3D Meet Bob Furmanek: HTF Golden Age 3-D Consultant (4 Viewers)

[Bob Furmanek]

The restoration of color to the totally faded left side - which Greg Kintz accomplished on GOG - has never been achieved successfully on any other faded element, even with budgets many, many times higher than ours.

One of the top post facilities in LA (with funds far exceeding our meager $12K budget) tried to do it several years ago and failed.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

The color fade fix might be the most astonishing thing about a restoration which has many astonishing things about it.

The best thing that I can say about the Gog restoration (or the September Storm restoration for that matter) is that looking at the final product, I'd never know that the films had needed restoration in the first place. It's incredible to me how seamless the work you and your crew do is.

 

[Kiwitutor]

I'm new to the fantastic world of 3-D films, but now own Gog and several others that were restored by Bob, Greg and the team at the 3-D Film Archive. I would describe their work as miraculous, given the (often) sorry state of the source material they are working with. It is jaw-dropping what they have achieved on the small budgets allocated and I hope for many more releases to come. I'll buy each and every one.

Quick question for Bob if I may - do you have any view on 'modern' 3-D films? How would you rate something like Doctor Strange for audience experience etc? I know it's a post-conversion so not quite in the same league as the 'Golden Age' creations. Do you feel modern cinema-goers have it good with what they see in 3-D?

 

[Bob Furmanek]

Thanks very much, I appreciate your kind words.

To be honest, I haven't seen most of the recent 3-D films. The ones that I've seen - for the most part - have been very disappointing. They're more like 2.5-D and a far cry from the depth that was seen when 3-D movies were analogue and shot with dual-35mm cameras.

 

[John Hermes]

Thanks very much, I appreciate your kind words.

To be honest, I haven't seen most of the recent 3-D films. The ones that I've seen - for the most part - have been very disappointing. They're more like 2.5-D and a far cry from the depth that was seen when 3-D movies were analogue and shot with dual-35mm cameras.

Bob, do you have any idea when Those Redheads From Seattle might be available to buy?

 

[Bob Furmanek]

We're still working on it and I believe it's on the slate for May 2017 release. You won't believe how much work this title has been and we hope to have time to cut together a before/after demo to show the results.

You name it and these elements had it. Dirt, damage, weave, jitter, flicker, severe/variable fading that changed from shot to shot, bad vertical stereoscopic mis-alignment, etc.

As Greg so eloquently stated when we got the raw scans; "There's a beautifully photographed 3-D film hidden in there."

And true to form, once again, Greg has worked some miracles. The most recent version that I saw ten days ago (one step away from the final master) is absolutely stunning.

The Archive team (Thad Komorowski on dirt/damage repair; Jack Theakston on color fixes plus restoration of the original Intermission card - not seen anywhere since 1953; Eckhard Büttner on recreation of the long-lost three channel stereophonic sound and Mark Matthews on audio mastering) has truly hit a home-run on this one!

 

[Jimbo64]

Bob, do you have any idea when Those Redheads From Seattle might be available to buy?

The Kino thread has it listed as May 9th

 

[Matt Hough]

We're still working on it and I believe it's on the slate for May 2017 release. You won't believe how much work this title has been and we hope to have time to cut together a before/after demo to show the results.

You name it and these elements had it. Dirt, damage, weave, jitter, flicker, severe/variable fading that changed from shot to shot, bad vertical stereoscopic mis-alignment, etc.

As Greg so eloquently stated when we got the raw scans; "There's a beautifully photographed 3-D film hidden in there."

And true to form, once again, Greg has worked some miracles. The most recent version that I saw ten days ago (one step away from the final master) is absolutely stunning.

The Archive team (Thad Komorowski on dirt/damage repair; Jack Theakston on color fixes plus restoration of the original Intermission card - not seen anywhere since 1953; Eckhard Büttner on recreation of the long-lost three channel stereophonic sound and Mark Matthews on audio mastering) has truly hit a home-run on this one!

God, you guys are the BEST!

 

[RolandL]

The Archive team (Thad Komorowski on dirt/damage repair; Jack Theakston on color fixes plus restoration of the original Intermission card - not seen anywhere since 1953; Eckhard Büttner on recreation of the long-lost three channel stereophonic sound and Mark Matthews on audio mastering) has truly hit a home-run on this one!

I'm almost as excited to be able to hear the three channel stereophonic sound as seeing this in 3D. According to Bob, there are few 1950's 3D titles where the stereo tracks still exist.

