This is topic BEN-HUR is coming to Blu Ray... in forum The Afterlife at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


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Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 09-12-2011, 07:30 PM:
 
Oh yes.

BEN-HUR
 

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Posted by Aaron Garman (Member # 1653) on 09-12-2011, 10:17 PM:
 
An example of the kind of movie making we may never ever see again. Truly the definition of epic.

Can't wait!

AJG
 

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Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 09-17-2011, 11:57 PM:
 
What, they are not converting this to 3D first?
 

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Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 09-18-2011, 01:16 AM:
 
They're converting it to aroma-scope.
 

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Posted by Aaron Garman (Member # 1653) on 09-23-2011, 11:16 PM:
 
Can't wait to see what lepers smell like.

AJG
 

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Posted by Ron Funderburg (Member # 4561) on 09-23-2011, 11:22 PM:
 
I don't know what they smell like but according Hannibal lector they taste like chicken.
 

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Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 09-27-2011, 05:24 PM:
 
When I had learned Target had the best price for BEN-HUR and was bringing in only three copies at their store in my area and Best Buy only price match if Target still had them in stock, I picked it up from the store. I opened the package but did not play the discs yet and found what was in the package, amazing. There are two hard cover books in addition to the three discs that are housed in a gorgeous digipak. The smaller book is a personal journal of Charleton Heston as he recorded his daily activities before, during and after the production of BEN-HUR and looks very interesting. The larger book features pictures from the production as well as cast portraits and beautifully printed.

I was torn between getting the movie only set and the deluxe set and decided to get the full package because the special features on the 3rd disc had interested me very much. It features the original 1925 version of BEN-HUR with a stereophonic orchestral score by Carl Davies , a full length documentary "Charleton Heston & Ben-Hur, A Personal Journey" as well as two other documentaries about the film and other stuff.

I cannot wait to play the discs and will do so tonight after dinner. I had learned it was the first time Warners had scanned a movie at 8K from original 65mm elements and had put the movie on two separate discs. All the reiviews I had read said the presentation is awesome . I cannot wait

-Claude
 

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Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 09-27-2011, 09:10 PM:
 
put my order in for the UK bluray release (3 discs) which came out at £13 - minus all the frills that the ultimate collection box set has.
 

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Posted by Aaron Garman (Member # 1653) on 09-27-2011, 10:34 PM:
 
Is it me or did the thread title change?

AJG
 

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Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 09-27-2011, 10:55 PM:
 
^ I think you're right...

it's Ben Hur ... with bunnies
 

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Posted by Alan Gouger (Member # 543) on 09-28-2011, 06:23 AM:
 
Here is a site with a comparison between the DVD and the BD.
Click on the desired chapter and then move the mouse over a part of the image you want to compare and click and wait for it to load.
Then move the onto the image to see the DVD image and move the mouse off the image for the BD comparison.

http://caps-a-holic.com/hd_vergleiche/comparison.php?art=part&x=678&y=216&action=1&image=7&cID=589&cap1=2214&cap2=2198&lossless=1#vergleich
 

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Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 09-28-2011, 02:09 PM:
 
I watched the first half hour of the Blu-Ray of BEN-HUR with the audio commentary by T. Jean Hatcher and Charlton Heston and portions of the rest of the movie and the brand new documentary "Charlton Heston & Ben-Hur: A Personal Journey" last night and I fully concur about the picture quality of BEN-HUR". It is excellent as all of the reviews I had read had stated as well as the documentary which was very informative. THe audio commentary was also very informative and I am planning to watch all of the movie and listening to it very soon. The only thing that disappointed me was Warner Home Video age old practice of placing title cards over the Overture, Entra'acte and Exit music instead of letting it play against a blank screen with road show movies that have them. It in my opinion, this takes away from the original theatrical experience. MGM and Fox are very good about it because almost all of their road show movies on video play the music on a blank screen.
 

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Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 09-28-2011, 09:46 PM:
 
Just close the douser.
 

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 09-29-2011, 09:57 AM:
 

quote: Chris Slycord

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They're converting it to aroma-scope

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quote: Mike Blakesley

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Ben Hur is in a DCP? Wow I'd like to run that again. We ran the film 15 years ago for 3 nights - but it didn't bring much of a crowd, unfortunately. Plus now we can't advertise it as "The biggest Oscar-winning movie in history" anymore!

