Hi. I would like to start a several projects journey this year. Those projects have been thought over for years, mostly because of time needed to collects elements needed. But I want to know if anyone of those might be of any interest here on Fanres. Feel free to complete poll and add any question or commentary below. Here are some details on the projects I would like to tackle:


Project #1: The Odyssey/L'Odyssée/L'Odissea (1968) Franco Rossi

I've managed to collect both the german (with questionable recuts and edits) and Italian DVD (re-edited as a long movie) and download the French and Italian (RAI) TV versions from the TV distributors offering those online in VOD.

What I want to do: Use all the audio tracks and subtitles (including english) and re-edit all the sources to the original uncut TV format ("Relatively uncut" actually, since the original prologue is long gone since the 1970s from all the sources). Cleanining up the sources from any digiral artifacts (there are some, I think, but I could be wrong since it could be film grains). De-interlacing and 24ips pull down may be also in the cards (especially since it was all filmed on film stock). Stabilization and color correcting might also be in order and add bonus elements for a Fanres DVD release project (or Blu-ray, if upscaling techniques/workflows give good results). Recreating the original opening and end credits for the Italian and French version may also be considered as options.

More informations later.


Project #2; The three Little Pigs (1933) The uncensored, politically incorect version that the Mouse wants to bury (among other movies)

Ok. This one is and an overdone one. DVDs of the Jewish peddler exists (PAL image only), a japanese LD (that I'm still trying to track down) does have the full thing uncensored (audio & image) and also CDs (with a crappy audio quality) does exist. Some 16/35mm prints exists also with the audio intact (mostly european ones if I'm not mistaken).

I've been able to obtain some of those elements, including an official 1080p copy of the movie from a torrent tracker. What I would like to do:
-Take either the LD (NTSC), Pal DVD image (prints with the uncensored image are scarce) with the jewish pedler bits and do a 24 ips pull down and de-interlace those (also I'll have to remove all the unnecessary reapeating images created by the PAL/NTSC conversion). Then, Upscale it with Topaz AI (by making sure it doesn't mess anything on the image texture/grain), so I can seemlessly integrate the treated image to the 1080p image seemlessly. Another option would be upscaling the whole PAL image instead so it keeps it's integrity (if the 1st option fails)
-Clean up the audio (from the 16mm print) that include the Jew lines ("I'm giving free samples") and use it for either the jewish part or maybe the whole movie (depending on how well I can seemlessly blend it in with the restaured 1080p version). Another option, if the integration fails and difference is too jaring, I can also play with audio filters on both elements until I can find a middle ground so I can integrate them together seemlessly without compromizing the audio quality.

Of course, if better elements comes up, this'll be revisited.


Project #3 King Kong

This'll be quick and simple enough. Re-edit the movie (from the Blu-Ray) so it get closer to the censored version and then integrate the original 1st release french dub (only surviving in the censored film version). I've heard that maybe the original 1st release dubs of the italian and german may also have survived, but I haven't found them at all (yet) or any confirmation for that matter. I've only found the Italian re-release trailer on Youtube, for now. If there's anything else that can be added feel free to tell, I'm all ears and interested. I may consider adding a colored version as a potential bonus (Ewwwww !!!) for a DVD once the project is done.



There might be another project , but I still need to confirm with another user as I don't have amme the source elements and part of the work is already done by him anyway. So let's consider this as a mystery project to be confirmed.


There you have it all (in a shortened version). If there's any interests in one of those, which one would you chose (and why) ? Please complete the poll and if you want to elaborate or want to know more about any of these, feel free to ask below. Contributors and helps are also welcome.

Hello all. Does anyone here know how to create a new poll for a new thread in this forum ? I tried to look earlyer, but aside on "attach a new poll" I couln't find anything on how to create one here.

Can anyone help please ?

Thanks

Here's a weird one: a scene from the very end of this relatively early Argento film (which I just watched fairly recently and loved) has an extreme slow-mo shot that required a specialised, extremely high speed 35 mm camera to shoot, which could expose up to 3000 frames per second (as opposed to about 250 fps on a normal 35 mm camera).



