[Proposal] Superman (1978) - theatrical cut reconstruction based on Extended Cut BD

[PDB]

Yeah tough choice there. I can see the advantages of both. Thanks for the pics Chew.

[Turisu]

Does anyone know what the real colour of the actual costume was?

[zoidberg]

I know they had to alter the suit for the optical shots as the blue screen process basically made the suit disappear.

[TServo2049]

Well, blue screen was only used for a few shots that were too complex for the front-projection rig that was used for the majority of the flying scenes.

I'm going to be honest, some of those extended cut screenshots remind me of the 35mm print I saw! That print seemed to be a mix of LPP and Fuji stock, some reels were yellow-greenish and blown out and Superman's costume looked kind of teal (I assume LPP, which usually has that kind of bias), while others were a little purplish and had better contrast and Superman's costume was blue (I assume Fuji, didn't that have a purple bias?). The changes in color balance definitely appeared to occur at reel changes, and persist for an entire reel.

A couple of the shots do look weird (that last screenshot in particular) but other ones seem to cause memory recall of that 35mm screening...

[Tylerdurden389]

God I wish I was allowed to take days off during the holidays season (it gets too busy at my workplace). I'll just throw this out there for anyone in the NYC area. Might be helpful to find the true original 35mm colors:


https://filmforum.org/film/superman-the-movie-ffjr-2017

[Booshman]

Here's a great resource for quick comparison between the theatrical version and the 2001 expanded cut.

https://get.google.com/albumarchive/1133...I-DJhB49lf

Both have their good and bad points depending on the scene. There is slightly more viewable image on the 2001 cut, and the whites are a bit blown out the TC.

I've not seen the new extended bluray, but I read the bitrate isn't has high due to the length of the movie, so wouldn't it be better to recolour one of the other versions?

I did a recreation of the TC from the 2001 cut before the TC bluray was out. There are a couple of shots unique to the TC, that would have to be sourced from either the TC bluray, but I think the 2001 disc is probably the best source.

There are a few things that could be unlatered to get them back to being more theatrically faithful. Superman suit colour in some of the blue screen shots for example.




And this shot that looks to have been tweaked in every release. Here's what it looked like on 16mm on the left, bluray on the right.


Also, I see a few people have mentioned having a PCM track from BusterD. When is this from? I sent a Japanese laserdisc to him to do a bit perfect capture within the last year. Is it the same one?

[titanic]

??
I seriously don't remember that shot of Brando's face in the clouds!!!
Is it from the extended edition or I never noticed it?

[Booshman]

??
I seriously don't remember that shot of Brando's face in the clouds!!!
Is it from the extended edition or I never noticed it?

Brando's head was always there, but it appears to have been tweaked for the post VHS releases. The example I used is from the extended 16mm print. It should match all home video releases pre 2001 Michael Thau remaster.

[Turisu]

Would be great to get the re-coloured suit back. When I used to watch this movie on an old VHS tape, I remember Superman's suit being green in the shot where he flies away from the dam. As a kid, I loved seeing green Superman in that shot and was mightily disappointed to see it changed to blue on the BD.

[PDB]

Well, blue screen was only used for a few shots that were too complex for the front-projection rig that was used for the majority of the flying scenes.

I'm going to be honest, some of those extended cut screenshots remind me of the 35mm print I saw! That print seemed to be a mix of LPP and Fuji stock, some reels were yellow-greenish and blown out and Superman's costume looked kind of teal (I assume LPP, which usually has that kind of bias), while others were a little purplish and had better contrast and Superman's costume was blue (I assume Fuji, didn't that have a purple bias?). The changes in color balance definitely appeared to occur at reel changes, and persist for an entire reel.

A couple of the shots do look weird (that last screenshot in particular) but other ones seem to cause memory recall of that 35mm screening...

That's the theory I've been operating under lately, that the green/yellow in some prints is from certain type of Kodak LPPs, Fuji is blue/purple and Agfa is also blue-ish.