The Official 88 Films Thread

[demented]

Camera Obscura use LVR regularly and apparently their approach is to oversee the scan and then post process it themselves. So far their Blus have offered, in my opinion, the best image quality of Italian cult films. The problem appears to be when labels use the masters scanned and processed by LVR (the cheaper option).

As for 88 Films release of BLOODSTAINED SHADOW, I watched it over the weekend and was very disappointed, especially after 88 Films praised the quality so highly. It lacks detail, looks washed out and appeared to be overly processed. A real disappointment.

[nitin]

why isnt the usual person here defending 88 films (and 'jokingly' slagging Arrow at the same time)

[EddieLarkin]

I'm getting a little confused over SPASMO now as well. The caps at Mondo Digital of the Scorpion disc look like it's another LVR turd, and yet the images of the actual transfer that 88 posted at FB look much better. Still a tad noisy but much more natural than the Scorpion release. Compare these from the Scorpion disc:

http://www.mondo-digital.com/spasmo7big.jpg
http://www.mondo-digital.com/spasmo6big.jpg
http://www.mondo-digital.com/spasmounfiltered.jpg

To these from the actual transfer:

https://scontent-fra3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...92537286_o.jpg
https://scontent-fra3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...22985991_o.jpg
https://scontent-fra3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...08867456_o.jpg

Perhaps it's just down to Scorpion's encoding, which is too bad because 88's isn't typically very good either.

[AlexIlDottore]

Originally Posted by EddieLarkin

I'm getting a little confused over SPASMO now as well. The caps at Mondo Digital of the Scorpion disc look like it's another LVR turd, and yet the images of the actual transfer that 88 posted at FB look much better. Still a tad noisy but much more natural than the Scorpion release. Compare these from the Scorpion disc:

http://www.mondo-digital.com/spasmo7big.jpg
http://www.mondo-digital.com/spasmo6big.jpg
http://www.mondo-digital.com/spasmounfiltered.jpg

To these from the actual transfer:

https://scontent-fra3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...92537286_o.jpg
https://scontent-fra3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...22985991_o.jpg
https://scontent-fra3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...08867456_o.jpg

Perhaps it's just down to Scorpion's encoding, which is too bad because 88's isn't typically very good either.

This isn't a good day for fans of Italian genre cinema.

[fuzzymctiger]

Originally Posted by EddieLarkin

I'm getting a little confused over SPASMO now as well. The caps at Mondo Digital of the Scorpion disc look like it's another LVR turd, and yet the images of the actual transfer that 88 posted at FB look much better. Still a tad noisy but much more natural than the Scorpion release. Compare these from the Scorpion disc:

http://www.mondo-digital.com/spasmo7big.jpg
http://www.mondo-digital.com/spasmo6big.jpg
http://www.mondo-digital.com/spasmounfiltered.jpg

To these from the actual transfer:

https://scontent-fra3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...92537286_o.jpg
https://scontent-fra3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...22985991_o.jpg
https://scontent-fra3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...08867456_o.jpg

Perhaps it's just down to Scorpion's encoding, which is too bad because 88's isn't typically very good either.

The Scorpion release has two transfers on it, one pre filtering, and one post filtering. Bizarre really, and worrying about what will be on the 88 disc.

[dallywhitty]

Originally Posted by fuzzymctiger

The Scorpion release has two transfers on it, one pre filtering, and one post filtering. Bizarre really, and worrying about what will be on the 88 disc.

That's... odd. The only other disc I can think of that did something similar would be Kino's release of White Zombie. I wonder why Scorpion did it unless they realised something was wrong and wanted people to pick their poison?

[EddieLarkin]

All of the caps from the Scorpion I chose are unfiltered ones, which definitely look better than the filtered version. But neither look anywhere near as good as the transfer caps that 88 provided, so I guess it's not really relevant.

[fuzzymctiger]

Originally Posted by EddieLarkin

All of the caps from the Scorpion I chose are unfiltered ones, which definitely look better than the filtered version. But neither look anywhere near as good as the transfer caps that 88 provided, so I guess it's not really relevant.

Ah, I thought yours might have been the filtered ones. Where are the Spasmo caps from 88, their Facebook page?

Also, what's most odd here, is the fact that Scorpion had access to both. That's very puzzling, did they ask for it specifically, or was it an option? Do labels chose filtered?

[Mahadeva]

Originally Posted by demented

Camera Obscura use LVR regularly and apparently their approach is to oversee the scan and then post process it themselves. So far their Blus have offered, in my opinion, the best image quality of Italian cult films. The problem appears to be when labels use the masters scanned and processed by LVR (the cheaper option).

As for 88 Films release of BLOODSTAINED SHADOW, I watched it over the weekend and was very disappointed, especially after 88 Films praised the quality so highly. It lacks detail, looks washed out and appeared to be overly processed. A real disappointment.

Why don't they leave all these Italian movies alone? If you can't give us quality relases don't license them, let better labels do it.