Got my BR package today. Very impressive set -- way better than the Ten Commandments one. OK, got my two biblical epics on BR, I can relax now.

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oh I don't know how to call it - what IS the correct term for when a film is released in harddrive form for DLP/LCoS digital projection.
 

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-22-2011, 11:54 AM:
 
That would be it -- DCP stands for Digital Cinema Package.
 

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Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 10-24-2011, 03:24 PM:
 
Mike, this may assist you.

Park Circus DCP catalogue

These are the guys handling the GHOSTBUSTERS re-release for us. Sony still hold the rights, but it's too small time for them I'd imagine so they've handed it over to these guys to manage. I don't think the catalogue is quite up to date as GHOSTBUSTERS is not on it, so you may be able to contact them regarding BEN.
 

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Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 11-03-2011, 10:10 PM:
 
Hmmm, thanks Mike -- learn something new every day; I thought/assumed it meant Digital Cinema Print. Why "package"? What else comes with the hard drive? The key, maybe?
 

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 11-09-2011, 03:25 AM:
 
I assume it's because there is a whole "package" of files that make up a digital print.
 

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Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 01-09-2012, 05:35 PM:
 
'Ben-Hur' is getting shown on the XD screen at the Cinemark Egyptian 24 on February 2nd next month and I assume other Cinemark theaters since it's mentioned on it's main webpage:

Ben-Hur (Cinemark)
 

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Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 01-09-2012, 06:10 PM:
 
It is too bad BEN-HUR is being shown in digital format now instead of 70mm in theatres. I saw the movie in a theatre three times starting with it's first run engagement in 1959 and all of the showings were in the large film format. The last time was at the Cinerama in Honolulu a couple of years before it closed.

-Claude
 

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Posted by Rob Alexander (Member # 6163) on 01-09-2012, 06:52 PM:
 
I was lucky enough to catch Ben Hur at the Cinemark XD near my house last month. I have never seen this movie, as I always wanted to catch it on the big screen. All I can say is I am so glad I waited. The presentation was flawless. It included the 6 minutes intro music, the intermission, and the 2.76 aspect ratio. I have seen 4K source material projected in 4K a few times, but nothing could compare to this.
 

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Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 05-12-2012, 09:20 PM:
 
Just watched the first 19 hours of this movie tonight. Will watch the second half tomorrow night. Overture comes on. SKIP! It's funny how horrible film stock was back then, it cannot seem to hold a perfectly steady exposure. Also, I don't remember 70mm being this wide. Were they only photographing at 3 or 4 perfs per frame? The panned dialog is funny, as if they can't quite steer it fast enough. One character speaks and then another on a different part of the screen speaks it's almost as if a technician is quickly turning a knob to get the dialog to come from "over there". The first part of what the character says is halfway between him and the previous character. By the time the character gets to the second syllable, his dialog has stopped moving. Maybe all the characters are ventriloquists? And there are TONS of missing frames. Why are they missing? If TVs can interpolate frames along with software like Twixtor and Apple's Optical Flow, why couldn't the missing frame be restored when they were making the disc? Also, there was a slate at the start of the movie that said "Story of the Christ" or something like that. It is not! It's a story of a young Arnold look-a-like. It's like saying Star Wars 1 is "Story of the Jawas". It isn't!

A very technically inept movie, but cheesy fun so far. Everyone knows such good English!
 

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-13-2012, 12:30 AM:
 
It's not "Story of the Christ," it's "A Tale of the Christ." Meaning Christ is in the story, but it's not about him directly.

The "tale" line is only part of the book's title; the movie's title is simply "Ben-Hur."

quote: Joe Redifer

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I don't remember 70mm being this wide. Were they only photographing at 3 or 4 perfs per frame?

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quote:

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The movie was filmed in a process known as "MGM Camera 65". The MGM Camera 65 used special 65mm Eastmancolor film stock with a 2.76:1 aspect ratio. 70mm anamorphic camera lenses developed by the Mitchell Camera Company were manufactured to specifications submitted by MGM. These lenses squeezed the image down 1.25 times to fit on the image area of the film stock. The 65mm images were then printed on 70mm film stock. The extra 5mm of space on the film stock allowed the studio to use the new six-track stereo sound, which audiences rarely heard at the time.

