|
|
 
|
|
Author
|
Topic: 6 Track Magnetic vs 6 Track Digital
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Aaron Garman
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1470
From: Toledo, OH USA
Registered: Mar 2003
|
posted 01-07-2011 01:57 PM
quote:
The THX "Grand" trailer was produced in time for the Jurassic Park release. That trailer packed a whallop at GCC Northpark #1 in Dallas. Still, "Cimarron" is my favorite THX trailer. There just never was a DTS mix of it. "Cimarron" was pretty good to see in 70mm!
Really jealous of anyone who was able to see anything at the Northpark. Is there anything even remotely close to the sound there anymore?
The DTS documentary would be a sweet special feature, and if done right, extremely relevant to have on a release of Jurassic Park. I would love to see that original DTS trailer again too.
quote: Tom Petrov
It makes that much of a difference to you?
Absolutely! To me, it is part of Jurassic Park: watching JP without that trailer just doesn't feel the same. On that particular film, it's just as important as Universal logo it uses: it just sets some sort of psychological tone for the film. Even more than that, to me, DTS was like the holy grail when I was a kid. After seeing that trailer and JP, I fell in love with the cinematic experience, and was always trying to recreate just how awesome it was. It is what fueled me to love cinema exhibition. I'm sure many of us on this forum have a similar film or experience like that.
AJG
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
Tom Petrov
Five Guys Lover
Posts: 1121
From: El Paso, TX
Registered: Jan 2003
|
posted 01-08-2011 12:09 AM
quote: Bobby Henderson
I remember looking at newspaper stack ads for Pulp Fiction in the NY Times, LA Times and Dallas Morning News not seeing anything listed for digital sound in the movie's first weeks of release in Oct. of 1994. Then some Dolby Digital notations popped up in some of the LA Times ads weeks later. I never saw Pulp Fiction listed as playing in Dolby Digital anywhere else. If the SRD tracks were on some Pulp Fiction prints opening day then the ad companies working for Miramax did a terrible job of getting out the word about the Dolby Digital screenings.
I remember the ads very well and Pulp Fiction was in digital sound at a few locations in my area. In 1994, digital sound was on less than 25% of the screens in my area. There was still the format issue where Universal would only release on DTS and Sony would on have SDDS, Cineplex did not have Dolby Digital in the early years because most of their films were DTS/SDDS as they were the sole distributor of SONY/UNI. Alliance Altantis who released the film was a Cineplex Odeon distributed film, we played it in Cinema #1 at Sherway Cinemas which was a (former) THX cinema with DTS. There was a lot of talk about it playing in Cinema #1 without DTS because all through mid-1993 and 1994, DTS was played on just about every film which was almost always Universal. So it was rare to see a non-DTS feature in this house.
Let's keep in mind that Pulp Fiction did not have a massive financial opening although it placed number #1 on opening weekend, and films such as The Specialist/Wes Craven's New Nightmare/River Wild were in wide release at the time and would of taken up many of the digital theaters over the small independent Pulp Fiction which was Dolby Digital only.
quote: Aaron Garman
Absolutely! To me, it is part of Jurassic Park: watching JP without that trailer just doesn't feel the same. On that particular film, it's just as important as Universal logo it uses: it just sets some sort of psychological tone for the film. Even more than that, to me, DTS was like the holy grail when I was a kid. After seeing that trailer and JP, I fell in love with the cinematic experience, and was always trying to recreate just how awesome it was. It is what fueled me to love cinema exhibition. I'm sure many of us on this forum have a similar film or experience like that
Well I can respect that. For me, having the flying disk makes no difference, my first home video experience of Jurassic Park was that of a JP Dolby Digital laserdisc, while the THX trailer was always present Dolby was all over the place so I got used to getting an LD and the THX trailer was there but no Dolby Digital.
I will say that the very first time I saw the flying disk trailer in front of JP, I too was amazed.
quote: Bobby Henderson
Criterion hypes "director approved" on its product packaging more than other studios.
Not exactly, keep in mind that during the laserdisc area, movies were generally released as movie only. Criterion was the way to get extra features.
There were a good number of box sets that were released but these usually were very successful pictures that were Hollywood movies. Later in 1994, Universal got into the game with the Signature Collection laserdiscs...these Signature Collections of the movie were almost always director approved. I think there a couple of Signature DVDs.
Pioneer Special Edition Laserdiscs also come to mind.
Compare that to the DVDs of today, you will be hard pressed to find much Clint Eastwood (Warner) stuff with any supplements on laserdisc, on the other hand DVDs such Mystic River/Million Dollar Baby have a ton of extras.
It usually is expected that a dvd has supplements.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Scott Smith
Film Handler
Posts: 5
From: Chicago, IL, USA
Registered: Apr 2008
|
posted 01-08-2011 08:09 PM
Fascinating thread-I haven't had a chance to read all of it, but I did notice this quote:
quote:
To do this, Dolby used a reel of THE FUGITIVE (1993 - Harrison Ford) in SR-D. They played the second reel (I think) -- the one with that massive train crash. I am sure that was meant to impress everyone, but what an embarrassment -- it was WAY too loud. The sound of the screeching metal against metal was excruciating. I mean people were holding their ears it was so painful.
I made a big point of this with the director (Andy Davis) during the mix, as I felt that the dialogue for the rest of the film was going to be compromised. Andy loved the huge effect though, so it stayed.
In some ways, I actually think the balance plays a bit better in the analog version, where the dynamics had to be a bit more controlled.
I have so say, that as a mixer, there is a lot that I miss about analog. Sadly, there were few scenarios where the full quality of the medium was exploited, mostly due to poor maintenance, shortcuts in production and post-production, etc.
Regarding differences between analog and digital prints: back in 1989, I distinctly recall watching a print of the first "Batman" at the Dolby screening room in SF, and was appalled at how bad the opening score sounded compared to the 70mm mag version. (The 35mm wet gate studio print looked glorious however).
While there are plenty of places where problems could of occurred in producing the SR-D digital version, it was really a disappointment.
On the other hand, there are certainly also plenty of areas where things can go wrong in production of 70mm prints. Among the issues were QC of print mag striping, head wear and misalignment, EQ and level issues and wear of the print master copies used for sounding the prints. Every once in a while though, all the planets would line up, and the end result was truly astounding.
I also recall that many scoring mixers were absolutely enthralled with the quality of 3, 4 and 6 track full coat mag for scoring work. Many of them preferred it over tape, and I remember sitting in on a few playbacks at the old Fox scoring stage where the mixer A/B'ed some material that had been recorded to both 8 track 1" tape and 6 track 35mm. The difference between the two was quite noticeable, especially in terms of dynamics and LF response. Too bad that most audiences will never get the chance to appreciate it...
(As far as high points for 70mm mag films; I was fortunate enough to have been working on the Warner-Hollywood lot when the prints for the restored version of "Lawrence of Arabia" were being sounded and checked. At night, I would walk over to dub stage B and sit with the QC engineer, just for the opportunity to see an absolutely pristine print in it's first run. Yeah, the reels were all out of order, but it didn't matter. It was undoubtedly the best sounding and best looking version of "Lawrence" I have ever experienced).
Scott Smith C.A.S.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
All times are Central (GMT -6:00)
|
This topic comprises 11 pages: 1 2 3 ... 7 8 9 10 11
|
Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM
6.3.1.2
The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion
and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.
|
Home
![[evil]](graemlins/evil.gif)
![[thumbsup]](graemlins/thumbsup.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic