THX Pt.3 : The Film Materials
Douglas Joseph Hague
Hello again everybody. I have been talking to the Ranch trying to get
some details on the film elements used for the transfers. Firstly, let
me outline what the THX laser disc program is responsible for:
selection of film elements both audio and visual, or, the approval of
elements. For the Abyss there was a well maintained negative, thanks to
Jim Cameron's care for his work. (Some people do care) The mix was
intact, so no real sweetening was needed, just a layback with the new
material.
Transfer of film and sound elements onto video:
This envolves taking the film, adjusting and aligning the telecine, and
transfering it, one reel at a time, onto D-2 video tape. (Digital)
For The Abyss, some minor color correction and some monitoring of contrast,
etc were needed. Since the negative was in good condition, the transfer is
ofcouse going to look great, with little need for additional color timing,
and retransferring. The Abyss looks great because it is a fairly recent film.
It benefited from a good negative and mix thanks to the care of Jim Cameron
and Van Ling.
The history of the Trilogy source materials is decidedly different. For
sound, most stems were intact. I don't know much about the sound, so I won't
talk about it. Besides, I think the mixes held up fine over the years and
they all sound great to me.
The film elements however were not pristine negatives, lovingly entomed
by FOX OR LUCASFILM. From what I heard there was quite a search of vaults,
storerooms, post houses, etc to find a somewhat acceptable print of STAR
WARS. I think they finally settled upon a fair looking print that was
scheduled long ago for subtitling. It never was subtitled, so I guess they
never touched it, and hence it's good condition. By the way, FOX owns
the STAR WARS negative, not Lucasfilm. George made a sweet deal however and
DOES own EMPIRE and JEDI. With all this said:
Think of the Trilogy box set not as a routine transfer (it wasn't),
think of it as a RESTORATION of the Trilogy. Each film required a
different level of attention, with STAR WARS obviously needing the most.
Lou Levinson had to color time the Trilogy, restoring the contrast level
and color scheme originally intended. I am VERY pleased with the changes
in STAR WARS. For one, it doesn't look like a flatly lit film anymore. The
colors are more vibrant and the contrast is greater. There is a real
texture to it now, especially in the Trash Compactor scene. Before, it
looked flat and washed out: it looked like the 70's. Now, I begin to see
some of subtlties in the cinematography that weren't there before.
I digress. Sorry.
After the D-2 is completed, it is sent to Japan and pressed. (I'm not
going to go into that process because frankly I'm not qualified to talk
about it.)
Then, the production discs are sent back to the THX division for review
and approval. If you'd like to know, here is the set up where I QC'ed these
discs: Lexicon CP-3, NAD amps, Panasonic LX-1000 LD player, Vidikron
video projector with Faroujda line doubling. We saw it on a THX approved
transparent screen (that's acoustically transparent) that was masked for
a 16:9 ratio. (The screen was 16:9, not the image) We definitely had
ALtec Lansing surrounds. In the front I am unsure, it was awhile ago.
I THINK it was the B&W or the M&K's I'm not sure, it doesn't really matter.
We watched all three films over two days. We did not watch the Supplements,
they are not part of our program.
Overall, I thought the films kicked ass, both sound and video. There were those
digital anomalies, but that was it. It wasn't my decision, I told them about
it, the discs passed. Personally, I would have passed those discs. They were
fine, and a couple of frames of anomalies that if you blinked you would miss,
were acceptable, IN MY OPINION. Besides, there were over 20,000 people waiting
for this set. To retransfer, repress would have taken an eternity for most
people and all for a few lousy frames? Forget it. These transfers kick ass, evenwith these barely noticable anomalies.
As for laser lock, abnormal speckling, POPping in the soundtrack: I'm clueless.
We heard nothing, and saw no abnormal speckling. The quality of the mass
pressing may not be up to par. Unfortunately the THX Division cannot check
everyone's copy. Defective copies should be returned and exchanged.
I'm sorry if this all seems so boring to you, I'm just relaying information
that might clear up questions. Laser disc is still an ANALOG medium (VIDEO
wise that is) and is not perfect, not yet. There is no such thing as a perfect
disc (except Kubrick's PATHS OF GLORY from CRITERION (kidding)), but we can
try to come close. As for the THX label being a marketing ploy, that's an
uniformed statement. Studios are reluctant to bring in 3rd parties for
their mastering, I guess it makes them look weak. Well, their films will look
weak unless they give at least ONE release the benefit of the THX Laser Disc
Program.
Be seeing you,
Doug Hague
Anthony Horan
> The history of the Trilogy source materials is decidedly different. For
> sound, most stems were intact. I don't know much about the sound, so I won't
> talk about it. Besides, I think the mixes held up fine over the years and
> they all sound great to me.
They do indeed sound great; there do appear to be a few dropouts in the
individual sound stems, but I guess that's to be expected.
> The film elements however were not pristine negatives, lovingly entomed
> by FOX OR LUCASFILM. From what I heard there was quite a search of vaults,
> storerooms, post houses, etc to find a somewhat acceptable print of STAR
> WARS. I think they finally settled upon a fair looking print that was
> scheduled long ago for subtitling. It never was subtitled, so I guess they
> never touched it, and hence it's good condition. By the way, FOX owns
> the STAR WARS negative, not Lucasfilm. George made a sweet deal however and
> DOES own EMPIRE and JEDI. With all this said:
I'm actually quite puzzled as to why the original negatives weren't used to
make new interpositives. Fox owning the SW negative shouldn't have been a
problem seeing as how it was FoxVideo doing the release; the negatives of the
other two films, owned by Lucasfilm, surely must still exist and be being
carefully vaulted somewhere. Surely.
> Lou Levinson had to color time the Trilogy, restoring the contrast level
> and color scheme originally intended.
That's pretty much normal for film transfers these days, if what Jim Cameron
had to say about it was true. It's always fun to observe the difference on
discs that provide theatrical trailers after the feature, like "Untamed
Heart" - these trailers seem to have been arbitarily tossed to tape, and
comparing the colour balance and contrast in scenes used in the trailer with
those in the carefully transferred feature can be quite enlightening. The New
Year's Eve scene in "Untamed Heart", with its night setting and myriad
coloured lights, is a good example.
> looked flat and washed out: it looked like the 70's. Now, I begin to see
It *was* the 70s! :-)
> We watched all three films over two days. We did not watch the Supplements,
> they are not part of our program.
They maybe should be; the implication of the THX logo on the jacket and
program is that the entire disc contents is THX certified.
> As for laser lock, abnormal speckling, POPping in the soundtrack: I'm clueless.
The first two are likely the fault of the pressing plant. I suspect but
cannot confirm that abnormal popping might be the result of the player's
digital audio error correction giving up on a difficult error. It's not
unknown to result in such an effect, and my highly speckled disc (side 2 of
Jedi) had a correspondingly high level of digital clicking. Incidentally, I
returned the faulty disc of Jedi to the store; they told me there's been
three of them returned with the same massive speckling.
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Anthony Horan, Melbourne Australia - ant...@xymox.apana.org.au
"I kind of feel like I'm Metallica..."
- Tori Amos on the perils of long tours, November 1992
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