Is “Giant” overlooked BD-wise? (1 Viewer)

[bobclampett]

Was the original camera negative tossed once the dupes, master positives, etc used to create the long disolves where printed. If the original camera negative is still available could the disolves be recreated?

 

[Robert Harris]

Was the original camera negative tossed once the dupes, master positives, etc used to create the long disolves where printed. If the original camera negative is still available could the disolves be recreated?

Yes.

Yes, but no.

 

[PMF]

Yes.

Yes, but no.

Could you expand a bit more?

 

[Matt Hough]

Well, I went to watch Giant tonight and got to Chapter 16 when the picture began to break up. I took out the disc only to find most woefully that there was a small gash in the dish which was accounting for the problem. Now, I'm in the process of having it replaced, but that means I won't get back to it for several days. At least I wasn't trying to show it to friends and been embarrassed by the disc flaw.

I streamed the HD version of Steel Magnolias from Amazon Prime instead and had a good time laughing and crying along with it.

 

[Mark-P]

Could you expand a bit more?

He’s a man of Few Words™

 

[warnerbro]

Unfortunately, Warner Bros. did the best they could with the original elements. There is no stereo track available and the Warner Color elements are not very good. There are many opticals and dupe dissolves. The image quality varies from shot to shot. Some shots look quite beautiful, while others are very smeary and muddy-looking. From what I understand, Giant was filmed in 1:33:1 and cropped on the top and bottom to give it a 1:66:1 aspect ratio in theatres. The extras on this are outstanding with several documentaries with cast members Rock Hudson, Carol Baker, Jane Withers and others -- Carol Baker and Jane Withers sharing some of the most interesting stories about James Dean. For some unknown reason, Elizabeth Taylor never participated.

 

[Andrew Budgell]

The extras on this are outstanding with several documentaries with cast members Rock Hudson, Carol Baker, Jane Withers and others -- Carol Baker and Jane Withers sharing some of the most interesting stories about James Dean. For some unknown reason, Elizabeth Taylor never participated.

Sadly, Elizabeth never participated in DVD extras of this sort. The one exception being a featurette for another Stevens title, A Place in the Sun, and I think that was mostly to honour Monty Clift.

 

[Malcolm R]

They did love their dissolves back in the day.

 

[Tony Bensley]

Unfortunately, Warner Bros. did the best they could with the original elements. There is no stereo track available and the Warner Color elements are not very good. There are many opticals and dupe dissolves. The image quality varies from shot to shot. Some shots look quite beautiful, while others are very smeary and muddy-looking. From what I understand, Giant was filmed in 1:33:1 and cropped on the top and bottom to give it a 1:66:1 aspect ratio in theatres. The extras on this are outstanding with several documentaries with cast members Rock Hudson, Carol Baker, Jane Withers and others -- Carol Baker and Jane Withers sharing some of the most interesting stories about James Dean. For some unknown reason, Elizabeth Taylor never participated.

An "A" list Color production initially filmed in Academy Ratio in 1955? Interesting!

CHEERS!

 

[KMR]

An "A" list Color production initially filmed in Academy Ratio in 1955? Interesting!

CHEERS!

Wasn't that quite normal? If a film wasn't being photographed in an anamorphic process, it was pretty much the standard procedure to expose the whole negative and have the picture cropped in projection. I really don't know how often films were matted in camera, but I don't believe it was the most common process.

 

[Tony Bensley]

Wasn't that quite normal? If a film wasn't being photographed in an anamorphic process, it was pretty much the standard procedure to expose the whole negative and have the picture cropped in projection. I really don't know how often films were matted in camera, but I don't believe it was the most common process.

I knew that it was normal for Black & White "B" movie fare, but it was my assumption that large scale Color productions, such as GIANT (1956) weren't part of that by 1955, no?

CHEERS!

 

[Lord Dalek]

I knew that it was normal for Black & White "B" movie fare, but it was my assumption that large scale Color productions, such as GIANT (1956) weren't part of that by 1955, no?

CHEERS!

As I understand it, George Stevens was not a fan of Cinemascope when Giant was in production. Hence they went with an open-matte.

 

[Robert Harris]

I knew that it was normal for Black & White "B" movie fare, but it was my assumption that large scale Color productions, such as GIANT (1956) weren't part of that by 1955, no?

CHEERS!

Virtually all productions not shot scope, were 1.37. Exceptions, involved various mattes in camera.

Some with multiple, or different mattes, per camera.

Wide-screen = 1.37 matted in projection, either RA or FA.

All Vista and TLA shot full open matte 1.50.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Virtually all productions not shot scope, were 1.37. Exceptions, involved various mattes in camera.

Some with multiple, or different mattes, per camera.

Wide-screen = 1.37 matted in projection, either RA or FA.

All Vista and TLA shot full open matte 1.50.

There you go.

 

[Worth]

I knew that it was normal for Black & White "B" movie fare, but it was my assumption that large scale Color productions, such as GIANT (1956) weren't part of that by 1955, no?

CHEERS!

I think you may be confusing the difference between filmed in Academy and composed for Academy.

 

[Tony Bensley]

Not having viewed GIANT in a very long time, I mistakenly assumed that it would have been shot in Cinemascope, but I was obviously thinking of REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955), which I know was filmed using that process, as initial Black & White shooting had to be scrapped, since all Cinemascope productions had to be filmed in Color at that time.

Thank you very much, RAH for your clarifications!

CHEERS!

 

[Matt Hough]

I did end up finishing Giant today. The transfer certainly does wax and wane in sharpness throughout, as many have said, due to the opticals, WarnerColor, and other photography problems. When it's good, though, it looks smashing. And at least it's clean with no specks and scratches.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

http://www.3dfilmarchive.com/home/widescreen-documentation

 

[Matt Hough]

And yet he never made another film in that aspect ratio! I wonder if he tried to have The Only Game in Town framed at 1.66:1?

 

[RichMurphy]

And yet he never made another film in that aspect ratio! I wonder if he tried to have The Only Game in Town framed at 1.66:1?

Even more ironic, his two subsequent films to Giant were 2.35:1 (Diary of Anne Frank) and 2.76:1 (The Greatest Story Ever Told).