Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu
Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2012 8:40 pm
Stunning.
I can't believe the level of detail in some of those frames.
I can't believe the level of detail in some of those frames.
Don't under exaggerate. It's the fucking greatest. Plus it fed into a great Duckman joke.CSM126 wrote:Don't you talk about Clue. Clue is fucking great.
My wife and I watched it this morning and I second your enthusiastic recommendation. I think the BD really brings home what a stunning technical achievement the film was. I'm not sure I realized before today what fine performances both Richard Arlen and Buddy Rogers turn in. I had not known until watching one of the extras that they both did their own flying in the film. (I also thought it was pretty cool the way they worked through all the Paramount logos in reverse chronological order.)knives wrote:For those who haven't pulled the trigger yet on Wings really needs to. On VHS it's a mediocre film, but the Blu really boosts it to show off material and is really great. The extras are skimpy, but very thorough and I'm not sure what else could be added on. I hope this does well enough for Paramount to consider putting out the other silents they still have the rights to.
Knives, I'm glad to hear that the sound effects are unobtrusive, because that sort of thing typically annoys the bejesus out of me. There's a version of Eisenstein's October produced, I believe, by Mosfilm that uses whatever visual cue possible as an excuse to add sound effects (carriage wheels, feet tramping on snow, crowds exclaiming, etc., etc.). It totally diminishes the impact of the film. Are the effects in Wings continual, and what are some examples? And does only one soundtrack attempt this?knives wrote:I did the other score which I thought worked very well. The sound effects especially were nice. Just the right amount to make them powerful when they were used.
The effects are on both soundtracks. They are judiciously applied and were part of the original release, at least in major outlets. It's mostly battlefield sounds and dogfights, although there are some others (e.g. the original Shooting Star at the film's beginning). I'm trying to remember other examples but the fact I saw it 24 hours ago and can't recall anything egregious probably means they were well chosen and properly blended.gcgiles1dollarbin wrote:Are the effects in Wings continual, and what are some examples? And does only one soundtrack attempt this?
* Albert W Desart, according to Jack Theakston on Nitrateville.Simon Murphy wrote: Donald Crafton mentions that Paramount’s head of special effects, Roy Pomeroy, had devised two sound systems for Wings, and that one used what he calls ‘cued discs’. Emphasising the use of RCA speakers in the set-up, he fails to mention that this system employed a unit comprising four Brunswick Panatrope turntables with individual amplifiers and volume controls.
These details were recalled in a paper presented at the Audio Engineering Society’s 1971 convention, by Robert J Callen. As a young disc recording engineer at Brunswick, Callen was called in by Pomeroy to make adjustments to a trial installation of the equipment at New York’s Rivoli Theatre, using discs of aeroplane, machine gun and bombing sounds, recorded especially by Brunswick for the film. After the necessary adjustments the rig was moved to the Criterion, where it reportedly remained for the duration of Wings’ one year run. With the four turntables, he recalls, ‘a clever operator (in this instance Roy Deshart* of Paramount) could follow with sound the flight of a plane across the screen’ - an early attempt at stereo (or even surround-sound) presentation, giving an impression of movement through the manipulation of the turntable faders.
In London, at the Carlton Theatre in April 1928, copies of the same records were used to accompany the film’s live music setting. Although there is no mention of anything other than a standard dual turntable Panatrope in use in London, the effects were still impressive and novel, drawing particular praise from Edwin Evans, a Bioscope writer nominally reviewing the musical setting for the film, composed by J S Zamecnik. Evans concluded that whilst the score was ‘admirable ... I confess it was the Panatrope effects that most conveyed dramatic conviction.’Their dramatic impact was heightened by pauses in the music at key points, allowing the ‘whirr of the engines, the rattle of machine guns and the noise of falling planes’ to be heard alone, prompting another Bioscope man to comment: ‘It is difficult to believe that all this roar and noise is being produced from a small gramophone record.’
Milking the novelty value for all it was worth, The Carlton arranged for the effects for one screening in May to be broadcast live from the Criterion in New York as a further publicity stunt. The Brunswick effects records for Wings were subsequently offered to any cinema in the country with a reproducer: ‘For the first time it is possible for the smallest hall in the country to present its pictures with the identical effects used at the London and New York presentations.'
There was also the occasional punch sound effect. If something like Sunrise is as noisy as silents get this is a far way away from that.triodelover wrote:The effects are on both soundtracks. They are judiciously applied and were part of the original release, at least in major outlets. It's mostly battlefield sounds and dogfights, although there are some others (e.g. the original Shooting Star at the film's beginning). I'm trying to remember other examples but the fact I saw it 24 hours ago and can't recall anything egregious probably means they were well chosen and properly blended.gcgiles1dollarbin wrote:Are the effects in Wings continual, and what are some examples? And does only one soundtrack attempt this?
Why does Gary say, "Unfortunately, it is still in the 1.78:1 frame"? Is this the wrong aspect ratio?kinjitsu wrote:DVD Beaver on To Catch a Thief
Looks amazing, can't wait for this to arrive \:D/kinjitsu wrote:DVD Beaver on To Catch a Thief
Apparently the Olive Tashlins weren't actually transferred from VV elements, though.domino harvey wrote:Between this and the Olive Tashlins, thank God for VistaVision's ultra-crisp resolution lending itself to super stellar Blu transfers
They look good all the same though. Damn those blues and pinks bounce.The Fanciful Norwegian wrote:Apparently the Olive Tashlins weren't actually transferred from VV elements, though.domino harvey wrote:Between this and the Olive Tashlins, thank God for VistaVision's ultra-crisp resolution lending itself to super stellar Blu transfers