There's an interview with Luigi Cozzi on the Shameless Screen Entertainment Blu-ray Disc release (GB) talking about it. He explains that this one shot was an absolute nightmare to get into the film.

For a start, they had a huge catastrophe when the first shot (which was expensive due to what happens in it, but I won't explain why for now) didn't get filmed at all due to the camera jamming. They realised that this was because they'd been testing it using black and white film, but hadn't actually loaded it with the stock they were shooting the film on, so when they filled it with the colour stock the additional thickness of the acetate was too much for it to move freely through the mechanism and it just completely jammed and none of the film got exposed whatsoever. Eventually they figured this out, loaded less film into the camera, and got the shot.



However, even when they eventually got the shot on film, there was a different problem: the film stock they used in this incredibly high speed camera wasn't loaded onto sprockets, which would just end up torn to shreds if you tried to use them to haul film through the camera at 3000 fps; it instead was yanked through very quickly by a shoe. But this happened *so* fast that the frames did not always line up perfectly: they found when reviewing the footage (only a few seconds worth, but they didn't have the opportunity to reshoot because of the expense of the scene already having blown the budget they had) that the frame lines had shifted down into the image instead of bordering the edges. So about 1/4 of the way down into the picture, there was a huge black line.

At this point I'm going to show you this, but it's going behind a spoiler tag in case you haven't seen the film and don't want to know what happens in the scene:

I've been lurking on these boards for a few days since I first stumbled on them, and decided to make an account today and introduce myself. First time joining any kind of message board, so forgive any missteps, please. I'm a film and video pro on the west coast with my own studio, spending a lot of time indoors right now as a result of covid, and ripping more laserdiscs than ever before. I've been hunting down rare and alternate versions of films for years and I love anything open matte. I hope to get to know some of you and share more soon.

Hey, guys.

Does anybody have the Region 1 DVD of Glory. It should include the isolated soundtrack in Dolby 5.1. My brother had the Region 2 DVD back in the day and it did include it, so I guess the Region 1 should have it, too. I want it especially for that piece of music : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIV0bp4DFQs that was also used in the Crying Freeman trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FflXm9_N6gY
Thanks.

I'm on a bit of a mission at the moment to try to work out what the hell to do about DRACULA, which is (much like HALLOWEEN and THE EXORCIST) a historically significant favourite of mine which has been treated frustratingly poorly over the years.

This more or less involves me trying to source every single known unique release and examine the viability of each one as a source.


I currently have:

1992 US LD from Warner
1993 JP LD from Warner
2000 GB VHS from Warner (which I own but don't have in my home because of COVID, frustratingly)
2013 GB BD from Lionsgate (2007 BFI master with "theatrical"* and extended cut with some JP footage re-integrated)
2017 DE BD from Anolis (2007 BFI master with "theatrical"* and further extended cut with more JP footage)
2018 US BD from Warner (2007 BFI master of "theatrical"* cut with the colour now corrected, but with severe black crush from what looks like an RGB range error)
2019 DE BD from Studio Hamburg (2002 Warner master of US theatrical cut with "HORROR OF DRACULA" title and 1.78:1 framing instead of 1.66:1)


I'd like to get (but probably won't):

2016 DE BD from Studio Hamburg (stupidly expensive)
2020 ES BD from ... well, it's hard to say, but I think it's Resen, which would make it most likely an unlicenced bootleg, which I don't want to financially support by buying

* The actual UK theatrical cut had censorship to a scene involving a vampire being, er, "staked", but this is present in every version I own (possibly excepting the UK VHS, but given it's a Warner release from 2000, I expect it to be in there).


The problem is primarily that overall, the most watchable (and likely most true to source) release to date is the 2018 Warner Archive release... but they have clipped the s**t out of the blacks to such an extreme extent that I'm pretty convinced it must be a technical error where they've mixed up their RGB ranges (unless I'm getting this confused, I take it what they must've done is erroneously assume that a full range RGB production master was limited range, clipping off anything below 16 and over 235). The sound, at least at a glance, appears to be head and shoulders over just about anything else including both LaserDiscs. But you'll notice that I've not checked any DVDs yet, so it's theoretically possible (however unlikely) there may be a better source in DVD format.

