Night of the Living Dead (1990) - Out of Print

[ROclockCK]

Originally Posted by nagysaudio

You're worried about screencaps on an uncalibrated computer monitor, yet you're OK with the DP color correcting his movie over the PHONE????? Let me just say it one more time for effect, the DP color corrected (a 100% visual job) over the TELEPHONE!!!!

I never said that nagysaudio. In the spirit of civilized discourse, please stop putting words in my mouth. I already have enough of my own.

[HyperRealist]

Cinema Lowdown Exclusive: Cinematographer Frank Prinzi ASC Shares His Thoughts on Night of the Living Dead (1990) Blu-ray

FRANK PRINZI: I have to let you know that I haven't seen the transfer on Blu-ray, on a good screen, yet. I just saw [a] quick clip on the internet and what I saw looked bad. I was consulted verbally a couple of years back but was never given a "first draft" copy of the transfer to give my true feedback. It went from words to visuals. The range of interpretation is limitless. The words “cool” or “darker” can be taken in so many ways that without a visual marker to refer to, one can go in any direction. From what I hear the direction taken did not bring pleasing results to many.

[Mr Kite]

Originally Posted by HyperRealist

Cinema Lowdown Exclusive: Cinematographer Frank Prinzi ASC Shares His Thoughts on Night of the Living Dead (1990) Blu-ray

Nice one, now we are getting some where.

[popeflick]

Originally Posted by HyperRealist

Cinema Lowdown Exclusive: Cinematographer Frank Prinzi ASC Shares His Thoughts on Night of the Living Dead (1990) Blu-ray

This is such an interesting game of telephone. Mifune I believe states he sent Prinzi to the bluray.com screenshots, and he has no reason to make that up. Prinzi's statement clearly reads like he watched that youtube clip and either obfuscated where he went (again, unintentionally) OR he did go to that YouTube clip and decided not to mention the caps Mifune directed him towards. If he did watch that youtube clip I"m thinking of it certainly bore little resemblence after it was compressed to what I saw.

And again, let's also keep in mind that Prinzi flat out stated the initial DVD release wasn't the proper color hue either, which led to his... phone call.

[ROclockCK]

Originally Posted by Whirlygig

Really the subject you seem to be addressing is using screen shots to judge overall video quality of a release. I'm with you there, you need to see it in motion -- a single frame can be misleading with respect to sharpness, grain, etc. But come on now, when it comes to judging color, a few screen shots are more than enough for the guy who worked on them to say, hmm, that looks terrible. He didn't just say "a bit off". It's outside of any threshold he would allow, knowing full well what might affect his judgment.

I only know what I originally saw in the theatre...on Blu-ray...and now, finally, on DVD. After my viewing of the latter, I have no difficulty whatsoever taking Prinzi at his word when he claims the DVD was "too bright and colorful", because that jibes with what I recall from my first and (until this Blu) only screening of NOTLD90 on opening weekend.

Which isn't to say I'm endorsing this Blu-ray coloration as correct Whirlygig...only noting that the DVD, and by extension previous home video versions, weren't either.

The whole thing is FUBAR.

[Clark Kent]

Originally Posted by HyperRealist

Cinema Lowdown Exclusive: Cinematographer Frank Prinzi ASC Shares His Thoughts on Night of the Living Dead (1990) Blu-ray

I really wish someone would lend their BD to Prinzi and let him watch it on a calibrated display. His comments are basically concerning screen caps and Youtube footage.

[Torrente]

And there's no doubt that his reaction would even be harsher and badder, then.

[HyperRealist]

by the time he sees the BD someone will have paid him off to say it looks great.

[DetroitSportsFan]

Originally Posted by HyperRealist

by the time he sees the BD someone will have paid him off to say it looks great.

Why would anyone pay him to say anything? There's no more copies to be sold.

[HyperRealist]

Originally Posted by DetroitSportsFan

Why would anyone pay him to say anything? There's no more copies to be sold.

reputation

[BJQ1972]

Originally Posted by bigdaddyhorse

I'm irked enough to boycott Sony. Fact! I'll break it for Christine, no sense in paying someone else more after they pay TT and Sony anyway, but I won't buy anything else Sony mass releases except used so they don't get a cut!

This comment made me chuckle. No offence, but it is priceless.

[balthazar_bee]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

The lengths some members here will go to defending a TT title is just unbelievable. That's all I'll say about that...

Why shouldn't people defend something they prefer?

I also would rather watch the blu-ray than the DVD -- better resolution and, yes, I prefer the look -- and if roclockok is correct about previous home video presentations being flawed (albeit differently flawed), then "pick your poison," as they say.

Perhaps another reason people feel compelled to go to "unbelievable lengths" has to do with the inexplicable way other people keep using phrases like "defending a TT title", which implicitly suggests that they are responsible for the changes.

