Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Sound O Music-sing a long... Quality?

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Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 10-15-2010, 11:05 AM:

I'm running this digitally on Tuesday. The keys wont let me have a peek until Tuesday. Anyone already run this monster? How good does it look, and better yet, how does it sound?

I might actually sit through this thing myself. Planning to run sound somewhere close to 7.

I promise I won't sing the lyrics. I sure dont want to ruin it for all the others... [Eek!]

Posted by Alex Shultz (Member # 5027) on 10-15-2010, 11:27 PM:

I was hoping to be able to run this. Unfortunately it took almost three months to actually get to talk to a person at Fathom - nobody would answer the phones or call me back! I almost fell out of my chair when a real person finally answered. Then it took another two weeks of calling to get to talk to another person.

Please report on what you think of it afterwards. Does Fathom do a good job with these things? Is it worth the effort to get it going?

Posted by Carl Martin (Member # 1146) on 10-18-2010, 07:22 AM:

well i've only seen (& run) the 35mm version of this, and it looked like total shit! hopefully the digital version looks as bad... maybe someone will show it in 70mm again (without the sing-along).

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-18-2010, 10:51 AM:

Why should it look like shit? The DVD version looks awesome!

Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 10-18-2010, 05:18 PM:

I saw it in 35mm and it looked awful. This was years ago. The picture was green!!

I will be looking at the digital copy on Tuesday.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 10-18-2010, 11:21 PM:

The "green" copies were some godawful printing rejects that Fox gave to non-theatrical subleasers -- I think we got our from Criterion, or it might have even gone as far back to Films, Inc., but I remember it very well -- it made me sick to my stomach. We even tried putting pink filters in the lamphouse (not in front of the lens) to try to suck down some of the green, and while it helped, it was still a horror show. This junk footage can still be floating around, can it?

Even worse, this print had terrible distortion on the reel with the wedding scene. The organ sounded totally distorted. I had never heard anything that severe on a soundtrack and assumed it had to be my system; a close inspection with a loupe proved that it was indeed the print and not our system. The actual waveform was severely clipped -- no mystery at all what was causing the distortion -- those organ low notes which should be nearly perfect sine waves had their tops lopped off -- I mean completely flat...they looked like square waves instead (and sounded like them).

If those prints are still floating around, someone over at Fox needs to be waterboarded.

More recently (2 summers ago) we ran a beautiful, nearly mint 35mm print -- not the sing along version just the straight normal print. We just handed out lyrics and people sang along just fine. I didn't book it so I can't tell you were it came from, although my guess is that it probably was from Criterion as they handle anything from Fox older than a year or two, theatrical or not. If you can get that print, you will have a good show.

Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 10-19-2010, 08:45 AM:

Hopefully, I wont be seeing a transfer of one of the old F-I prints... thats who handled the green print that I saw years ago. The drive came from DeLuxe, and the promotions playing in the lobby are beautiful. We can only hope.

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 10-19-2010, 11:32 AM:

here's the facebook link on Fotokem's restoration

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150282259450612

I can not WAIT to see the bluray!!!

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-19-2010, 01:42 PM:

We played this movie in 1990 as part of our 60th anniversary series. Of all the movies in the series, we got good prints EXCEPT for this one...the picture was faded to pink and it just looked awful. Scratched, spliced, missing footage, you name it.

The 3 nights we showed it were the longest I ever lived thru. I apologized to people before and after each show. We had walkouts and "comments." I felt horrible about it because it's one of my favorite movies. So I'll be glad to see this restoration BluRay just to get the bad taste out of my mouth. (I refuse to play this sing-a-long version.)

Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 10-19-2010, 06:16 PM:

I ran some of this critter Tuesday morning. The screen image is nice and sharp and clear.

The sound is kind of compressed sounding to me. When the titles came up, I expected the rumble of the drums on the soundtrack to go right through me, but they didn't.

The film is running at 7 on my fader.

I saw this film in its 1972 re-release, too, and it sounded better than this one.

Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 10-19-2010, 07:04 PM:

Halfway through. One of the most gorgeous DCPs I've ever seen. Very clean crisp and colorful. Sound is good, but needs more than 7 in my house. We are running at 7.8. Most DCPs wind up running at 6.0 here.

Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 10-21-2010, 12:39 PM:

A while back we played a sing along (don't remember the film) as a fund raiser for a local group. The distributor had 2 sing along prints, both they admitted were in terrible condition. The simple solution is to buy the standard DVD or BluRay, being certain it has subtitles in the desired language and play from it. Many players can be set to switch subtitles in and out seamlessly with a single keystroke on the remote. It'll take a couple or three watchings to get it down. We gave the subtitle switching to one of the groups volunteers.

Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 10-28-2010, 08:44 AM:

Sorry for my late reply. We ran this movie again this past Tuesday. Smallest auditorium. 7.9 on the fader. Again, picture was beautiful... Probably the best looking thing I have seen digital... and this time, the sound was somewhat better.

We've never run anything at 7+ in this house before.

Thanks for all the replies. If only we could run it without the words on the screen. That would make me really happy.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-28-2010, 10:54 AM:

So, The Sound of Music DCP is ONLY available in a singalong version?

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 10-29-2010, 07:51 PM:

Next Tuesday (Nov. 2nd) cannot come soon enough when the SOUND OF MUSIC will finally be released on Blu-Ray. Most retailer will carry TSOM in a standard blue BD case but Target will have it in a digipac case with pictures as a exclusive. If it is like like the BD of SOUTH PACIFIC. I will be very happy because I had learned the BD was mastered from a 70mm source.

-Claude

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 10-30-2010, 08:55 PM:

yeah I just noted in the Target newspaper supplement about the exclusive book form release - now that's real tempting and it's also cheaper than Best Buy's pricing.

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 10-31-2010, 01:04 PM:

Jonathan,

Please excuse me for the pun but it seems Target has the 'best buy' regarding THE SOUND OF MUSIC Blu-Ray release. [Smile]

If for any reason you or others prefer getting the movie in a standard BD case without the extra printed material, Best Buy, Walmart and perhaps others will price match Target's price. I prefer Target's packaging and will get it from them early Tuesday morning after voting.

THE BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER KWAI from Sony will also come in a similar packaging like Target's TSOM but will only be available at Best Buy in my area as well as WHITE CHRISTMAS. Target also has a better offer with the BD of THE PACIFIC when they will have an exclusive extra disc in their set.

-Claude