[Ste7en]

You can only tell so much from grabs. I reserve judgment.

[logboy]

Originally Posted by Mahadeva

Why don't they leave all these Italian movies alone? If you can't give us quality relases don't license them, let better labels do it.

there's a lot of money to be made selling discs of films you know there's already market for, especially if you're covering genre movies with regularity. even better if you make it look like its a collection that you won't want to miss a part of, as though it's the only way to get an entire picture.

for me, it's one film at a time, whatever the label, based primarily on reviews and prices. quite happy to pass things by Ive seen released elsewhere before and aren't so obscure they won't be released again.

far more encouragement for companies to do a better job if you tell them no sale & state why than buy it and sit at home in quiet disappointment. be a little angry - it's all money in the end, and buying one thing leaves you a little less able to buy another.

[nitin]

Originally Posted by EddieLarkin

I'm getting a little confused over SPASMO now as well. The caps at Mondo Digital of the Scorpion disc look like it's another LVR turd, and yet the images of the actual transfer that 88 posted at FB look much better. Still a tad noisy but much more natural than the Scorpion release. Compare these from the Scorpion disc:

http://www.mondo-digital.com/spasmo7big.jpg
http://www.mondo-digital.com/spasmo6big.jpg
http://www.mondo-digital.com/spasmounfiltered.jpg

To these from the actual transfer:

https://scontent-fra3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...92537286_o.jpg
https://scontent-fra3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...22985991_o.jpg
https://scontent-fra3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...08867456_o.jpg

Perhaps it's just down to Scorpion's encoding, which is too bad because 88's isn't typically very good either.

the 88 ones like quite decent to me.

[EddieLarkin]

Me too. I pray they look the same once they've made it to disc.

[EddieLarkin]

Originally Posted by fuzzymctiger

Ah, I thought yours might have been the filtered ones. Where are the Spasmo caps from 88, their Facebook page?

Also, what's most odd here, is the fact that Scorpion had access to both. That's very puzzling, did they ask for it specifically, or was it an option? Do labels chose filtered?

Perhaps they filtered it themselves after seeing how horribly noisy it was? The Spasmo caps are indeed from 88's FB, a few weeks back

[Dickieduvet]

Scorpion had an issue with 88 Films over Spasmo that was documented on here a few weeks back when the whole High Rising/Arrow shitstorm kicked off.

Scorpion said that 88 Films were using an entirely different transfer at the time.

[EddieLarkin]

What Scorpion did say, after checking, is that their master was going through additional colour correction at Fotokem to sort out some issues. I don't think there is anything to suggest either label are working from different transfers. Perhaps some additional post processing went on as well, which has turned the grain structure to shite? Or perhaps not and it's just the compression/encoding? Or, as I'm now remembering they have done in the past, Mondo Digital are posting heavily compressed caps themselves.

[nitin]

Originally Posted by EddieLarkin

What Scorpion did say, after checking, is that their master was going through additional colour correction at Fotokem to sort out some issues. I don't think there is anything to suggest either label are working from different transfers. Perhaps some additional post processing went on as well, which has turned the grain structure to shite? Or perhaps not and it's just the compression/encoding? Or, as I'm now remembering they have done in the past, Mondo Digital are posting heavily compressed caps themselves.

I dont think this is the first time that Mondo Digital's caps are not the same as what is on the disc? I seem to recall MichaelB commenting on the B&BL caps as not being accurate.

[EddieLarkin]

I'm unsure. Sometimes they look fine, sometimes not. I recall their caps of Der Fan being completely different compression wise to the actual disc.

[logboy]

Originally Posted by nitin

I dont think this is the first time that Mondo Digital's caps are not the same as what is on the disc? I seem to recall MichaelB commenting on the B&BL caps as not being accurate.

... i don't remember screen caps being issued by labels with any regularity until recently. they helped with the last few camera obscura releases - they looked undeniably good, quite embarassingly atypically nice for truly obscure films like 'come cani arrabiatti' - but, within that idea of judging a transfer by some stills that have been selected by the company trying to sell the disc, to people who are already largely sold on it or on the edge of pulling the trigger, is a lot of grey areas that include delusion and other such extreme or manipulated / manipulative behaviour designed to try and show or spread more irrational / "uber-dedicated" support / collectors collective blindness.

guess the one thing i'd like to see more of is major sites like this with timely reviews just before / on release, and a whole lot less of this marking of their own work. it's another aspect of the kind of stuff i've watched going on for the last 15 years, that's involved an awful lot of revisionism and distortion of the experience or appreciation of the films themselves. hard not to avoid, i guess, when we're talking about films in forums like this, but it's very easy to spot and even easier not to perpetuate if you don't hang around these places all day long.

[grahams76]

"When there is no more BD/DVD I really hope the kids posting about DNR and shit have something good to fill that massive void in their lives."

https://twitter.com/CalumWaddell/sta...22692289708032