Jobla
Supporting Actor
- Joined
- May 11, 2001
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i look forward to purchasing more Cinerama titles. I've heard that CINERAMA'S RUSSIAN ADVENTURE has been found.
rsmithjr said:Strong hints have been given that both of these films are close to being released on Blu-ray.
See:
http://www.in70mm.com/news/2013/credits/index.htm
where the restoration credits for some of the Cinerama films (including these) as well as trailers are given. The trailers were created along with the restorations and have a wonderful 50's vibe.
There was one title they showed at the 60th anniversary that was taken from a 35mm print that someone filmed in a Cinerama theatre many years ago. There was another where they only digitally restored parts of the film. I think one of them was Seven Wonders of the World and the other was South Seas Adventure. When they finish the digital restoration they should look very nice.Richard--W said:Is the transfer really that bad? What went wrong?
Even if the film isn't very good I would probably find purely visual things to like it about it. But if the transfer is that bad ....
Professor Echo said:The digital presentation of SOUTH SEAS ADVENTURE looked ok, but it was very sharp and glossy and, for lack of a better word, cold looking compared to film. Also the image must be squeezed a bit as everyone appeared to be just a little too thin and stretched vertically, not just on the sides of the screen, but in the center as well. Sorry I don't know the proper terminology to describe it nor know what causes it, but I am not as technically savvy about the format and venue as most are who post in this thread. The sound seemed good, but a bit shrill at times, very little bass and, for me, too loud for the relatively small space of the Dome.As for the movie itself, man was it ever dull, dull, DULL. It starts off as a kind of fun and funky 50's issue of National Geographic come to life, but soon descends into endless aerial footage and perpetually drawn out scenes of island pageantry, i.e. LOTS and LOTS of native singing and dancing . I would have preferred less people and more flora and fauna, or at least some scenery from the ground level to balance out all the ethnography. I have been to some of the islands explored in the film and I think many opportunities were missed by rarely showing just how stunningly beautiful they are beyond the people who live there.Having only seen HTWWW prior to this, and THIS IS CINERAMA in 70mm many years ago, I was surprised at how boringly stodgy this was. Are all the Cinerama travelogues like this or is one or more better than the others? If anyone has seen a number of these I would appreciate some recommendations beyond GRIMM and SEARCH, both of which I am attending tomorrow.
Strohmaier said:Hi all
I guess Adrian Turner would prefer to live on his old Cinerama memories and that our Cinerama films just go away and rot unless they can be restored photo chemically. In fact they have rotted to the point of no chance to resurrect them other than with digital. They were not stored properly for 50+ years. Hardly any color left, major shrinkage of each panel, think vibrating sprocket holes x3 with jumpy images all over- then film lacquer shedding on most rolls. Now lets add extra fading of each panel towards each edge. Conventional film of this age may have fading towards the left and right edges but it is not that apparent overall but with 3 panel you get 6 edges! Now lets add the fact that there is no STUDIO restoration budget to do the job only a small grant. Oh yes some of us are doing this on a volunteer basis with no profit participation, think weekends and late nights for no pay or hardly any pay.
You might also be interested to know that where we have missing negatives the Library of Congress (our partners in this project) provides the missing sections for scanning from their original deposit prints. These are of course faded totally pink with hardly any color. So far we have gotten about 75% of the color back, which is amazing.
I wish someday I could restore a film that had only one image -not 3 blended together - and with a negative that was stored in a studio vault for 50 years!!!!
I always love these Monday morning quarterback comments that sound so judgmental. It really encourages us to continue the work!
Thanks so much Adrian Turner for your wise and informative comments. Were so happy that people like Leonard Maltin and Dave Kehr disagree with you.
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I saw the digital presentation of 1958’s South Seas Adventure, which sold me on the restoration process that’s been implemented by Austin, Texas-based Image Trends Inc. They are working from badly-worn, severely faded color negatives, but you’d never know it from the picture spread on the giant Cinerama Dome screen. Leonard Maltin
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These are fabulous, David! Can’t wait! “Cinerama Holiday” looks even better than “This Is . . .” for great mid-century imagery.
Will Flicker Alley be releasing? Best Dave Kehr
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Oh yes our Cinerama Holiday mutilated restorations will screen as part of the TCM Classic Film Festival on April 28 in Hollywood and also at the National Media Museum in the UK on April 27th.
South Seas Adventure was screened, along with a restoration seminar about our work, last summer at the Venice International Film Festival (Italy) one of the more major world film festivals, quite an honor to be featured like this.
If anyone would like to see a hi def example of how we have totally botched and mutilated, as Adrian has stated, these projects I will keep these 3 trailers on my site for next 2 weeks starting 4-10-13.
They will take some time to load up so be patient.
These trailers were created in a 1950s style from scratch by your truly:
Seven Wonders:
Note: First (9) 3-panel shots are from Eastman color LOC deposit prints using special color recovery techniques.
http://www.davidstrohmaier.com/Trailers/Trailerv37WiPad%20and%20iPhone%204.m4v
South Seas:
http://www.davidstrohmaier.com/Trailers/TrailerFINALSSAiPad%20and%20iPhone%204.m4v
Cinerama Holiday:
http://www.davidstrohmaier.com/review/CH%20SB%20TraileriPad%20and%20iPhone%204.m4v
Software stuff:
http://www.borisfx.com/userstory/Cinerama-Flicker-Fixer.php
Color recovery:
http://www.in70mm.com/news/2013/wonders/index.htm
Please pass this message and links on to any of your friends and to other blogs.
Dave Strohmaier
If you include the seemingly endless aerial footage in some of the Cinerama travelogues as part of the "vistas," then we can agree. To me those are just as attention taxing as the singing and dancing. However, you will probably love most of SOUTH SEAS as it has lots of native music and some Christian religious music if memory serves. I'm glad my review inspired you to want to see the movie!bigshot said:Your review actually made me more interested in South Seas Adventure. Lots of native dances and music sounds great to me. I like Cinerama when it's up close with people. Too many wide shots of vistas isn.t as interesting to me.
Post #18 has indicated that the powers that be at Warner's is not interested in doing work with Image Trends. That would pretty much cut TWWOTBG out of the loop.Bill Huelbig said:Dave: Thanks so much to you and your team for the fantastic work you're doing to keep Cinerama alive. Any chance that "The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm" will get the same restoration treatment as the travelogues? Just a few years ago, that was classified as a lost film. Cut to October 2012 when I saw it at the Dome, something I'd previously thought impossible. Here's hoping a Blu-ray release can happen someday. I meant to ask this question to the guy from Image Trends who was stationed in the lobby that night, but never got around to it. Thanks again.
Strohmaier said:Hi all"I guess Adrian Turner would prefer to live on his old Cinerama memories and that our Cinerama films just go away and rot unless they can be restored photo chemically. Thanks so much Adrian Turner for your wise and informative comments. Were so happy that people like Leonard Maltin and Dave Kehr disagree with you."
AdrianTurner said:The travelogues are absolute rubbish - interminable, trivial, full of boys' choirs, girls in bikinis, without a trace of wit or interest in where they were shot. Total pap, in my view, and the only reason to see them in the 1950s was because of HOW they were shot, not WHERE they were shot. As time capsules of an innocent, Eisenhower boomtime era the rather desperate social historian might find a moment or two to savour.