtrack album on Apple Music -- I don't have that BD edition, which comes w/ the CD -- and this seems to **not** have the high freq cutoff... at least there's plenty of audible hiss (via my HiFiMan Sundara headphones) anyway. I haven't compared it to my actual BD yet to hear the diffs (as I don't currently have my BD nearby). I did quickly compare a few tracks, eg. the opening sequence track, Sixteen Going On Seventeen and My Favorite Things, w/ the prior(?) album release also on Apple Music, which definitely has much less hiss (and somewhat less "sizzle"... and less openness and resonance (and/or maybe reverb), especially in the opening sequence track) -- not completely sure if this other album on Apple Music used the same as the 45th anniv BD remix or an older album/mix like the gold CD that came w/ the big LD boxset (that I also owned, but don't have handy anymore).

Made me wonder if they didn't actually redo the soundtrack (again) w/out (or w/ much less) high freq cutoff, but I found no indication of that actually done for the BD itself w/ my cursory searching so far. Anyone else here actually compared the 50th anniv BD to be sure? And the 50th anniv soundtrack album, which you can check out on Apple Music?

Very curious...

Meanwhile, yes, definitely hope there will be a 4K disc release w/ the rather aggressive color and soundtrack changes dialed back somewhat at least...

_Man_

 

[ahollis]

But can you hear the apron snap?

 

[B-ROLL]

But can you hear the apron snap?

...or how teal it is ?

 

[uncledougie]

Would welcome a 4K release of this. Had a family showing last Christmas of the Blu-ray. It was quite nice, but having seen My Fair Lady in 4K shortly before, I couldn’t help but wish The Sound of Music would get that level of care and treatment. I, too, found the soundtrack a little thin, not as full of “bloom” as it were. Hard to describe. Admittedly my ears are not what they were at age 13 by a long shot. But I couldn’t help wondering if there couldn’t be some improvement in the sound mix. If indeed high frequency hiss was digitally removed, this would be along the same lines where aficionados prefer LP sound to CD, since the higher frequencies roll off gradually instead of being limited by digital authoring.

 

[KPmusmag]

Made me wonder if they didn't actually redo the soundtrack (again) w/out (or w/ much less) high freq cutoff, but I found no indication of that actually done for the BD itself w/ my cursory searching so far. Anyone else here actually compared the 50th anniv BD to be sure? And the 50th anniv soundtrack album, which you can check out on Apple Music?

The 50th Anniversary blu-ray is identical to the first release. I am certain of this because I gave the original release to a friend and bought the 50th for the new featurette and when I inserted the movie disc, my blu-ray player 'remembered' the disc and asked me if I wanted to resume where I left off, so clearly it is identical to the first release.

I do have the 50th anniversary CD and while I have not compared it sonically to previous versions, I am bothered by the fact that they left out the the low strings playing an upward moving scale leading into the final Climb Ev'ry Mountain; that little intro is in the movie itself (it starts almost at the end of the nuns showing the Rev Mother the car parts 2:52:42) and on every version of the soundtrack album before it. I find that omission jarring after decades of hearing it. The 50th also leaves out the music cue when Capt VT takes the gun from Rolf and runs to escape. That is a great cue (which is on the gold CD) and the transition from the previous cue to Climb Ev'ry Mountain just sounds wrong to my ears (track 26 at 3:23).

A change they made long ago to one of the LP re-releases was to add a brief instrumental intro to "How Do You Solve a Problem". This intro has remained through various incarnations of the soundtrack on CD, including the 50th and - unfortunately IMO - the SACD. It is not in the movie itself or on my original LP from 1965. Thankfully, it was left out of the Gold CD from the laserdisc set.

Another thing I noticed about the 50th Ann CD is that, while it is nice to have the reprises of My Favorite Things (when Maria returns) and So Long Farewell (concert), neither of which appear on any previous releases, they are obviously taken from film soundtrack as you can hear sound effects and a snippet of dialogue at the end of My Favorite Things. Since those tracks did not appear on the Gold CD, I wonder if those original pre-recordings were lost or damaged.

These days, my favorite version of the CD to listen to is the SACD, despite the fact that it is identical in programming to the LP and has no extra tracks. But to my ears it sounds fantastic. I do listen to the Gold CD on occasion but it has a coldness to it, at least in my perception, that I do not love.

Believe or not, I have the quadraphonic 8-track version of the soundtrack, and in fact a deck to play it on (which amazingly still works), and it sounds kind of gimmicky and echoey, with vocalists in different speakers and such, but it doesn't really please me much except as a novelty. Conversely, I find several of the Columbia quadraphonic recordings of Broadway shows like Company and A Little Night Music quite pleasing ( I was thrilled that Vocalion, a British company, released several of those on SACD fully licensed by the rights holders).