Film chain nostalga... (1 Viewer)

[Michael Rogers]

Once upon a time, I was merrily watching old movies on TV on local stations, interrupted every so often by commercials for car dealerships or the new Ronco item. The prints usually looked as old as the hills, filled with splices, dirt, white spots, etc.

As I got older and home video started to become a force, the movies that got on video were often only a bit better then you would see on TV.

Then as time went on, restoration, insistence on keeping the movies original aspect ratio and the realization that movie lovers wanted more out of thier video than an old TV vault print dragged out and telecined gave way to the increasingly sophisticated movie delivery systems available today for the home.

It is a given that I can get a lovingly restored DVD (or when I take the HD plunge, HD media) of, say, "Forbidden Planet" in 16:9 widescreen. The movie was as much like it was theatrically presented as possible given the limits of the DVD format.

But I discovered "Forbidden Planet" not in a theater but through a old as the hills pan and scanned TV print on a local station. The same thing is also true for a number of other old films.

In this multi version era, I sometimes wish films like Forbidden Planet (that recently had an supurb, extras laden rerelease) would pack an extra disc that supplies not an up to date pan and scan transfer, but a transfer of an old TV print. They could do it for a bit of nostalga and a testament to the evolution of the way we have watched movies on TV and home video.

I know that is an overall silly idea but I am silly.

So I grabbed myself a early 80's Forbidden Planet laserdisc on Ebay recently. This disc (like the early VHS and Beta) is just a simple telecine of a pre panned and scanned TV print. It's cleaner then I remember on TV, but it is essentially what I saw on TV back in the day.

Mind you, if this were the only way Forbidden Planet were available, I'd be spitting bullets. The version of default will always be the version of best video quality properly preserving the film's aspect ratio. But having the cavevideoman version is a good nostalga kick.

Same thing with classic TV. As much as I love having cleaned up transfers of classic TV shows like Mission:Impossible, Gilligan's Island, Star Trek and Twilight Zone, there's something about beaten up 16/35mm prints that used to be used to deliver shows on the air that kicks up that nostalga level a bit further.

Not that I am willing to trade a first class presentation for it but it is a far cry from how I remember watching them.

This is not complaining, just an observation and a declaration that I enjoy seeing retro old school style presentation of beloved old TV shows and movies(when possible) just as much as the latest lovingly restored DVD or HD media.

Both have value to me.

So much so that I rejoice in the fact that I live near a mom and pop video store that still has videos from the beginning of time. I go there just to get the oldest video versions of old movies I already have on DVD(most notably the first ever home videos of Fox movies under the Magnetic video label). And when I put them in....

"Ahhhhh.... now that's the way I remember it..."

I love the way video is now, but a truely retro presentation of movies and TV shows I cut my teeth on has a lot of charm.

 

[Richard--W]

That's not silly at all, it's a good idea. If not the complete telecine, than at least a sample of key scenes amounting to several minutes would serve as a constant reminder of how fragile film is and how seriously we need to take preservation AND presentation.

I first saw Night of the Living Dead (1968) in a theater in 1970. By that time, some two years after it's erratic and intermittent release, it's reputation was like a living legend. A scary low-budget, independent film that came and went so fast you had a hard time finding it. But I was persistent and got to see it projected again several times. As late as 1973 and 1974 it was still in release (theatrical releases lasted much longer in those days, but this was unsually long). Each time was a repeat of my initial screening: every seat was taken and an audience of 1,000 people shared in a frightening experience of a dark scratchy film that shook and jumped over its splices.

Film maker George Romero barely had enough money to pay the lab for a "best light transfer," which is the least costly kind of transfer. A best light transfer does not necessarily reflect the density and exposure levels that are best for individual scenes. Out of this best light transfer came a limited number of dupes, and by the time I caught up with the film, those dupes had been projected to the point where they looked dim, grainy, streaky and shredded. Somehow the poor quality added to the emotional impact of the film, especially when it was projected on a huge screen. And believe me, when Night of the Living Dead was new to the world, it's impact on an audience was stunning regardless of how bad the print was.

Today the authorized DVD looks better than the film did when it was projected in theaters. That's because Elite did a meticulous and conscientious restoration from Romero's patchwork quilt of original camera negatives, which the Walter Reed Organization (indy theatrical distributor no longer in business) didn't use. But if you want to experience Night of the Living Dead as it was originally projected, one of the public domain prints on a budget DVD label comes closer to the image quality. It may be the first time in the history of cinema that poor quality prints created a memorable movie-going experience for a generation.

At least I used to think so. Then I saw OPEN WATER, an independent film shot by amateurs for something like $30,000. on consumer-level equipment they picked up on sale at Best Buy. Most of you on Home Theater Forum spend more money on your home viewing systems. Well, Open Water earned $48,000,000. in theatrical release worldwide before coming to home video. The picture quality was worse than the original Night of the Living Dead, but if people minded, it didn't hurt the box-office.

Just rambling over my morning coffee ...

 

[Jesse Skeen]

I have EVERY movie released on the dead CED videodisc format, and have seen some laughably awful transfers on some of them. There's tons of panning and scanning during the opening credits on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as they try to make all the text readable. "Network" has the most extreme smearing I've ever seen; when it cuts to the next shot it takes several seconds for the last one to fade out!

I've got some tapes of TV newscasts in the 70s, when videotape was still difficult to transport so many news segments were shot on 16mm film then processed and broadcast a few hours later. It's amazing how awful it looks when you consider it was shot the same day, though most newscasts now have so much junk on the screen that the picture quality no longer matters anyways.

 

[Michael Rogers]

I have a lot of CED discs too(don't currently have a working player). Do you have M*A*S*H*? The first RCA Selectavision release even failed to squeeze the opening title so that only "A*S*" would show.

Also, I swear I once saw some of American Graffitti on TV where it was simply cropped and not panned and scanned at all. In other words if the action was anywhere other then the middle of the frame, you were out of luck(2 people in the car scenes showed no faces).

I can only guess the station got an anamorphic copy of the film and just film chained it with an anamorphic lense.

I also remember seeing 9 to 5 and other movies on HBO open matte and you could see boom mikes in a number of shots.

About what Richard said:

Poor quality Night Of The Living Deads add to the atmosphere because the whole movie is documentary like.

Old as the hills prints of Universal Monster movies also added atmosphere to movies that to a kid, already seemed like they were ancient