Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: "DarbeeVision" and Robert Altman

This is topic "DarbeeVision" and Robert Altman in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Christian Appelt (Member # 1067) on 05-17-2004, 03:54 PM:

Just saw Robert Altman's THE COMPANY. Everybody knows that Mr. Altman loves diffused pictures and does not care about sharp images, but something bothered me about this 'scope print.

During backstage scenes and a pan outside a church, typical video artifacts could be seen. Bright lights shining into the lens became flat color forms, and every scene with Altman's beloved backlight/diffusion technique looked just terrible.

Colours looked really bad when great contrast differences appeared, and the whole picture had a soft & fuzzy look. Now in the credits it said "processed with DARBEEVISION". Mr. Altman has shot THE COMPANY in HiDefinition video and processed it with that "DarbeeVisioN" filter system which is said to give the image a three-dimensional appearance and enhance sharpness. The company's website cannot be reached presently, and Mr. Altman speaks about how DarbeeVision is "like taking off your glasses".

About as true as the claims of CinemaScope being 3-D without glasses. THE COMPANY will strain your eyes even on medium sized screens, and it proves nothing except that HiDefinition can be made to look just a little worse than shitty Super-35.
[Mad]

Darbeevision

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 05-17-2004, 06:20 PM:

I screened the with / without tests for them during production.

Darbeevision Web Site

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 05-17-2004, 07:52 PM:

That sure is a stupid name... [thumbsdown]

Couldn't they come up with something better than that?

Mark

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 05-17-2004, 08:05 PM:

Well, all the really cool sounding names like Dolby and Todd-AO were already taken. Not to mention Nintendo, Nakamichi, Toyota and Olde Frothingslosh.

Posted by Carl Martin (Member # 1146) on 05-18-2004, 01:45 AM:

i liked the look of the company. it was shot on video, not to look like it was shot on film, but to use some of the characteristics of video aesthetically. i think that's the right approach to videography.

carl

Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 05-18-2004, 09:02 AM:

So is Ken running Darbeevision since he left Barbee [scream]

....or is it Darbee O"Gill and the leprecons creating this process in the Keebler kitchens [Razz]

. The image enhancement demo is [bs]

Posted by Christian Appelt (Member # 1067) on 05-18-2004, 06:10 PM:

Carl, did you see THE COMPANY on DVD or in a movie theatre?

To me, this level of sharpness is almost painful, especially when the film uses many long shots. You just cannot see detail, and all backlight shots (like in the dancing gym) look like home video with automatic iris control.
Maybe it's just another case of "good enough", but I don't feel it is [Smile]

Posted by Carl Martin (Member # 1146) on 05-18-2004, 08:54 PM:

why, in a theater of course! [Cool]

now it didn't look like baraka or anything, but for what it was it looked fine to me. the trick is to be a little flexible and allow yourself to appreciate it on its own terms. watercolors don't look like oils but they can still be beautiful, as long as they're not trying to look like oils.

of course, it may well be that the print you saw didn't look as nice as the print i saw. but i've seen plenty of 35mm originated films that looked worse, godsend being a recent example.

carl

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 05-18-2004, 10:20 PM:

Well, I agree that Olde Frothingslosh is a very cool name but Toyota is typically Japaneese and suggests the name of a toy company to me... not a very cool name at all....and then there is Greenleaf And Ironside but thats another interesting thing all together.....

Mark