A PEEK AT JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH REDUX (1 Viewer)

[Rory*M]

TT's Nick Redman stated back in 2012 that the transfer of JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH was a 2010 2K scan of an earlier interpositive (also used for the 2004 DVD) made photo-chemically from YCM black & white separation negative masters from the Fox vaults. That's three separate pieces of film that had to be optically aligned then printed. Not the best way to create an element for a 1080p presentation on Blu-ray -- with the obvious results. I have no reason to doubt Redman on this. Everything wrong with the 2012 Blu-ray picture transfer is simply the result of this interpositive having not been created from the original camera negatives but instead being two generations away. There was no upconversion of the older DVD transfer. Now, the original camera negatives for JOURNEY are, according to Redman, who gets his knowledge from Schawn Belston at Fox, so badly faded they can not yield a properly color and contrast balanced interpositive, hence the 4K scan and a digital rebuilding of the image. Anything wrong with the new 4K restoration is simply because of the condition of what they started with. I was hoping Nick Redman would have details about the restoration in the commentary track, but he only offers the info that Fox has remixed the audio for 5.1 DTS-HD MA, and it sounds great, as is the new Blu-ray in general, though nothing is ever perfect.

 

[Mark Booth]

I watched the entire film (2015 Blu-ray) today and it is absolutely gorgeous! It looks like film, but like it was filmed yesterday and transferred to Blu-ray immediately. The colors looked perfect to me, throughout. Never a hint of too blue or teal. I specifically watched for whites and they always looked white.

The film was FAR more enjoyable via this very fine Blu-ray compared to my old DVD version! This 2015 Blu-ray belongs in EVERY true film enthusiast's collection!

Mark

 

[Bob Furmanek]

I saw parts of it being scanned; this is a 4K harvest off the camera negative.

 

[rsmithjr]

I saw parts of it being scanned; this is a 4K harvest off the camera negative.

Bob,


Perhaps you can clarify this point. Is this release a 4K scan off of the actual camera negative, or is it a 4K scan off of the YCM seps followed by digital registration?


The reason I am asking is that one post made me think that it is the latter.



Thanks!

 

[Bob Furmanek]

It's a 4K scan off the original 35mm camera negative.

 

[ROclockCK]

TT's Nick Redman stated back in 2012 that the transfer of JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH was a 2010 2K scan of an earlier interpositive (also used for the 2004 DVD) made photo-chemically from YCM black & white separation negative masters from the Fox vaults. That's three separate pieces of film that had to be optically aligned then printed. Not the best way to create an element for a 1080p presentation on Blu-ray -- with the obvious results. I have no reason to doubt Redman on this. Everything wrong with the 2012 Blu-ray picture transfer is simply the result of this interpositive having not been created from the original camera negatives but instead being two generations away. There was no upconversion of the older DVD transfer. Now, the original camera negatives for JOURNEY are, according to Redman, who gets his knowledge from Schawn Belston at Fox, so badly faded they can not yield a properly color and contrast balanced interpositive, hence the 4K scan and a digital rebuilding of the image. Anything wrong with the new 4K restoration is simply because of the condition of what they started with. I was hoping Nick Redman would have details about the restoration in the commentary track, but he only offers the info that Fox has remixed the audio for 5.1 DTS-HD MA, and it sounds great, as is the new Blu-ray in general, though nothing is ever perfect.

Agree Rory. And it's so important that everyone who's still b*tching about the 2010 Fox remaster used for TT's 2012 Blu-ray keep in mind that by that point in the high def story the studio seemed to be effectively throwing in the towel on Journey...because anything that could significantly improve what their IP* from photochemically recombined YCMs could deliver, would be a HUGE expen$$$e...for uncertain commercial prospects.


What a difference 3 years can make! Even from the smattering of caps posted here and elsewhere, I'm frankly astonished by what Schawn Belston and his Fox asset team have achieved for this movie...one of the most chronically problematic titles in home video history. I doubt there were more than a handful of sequences that didn't require state of the art reconstruction and clean-up. And yes, I certainly do want to hear - or at least read - about that backstory because it appears we're talking about some near-miraculous recovery work here.


* ...done for Laserdisc w-a-y back in the late 80s!

 

[ROclockCK]

It's a 4K scan off the original 35mm camera negative.

...plus some masterful workflow.


I can't believe what I'm seeing even via these caps. Stunning.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

Indeed. My first exposure was a 16mm pan and scan, mono print on the New York 4:30 movie, shown in two parts.