House of Wax - only surround track exist
Those Red Heads from Seattle
It Came from Outer Space
Kiss Me Kate

Maybe a few others.

 

[Mike Ballew]

Roland, the three-channel Redheads soundtrack is a careful reconstruction, not the original. I am very much looking forward to hearing it myself.

 

[StephenDH]

Thanks very much, I appreciate your kind words.

To be honest, I haven't seen most of the recent 3-D films. The ones that I've seen - for the most part - have been very disappointing. They're more like 2.5-D and a far cry from the depth that was seen when 3-D movies were analogue and shot with dual-35mm cameras.

Of the modern 3D outings, excluding animation, only Martin Scorsese's "Hugo" and Thomas Jane's "Dark Country" (both native 3D) are the ones I'd seriously recommend.
Try to ignore Sacha Baron Cohen in the former and good luck finding a 3D screening of the latter.

 

[Matt Hough]

I thought Life of Pi was very effective in 3D.

 

[John Hermes]

I thought Life of Pi was very effective in 3D.

I thought the 3D depth in Life Of Pi, in general, pales in comparison to the 1950s films.

 

[Dick]

I thought the 3D depth in Life Of Pi, in general, pales in comparison to the 1950s films.

Almost anything (other than a few animated films such as MADAGASCAR 3 and A TURTLE'S TALE) pale by comparison to the 50's films. Filmmakers have lost their balls as far as forward projection is concerned, and I don't get why. Isn't that what people pay an extra few bucks to see 3D for?

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Filmmakers have lost their balls as far as forward projection is concerned, and I don't get why. Isn't that what people pay an extra few bucks to see 3D for?

I think one of the complaints over the years from moviegoers attending 3D showings was that the 3D effects hurt their eyes. As Bob has eloquently explained here and on his website, probably more times that he can recall, that's more of a function of bad projection or mistakes on the set than an inherent problem with 3D itself. But I think part of the reason modern 3D tends to be less extreme than the 1950s titles is in an effort to avoid eyestrain and fatigue - the 3D is less demanding on the eyes overall, both in terms of depth and forward projection.

There are times where I've felt some of the older 3D titles had depth or projections that started to exceed my own brain's ability to fuse the images together. It hasn't happened too often (most of the time when I have trouble with a specific title, it's because of a technical issue that didn't get fixed, like the Shout Factory 3D releases), but I definitely notice on the flip side that the modern productions are less visually taxing.

I will say that "The Walk" from Robert Zemeckis was the most astonishing 3D experience I've ever had in my life. Seeing that on an IMAX 3D screen was incredible beyond words - I felt like I was walking on a wire between the Twin Towers myself. And I really enjoy how James Cameron used it in both Avatar and his Titanic conversion. I'm not as down on modern productions as some 3D enthusiasts, but I would definitely agree that these new films tend to use it as an enhancement (like surround sound) rather than as part of the cinematic vocabulary of the film itself.

 

[Bob Cashill]

The 3D's loud and clear in THE GREAT WALL, which gives you your dimensional money's worth. Where did old school 3D go? To HK/China, where it's used much more fully in films like THE MERMAID, THE TAKING OF TIGER MOUNTAIN, and THE GREAT WALL.

 

[SFMike]

The 3D's loud and clear in THE GREAT WALL, which gives you your dimensional money's worth. Where did old school 3D go? To HK/China, where it's used much more fully in films like THE MERMAID, THE TAKING OF TIGER MOUNTAIN, and THE GREAT WALL.

I totally agree but the sad truth is we will probably never see these films on blu-ray 3D in the USA.

 

[Dick]

I think one of the complaints over the years from moviegoers attending 3D showings was that the 3D effects hurt their eyes. As Bob has eloquently explained here and on his website, probably more times that he can recall, that's more of a function of bad projection or mistakes on the set than an inherent problem with 3D itself. But I think part of the reason modern 3D tends to be less extreme than the 1950s titles is in an effort to avoid eyestrain and fatigue - the 3D is less demanding on the eyes overall, both in terms of depth and forward projection.

There are times where I've felt some of the older 3D titles had depth or projections that started to exceed my own brain's ability to fuse the images together. It hasn't happened too often (most of the time when I have trouble with a specific title, it's because of a technical issue that didn't get fixed, like the Shout Factory 3D releases), but I definitely notice on the flip side that the modern productions are less visually taxing.

