Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Breakfast at Tiffany's - UK rerelease

This is topic Breakfast at Tiffany's - UK rerelease - dye transfer prints in forum Feature Info, Trailer Attachments & REAL Credit Offsets at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 03-26-2001, 03:54 PM:

6 reels
1:1.85 or 1:1.66 (see below)
106 minutes/9,452ft
Mono (twin-bilateral variable area)

An incredibly sharp, dense new dye-transfer print. I'm pretty sure it's DT - stock edges are black and c/o marks green. In fact it's so sharp that grain on the camera negative (can't be from an interneg cos the titles are razor sharp and totally grain-free) shows through very clearly.

Yet more ratio confusion. 1:1.85 is written on the cans, yet the can in which the trailer arrived is labelled 1:1.66 in the same handwriting! Nice one British Film Institute. When racking with the opening titles centred, the Paramount logos at the start and end are seriously cropped (they look like Academy ones to me) but I can't see any abnormal cropping on the action. So I've been showing this in 1-85, but if anyone knows for sure what the ratio is supposed to be, I'd be grateful if you could let me know.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 03-26-2001, 09:42 PM:

Wow! If this is indeed a new dye transfer print, I wouldn't be surprised if there were a few dozen more made, since most of the expense is in making the matrices and setting up the transfer machine. Wonder what plans there are for a release of these prints?

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 03-26-2001, 11:44 PM:

I've only seen it run at 1.85, although, being a 1961 film, it probably looks OK at 1.66 and/or 1.75 as well.

I'd be amazed if the print is really IB. Does it have a grey soundtrack? Is it on ESTAR-base stock? Inquiring minds want to know!

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 03-28-2001, 03:01 PM:

The stock is certainly polyester. The track has a very dark blue (not quite black but almost) background, and there are 'YCM' matrix alignment frames on the head and tail of each reel (although admittedly these could have been printed from a tripack interneg).

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 03-28-2001, 03:34 PM:

If the soundtracks have any color at all, it is probably NOT a dye transfer print. The analog and digital soundtracks on a dye transfer print are exposed onto the receiver stock, which is really a special silver-image B&W film. The exposed film is processed in a B&W developer, yielding silver image soundtracks that have NO dye. The image dyes are transferred (imbibed) onto the processed receiver film only in the picture area.

Normal color prints have the soundtracks exposed from the sound negative in the printer. The SDDS track is usually cyan dye only. The Dolby Digital track is a more-or-less neutral mix of dyes. The analog and DTS tracks consist of either cyan+magenta+silver, or magenta+silver ("high magenta"). Cyan dye-only analog tracks (which must be read with a red LED reader) are still being tested, and not in regular use.

Irregardless, normal prints usually have some dye (color) in the soundtracks, dye-transfer prints do not.

"YCM" on the leaders is not unique to dye transfer prints --- it may only indicate that a color duplicate negative was made from separation positives.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 03-28-2001, 05:23 PM:

Leo, check the pictures of a dye transfer print vs. a regular print on the review of Technicolor's dye transfer process and let us know what you find. (Click on "reviews" below.)

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 03-28-2001, 05:26 PM:

Then I guess it probably is a conventional print, but if so then the picture quality is astonishingly sharp and detailed.

The colour balance (and the difference between grain in the picture vs. sharpness of titles) reminds me of the prints of Robert Harris' restoration of REAR WINDOW, which I know were D-T. I suppose I should have snipped a couple of frames off for comparison, but that print was so nice I couldn't bring myself to do it...

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 03-28-2001, 10:59 PM:

It's 1.85:1.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 02-15-2004, 09:32 PM:

In the US, I strongly suggest avoiding print #0019 (?), which is pretty much trashed. Sadly, it's one of the newer prints.

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