Here's the first of at least two short videos on the subject, comparing the two different extended cuts (from 2012 and 2017) to the 2007 BFI "remaster" which introduced that now rather infamous blanket blue-green tint @The Aluminum Falcon did a pretty good job of masking in his restoration a while back.

To very briefly illustrate what this looks like, here's the same frame from a few versions:

US Prime Video stream / 2019 DE Studio Hamburg BD, 2002 Warner master from newly-struck IP:

I believe this is pretty much exactly what it's *supposed* to look like, aspect ratio (and US title card) aside.

2013 GB Lionsgate BD, 2007 BFI master from OCN provided by Warner:

Clearly all kinds of messed up.

@The Aluminum Falcon's restoration of the BFI master:

Better, but still extremely pushed toward the cold end of the spectrum... only so much anybody can do with a source that heavily screwed. It's still the best version of the extended cut available atm, imo.

1993 JP Warner LD, unspecified early 90s Warner master (evidently a release print):

Very very close to the 2002 master. Again, I'm convinced this is how it's meant to look.

Hello, I'm kcognetti503!

I've been lurking on this forum for a while now and feel it is time to officially introduce myself. I am a film fanatic with a particular love for classic horror movies and comedy films. Preservations/restorations of a film's original theatrical run and or any extended/alternate version is a particular focus of mine and I've been known to go to great lengths to get my hands on these (or create them) when given the opportunity and free time

Hello Fanress

My process for projects has been to trans-code a Bluray (or what ever the original video file is) to a lossless codec for editing.
I use an AVIsynth script and then pipe it through Virtual Dub2, normally converting to RGB using the MagicYUV lossless codec

Ive converted from HDR to SDR using Avisynth and z_ConvertFormat & DGHable / DGReinhard in the past, and recently experimented converting straight from 10bit Rec2020 to RGB then using a LUT in premiere to monitor / convert thinking it would give me greater control.
This has always been in the 8 bit SDR land, and I'm still not set up for 10bit 4K really but would like to master in this for the future.

I was wondering how are people trans-coding / converting UHD's with HDR for editing?
Both staying in it's native format, and down converting to SDR.

Thanks for your time

I don't yet have a thing that would make this a little more comprehensive: the 2013 US Blu-ray. The thing is, that Blu-ray is apparently cropped to 16:9 (despite having been shot and framed for 4:3 TV), so I highly doubt that'll be the version I'll want to watch when I properly sit down to watch it on the projector with decent sound at the right speed etc.

Nonetheless, I've just spent quite a lot of time (too much, really) comparing the three releases of the 1993 TV film BODY BAGS that I have so far:

1. the 1994 US Republic Pictures LaserDisc (NTSC)
2. the 2000 US Artisan DVD (NTSC)
3. the 2012 Italian Medusa DVD (PAL)

NOTE: This is a film in which you see Luke Skywalker with a Hulk Hogan moustache doing three things he never did a whole lot of in STAR WARS: domestic violence, shagging*, and a Southern accent. Strap in.



* For the Americans, I'm talking about willy business. Special hugs. The two-pump tango. I hope that helps.

Now, as you'll already begin to understand as you look at the above image, the colours are absolutely all over the bloody place here. Depending on which scene you're looking at, you might find the LD looks the best by a mile, or the US DVD, or the Italian DVD. At times one will be heavily pushed toward green and the others are really blue, and then suddenly it will flip completely the other way when the shot changes. It's really inconsistent and annoying. I wonder if that's where I might get some use out of the Blu-ray, but who knows? I'll find out soon enough.

The other major thing here is that until the Blu-ray (allegedly, as I don't have it yet to verify personally) most releases of this film were cut to varying degrees. There have been at least one or two European DVDs that aren't cut, of which the Italian DVD appears to be one, but the old 1994 US LaserDisc is partially censored and the 2000 US Artisan DVD is *extremely* heavily cut. I'm actually thinking that the US DVD may be the original TV broadcast version, because there's a whole bunch of stuff in the uncut version that is absolutely heinous and definitely wouldn't have made it onto TV in the US back in 1993, unless I've absolutely no idea what I'm talking about (which is a very real possibility).