I never thought I'd see the film looking this good!

 

[lukejosephchung]

All the positive reports about Fox's restoration results have me salivating for my pre-ordered copy, which is waiting for the rest of my Twilight Time March purchases to arrive from Cinram...guess I'll have to be patient, but this thread is making it that much more difficult...

 

[John Hermes]

All the positive reports about Fox's restoration results have me salivating for my pre-ordered copy, which is waiting for the rest of my Twilight Time March purchases to arrive from Cinram...guess I'll have to be patient, but this thread is making it that much more difficult...

I didn't think I would, but I ordered the new one, too, after all these comments.

 

[haineshisway]

Haloing is indicative of digital compression, and so the transfer either has a low bit rate or else it was an upconversion from some lower resolution.

No, not in the case I'm talking about - it's the result of the optical and is still there, albeit not very visible anymore, in the new transfer - the reason for that is because now the OCN has been used and you are generations closer.

 

[ROclockCK]

Indeed. My first exposure was a 16mm pan and scan, mono print on the New York 4:30 movie, shown in two parts.


I never thought I'd see the film looking this good!

Well bust my chops too Bob - 3 years ago I was convinced TT's Blu-ray release of Journey to the Center of the Earth would turn out to be its home video epitaph. The fact that Fox even let this former flagship title go to TT for a 3000 unit run did not bode well for its future prospects, including restoration.


Like you, I also missed its original '59 theatrical release. Unfortunately, my dad's lanky frame wasn't compatible with standard theatre seating, so unless the stars happened to align perfectly with his in town welding schedule, and allowed us to pile in the wagon and head for the drive-in...movies routinely passed me by.


Like many fans, my first encounter with Journey was also panned and scanned and in mono on ABC's Sunday Night Movie*...w-a-y back in October of '65. And although I immediately fell in lifelong love with this movie, I knew what CinemaScope and Color by Deluxe *should* look like, and this broadcast sure wasn't that. It just left me pining for the reel thing.


Luckily, in the spring of '66, a little Odeon theatre in the far west end of Toronto's lakeshore brought Journey back for a single Saturday matinee showing. After pleading with my mom for one solid hour to allow her early teenage son to travel solo over 100 miles by train, and then another hour on a streetcar, just to see this one movie, and then trust him to turn around and come right back home, to my amazement she finally relented and I was on my way. I was even more grateful once the movie began; by some mini-miracle what unspooled turned out to be an unfaded, unscratched 'Scope print almost indistinguishable from a premiere. I never forgot that very very special viewing. It's been imprinted ever since.


So after 30 years of watching this movie in every possible home video format (including its atrocious debut on Magnetic Video IIRC)...invariably loving every minute of it despite something always being wrong with its presentation...I am thrilled by what I'm seeing from even these screen caps. I mean, this is without a doubt the closest to what I remember from that spring '66 Saturday afternoon when I got to experience Journey in all its native celluloid glory...in a near pristine state...up on the big screen for the first (and only) time.


I'm just so grateful Fox shot the moon on this one. But still gobsmacked. Whodathunk?


* Sample opening for Kid Galahad.

 

[haineshisway]

I did see Journey about six times during its initial release - and have vivid memories of it. It was gorgeous then and it is certainly gorgeous now.

 

[ROclockCK]

...and no doubt on the best Tinsel town screens in full magnetic stereo sound. Lucky guy Bruce! BTW, which L.A. screens? The Chinese? Or The Egyptian? Other?


Alas, for most of us It's been a frustrating half century search for what had seemingly become as elusive as the Holy Grail...Journey to the Center of the Earth looking and sounding as sublime as it did during its original playdates.


With thanks to Rory for his post on FSM, remember when Journey looked like this?

How far we've come!

 

[ROclockCK]

No, not in the case I'm talking about - it's the result of the optical and is still there, albeit not very visible anymore, in the new transfer - the reason for that is because now the OCN has been used and you are generations closer.

Amongst the weeks of un-backed-up posts which were *lost* when that other site crashed back in 2012, was smoking gun proof that this was an optical aberration related to film generation and stock characteristics, not the dreaded and frequently mis-identified video 'edge enhancement'. Even at YouTube scale you can see traces of this so-called 'haloing' in the original theatrical trailer (check out the skies starting around 1:08 and again at 1:49):





As you correctly noted at the time, who could believe for a second that a studio would bother to edge enhance a quicky transfer of a vintage movie trailer? Truth is, these aberrations are baked into the original opticals and always were there...especially during Journey's many matte shots and cross dissolves.

