Creepshow DVD mono

[NeonBible]

I was watching Creepshow this week and something is seriously off with the stereo track. Some of the music and effects are way too loud and the vocal volumes vary like crazy. This doesn't sound like a mix from the 80s, more like a modern one.

Apparently the original theatrical mix is stereo but dvdcompare states that the French and Scandinavian DVD releases had English mono tracks. Does anyone have these? And do they suffer the same dynamics as the stereo?

[LucasGodzilla]

the dolby on the bluray is wonderful.

It certainly does make me wonder how the audio will turn out for the Shout! Factory release in a few weeks.

Unfortunately, as for the main post itself involving the mono audio, I'm not quite sure how good / bad it sounds. However, I have watched the workprint version of Creepshow and I believe that is mono? I'm not too sure honestly, I never really noticed any stereo effect and I can't fully check in Audacity since the stereo difference could just due to the VHS tape distortion. Either way though, it does sound pretty balanced.

I'm definitely curious to see what the movie would sound like on a real mono track as well since it'd probably add to the cheesy aged aesthetic the movie had.

[LucasGodzilla]

Bump and double-post technically, I know, but I just recently got my hands on the Shout! Factory Blu-Ray of Creepshow and I was checking out some of the extras when I discovered an interesting fact.

So apparently the movie was originally intended to be (and was) mixed in mono up until Warner Bros. picked it up. Now I'm very curious as to whether or not the English mono track on those foreign DVDs are the original mono mixes and not a fold-down of the stereoized version.

[SpaceBlackKnight]

According to Rewind, the R2 French Warner DVD utilizes 1.0 mono tracks for English and French, and may sport a different transfer than what was on the R1 DVD.

[The Griff]

On the subject of CREEPSHOW's audio, apparently the 5.1 track on most (if not all) releases has the incorrect pitch? The stereo track on the Shout! blu has the correct pitch however.

Anyway, here's a challenge for young go-getters:

In the movie, one line in particular is atrociously ADR'd to remove the C-word, as spoken by Adrienne Barbeau during her hilarious performance. It really kills the joke. The original line can be found in the deleted scenes. If anyone were to do a CREEPSHOW audio project of some kind, I wonder if there's any way to get that original reading back into the film at an acceptable quality. I mean, quality mismatch issues considered, it still really couldn't stand out much more than the ADR that's currently there.

[LucasGodzilla]

On the subject of CREEPSHOW's audio, apparently the 5.1 track on most (if not all) releases has the incorrect pitch? The stereo track on the Shout! blu has the correct pitch however.

Anyway, here's a challenge for young go-getters:

In the movie, one line in particular is atrociously ADR'd to remove the C-word, as spoken by Adrienne Barbeau during her hilarious performance. It really kills the joke. The original line can be found in the deleted scenes. If anyone were to do a CREEPSHOW audio project of some kind, I wonder if there's any way to get that original reading back into the film at an acceptable quality. I mean, quality mismatch issues considered, it still really couldn't stand out much more than the ADR that's currently there.

Yeah, for some reason the 5.1 audio is around a semitone higher or so. I tried to fix it but I screwed it up during export and essentially mismatched the channels (as well as the pitch still not being correct), so I just kind of gave up since the correct theatrical stereo was given nonetheless.

As for the C__t line, I admit, I've considered doing this on my own time out of boredom but I never went for it. I may give a quick crack at it sometime just to see what'll come out of it.

This censorship is one of the handfuls of reasons why I'd love to see a restored release of the original workprint of it before it was trimmed by studio demands.

[The Griff]

I'm happy with just the 2.0 mix and letting my receiver process that into surround. I haven't done a comparison but I suspect the 5.1 wouldn't be that much different, activity-wise. Still, it's a shame these things continue to slip by QC.

As for the C__t line, I admit, I've considered doing this on my own time out of boredom but I never went for it. I may give a quick crack at it sometime just to see what'll come out of it.

If you ever do, I'd love for you to share your results, even if it's purely experimental, just to satisfy my curiosity. Like I said, it can't sound much worse than what's already there.

This censorship is one of the handfuls of reasons why I'd love to see a restored release of the original workprint of it before it was trimmed by studio demands.

Yeah, you've gotta wonder if that original version, which I believe was complete and ready for release, is still in the Laurel (now, New Amsterdam Entertainment) library. I don't hold out much hope for it ever seeing the light of day, regardless.

When the original UK special edition DVD was announced, I bailed up Michael Felsher with a buncha questions via e-mail (and again in person, when he was part of Romero's entourage at a convention in Toronto) and he pretty much utilized everything he could possibly get access to. Producer Richard Rubinstein himself would have to actively support the pursuit of such a goal, I suspect, and he really doesn't seem all that interested in such things.

[LucasGodzilla]

Yeah, you've gotta wonder if that original version, which I believe was complete and ready for release, is still in the Laurel (now, New Amsterdam Entertainment) library. I don't hold out much hope for it ever seeing the light of day, regardless.

It's one of those releases (such as the idea of the original extended cut of Phantasm) where I have hopes of it perhaps being released someday, but at the very same time, they're very minimal hopes. It's certainly a shame the original cut only exists through a crappy VHS recording of the workprint. I find it also rather ironic since Dawn of the Dead had its workprint Cannes cut released officially, but I absolutely hate it, but when it comes to the Creepshow workprint, I love it way more than the final product since it adds more of everything to each of the tales (in a good way that is).

[The Griff]

The Cannes Cut of Dawn was an interesting case, as I'm sure you already know. Apparently it was mistakenly duplicated and sent to theatres for a re-release (which caused some commotion when the film ran for longer than what they had scheduled for). It was seen and remembered by fans so it was sought after much later for home video, with the contractual obligation that it would be called "The Director's Cut", even though it wasn't. Consequent releases merely refer to it as being the "extended" version/edition. It's not my favourite version, as its a little too rough around the edges, but I love that it is available.

I suppose the biggest thing holding back the original cut of CREEPSHOW is the big studio distribution rights. The licenses haven't reverted back to Rubinstein so there's much less financial incentive for him to dig it out and dust it off. I suspect the money pit that was converting Dawn of the Dead into 3D would put him off investing any additional funds into any of his properties than is necessary. It'd probably take a 3rd party to front any and all costs (and maybe throw him a little extra, too) for him to even consider such a prospect.

[LucasGodzilla]

So I just remembered again about this, so I decided to do a quick bare-minimum test. Using the Shout! Factory transfer of the movie, I just briefly ripped the uncensored audio from the deleted scene extra provided by the Blu-Ray (since my copy of the workprint is too noisy to be usable).

The result is surprisingly pretty decent surprisingly enough. The biggest issue though is since the original line is in mono, you can easily tell the difference as a result of that rather than the actual audio quality.