So to start with, I ran through and synced both cut versions to the uncut Italian DVD, partly just out of pure curiosity and partly to try to gauge how viable it might be to resync the LaserDisc audio to the uncut version. I'm kinda feeling like it would be more hassle than it's worth after this, because the DVD audio sounds decent enough as it is and there are moments where the LD audio seems like it has significantly *less* fidelity than the DVD, which isn't good (moments where dialogue is partly obscured/distorted or appears to have a short skip in it, that kinda thing).

Anyway. Here are all the differences I noticed, without actually watching the film from start to finish. There are a lot of them.

WARNING: this is a big detailed list of all the changes in the whole film. It is therefore obviously a bit spoilery, although I'm not going to post screenshots of anything that is in the body of this post (I'll put them in a linked gallery at the end instead). It's also a horror film, and quite a grim one at that (especially here where it's variously either heavily censored, gently censored, and seemingly totally uncensored). Expect violence, nudity, both at the same time, lots of blood and gore, and a generous helping of bad taste humour. More importantly, though...

! TRIGGER WARNING !
Film (and therefore the following text about it) contains a couple of scenes involving domestic and sexual violence. Though I've not really put any visual evidence of that here (there is one screenshot which is not especially realistic or upsetting imo), I do talk about a particularly distressing scene in some amount of detail.

0:01:46.356 | frame 2550
ALTERNATE SHOT (censorship): US DVD is 21 frames shorter
Less than 2 minutes in and there's already censorship! The LaserDisc and Italian DVD show a pretty gross close-up practical effects shot of the coroner (and yes, that is John Carpenter) cutting into a corpse, but the US DVD instead cuts to a wide shot of him sort of vaguely insinuating making a hole in the corpse's side, which is conveniently the side facing away from the camera, and sticking his hand in there.

0:06:23.049 | frame 9184 (161 frames cut from US DVD)
then
0:06:32.309 | frame 9406 (2334 frames cut from US DVD)
ENTIRE SCENE REMOVED (Wes Craven cameo!): US DVD has 2495 frames cut in total here
Come on, man! You can't put Wes Craven in the film and then cut him out! Jeez.
The LD and IT DVD have an establishing jump scare shot of his character entering the frame from behind our viewpoint character is cut first, then it cuts to a shot of the protagonist's notebook, then on the LD and IT DVD it cuts back to show a short scene with him being a creep for a bit at a petrol station and then he buggers off again. In the US DVD though, both the establishing shot and the entire scene with him in it are completely removed, so it just cuts to the protagonist ending her shift and looking really stressed, even though we didn't see the thing that made her stressed (which was Wes Craven being a creep). I hesitate to quite call this "censorship" but there is a distinct air of "sexual predator" about this character, so that might be it (he tries to get the female petrol station employee to come out to his car and drink bourbon with him... boak).



0:18:06.127 | frame 26041 (10 frames missing from LD)
0:18:06.210 | frame 26043 (2 frames missing from US DVD)
END OF REEL 1



0:20:01.117 | frame 28798 (26 frames cut from US DVD)
SHOT TRIMMED (censorship)
US DVD trims 26 frames from the end of a gory close-up (still shows it, just doesn't linger as much)

0:25:11.051 | frame 36229 (134 frames cut from US DVD)
then
0:25:19.601 | frame 36434 (26 frames cut from US DVD)
SEQUENCE TRIMMED
US DVD has a total of 160 frames cut from a suspenseful sequence here that isn't especially violent, might've been a pacing thing. I'm guessing at this point that the US DVD is just the actual TV cut that aired originally, which isn't necessarily a bad thing to have even if it is cut quite heavily (which it is).

0:26:02.811 | frame 37470 (87 frames cut from LD)
0:26:02.895 | frame 37472 (85 frames cut from US DVD)
0:26:09.526 | frame 37631 (140 frames cut from US DVD)
0:26:09.568 | frame 37632 (31 frames cut from LD)
1 SHOT REMOVED, 1 SHOT TRIMMED (censorship): total of 118 frames cut from LD, 225 cut from US DVD
This one definitely is censorship... the LD and then the US DVD cut away just before a massive spurting blood geyser launches out of a guy, then a moment later they trim the beginning of a shot of him convulsing and dripping blood. Gnarly! The LD *is* censored but it's noticeably less trimmed than the US DVD here, there's still quite a lot of corn syrup on display.

