Highlander 2 - 35mm Scan

[HippieDalek]

Today I've been working on a scene that I'm mostly using the Blu Ray for, and I've been experimenting with Dr. Dre's Color Matching Tool. I thought I'd share the results.

Top: 35mm
Middle: Blu Ray
Bottom: Blu Ray with 35mm Colours













Still more work to be done, and I'll probably try to balance the colours a bit, but I think I'm finally getting the hang of matching the frames enough for Dr. Dre's Color Matching Tool to work.

[HippieDalek]

So it's been a little while since I gave a proper update on here. Sorry things have been a bit quiet but I assure you this project has still been progressing. 

I've carried out most of the 35mm restoration needed to bring Reel 2 into full HD. I hope to be able to show it off sometime within the next few months to give you an idea of what direction the project is taking. 

I started playing around with the colour balancing of the scan recently and just by adjusting the white balance and the colour curves I've managed to reduce the blown out look while bringing in a little more detail and colour to the picture. I'm very happy with the reel 2 settings, reel 1 is looking good but not quite 100% there yet. Here's an example from reel 1:

Before:


After: 


So I think once I've finished the restoration work on reel 2 I'll put out a new release of the Grindhouse cut. It'll still be dirty, scratchy and splicey, but I think the colours and detail would be a nice improvement. I've also learned a lot about encoding since I put together version 1.

There has also been an exciting development over the last few days, I posted about this over on the SWT forums, but I've had limited internet access the last few days so sorry for not posting about it here sooner. 

A reel of Highlander 2 came up for sale with a letter of authenticity signed by Peter Davis of Davis/Panzer Productions! I managed to buy it and it will soon be in the mail on it's way to the scanner (and then on to me). My friend at Davis/Panzer isn't sure what could be on it, but they reckon it looks legit, including the signature of their boss Peter. The box the reel comes in got me excited as I thought it looked like it could have been editing material, and when I showed the pictures to the scanner they said that it looked like a reel of negative! 

Now as far as I know Lionsgate have the assembled negative (in whatever form that's in these days), so I don't think I've found a reel of assembled footage, but this could be trims, outtakes, effects elements, a super cut of every removed Zeist reference, or even just 10 - 20 minutes of an Argentinian extra flubbing his lines. If it is a negative and if it does contain interesting footage then I'll look into the best ways of preserving it, after all with a negative it would be possible to get a 4K+ HDR transfer. 

If anyone wants to help contribute towards scanning this reel then feel free to get in touch.

Whatever the reel is and whatever is on it's we're going to find out and I'll be sure to make it available for everyone. Even if it is just boring footage I think it will be a fascinating glimpse into how a film is put together, and at the end of the day it will at least make an interesting piece for my collection. 

Exciting times! 

[jjsanford1979]

HI
first off I would be willing to help with donating to the scan.
I emailed the seller about the reel and the quick question/answer is posted below:

Your previous message
Hi
do you have any more details about what's on the reel, such as is it the full movie or part of it etc and what version of the movie it is etc.
thanks

Hi and thanks for your question!
Yes, the entire film is on the reel. I’ve attached a closet photo of the letter of Authenticity it came with. I recently found this lot of Highlander items at an estate sale. All authentic and owned by a real fan! Let me know if you have any other questions! Thanks!

Sarah
-----------
I hope it turns out to be something more and willing to take a punt to help out. Having been reading through all the Highlander 2 threads and just made my debut post on a thread detailing your restorations.
J

[HippieDalek]

HI
first off I would be willing to help with donating to the scan.
I emailed the seller about the reel and the quick question/answer is posted below:

Your previous message
Hi
do you have any more details about what's on the reel, such as is it the full movie or part of it etc and what version of the movie it is etc.
thanks

Hi and thanks for your question!
Yes, the entire film is on the reel. I’ve attached a closet photo of the letter of Authenticity it came with. I recently found this lot of Highlander items at an estate sale. All authentic and owned by a real fan! Let me know if you have any other questions! Thanks!

Sarah
-----------
I hope it turns out to be something more and willing to take a punt to help out. Having been reading through all the Highlander 2 threads and just made my debut post on a thread detailing your restorations.
J

Hi J, 

It's always a pleasure to meet a new Highlander fan. 

I spoke to the seller a bit before hand and to be honest I don't think she had any idea at all what it was she had. She just found it as part of an estate sale and rightly guessed that it would be of interest to fans. 

I can't see any way that this could be a whole film. Usually 35mm films are held on many large reels of around 20-30 minutes each, Highlander 2 takes up 5 of these reels. I *think* when editing they tend to work with smaller 10 minute reels. I know the first Highlander film was 12 reels in the editing room and 6 reels for theatrical release. I suspect this could be a 10 minute reel used for editing, but at most it will be 20 mins. 

