(2019-01-14, 12:15 AM)spoRv Wrote: I think we need a new thread, sharing opinions and facts about "negative scanning and subsequent digital color grading Vs interpositive scanning Vs release print scanning"... that thread will surely be long and stuffed with great info... but I'm too lazy to start it!

JohnCarpenterFan;15869547 Wrote:It is very interesting that you brought up Hellraiser. 

I recently managed to get my hands on a well-preserved archival print, watched it, took some scans, made sure they were representative of how it looked correctly projected and compared it with the Arrow Blu-ray.

Be aware that I really liked the Arrow Blu-ray despite the peculiar grain, and didn't have any problems with the color timing... When I watched this print, I couldn't believe my eyes. This film when viewed on film looks absolutely incredible, very stylish, quite a lot of blue lighting. I had no idea this film looked that good, home video has just done it a complete disservice.

One thing I will say is that this print was not grainy at all, even in low-light conditions there was nothing out of the ordinary, I wasn't even aware of it most of the time. 

When I flicked through the Arrow disc not long after, it looked flat and orange compared to what I had seen, it looked ugly and noisy. In the scene where the cenobites appear at the hospital, the room in the print appeared more blue with Pinhead's skin also being bathed in blue which helped draw attention away from the make-up, on the Arrow the room is more neutral and the make-up job on Pinhead really stands out. Also in a scene near the end (see last picture below), in the print, there's clearly blue lighting in the background and the characters directly in front of the camera are covered in a warm glow from a fireplace (IIRC), yet on the Arrow, everything is again flat and orange.







It was like watching the film for the first time. I'd love it if every studio/label took the Warner approach and used answer prints (or at the very least view multiple theatrical prints) to assist with color timing. This "Hold back on the colors/contrast, keep the shadows intact, make everything look natural" way of thinking has got to go. It's not purist in the slightest, in fact it goes directly against what film naturally looks like.

JohnCarpenterFan Wrote:Arrow have made as much clear by their stance on framing and stylish lighting/color pushes that they're not doing some kind of Warner-level job when it comes to accuracy and outside their releases with DP/director involvement it shows. These are just improved masters of older films which had shoddy treatment in the past, I'm not going to pretend they're anything more or act as if they're how the films originally looked. I know in the case of Phenomena that blue gels visible in 35mm prints are gone or almost gone in Arrow's remaster.

(2019-01-18, 08:46 PM)LucasGodzilla Wrote: On a personal note: I prefer the Arrow transfer, not only for the extra detail and improved audio but for its naturalistic look actually. For some reason this movie looks better to me with less emphasis on the blue hues, especially the opening sequence, I think it looks too dark in the other transfers. And it's not like the blue color scheme is completely gone, there's still definitely some blues throughout, but I am glad it's been toned down to allow other colors to saturate the screen.

(2019-01-18, 09:37 PM)spoRv Wrote:

(2019-01-18, 08:46 PM)LucasGodzilla Wrote: On a personal note: I prefer the Arrow transfer, not only for the extra detail and improved audio but for its naturalistic look actually. For some reason this movie looks better to me with less emphasis on the blue hues, especially the opening sequence, I think it looks too dark in the other transfers. And it's not like the blue color scheme is completely gone, there's still definitely some blues throughout, but I am glad it's been toned down to allow other colors to saturate the screen.

Agree, and I add Arrow get a much bigger frame size in almost all examples there... but, screenshot 10 is like they swapped the image (and it's not the case), where Arrow is too blue and skin tone too pink!

(2019-01-19, 04:18 AM)LucasGodzilla Wrote: I can confirm that weirdly enough, they are not swapped out: The Arrow transfer is blue and pinkish whilst the Synapse transfer is cleaner, whiter and more correct (skin-tone wise).