0:26:48.941 | frame 38576 (39 frames cut from US DVD)
ALTERNATE SHOT (censorship)
Instead of showing a really gory close-up of a mangled corpse like the LD and IT DVD, the US DVD instead re-uses a more distant angle that we previously saw a moment earlier (from frame 38480)



0:27:15.843 | frame 39221 (929 frames cut from US DVD)
TRIMMED SCENE (censorship for nudity and... other things)
Yeah I wouldn't be surprised if this one was never broadcast either... the US DVD cuts away right before the coroner opens a drawer in the morgue, because what he pulls out of the drawer is the body of a woman with comically oversized breast implants that are so huge they catch on the drawer (he comments that the drawers were built before breast implants were a thing). Extreme closeups of giant boobs complete with revolting sloshy liquid sound effects probably aren't the most TV friendly thing in the US, I expect. Immediately after that, the same scene continues with him pulling out the bodies of two decapitated people and making them "kiss" then flinging them away with contempt. All of this is obviously absent on the US DVD, but the full thing is present on both the US LaserDisc and Italian DVD. Go figure.



0:38:29.265 | frame 55367 (11 frames missing from LD)
0:38:29.349 | frame 55369 (4 frames missing from US DVD)
END OF REEL 2



0:47:28.262 | frame 68290 (2 frames missing from US DVD)
0:47:28.346 | frame 68292 (1 frame missing from LD at side change)
LASERDISC SIDE CHANGE
This is a weird one. In addition to the US DVD being mysteriously missing 2 frames at the exact same point as the original US LaserDisc, which is a little odd in itself, the US DVD also has the exact same kind of dropouts you see on LDs, though not all that often. Curiouser and curiouser.

0:52:39.031 | frame 75741 (309 frames cut from US DVD)
SCENE CUT (censorship)
It isn't the only thing cut here but clearly the reason this short scene was removed was that it contains a reasonably grim shot of a wee wormy thing crawling out of a dude's face. No biggie. This is fine.
Incidentally, this is a really clear example of something that seems to happen right before (almost?) all these cuts on the US DVD: the geometry goes all wonky, like a worn out tape being recorded without a TBC. Interesting.



0:53:23.158 | frame 76799 (38 frames cut from US DVD)
SHOT TRIMMED (censorship)
Like some of the other ones, this is just shortening a fairly grim shot so that we don't linger on it quite as long.

0:53:45.347 | frame 77331 (sequence is 503 frames shorter on US DVD)
SEQUENCE SHORTENED, ALTERNATE SHOT (censorship)
Another fairly minging effects shot or two in here so this is probably to reduce the number of those, though it's also a bit of expository dialogue, so could again be for pacing.

0:55:26.365 | frame 79753 (alternate shot on US DVD, no time difference)
ALTERNATE SHOT (censorship for nudity/horror)
Back in the morgue, the coroner does a "Right, guys?" kinda thing and the LD and IT DVD cut to show two gurneys with corposes on them (one is covered with a sheet but the other one is very exposed). Instead, the US DVD just shows a wider shot of the middle of the room / staircase, which doesn't really show the corpses apart from a pair of legs or two off to the right. To be fair, neither shot really serves this moment that well, so whatever (the uncensored one is just kind of a weird angle).

0:55:30.202 | frame 79845 (alternate shot on US DVD, no time difference)
ALTERNATE SHOT (censorship)
Same thing again: "No volunteers?" and it cuts to a couple of horribly eviscerated corposes. The US DVD instead cuts to 3 bodies under white sheets, not a drop of blood in sight.

0:57:42.250 | frame 83011 (7 frames missing from US DVD)
0:57:42.292 | frame 83012 (10 frames missing from LD)
END OF REEL 3



0:59:23.977 | frame 85450 (24 frames cut from US DVD)
0:59:28.607 | frame 85561 (245 frames cut from US DVD)
SHOT TRIMMED (censorship)
Another "show it but don't linger" one of a character with a particularly grisly injury.

