Looking forward to these Fox TODD-AO films on Blu-ray

[garyrc]

Originally Posted by Dubstar

'Around the World in Eighty Days' is up on Netflix and in Hidef - and when it looks great it's astounding - the colors noticeably. However, there are several instances where minor debris, imperfections that could have been digitally erased aren't (the second part of the movie seems very inconsistent noticeably during the train/American Indian fight sequence - the image also at times seems overly bright, but I'm guessing that is from it was originally shot. I have no idea what Warner's plans are on releasing this on bluray are, mass release or via it's Archive Collections (or UHD ) but given what and how it looks on Netflix - it's going to impress!

I wonder where Netflix got a HiDef source for 80 Days.

The DVD is O.K., but not nearly as high definition as Blu-rays of 70 mm films within a few years of 80 Days(1956). An example of a fairly high def Blu-ray of a movie of 6 years later is Lawrence of Arabia(1962). For Lawrence Robert A Harris found that he had to go to 8K to capture all of the resolution. I'm told that, thanks to the Nyquist principle, that would mean the original may have been about 4K.

I saw 80 days three times in 70 mm when I was a kid. The 70 mm print was plenty bright, but not too bright, and did not look overexposed. But it was unusual, compared to other movies I'd seen, in that it seemed to be as bright as real daylight (of course it wasn't). They were using carbon arc lamps in the Todd-AO projectors (Phillips, I think). I was just starting a photography hobby then, and took my Weston Master II light meter to the theater when I saw it for the second time. I don't remember the reading in foot candles, but I do remember that the daylight scene I measured (scooping snow off a mountain peak from the balloon) was about two stops brighter than daylight scenes in the later movies my Weston accompanied me to. Most of those were 35 mm. I was a nerd before the word.