 

[Radioman970]

I just watched my old DVD last week while breaking from work. then this morning, back at work and they have a PSA with our top of the hour national news with guess who..? Pat Boone talking about the dangers of keeping your money in a bank. Then this thread on a new 4K blu coming out and those stunning screencaps! Life is ever ever good! We all love this film so much.

 

[Radioman970]

Thanks for the preview, looking forward to getting mine next week (bundled with First Men in the Moon).

where do you order this?

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

where do you order this?

http://www.screenarchives.com/title_detail.cfm/ID/28649/JOURNEY-TO-THE-CENTER-OF-THE-EARTH-1959-LIMIT-OF-3-COPIES-PER-CUSTOMER!/


and


http://www.screenarchives.com/title_detail.cfm/ID/28647/FIRST-MEN-IN-THE-MOON-1964-LIMIT-3-COPIES-PER-CUSTOMER!/

 

[haineshisway]

...and no doubt on the best Tinsel town screens in full magnetic stereo sound. Lucky guy Bruce! BTW, which L.A. screens? The Chinese? Or The Egyptian? Other?


Alas, for most of us It's been a frustrating half century search for what had seemingly become as elusive as the Holy Grail...Journey to the Center of the Earth looking and sounding as sublime as it did during its original playdates.


With thanks to Rory for his post on FSM, remember when Journey looked like this?

How far we've come!

Amongst the weeks of un-backed-up posts which were *lost* when that other site crashed back in 2012, was smoking gun proof that this was an optical aberration related to film generation and stock characteristics, not the dreaded and frequently mis-identified video 'edge enhancement'. Even at YouTube scale you can see traces of this so-called 'haloing' in the original theatrical trailer (check out the skies starting around 1:08 and again at 1:49):





As you correctly noted at the time, who could believe for a second that a studio would bother to edge enhance a quicky transfer of a vintage movie trailer? Truth is, these aberrations are baked into the original opticals and always were there...especially during Journey's many matte shots and cross dissolves.

All six times at my neighborhood theater, the Stadium - which had a very large screen and stereo sound, one of those really large and great neighborhood theaters.


It's really shocking how all those "experts" just knew it was edge enhancement - I was roundly trounced and still am on the other board for having repeatedly said it was not EE, because, you know, they all know better. Uh huh. And they were still saying it a few days ago until this site's Eddie Larkin pointed out you could still see it in the opticals, albeit to a much lesser extent, on the new transfer - since the original Blu was several generations away from the camera negative and now we have this spiffy new scan. Of course, had any of these wags watched the DVD they would have seen it there, too.

 

[Rory*M]

Agree Rory. And it's so important that everyone who's still b*tching about the 2010 Fox remaster used for TT's 2012 Blu-ray keep in mind that by that point in the high def story the studio seemed to be effectively throwing in the towel on Journey...because anything that could significantly improve what their IP* from photochemically recombined YCMs could deliver, would be a HUGE expen$$$e...for uncertain commercial prospects.


What a difference 3 years can make! Even from the smattering of caps posted here and elsewhere, I'm frankly astonished by what Schawn Belston and his Fox asset team have achieved for this movie...one of the most chronically problematic titles in home video history. I doubt there were more than a handful of sequences that didn't require state of the art reconstruction and clean-up. And yes, I certainly do want to hear - or at least read - about that backstory because it appears we're talking about some near-miraculous recovery work here.


* ...done for Laserdisc w-a-y back in the late 80s!

I'm of the opinion, purely made up on my part but I strongly suspect the correctness of my own assumption (please excuse my display of ego), that the 2012 TT Blu-ray of JTTCOTE was for those back at Fox, considering the (often 4K scanned) remastered titles from the same era of studio history (1954 to 1963) that have been coming out on Blu-ray in the last couple years -- and look and sound fantastic --, something of a huge embarrassment. If I were Schawn Belston, I'd have sure been ashamed of it. Anyway, it's all moot now. Fox has done the beloved film right at last, and since this is a perennial favorite of mine for home viewing, I hold no grudges, not for the $30 spent on the first TT BD, nor even the $70 plus dollars spent on the widescreen laserdisc (I also bought the pan&scan LD before that!) back in the paleolithic years of home video last century. No, life is too short and I share the same birth year as this movie, 1959, and now, finally, at the age of fifty-five, I'm finally able to glimpse what this movie looked and sounded like in that now remote Christmas season when it opened at the Paramount Theatre in NYC.