If you'd like to help out with a donation then feel free to PM me. I'd greatly appreciate it  Every little helps for these projects and 100% of it goes directly into the work. There is absolutely zero obligation though.

[jjsanford1979]

jjsanford1979HI
first off I would be willing to help with donating to the scan.
I emailed the seller about the reel and the quick question/answer is posted below:

Your previous message
Hi
do you have any more details about what's on the reel, such as is it the full movie or part of it etc and what version of the movie it is etc.
thanks

Hi and thanks for your question!
Yes, the entire film is on the reel. I’ve attached a closet photo of the letter of Authenticity it came with. I recently found this lot of Highlander items at an estate sale. All authentic and owned by a real fan! Let me know if you have any other questions! Thanks!

Sarah
-----------
I hope it turns out to be something more and willing to take a punt to help out. Having been reading through all the Highlander 2 threads and just made my debut post on a thread detailing your restorations.
J

Hi J, 

It's always a pleasure to meet a new Highlander fan. 

I spoke to the seller a bit before hand and to be honest I don't think she had any idea at all what it was she had. She just found it as part of an estate sale and rightly guessed that it would be of interest to fans. 

I can't see any way that this could be a whole film. Usually 35mm films are held on many large reels of around 20-30 minutes each, Highlander 2 takes up 5 of these reels. I *think* when editing they tend to work with smaller 10 minute reels. I know the first Highlander film was 12 reels in the editing room and 6 reels for theatrical release. I suspect this could be a 10 minute reel used for editing, but at most it will be 20 mins. 

If you'd like to help out with a donation then feel free to PM me. I'd greatly appreciate it  Every little helps for these projects and 100% of it goes directly into the work. There is absolutely zero obligation though.

pm sent
I was going to bid on it - glad it went to you though. It would have been a cool buy but I couldn't utilise it like you are able to do and if it does contain unique material i would have hated to be hoarding it due to having no clue how to scan /share etc.

[NickMichalak]

Maybe it's all those feet of laser light effects made for the shield that never got used. LOL! Anyway, this is a cool find, regardless. Looking forward to whatever comes from it!

[HippieDalek]

The reel is in the mail now and on its way to the seller. I'll update this thread as soon as there's any news.

[HippieDalek]

Sad to hear of the passing of Highlander Producer Peter S. Davis:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/p...dies-at-79

It seems very surreal. Just the day before his death my friend at Davis/Panzer relayed a message from him saying that he didn't know what was on this reel. It's a shame I never got the chance to give him an answer.

Next time you're watching something Highlander, raise a glass and remember Peter.

I bet he's up there right now already cooking up something amazing with Bill Panzer and Sean Connery.

[HippieDalek]

I'm keeping an eye on the tracking but for now the mystery reel is still bouncing around various US postal depots. Hopefully it will start it's trans-Atlantic journey soon. 

In the meantime I've been doing a bit of research and I *think* I *might* have worked out what *could* be on this reel. 

Both the box and the reel prominently show the number 113. When I check the shooting script scene 113 is when MacLeod visits Alan Nayman's office, so I expect we'll see something relating to that scene on here; either raw or edited footage.  

The Box also lists "A113". followed by ".3 .5 .6 .7". I'm not sure what this means but it could be "scene 113, takes 3, 5, 6, 7", or it could mean "scene 113 to 117 (excluding 114)". Either seems plausible but I'm leaning towards the second. Scenes 115 to 117 are the flashback to the shield going up, so they would fit here. Scene 114 is in the shooting script but it's never made it into any finished version of the film which could explain it's exclusion here. I have no idea what 1012 and 1610 mean but again they are on both box and reel. 

So I wouldn't be surprised if this turns out to be some sort of workprint for this scene. The most likely candidate would be from the Renegade Cut. The laserdisc restoration notes read: 

"After re-editing the work picture, the original cut negative was reconformed to the new work print. The new cut negative was mastered in it's original 2.35:1 aspect ratio to the D-1 format using the Cintel Ursa Gold. The main title sequence was recomposited from the original negative and the original title mattes. Special optical effects shots were enhanced using a variety of a digital techniques to either replace mattes, or create new opticals from scratch."

So workprint or negative it looks like this will most likely be the Renegade version of the scene. I'm guessing the D-1 tape mentioned is what was used for parts of the Blu Ray as some of it certainly looks like it was from tape, including scene 113. 

But this is all just guess work. We'll have no concrete idea of what is on this reel until it arrives at the scanner. As soon as that happens I'll let you know!

[jjsanford1979]

Nice bit of detective work - will be interesting to see if you are right.