A Few Words About While we wait for A few words about...™ Lawrence of Arabia -- in 4k/UHD Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Charles Smith]

Mindboggling.

 

[Brian Kidd]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/15/arts/moon-landing-tapes-auction.html

You hear a lot about government boondoggles, but this takes the cake. There are no words to adequately describe the stupidity of not immediately depositing the original tapes in either the National Archives or the Library of Congress. These tapes will likely make their way into the hands of someone who either has no idea of how to properly preserve them, will keep them private until they've deteriorated beyond use, or will demand so much money for them to be copied that the world will never see them. Best case scenario is that someone who truly cares about their significance will purchase them, have them professionally preserved and duplicated, and share the contents publicly. That's my hope. The cynic in me says that it will be the former.

 

[JohnMor]

You hear a lot about government boondoggles, but this takes the cake. There are no words to adequately describe the stupidity of not immediately depositing the original tapes in either the National Archives or the Library of Congress. These tapes will likely make their way into the hands of someone who either has no idea of how to properly preserve them, will keep them private until they've deteriorated beyond use, or will demand so much money for them to be copied that the world will never see them. Best case scenario is that someone who truly cares about their significance will purchase them, have them professionally preserved and duplicated, and share the contents publicly. That's my hope. The cynic in me says that it will be the former.

Well, the cynic in me points out that the current owner didn’t feel the need to donate them to the NA or LOC or even the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. He’s looking to cash in for himself, no matter what happens to the tapes from here on out. And that’s certainly his right to do. But that tells me whether we’re talking government beauracracy or private individual, the benefit to humanity and the public, present and future, is rarely a priority. And that’s sad.

 

[Robert Harris]

Decades ago, I purchased the assets of a documentary production entity, which created the majority of the NASA docs.

I originally acquired it with the intent of producing a multi-part doc on NASA and its predecessor, NACA. Never got around to it.

Beautiful 16 chromes, 35 negative, 70mm material, along with the original VistaVision negative of a Vanguard launch. Original 35 negative of the astronauts visiting Rocketdyne c. 1959.

Over the past few years I've discussed the collection with folks at NASA, but never had a cogent response.

You'd think they'd be desirous of owning this material.

Almost 550 rolls of film elements.

Although I offered to donate it to NASA, I'd love to sell it to some entity that would like to do a special doc.

Needs a proper home.

 

[OliverK]

You are exactly right.
Sincrerely, my post was clueless, apologies.
For dummies like me, next time tack on an emoji.
Common practice.

No harm done and you are among friends here so it's all good

 

[Michel_Hafner]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/15/arts/moon-landing-tapes-auction.html

So we can finally prove it was all staged by Kubrick??

 

[B-ROLL]

So we can finally prove it was all staged by Kubrick??

Nope Hyams

 

[Robert Harris]

https://ymcinema.com/2019/07/18/large-format-cinema-cameras-high-level-comparison/#comment-1244

 

[Michel_Hafner]

https://ymcinema.com/2019/07/18/large-format-cinema-cameras-high-level-comparison/#comment-1244

The DR stops are inaccurate. Alexa and Monstro are about the same.

 

[Brian Husar]

I’ve been impressed with the Arri Alexa 65 but with the Panavision DXL, you can use Panavision’s large format lenses so that is awesome. So if they use the Super Panavision 70 lenses, would the movie be considered filmed in Super Panavision 70? We need to wow moviegoers again. I know the Russo brothers used the Ultra Panavison 70 lenses on the Arri Alexa 65 for Infinity War and Endgame. Always said, if they could make 65 mm work in digital I would no longer be a celluloid snob.

 

[OliverK]

I’ve been impressed with the Arri Alexa 65 but with the Panavision DXL, you can use Panavision’s large format lenses so that is awesome. So if they use the Super Panavision 70 lenses, would the movie be considered filmed in Super Panavision 70? We need to wow moviegoers again. I know the Russo brothers used the Ultra Panavison 70 lenses on the Arri Alexa 65 for Infinity War and Endgame. Always said, if they could make 65 mm work in digital I would no longer be a celluloid snob.