To make a 35mm print (the type of film stock most smaller theaters could project), a 35mm print with black borders along the top and bottom of each frame was used. When projected, the 2.76:1 aspect ratio was retained. Because the film could be adapted to the requirements of individual theaters, movie houses did not need to install special, expensive 70mm projection equipment. This allowed more theaters to show the film.

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I predict you will enjoy the second half of the film more than the first.
 

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Posted by Aaron Garman (Member # 1653) on 05-13-2012, 01:04 AM:
 
Wait, were 35mm prints letterboxes for Ben-Hur? I thought they merely framed it at 2.39:1. The print I saw years ago was definitely 2.39:1.

AJG
 

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-13-2012, 01:07 AM:
 
I was thinking that same thing. We played it a few years ago and I'm sure we had a Scope print. The letterbox thing must have only been for the original release.
 

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Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 05-13-2012, 01:20 AM:
 
I ran the mag-optical of "Ben-Hur" in 1970, and true it was a scope print (and IB Technicolor) that had letterbox frame lines so you can get close to the the original 2.76:1, "Camera 65" ratio on the screen.

There were edited 165m versions and in standard 2.35:1 anamorphic printed on Eastmancolor stock.

More buzz on Camera65 here.
 

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Posted by System Notices (Member # 2357) on 02-06-2014, 12:06 PM:
 

It has been 634 days since the last post.

 

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 02-06-2014, 12:06 PM:
 
I'd watched the first half of the movie when I first got my BR set, but never had time to watch Part 2, until last night. I am always in awe of the chariot race scene and it sure looks good.

I got to thinking -- it's kind of amazing how the whole entire ending of the movie is boiled down to ONE line spoken by Charlton Heston ("The moment he died, I felt him take the sword out of my hand"). I wonder how many people over the years, in watching the movie, figured it was about over when the crucifixion scene ended, and went to the bathroom and missed that line, and therefore didn't really get the main point of the whole story?
 

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Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 02-11-2014, 08:11 PM:
 
I read somewhere that the number was estimated at around 19,500 or so.
 

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Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 02-11-2014, 09:24 PM:
 
It is amazing you can get both BEN-HUR and THE TEN COMMANDMENTS in a single package for about $10.00 now. This set includes both of the movies and a lot of extra stuff for both films in a four disc set. What a bargain!

-Claude
 

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Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 02-12-2014, 02:32 AM:
 
Well like I reported in my previous post, we started watching part 2 the next evening. It JUST finished! We didn't even take any breaks or anything. Still more funky steering of the dialog. The chariot race was cool and I liked what they were able to do with what were probably giant-ass cameras. The Christ seemed wedged in there in a very Forrest Gump sort of way. As in Ben Hur is Forrest and he keeps bumping into The Christ. I think if Charlatan Heston had given the Roman guy a little butt-sex near the beginning (like old times for the characters, apparently), the whole fiasco could have been avoided. Why didn't he put out?
 

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Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 04-20-2014, 12:01 PM:
 
Steering dialog was the way they did it in most of those multichannel mixes for the really big picture releases. The dialog purposely followed the actors around the screen. Makes little sense now when you are watching on a dinky TV set, but on a huge 70ft-80ft screen as those top-teer 70mm roadshow houses had, what would actually be funky would be if an actor was on the far left side of the screen but his voice was coming from the center....or if he walked from one side of the 70ft screen across to the other but his voice only matched his location when he crossed the center. No, location dialog mixing was done that way for a reason -- same reason speakers are behind the screen and not on either side of it (like some of us have to live with) -- you want the illusion that the voice of the actor is actually coming from the relative position of his image. That becomes quite important on really wide screens. BEN HUR is about as wide as you can get.
 

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 04-20-2014, 12:33 PM:
 
Camera 65 Panavision 57mm camera anamorphic that was used in the filming of Ben-Hur. The lens is still in perfect condition.


 

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Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 04-25-2014, 04:35 PM:
 
Are the truck-tire tracks still clearly visible in the rear facing chariot shots? I noticed that as a little kid.
 

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