1:03:46.656 | frame 91748 (alternate shots on US DVD, no time difference)
ALTERNATE SEQUENCE (censorship)
Gory stuff again. Somebody undergoing surgery, shown in close-up detail with practical effects, then cuts to a doctor looking down a scope. US DVD instead shows a wide shot of the surgeon/doctors around him for the duration of the two shots used on the other versions, and you can't see anything.

1:03:57.250 | frame 92002 (alternate shot on US DVD, 1 frame shorter)
ALTERNATE SHOT (censorship): US DVD is one frame shorter around 1:04:17.062 | frame 92477
This one starts with a shot looking up at the medical team from the perspective of the patient. It then cuts to an extremely grisly practical effects shot that hasn't necessarily aged all that well but I absolutely love. Again, US DVD instead uses an extremely boring wide shot of the medical staff instead working on the patient, where they're blocking view of all the grisly stuff that's supposedly going on. Boo.

1:16:43.140 | frame 110365 (9 frames missing from LD)
1:16:43.182 | frame 110366 (4 frames missing from US DVD)
END OF REEL 4



1:18:41.634 | frame 113206 (1243 frames cut from US DVD)
SCENE CUT (censorship/pacing)
Cutting this was possibly dual-purpose: it removes a chunk of expository phone call dialogue, as well as removing what is clearly the start of Sexy Time (there is some very high-on-the-leg groping action going on). It does not look like both parties are showing equal enthusiasm.

1:20:02.631 | frame (alternate sequence, US DVD is 53 frames shorter from this point)
1:20:08.178 | frame 115281 (alternate sequence, US DVD is same length but much less graphic)
1:20:10.514 | frame 115337 (LD has 60 frames cut, US DVD has alternate shot instead)
1:20:18.022 | frame 115517 (US DVD has another alt sequence which is 280 frames shorter)
1:20:21.233 | frame 115594 (LD has 62 frames cut then a few frames of reused alt footage before cutting to end of the uncut scene)
1:20:32.619 | frame 115867 (US DVD has alt shot for a few frames)
Right, OK. Complicated. Horrible sex scene where guy hallucinates shagging a corpse whilst also strangling and then biting said corpse, but of course the corpse is not actually a corpse, so doesn't enjoy this very much. To simplify this fairly complex sequence of edits somewhat, the gist is that the US DVD cuts it quite significantly because it's a really quite disturbing and violent scene, whereas the LaserDisc leaves a fair chunk of it alone and only edits out the most gratuitous nudity, for the most part. The US DVD version is MUCH less violent, whereas with the LD you're mostly just missing out on some extra scuddy writhing and repeatedly coming dangerously close to catching a glimpse of the underside of Mark Hamill's bollocks. Yup.



1:28:44.528 | frame 127661 (US DVD replaces 6 frames of gore with 29 frames of black)
SHOT CUT (censorship)
This is my favourite shot in the entire film and yet they cut it from the US DVD. It's so good. Much gore. I'm not sure why (I guess to give the tension a moment to disperse?) but the US DVD actually *adds* time here by adding 23 too many frames of smash-to-black in place of the gore shot.

1:28:46.363 | frame 127705 (US DVD has 247 frames cut)
SHOT CUT (censorship)
A related gory shot is removed from the US DVD but is present on the other two versions.

1:29:15.976 | frame 128415 (US DVD has alternate shot, 14 frames shorter)
ALTERNATE SHOT (censorship)
The uncensored versions start in close-up then cut to the coroner opening a body bag (HEY, IT'S THE TITLE OF THE FILM!) then cut again to show the very gory contents of the body bag. The US one instead does one long continous shot that follows him doing much the same thing but without showing the contents of the bag, then cuts back to his reaction to fall back in step.

1:30:58.828 | frame 130881 (US DVD has ending cut short by >795 frames)
TRIMMED ENDING (censorship)
The uncut version involves somebody rooting around in somebody else's guts while whistling Beethoven's "Ode to Joy". The US DVD cuts before that happens.

I know there are HDR to SDR methods, but is it possible to convert between different HDR formats?

Specifically, I'd like to try converting some HLG to HDR10.