After Barry Lyndon, I decided to give the other Kubricks a try. And my next preservation will be the German version of...

Hi everyone!

     I originally posted this in the wrong area of the forum so my apologies about that! Hopefully this is in the right place now. I am currently working on a resync of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers and I could use some help. The current DVD and Blu-Ray releases of this film use a terrible 5.1 remix that sounds puny, goes in and out of sync throughout the film AND is missing sound effects in various portions as well. I think they were drinking when they did it   The worst part about this is there are no Blu-Rays that offer the original theatrical mix. They are all fold-downs of the same problematic remix. Since it seems there are no plans for a new remaster anytime soon, I would like to do one myself. So far I have collected the Austrian Blu-Ray as my video source as the transfer is less problematic than the current US releases, and I have the original non-anamorphic Anchor Bay DVD that came out around 1999 which I THINK includes the original mix as a Dolby Surround 2.0 ac3 track, but of course the audio is lossy and I cannot guarantee it isn't a remix of some sort, even if it is leaps and bounds better than the current mix. I also have the original VHS release I have been checking for reference, but it is an ex rental and not a very good source for my purposes.

     What I am wondering is does anyone here have the laserdisc that CBS/Fox put out back in the late 80s? From the research I have done I have concluded it is the only source of the original theatrical mix with uncompressed audio. Ideally, someone can do a bit perfect rip of this track and then it can be properly synced to the current master. I do not currently have the means of doing a bit perfect transfer as my laserdisc equipment only has analog RCA outputs, but I do have the means of syncing it up if someone is kind enough to provide it to me. This disc shows up from time to time on ebay, but it usually fetches a pretty penny which makes obtaining it cost prohibitive for me at the moment. Of course, the finished product would be shared with those who are interested.

Thank you!

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