Twilight Time Discussion Thread

[jmclick]

Originally Posted by docc

and yet other old films of theirs like Violent Saturday, Niagara, Leave Her To Heaven, April Love, etc look positively brilliant transferred to blu-ray. I'm no expert but it seems like they're picking and choosing which movies get the blue tint treatment for no apparent reason and which ones are done properly. I will definitely be reading the reviews on House Of Bamboo before I order it, as much as I want it

My guess would be that whatever elements were used when those films were transferred to safety film were still in relatively good condition. I honestly don't think Fox is deliberately sabotaging the quality of their own products, do you?

I can tell you that I saw a surviving silver nitrate print of Leave Her to Heaven back in the mid-1970's on the big screen (in fact, I saw it six times within seven days), and although the TT blu-ray is amazing, it still doesn't match the brilliance of the original film.

[docc]

Originally Posted by jmclick

My guess would be that whatever elements were used when those films were transferred to safety film were still in relatively good condition. I honestly don't think Fox is deliberately sabotaging the quality of their own products, do you?

Maybe not deliberately but I did read somewhere way back on these forums that the teal tweak is likely done in an attempt to make the picture quality more "modern". Some people aren't bothered by this but in my view sorry, there's no way these movies should be made to look like this

[nitin]

I tend to agree that its not just because of the condition of the elements.

There's a wholesale blue tint to a lot of their recent catalog releases and although films like Jesse James and The Black Swan dont have the colour they should, they dont have a blue tint throughout either. Inn of the Sixth Happiness and The Blue Max are other big offenders and, although they overall look quite good, so do Wild River and Desk Set.

Also, some of their other catalog releases tend to have a wholesale yellow push too (eg TGTBTU remaster and the recent 3 Women remaster).

[jmclick]

Originally Posted by docc

Maybe not deliberately but I did read somewhere way back on these forums that the teal tweak is likely done in an attempt to make the picture quality more "modern". Some people aren't bothered by this but in my view sorry, there's no way these movies should be made to look like this

Originally Posted by nitin

I tend to agree that its not just because of the condition of the elements.

There's a wholesale blue tint to a lot of their recent catalog releases and although films like Jesse James and The Black Swan dont have the colour they should, they dont have a blue tint throughout either. Inn of the Sixth Happiness and The Blue Max are other big offenders and, although they overall look quite good, so do Wild River and Desk Set.

Also, some of their other catalog releases tend to have a wholesale yellow push too (eg TGTBTU remaster and the recent 3 Women remaster).

Well, in the face of such compelling logic ("The elements just shouldn't have looked like that in 1970, so there!"), I certainly withdraw my comments and apologize from interrupting the conversation. Carry on ...

[nitin]

Originally Posted by jmclick

Well, in the face of such compelling logic ("The elements just shouldn't have looked like that in 1970, so there!"), I certainly withdraw my comments and apologize from interrupting the conversation. Carry on ...

sorry my logic is not that the elements shouldnt have looked like that.

I was just trying to say that a lot of their recent catalog releases have wholesale tints to them that have been applied to every scene, it's not scene specific which is what you might expect from a faded elements scenario?

[jmclick]

Originally Posted by nitin

sorry my logic is not that the elements shouldnt have looked like that.

I was just trying to say that a lot of their recent catalog releases have wholesale tints to them that have been applied to every scene, it's not scene specific which is what you might expect from a faded elements scenario?

The original conversation was about Fox's "older films". And I never said the original elements had merely "faded". Many old color film prints over the years had/have taken on a reddish cast or a greenish cast or a bluish cast. Remember, three strip Technicolor involved, well ... three separate strips of film ... which, when combined, produced a gorgeous spectrum of saturated color. If one of the strips was damaged or altered, the whole color balance was thrown off. When Fox transferred any damaged elements (prints or negatives) to safety stock (on one single strip of film), and then destroyed the original three strips, it became technically difficult (if not impossible), to separate out and correct the piece of the image which had been damaged.

Even now you can try to correct (for example) the imbalance of blue, but in doing so, you're also going to affect the red and green, and the total affect is going to look off-kilter compared to the original. This is what happens when tints are applied ... you may come closer to the original, but it's still not going to be perfect.

The problem with color stability is one of the reasons Martin Scorsese chose to film Raging Bull in black and white, according to author Vincent LoBrutto in the book Martin Scorsese: A Biography (page 223). By 1980, Taxi Driver, released only four years earlier in 1976 and printed on Kodak color stock, was already starting to turn magenta. Improvements have been made in film stock during the past 35 years since Raging Bull was filmed, and certainly digitization and improved restoration techniques have helped immensely, but in 2015, there's still only so much that can be achieved.

[Rory]

Originally Posted by jmclick

That's why the color timing is way off on current transfers of Fox classics like Jesse James, Belle Starr, Heaven Can Wait, The King and I, The Best of Everything, etc., etc., ad infintum. It's especially sickening to film buffs because Fox really had the best color cinematography of any studio in the Golden Era of Hollywood, especially when it came to "candybox Technicolor." They dominated the Oscars in the color categories, and deservedly so.

After around 1950 all the studios started shooting their films on single-strip Eastman color stock, so the three-strip Technicolor process doesn't apply. The reason for the teal color balance for certain titles in the Fox library may be more complicated than just faded original elements. There is still the possibility that this is how these films were supposed to look in their original "Color by DeLuxe" 1950's releases. What truly is the problem in terms of customer dissatisfaction is that we get no explination from the studios at all.