I will say that "The Walk" from Robert Zemeckis was the most astonishing 3D experience I've ever had in my life. Seeing that on an IMAX 3D screen was incredible beyond words - I felt like I was walking on a wire between the Twin Towers myself. And I really enjoy how James Cameron used it in both Avatar and his Titanic conversion. I'm not as down on modern productions as some 3D enthusiasts, but I would definitely agree that these new films tend to use it as an enhancement (like surround sound) rather than as part of the cinematic vocabulary of the film itself.

Yes, recent 3D films have had remarkable depth. THE WALK was actually difficult for me to watch although hugely rewarding in retrospect (I have acrophobia), and like you I saw it in 3D at an IMAX theater. That it was a conversion still seems astonishing to me -- damn, is there nothing that can't be done digitally these days? And it looks remarkable on Blu-ray. There are several reasons why THE WALK works as well as it does -- an important one is that it is cut like a much older film. Shots are held long enough so that your brain can actually absorb what it is seeing in context without having to keep re-assimilating data every two seconds, which it can't do very well in 2D, let alone in 3D. If we had more films like this and, say, LIFE OF PI instead of just another TRANSFORMERS fiasco or Marvel Comics flick every other week, we might have been able to keep the adult movie-going population from abandoning the format in such large numbers when it comes to home theater. I don't know that, but I believe that. Other than the occasional massive hit like MOANA or THE JUNGLE BOOK, plus PIXAR and STAR WARS and Marvel titles, we are seeing Disney bowing out of 3D Blu-ray support.

It didn't have to be this way. This century could have truly been the start of a 3D renaissance that survived indefinitely, had it been planned, priced and promoted properly by studios. Instead, we supporters are now facing a dearth of 3D-ready t.v.'s and a gradual dwindling of software.

 

[StephenDH]

Yes, recent 3D films have had remarkable depth. THE WALK was actually difficult for me to watch although hugely rewarding in retrospect (I have acrophobia), and like you I saw it in 3D at an IMAX theater. That it was a conversion still seems astonishing to me -- damn, is there nothing that can't be done digitally these days? And it looks remarkable on Blu-ray. There are several reasons why THE WALK works as well as it does -- an important one is that it is cut like a much older film. Shots are held long enough so that your brain can actually absorb what it is seeing in context without having to keep re-assimilating data every two seconds, which it can't do very well in 2D, let alone in 3D. If we had more films like this and, say, LIFE OF PI instead of just another TRANSFORMERS fiasco or Marvel Comics flick every other week, we might have been able to keep the adult movie-going population from abandoning the format in such large numbers when it comes to home theater. I don't know that, but I believe that. Other than the occasional massive hit like MOANA or THE JUNGLE BOOK, plus PIXAR and STAR WARS and Marvel titles, we are seeing Disney bowing out of 3D Blu-ray support.

It didn't have to be this way. This century could have truly been the start of a 3D renaissance that survived indefinitely, had it been planned, priced and promoted properly by studios. Instead, we supporters are now facing a dearth of 3D-ready t.v.'s and a gradual dwindling of software.

The Walk was impressive and I should have included it.
I agree about giving people time to adjust by using long takes. Modern movies use such rapid cutting that even in 2D they can become tiring to watch.
Some of the directors in 80s 3D revival decided fast cutting was OK with 3D and disregarded the rules laid down during the 50s. This may explain why some of the 80s movies are so bad and why the same rules are still being ignored today.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

I'm pleased to announce that we have just recorded our first feature commentary track. I had the great pleasure of joining Hillary Hess and Jack Theakston to discuss all aspects of THOSE REDHEADS FROM SEATTLE.

Throughout the 90 minutes, we cover the films production and limited 3-D release; the recently solved mystery of the origin of the Paravision camera and the technical challenges of filming in dual-35mm 3-D; the pioneering use of widescreen framing and the lost three-channel stereophonic sound; Lionel Lindon's outstanding and complex three-dimensional compositions; my decades long search for missing 3-D elements and so much more. In addition, Archive Technical Director Greg Kintz joins us for a ten-minute segment to describe the many challenges that he faced with bringing this stereoscopic gem back to life.

THOSE REDHEADS FROM SEATTLE are coming to 3-D Blu-ray from Kino Lorber in May 2017. Don't miss "3-D's big musical gal-stacked frolic!" http://www.3dfilmarchive.com/those-redheads-from-seattle