The Mad Magician 3D (1954)

[GlacierTuba]

Hadn't a breeze until recently that the Indicator release had the 3D and 2D versions of the film on it. I'm a sucker for 3D and had to get it!

Watched the film in full fat 3D on my Panasonic UB820, connected wirelessly (full fat 3D, lossless original, unconverted audio etc over a DVDO Air3) to a Sony HMZ-T3 and Sennheiser HD598's (perfect for films and telly).

Never seen or heard of this film before, which is bizarre considering I also own the WAC Blu of House of Wax 3D. Anyway, I had an absolute RIOT with this film! Thoroughly enjoyed every single one of its all too brief 72 minutes!

I thought the presentation of the film was superb, both in terms of print quality and that the 3D worked perfectly and wasn't shonky at all. I felt the use of 3D was mostly subtle, but effective and the gimmick 'pop out' shots were absolutely superb. You don't have to wait long for those either, I particularly enjoyed the 'water wand' sequence, that was a joy to watch.

I didn't feel like the gimmick shots outstayed their welcome either. The balance felt just right, and given the subject matter of the film and the profession of the lead character, you'd be asking serious questions as the viewer if the film was devoid of gimmick shots. For the rest of the film, the 3D is subtle but very effective, conveying wonderful depth with each shot coming across like it was planned and dressed specifically for 3D. From actor positional marks to set dressing, even to the ruffs of the sleeves of one actors dress as she is writing her book. It all gels so well and comes across really nicely on screen, even on my left field 3D viewing setup.

Films like The Mad Magician are what 3D was made for and thrives on and I feel it would be criminal to watch this one in 2D (though the option is there if you so desire; the choice is not even present if you are hooked up to a 2D display). Sound quality was nice and clean and clear, no complaints from my amateur ears.

It was nice to see two Super 8 prints presented in anaglyphic 3D. I have a pair of red and cyan glasses so gave both condensed prints a try. The 3D is alright but the full fat feature 3D presentation is leagues ahead of these.

I don't understand the connection, but you also get two short films featuring The Three Stooges on this disc, and BOTH are in 3D! One last 3D bonus is a feature on 3D film history which has some nice clips from.3D films in it so is well worth a watch for those alone, as well as an interesting and informative 3D film history lesson.

I haven't listened to the commentary yet, but I have ripped it to *.ogg and put it on my DAP to listen to on a future commute. Hopefully it's as entertaining as the main feature film!

I had a blast with this film and the disc as a whole. I just wish I had the Luxe edition with the booklet, I'd love to read it. Highly recommend this disc and this film, but whatever you do, watch it in 3D, its what this film was made for and what this film expects and deserves.

Enjoy.

Side note: Did anyone else get an odd proto-Murder, She Wrote meets Columbo vibe off of this film? Just me was it?

[Indicator]

Originally Posted by GlacierTuba

I don't understand the connection, but you also get two short films featuring The Three Stooges on this disc, and BOTH are in 3D!

The connection is that they were made at the same time by the same studio in the same 3D process, and were available for licensing from the same rightsholder in the same format. So including them was a bit of a no-brainer.

This one was a fascinating technical challenge to work on, because none of us had had any experience with 3D projects, and neither had David Mackenzie, which is why this is the only Indicator release not to be authored by him. There were all sorts of unexpected challenges, notably the fact that the hard-of-hearing subtitles had to be positioned on the Z axis as well as the usual X and Y ones, and positioned appropriately to avoid causing eyestrain. (This also required specialist assistance.)

Aardman were incredibly helpful behind the scenes to an extent over and above their participation in the new documentary - it's thanks to them that producer Anthony Nield was able to QC the disc in 3D, because he (not unreasonably) didn't have the right equipment himself and lives close enough to Aardman for that to be feasible. Meanwhile, the disc's technical producer Michael Brooke had to pick up a second-hand 3D monitor on eBay, although thankfully there was one going for just £75 that did the job to perfection, and happily his Blu-ray player turned out to be 3D-compatible.

Oh, and the commentary's huge fun, but should ideally be watched in tandem with the film. Jonathan Rigby and Kevin Lyons' stuff tends to be extremely shot-specific, and this is no exception - and you're not going to get the same pleasure out of, say, things like them highlighting a glaring onscreen mistake if you can't actually see it at the same time.

[GlacierTuba]

Originally Posted by Indicator

The connection is that they were made at the same time by the same studio in the same 3D process, and were available for licensing from the same rightsholder in the same format. So including them was a bit of a no-brainer.

