'Day of the Dead: SE' audio dubs identified-NOT THAT BAD (1 Viewer)

[Matthew_V]

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[GregoryP]

I went to the Horrorfind convention in MD this weekend and spoke with an Anchor Bay employee about the Day of the Dead and Halloween DVD problems. The person I spoke with said that for Day of the Dead they used the audio stems they were given and while they did notice the differences, they did not see them as a big problem. His take on it was that none of the important bits are changed. For Halloween, he said they did a new transfer and that's the way the transfer came out. My interpretation is that the new transfer didn't have the same people doing color correction so that's why the colors are different.

Anchor Bay showed us The Hills Have Eyes on a big outdoor screen and the new DVD transfer looks great. They also talked about upcoming releases including Dawn of the Dead, which should be a huge release. They plan on including 3 different versions of the film and lots of extras.

I got to meet a bunch of celebrities including Doug Bradley.

 

[Travis_W]

The person I spoke with said that for Day of the Dead they used the audio stems they were given and while they did notice the differences, they did not see them as a big problem. His take on it was that none of the important bits are changed.

See now that pisses me off. The studio should have a little more respect for their product. Well, as the audio dubs don't bother me, I'm glad I bought this disc since Anchor Bay won't do a recall anytime soon.

 

[Matt Stone]

The studio should have a little more respect for their product.

Indeed. It's a shame when a studio knowingly makes a mistake.

 

[Felix Martinez]

Just saw the disc, and I must say, I totally forgot about this controversy. Didn't notice the few audio changes at all, and I've seen the film quite a few times - albeit not in a long time. Just got wrapped up in the movie and just enjoyed it. Didn't change the experience for me - unlike the new Halloween transfer - but that's another debate and thread!

Cheers,

 

[Lyle_JP]

Well, after reading Don May Jr.'s post on the other board, it sounds to me like Day of the Dead has had more than one sound mix in its life. So these "errors" aren't because Anchor Bay used a "censored" source, but rather just a different one.

Anyone who is a Bond fan knows that Thunderball has two very different sound mixes, with multiple line and music changes, depending on which print you happen to get your hands on. In fact, the DVD and 30th Anniversary laserdisc used the soundmix that had never been on home video before (but which had been on every 35mm print I'd come across). It wasn't wrong, just different.

-Lyle J.P.

 

[Edward Schatz]

It makes me sick when I see a DVD company do this. They had absolutely NO role in the production of the film originally! They decide arbitrarily that certain lines weren't that big of a deal and can be changed? Who the hell are they to make that decision? Arrogance.

 

[JeffMc]

Wow! This is a pretty disturbing comment coming from an Anchor Bay representative. I always just assumed it was an error that they didn't catch. That they actually KNEW about it and didn't do anything because they weren't "important bits" is appalling. I know this was not an "official comment" from Anchor Bay about the matter, but since they refuse to make an "official comment", it's the only thing to believe at the moment.

I wonder what parts of "Dawn of the Dead" they don't think are important?

 

[Scott Calvert]

Edward, have you even read the above posts? Anchor Bay didn't CHANGE anything, they simply used what was given to them.

As for issues regarding sound mixes, I think people don't realize that most films have more than one mix, and each mix contains subtle differences. Anchor Bay wanted to include DTS and DD 5.1 surround audio so I'm guessing there weren't many sources to choose from for a film of this age and budget.

Is there a mono track on the dvd?

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

IMHO, the biggest mistake they made was not including the original mono sound mix. If I knew that the original sound mix was available on the DVD, the fact that they did not have stems available for some of the dialog when doing a stereo remix would not bother me too much. That's not all that uncommon a problem when undertaking a remix.

Regards,

 

[Derrick King]

I think I found the post. Is this it ?

Matthew, yes it is. Thanks for posting the links.

 

[JeffMc]

Apparently no - and that's the problem.

As far as various sound mixes go, sure that happens. But wouldn't you prefer the one with the original actors' voices? The one that George Romero prepared for it's original US release? The one that even Anchor Bay realized was the way it should be, but wasn't "important" enough to do anything about?

So, basically if Anchor Bay was given an edited TV print and put that out on DVD, we would all just say "well, that's what they were given so it's not their fault." If a company is given incorrect or faulty masters, they should spend the time CORRECTING it or suffer the consequences. At least incude the original mono track, if nothing else, so there's one INTACT soundtrack. No excuse for this at all.

 

[Scott Calvert]

An edited TV print would have sucked, but that's not what happened.

How do we know Mr. Romero didn't approve this mix at the time of release? We don't know what these stems were used for. Maybe they were used to prepare a stereo mix for some foreign market back in 1985?