Admittedly, I haven't been a slave to reading this thread lately (not like early October), but where I left off it was understood that TT would gladly refund your money in exchange for an opened product. Or, if he so chose, the buyer could resell it on eBay and make a mint.

What more would you suggest TT do? Issue a formal apology and send a representative to 3,000 doors to hand deliver a courtesy magnet?

Furthermore, haven't we at the very least established that Sony were the ones with their hands on the dials?

I don't see why some members go to "unbelievable lengths" to blame TT for a situation that was essentially out of their control, but to which they've responded fairly well -- again, no one has been hurt by this (see above).

Is it speculators who are worried they won't be able to unload what they're hoarding? Is it people who resent paying $30 for a movie, but do so, and feel compelled to resent it until kingdom come? Is it people who insist that they remember exactly what a film looked like theatrically twenty years ago?

[Captain Mal]

Originally Posted by bigdaddyhorse

Facts we do know:

TT (or was it Sony, sorry not gonna scroll back hundreds of pages to find it) said this approved by the DP. It wasn't. Fact!

That's not a fact (the part about them saying the DP approved it). TT was just passing on a statement from Sony's mastering department that said something like, "the approved 2010 master was done in consultation with the director of photography."

Misleading, yes, but they didn't say who actually approved it. That was some numbskull at Sony.

In my opinion, TT's only wrong doing was that they did not let people know the color timing was altered prior to release, but they promised to remedy that going forward.

[NoirFan]

Originally Posted by balthazar_bee

Is it people who insist that they remember exactly what a film looked like theatrically twenty years ago?

...And, relatively speaking, there can't be too many of those, since it was the 116th (!) most popular film of 1990. More people saw Delta Force 2: Operation Stranglehold than Savini's film.

[Captain Mal]

Originally Posted by balthazar_bee

Perhaps another reason people feel compelled to go to "unbelievable lengths" has to do with the inexplicable way other people keep using phrases like "defending a TT title", which implicitly suggests that they are responsible for the changes.

Admittedly, I haven't been a slave to reading this thread lately (not like early October), but where I left off it was understood that TT would gladly refund your money in exchange for an opened product. Or, if he so chose, the buyer could resell it on eBay and make a mint.

What more would you suggest TT do? Issue a formal apology and send a representative to 3,000 doors to hand deliver a courtesy magnet?

I don't see why some members go to "unbelievable lengths" to blame TT for a situation that was essentially out of their control, but to which they've responded fairly well -- again, no one has been hurt by this (see above).

The hate towards TT comes from their business model. No one enjoys paying $30 for a catalog title. It's good for collectors & scalpers, but sucks for everyone else. If this was a $20 Shout Factory title, I bet you wouldn't see near the backlash. At least in that situation, people could have waited for reviews before purchasing since Shout Factory's titles are not limited editions.

[bigdaddyhorse]

Originally Posted by Captain Mal

That's not a fact (the part about them saying the DP approved it). TT was just passing on a statement from Sony's mastering department that said something like, "the approved 2010 master was done in consultation with the director of photography."

Misleading, yes, but they didn't say who actually approved it. That was some numbskull at Sony.

In my opinion, TT's only wrong doing was that they did not let people know the color timing was altered prior to release, but they promised to remedy that going forward.

I stand corrected. I guess technically it was done "in consultation with the director of photography", they just left out the part about the consultation being OVER THE PHONE!

[kinkyqueen]

This is still going on

[Captain Mal]

Originally Posted by bigdaddyhorse

I stand corrected. I guess technically it was done "in consultation with the director of photography", they just left out the part about the consultation being OVER THE PHONE!

and they left out the part about the DP never seeing any of the changes.


@ Kinkyqueen, yep, but I'm just glad that we learned more about what happened and it makes me feel better that the DP did not approve this awful transfer & the icing on the cake is that he thinks the screen shots look terrible.

[returnofthemack]

why cant i order this from that website anywhere? i dont get it

[Crom1]

Originally Posted by balthazar_bee

What more would you suggest TT do? Issue a formal apology and send a representative to 3,000 doors to hand deliver a courtesy magnet?

Personally I'd like them to offer a replacement program with a correctly mastered bluray. I don't care about anything other than getting a quality copy of the movie as it was originally made.

In the meantime, I'll get my $50 ($30+shipping) worth of satisfaction keeping my opinion that this is a lousy bluray out there.

I hold TT accountable as they sold this, then did damage control which has now turned out to be partially untrue. Personally if I was in their business, I'd want to watch the transfer before I licensed it, let alone put it on discs for sale. There's a proper transfer out there, TT didn't get that one.

Better that NOTLD 90 never was released on the bluray format.