This one was a fascinating technical challenge to work on, because none of us had had any experience with 3D projects, and neither had David Mackenzie, which is why this is the only Indicator release not to be authored by him. There were all sorts of unexpected challenges, notably the fact that the hard-of-hearing subtitles had to be positioned on the Z axis as well as the usual X and Y ones, and positioned appropriately to avoid causing eyestrain. (This also required specialist assistance.)

Aardman were incredibly helpful behind the scenes to an extent over and above their participation in the new documentary - it's thanks to them that producer Anthony Nield was able to QC the disc in 3D, because he (not unreasonably) didn't have the right equipment himself and lives close enough to Aardman for that to be feasible. Meanwhile, the disc's technical producer Michael Brooke had to pick up a second-hand 3D monitor on eBay, although thankfully there was one going for just £75 that did the job to perfection, and happily his Blu-ray player turned out to be 3D-compatible.

Oh, and the commentary's huge fun, but should ideally be watched in tandem with the film. Jonathan Rigby and Kevin Lyons' stuff tends to be extremely shot-specific, and this is no exception - and you're not going to get the same pleasure out of, say, things like them highlighting a glaring onscreen mistake if you can't actually see it at the same time.

That's fascinating insight. Thanks! Hopefully more 3D titles may come in 2024?

If any booklets come up spare for this release (and while I'm at it, La Llorona and Phantom of the Monastery) please stick my name down on them! Thanks.

[GlacierTuba]

Originally Posted by Indicator

Oh, and the commentary's huge fun, but should ideally be watched in tandem with the film. Jonathan Rigby and Kevin Lyons' stuff tends to be extremely shot-specific, and this is no exception - and you're not going to get the same pleasure out of, say, things like them highlighting a glaring onscreen mistake if you can't actually see it at the same time.

So I gave the commentary a start today. Not finished it yet but it's already thrown up some wonderful trivia, including the following little chunklet that I picked up on.

Near the start of the film, around the point of one of my favourite parts - the water wand trick - the (uncredited) stagehand is none other than a very young Corey Allen, then aged just 19 and making his screen debut.

He would go on to have quite the career as a film and television director (take a look at the link I added above). Interestingly, the following year he would appear in Rebel Without A Cause after working on The Mad Magician. More interestingly, guess what he directed later on in life?

Yep, you guessed it, Murder, She Wrote. Including the pilot episode.

One other thing I didn't add before that I spotted on the Image Gallery on this disc is the lovely Italian poster for the film. I thought it was so strikingly different to the main poster design. It reminded me of a giallo, or something Dario Argento might have made. It's a lovely design and so different to the rest.



It's a lovely commentary track, every second that passes is literally packed with trivia. My kind of commentary track!

[WaverBoy]

Originally Posted by Indicator

The connection is that they were made at the same time by the same studio in the same 3D process, and were available for licensing from the same rightsholder in the same format. So including them was a bit of a no-brainer.

This one was a fascinating technical challenge to work on, because none of us had had any experience with 3D projects, and neither had David Mackenzie, which is why this is the only Indicator release not to be authored by him. There were all sorts of unexpected challenges, notably the fact that the hard-of-hearing subtitles had to be positioned on the Z axis as well as the usual X and Y ones, and positioned appropriately to avoid causing eyestrain. (This also required specialist assistance.)

Aardman were incredibly helpful behind the scenes to an extent over and above their participation in the new documentary - it's thanks to them that producer Anthony Nield was able to QC the disc in 3D, because he (not unreasonably) didn't have the right equipment himself and lives close enough to Aardman for that to be feasible. Meanwhile, the disc's technical producer Michael Brooke had to pick up a second-hand 3D monitor on eBay, although thankfully there was one going for just £75 that did the job to perfection, and happily his Blu-ray player turned out to be 3D-compatible.

Oh, and the commentary's huge fun, but should ideally be watched in tandem with the film. Jonathan Rigby and Kevin Lyons' stuff tends to be extremely shot-specific, and this is no exception - and you're not going to get the same pleasure out of, say, things like them highlighting a glaring onscreen mistake if you can't actually see it at the same time.

I didn’t pick this up because I already had the Twilight Time release — did your crew make any improvements to the master over and above what was used by TT? I probably should have picked yours up too, if only for the unique extras and the now-unavailable booklet. Damn.

[T4ffer]

Originally Posted by Indicator

This one was a fascinating technical challenge to work on, because none of us had had any experience with 3D projects, and neither had David Mackenzie, which is why this is the only Indicator release not to be authored by him. There were all sorts of unexpected challenges, notably the fact that the hard-of-hearing subtitles had to be positioned on the Z axis as well as the usual X and Y ones, and positioned appropriately to avoid causing eyestrain. (This also required specialist assistance.)

BTW with the doc included in the extras, I found the faces were a bit elongated on the Z axis, it looked quite weird. But was fun nonetheless.