I just looked up Avengers Endgame and have to say that to me bringing this kind of resolution down to 2k again is sickening. Ever higher resolution capture seems to be mostly pointless if we cannot even make it to proper 4k DI's.

 

[Brian Husar]

I just looked up Avengers Endgame and have to say that to me bringing this kind of resolution down to 2k again is sickening. Ever higher resolution capture seems to be mostly pointless if we cannot even make it to proper 4k DI's.

Agreed and I wonder why this is happening. Almost every film is brought down to 2K nowadays, why not give us true 4K?

 

[Robert Harris]

Agreed and I wonder why this is happening. Almost every film is brought down to 2K nowadays, why not give us true 4K?

Possibly because home video piggybacks theatrical, and 4k theatrical is still a rara avis

 

[Brian Husar]

Possibly because home video piggybacks theatrical, and 4k theatrical is still a rara avis

I agree. Only a few recent films are true 4K. Black Panther was one of them. I wish they would hype this stuff up. Like you have been saying a beautifully projected 4K image is better than 35 or 65mm film and now that they have these cameras where you can use the Super Panavision and Ultra Panavision lenses with the Hi Def digital cameras, people can be wowed of they hype this up the way they did Cinemascope and Todd AO back in the day.

 

[OliverK]

Agreed and I wonder why this is happening. Almost every film is brought down to 2K nowadays, why not give us true 4K?

It was a very similar issue with 70mm and that was also the reason that 70mm origination all but disappeared and instead fake 70mm, i.e. 70mm Blow-Ups were introduced: 35mm was considered good enough, same as 2k. So it used to be 35mm movies blown up to 70mm and now it is 2k DCP's presented to us on 4k UHD discs and in 4k digital cinemas.

The bean counters seem to make the right decision I would think as in recent memory we only got one very successful movie with a 4k DCP: Black Panther that you already mentioned. All others do just fine with 2k.

 

[Brian Husar]

It was a very similar issue with 70mm and that was also the reason that 70mm origination all but disappeared and instead fake 70mm, i.e. 70mm Blow-Ups were introduced: 35mm was considered good enough, same as 2k. So it used to be 35mm movies blown up to 70mm and now it is 2k DCP's presented to us on 4k UHD discs and in 4k digital cinemas.

The bean counters seem to make the right decision I would think as in recent memory we only got one very successful movie with a 4k DCP: Black Panther that you already mentioned. All others do just fine with 2k.

However I miss the 70mm blow ups. Oliver Stone could so his Putin docs but he gave me one of the greatest cinematic experiences when I saw the 70mm blow up of Born On The Fourth July at McClurg Court Cinema in Chicago. Their main theater had 70mm and it was a THX theater. Summer of 89 was the year for 70mm blow ups. Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade was another one and that had the most 70mm prints than any other blow up.

 

[Robert Harris]

It was a very similar issue with 70mm and that was also the reason that 70mm origination all but disappeared and instead fake 70mm, i.e. 70mm Blow-Ups were introduced: 35mm was considered good enough, same as 2k. So it used to be 35mm movies blown up to 70mm and now it is 2k DCP's presented to us on 4k UHD discs and in 4k digital cinemas.

The bean counters seem to make the right decision I would think as in recent memory we only got one very successful movie with a 4k DCP: Black Panther that you already mentioned. All others do just fine with 2k.

The two major rationales for 70 blow-ups, were illumination for large screens, and 6-track mag.

 

[OliverK]

The two major rationales for 70 blow-ups, were illumination for large screens, and 6-track mag.

Yes those were the technical rationales but sadly the bigger negative and increased resolution that was the biggest selling point for (re-)introducing large format productions was missing.

 

[Worth]

70mm blowups started becoming commonplace in the 70s, just as more cinemas were becoming multiplexes and screen sizes were shrinking.

 

[JoshZ]

Agreed and I wonder why this is happening. Almost every film is brought down to 2K nowadays, why not give us true 4K?

A fully 4k post-production workflow is significantly more expensive than 2k. More importantly, it's also much more time-consuming. These big Marvel tentpoles have tight release schedules of three per year, and the only way the many VFX vendors can hit their deliverables on time is to do their work at 2k.