[loborahul]

I have wondered about the blue push myself, most modern movies are mastered that way so as to improve colour contrast, as to what the logic is in doing it for old releases is confusing - Stock deterioration or modern look or ... ?

In software why channel separation is not done to boost each channel as per requirement with subsequent blending ? Scorsese had done something along these lines in Aviator.

[tallrichard]

Today's Mail from Twilight Time:

August Pre-Orders Will Be Available At 4PM EST
Today at 4PM EST, pre-orders will open for our August releases. All of our titles will be available for pre-order from http://www.twilighttimemovies.com. Those interested in a convenient bundle containing all five titles can click here to go directly to the bundle.
Thanks to the many lessons learned in our first month of operation, we have made many improvements to our site. These include:

We now take American Express
We've changed our systems so that pre-orders will not charge your credit card or PayPal account until they ship.
Based upon your feedback, we have switched to different padded envelopes
We have instructed the warehouse to ensure there is additional padding if a box is used
Based on your feedback we now have even larger copies of images for this month's pre-orders (click on product page images to view)
Last but not least, you can expect your orders from twilighttimemovies.com to arrive faster this month due to changes behind the scenes at the warehouse.
We hope you'll give the website a try and let us know your experience.
As always, please feel free to email support@twilighttimemovies.com with any questions, comments or concerns about the new website.

Thank you,

Twilight Time

[MJW]

Originally Posted by drat

On July 29th Twilight Time is offering $5 off shipping on orders over $50.

It is good for use on July 29th only.

The code is SHIPPING5.


adding: THIS CODE IS FOR TWILIGHT TIME MOVIES AT THE SCREEN ARCHIVES WEBSITE. It's meant to coincide with the pre-order date for their August movies.

Has anyone tried and/or had any success with this coupon code today?

I just tried and it doesn't appear to apply any discount. The code is generic but is it likely to only work for account holders that actually received the email? For example, only certain accounts "flagged" to accept it?

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by MJW

Has anyone tried and/or had any success with this coupon code today?

I just tried and it doesn't appear to apply any discount. The code is generic but is it likely to only work for account holders that actually received the email? For example, only certain accounts "flagged" to accept it?

It might not be activated until 4PM EST.

[drat]

It could be either.

I posted it in hopes it would work for everyone who orders today at the Screen Archives site but we'll just have to wait and see.

[MJW]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

It might not be activated until 4PM EST.

Originally Posted by drat

It could be either.

I posted it in hopes it would work for everyone who orders today at the Screen Archives site but we'll just have to wait and see.

Thanks, I didn't realize it might not start until a specific time. I'll try again later.

[baheidstu]

Originally Posted by MJW

Thanks, I didn't realize it might not start until a specific time. I'll try again later.

I also received the code with my order, so I gave it a try and no luck. So I'm leaning towards it not starting until a specific time.

[MikeZ.]

Originally Posted by tallrichard

Today's Mail from Twilight Time:

August Pre-Orders Will Be Available At 4PM EST
Today at 4PM EST, pre-orders will open for our August releases. All of our titles will be available for pre-order from http://www.twilighttimemovies.com. Those interested in a convenient bundle containing all five titles can click here to go directly to the bundle.
Thanks to the many lessons learned in our first month of operation, we have made many improvements to our site. These include:

We now take American Express
We've changed our systems so that pre-orders will not charge your credit card or PayPal account until they ship.
Based upon your feedback, we have switched to different padded envelopes
We have instructed the warehouse to ensure there is additional padding if a box is used
Based on your feedback we now have even larger copies of images for this month's pre-orders (click on product page images to view)
Last but not least, you can expect your orders from twilighttimemovies.com to arrive faster this month due to changes behind the scenes at the warehouse.
We hope you'll give the website a try and let us know your experience.
As always, please feel free to email support@twilighttimemovies.com with any questions, comments or concerns about the new website.

Thank you,

Twilight Time

1. I'm on their mailing list, yet I haven't received one of these.
2. The above is ironic, seeing how I suggested such a letter on their Facebook page last night, and was told to submit it as a suggestion at the site.
3. I woke up this morning to " we'll consider your suggestion."

????

[baheidstu]

Originally Posted by MikeZ.

1. I'm on their mailing list, yet I haven't received one of these.2. The above is ironic, seeing how I suggested such a letter on their Facebook page last night, and was told to submit it as a suggestion at the site.
3. I woke up this morning to " we'll consider your suggestion."

????

It was literally printed on a little slip of paper they included with my last SAE order which came last week (with the signed promo). It wasn't e-mailed to me or anything like that, so if you haven't had any recent orders that might be why you didn't get it.

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by baheidstu

It was literally printed on a little slip of paper they included with my last SAE order which came last week (with the signed promo). It wasn't e-mailed to me or anything like that, so if you haven't had any recent orders that might be why you didn't get it.

I think he might be referring to the email that Twilight Time sent out this morning.

[jaws3dfan]

Looks like TT sold out of USED CARS BluRays, to bad I was going to order one

[RalphoR]

Just one hour to go. I'm thinking Guess Who's Coming to Dinner will move fast. Not sure about the rest.

[MikeZ.]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

I think he might be referring to the email that Twilight Time sent out this morning.

That would be why I quoted it, yes.