"Wrinkle cream for old movies" (1 Viewer)

[Henry Gale]

Found this restoration article in the LA Times.

http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/v...tz4jul04.story

 

[John Watson]

reminds me of the debate over colourizing

in an age where plastic surgery and silicon are normal, I'm not optimistic about the outcome :frowning:

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Still, that frame from Robin Hood looked absolutely spectacular.

Also, is the fact that the first master of "Giant" was fucked up the reason it got pulled off the market so quickly the first time?

 

[Henry Gale]

...from the article..



"I don't mind cleaning dirt and scratches, but I hate it when they take away the grain," complains restorer Robert Harris ("Lawrence of Arabia" and "Vertigo"). "It gives you a very pretty video image, but if you look at it closely, it's soft because you can't add information where there is none.... But film grain is not the enemy. It is the very center of matter in the film world. And a DVD does not have to become cleaner than an operating room.

"The question is: Do you have the right to change something that is someone else's work? And if you do, then why not take all of the Seurat works and homogenize them? Take all the dots out and turn them into pretty pictures."

 

[Jack Briggs]

And that is the kiss of death!

 

[Dave B Ferris]

After reading the article, I felt some sense of vindication for keeping (and actually continuing to expand) my laserdisc collection. I've seen comments before about the so-called 'purity' of the LD format, which - in the wake of this article - can probably be interpreted as a suggestion many LD transfers were successful in retaining the film-like quality of the actual films.

 

[Robert Harris]

I've been informed by those who have seen demos that Warner's new digital restoration of Robin Hood brings out the color and beautifully registers the black and white records while retaining the basic grain structure.

Everything that I've heard has been positive about this work and I look forward to seeing the final product.

RAH