 

[Travis_W]

You know, I was a little surprised to not hear Roger Avary or even Romero on either of the commentary tracks say anything about the dubs. Avary is a die-hard fan of this film, you can tell, and George...well it's his movie, he wrote it! Not one person caught the dubs.

I'd be a little worried about 'Dawn of the Dead' (being my favorite film and all) but I think Anchor Bay realizes how important this film is and they literally HAVE to get it right. If not, I wouldn't be surprised to see a much larger outcry than 'Day' or even 'Halloween' for that matter.

Oh and BTW, you know why 'Dawn' was pushed to April 2004, the unholiest of remakes hits theaters on March 26, 2004.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

You know, I was a little surprised to not hear Roger Avary or even Romero on either of the commentary tracks say anything about the dubs. Avary is a die-hard fan of this film, you can tell, and George...well it's his movie, he wrote it! Not one person caught the dubs.

I have no way of knowing, but it is within the realm of possibility that the version of the film they watched during the commentary did not feature the remix and/or the sound was mixed way down so that they could converse over it.

Regards,

 

[Mark Cappelletty]

I know that sometimes the commentary is recorded well in advance of a new transfer depending on the participants and their availability.

 

[Edward Schatz]

Scott, clearly you need to try reading a little better. Anchor Bay changed the soundtrack. They had the original soundtrack on the first DVD, got a different track for the new DVD, realized there were discrepancies and went with it anyway. How is that not CHANGING the soundtrack? I did not state they went into the DVD and specifically changed those lines for their own doing. It's clear they made the decision on what was "ok" in regards to the dubs.

 

[Damin J Toell]

Anchor Bay changed the soundtrack. They had the original soundtrack on the first DVD, got a different track for the new DVD, realized there were discrepancies and went with it anyway. How is that not CHANGING the soundtrack?

It's not "changing" because...its not. Instead, it's using the only soundtrack given to them by the licensors for this release. AB aren't the ones who made the changes. If a movie theatre runs a new cut of a film as supplied to them by the studio (say, the newer cut of The Exorcist), has the movie theatre changed the film? Or has the studio? Like a movie theatre showing a changed film, AB has presented the dialogue track as given to them by the licensors. AB did not change the soundtrack, they used what was given to them.

It doesn't matter what previous releases had. Their original DVD's audio was likely sourced from a comparatively low-quality tape on loan from Elite that was pre-mixed. Assuming they even had permission to use that track again (which is not a given, although you seem to think it is), that pre-mixed track would've been useless to them in creating the new mixes. For the new mixes, stems were required. The stems given to them were different than the previous track; they didn't make any changes themselves to the dialogue stems. Given that this was all that was provided to them, they could either: use it, use the original lower-quality pre-mixed mono tape from Elite (if they even had access to that tape and had permission to use the track anymore), or not release the film at all. They could've both provided the new mixes along with the mono track from the previous release, but again this assumes access to that tape and/or permission to use it. AB's decision doesn't seem very crazy to me, especially if they lacked permission to use anything but the stems provided to them.

DJ

 

[JeffMc]

The new version of The Exorcist at least was labeled as "The Version You Never Saw" and it was promoted under the banner of it being altered. That's an entirely different issue. Anchor Bay may not have CHANGED the audio themselves, but they are CLEARLY trying to pass off this slightly altered version as uncut and unaltered. I guess they assumed no one would notice and just tried to get away with it.

Once again, I haven't seen the disc firsthand and from what I've read here, the changes are very MINIMAL and really don't affect viewing and enjoying the film. But that doesn't excuse the fact that the movie is being promoted as uncut when it's not. If Anchor Bay knew of this dub issue and could not get the correct dialog stems for the remixes and no longer had access (or rights) to the original mono track, all they had to do was put a small blurb on the package "Some dialog has been altered from the original US release version." What they did instead (based on their rep's comments above) was just try to let it slide hoping no one would catch it. It just wasn't "important" to them, I guess. And although I understand many here trying to defend this new release, it's scary when you think that this may just be the tip of the iceberg of what's to come. When does the dubbing or remixing cross the line for you? After 10 words are altered? 20? 30? What if "Dawn of the Dead" has 10 lines changed? Will anyone care or will most of us just say "well, AB may not have had the rights to the original tracks - or the stems were destroyed". To be quite honest, if they can't release it correctly, I'd rather have them NOT release it at all and let someone else do it right.

 

[Damin J Toell]

To be quite honest, if they can't release it correctly, I'd rather have them NOT release it at all and let someone else do it right.

So you believe that, magically, some other company would be able to get different audio stems from the licensor?

DJ