Ghostbusters 4K UHD (1984)

[infiniteCR]

Or maybe with the trend of recent titles, we might get the Star Wars Holiday Special in HDR and 4:3.

[dvdmike]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

I suddenly have visions of the HDR secret police quietly rounding up all the non-conformist SDR 4K versions of movies in the dead of night and spiriting them away, never to be seen again...

*mike holds up his hard drive and says "from my cold, dead hand", Chuck Heston style*

It would not be cold, they would have to set me on fire some how, and I am looking to back it up asap

[Jason One]

According to this article, "Sony Pictures production/post production executive Bill Baggelaar has supervised the HDR re-mastering of 25 Sony legacy movies."

So, chances are high Ghostbusters (and everything else) is getting the treatment, for better or worse.

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by dvdmike

I have a big stick

... That you're able to use to beat an HDR grade into an SDR grade?

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by Jason One

According to this article, "Sony Pictures production/post production executive Bill Baggelaar has supervised the HDR re-mastering of 25 Sony legacy movies."

So, chances are high Ghostbusters (and everything else) is getting the treatment, for better or worse.

Ok, folks. Time to write some firm but friendly letters.

[Funcha]

How is an HDR grade a bad thing?? From my understanding, all HDR does is allow the 4K video to get closer to the peak brightness and contrast of the original film. Am I understanding this incorrectly?

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by Funcha

How is an HDR grade a bad thing?? From my understanding, all HDR does is allow the 4K video to get closer to the peak brightness and contrast of the original film. Am I understanding this incorrectly?

It can reflect more of the dynamics that were originally captured on the film (or video), but it does not reflect the color timing that was originally designed for the movie's exhibition.

As a weak analogy, Raging Bull was shot on color film stock, but was intended (with the exception of a few minutes of running time) to be shown in black and white. So, a color release could be made from the original negative, but that's not how the movie is supposed to look.

[dvdmike]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

It can reflect more of the dynamics that were originally captured on the film (or video), but it does not reflect the color timing that was originally designed for the movie's exhibition.

As a weak analogy, Raging Bull was shot on color film stock, but was intended (with the exception of a few minutes of running time) to be shown in black and white. So, a color release could be made from the original negative, but that's not how the movie is supposed to look.

Pretty great analogy actually

[bruceames]

Oh s**t, so everything is coming out in HDR, even Lawrence of freakin' Arabia?! So much for looking forward to catalog on UHD. How would a black and white film look with HDR? For example It happened One Night has been on the 4K Sony server for ages.

Like Mike I'm glad I got the unaltered 4K version of it already. I guess I'll might end up pick up a few more of their movies from the download site if they're the last outpost of catalog non-HDR 4k content.

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by bruceames.

Oh s**t, so everything is coming out in HDR, even Lawrence of freakin' Arabia?!

Lookin' that way, I'm afraid.

[bruceames]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

Lookin' that way, I'm afraid.

Lawrence looks great already and the last thing it needs is an artificial look. If true this cancels out the good news of Paramount and Universal getting on board later this year.

[Dubstar]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

The same thing that would be wrong with releasing City Lights in color or Citizen Kane in widescreen- the movie wasn't designed for it.



It may indeed be the whole point of UHDs. However, the point of UHDs ought to be fidelity to the original movies.

so what you're saying is that the HDR process involves new color grading / boosting - in affect artificially altering the color scheme from it's original look - how is this acceptable? and why, other than to say "ew look at the my new 4K monitor, and doesn't this movies's color's just pop"

??

why mess with what Robert A. Harris and restoration team did with 'Lawrence' ... and alter it - that doesn't make any sense. It seems like a step backwards in creating a technology and 'look' that doesn't adhere to director's or DP original photography.

[dvdmike]

Originally Posted by Dubstar

so what you're saying is that the HDR process involves new color grading / boosting - in affect artificially altering the color scheme from it's original look - how is this acceptable? and why, other than to say "ew look at the my new 4K monitor, and doesn't this movies's color's just pop"

??

why mess with what Robert A. Harris and restoration team did with 'Lawrence' ... and alter it - that doesn't make any sense.

If Harris did it himself I would look in its general direction

[Dubstar]

Originally Posted by dvdmike

If Harris did it himself I would look in its general direction

but Sony doesn't have a specific team ruffling through new and older movies thinking how can we change and alter the colors to take advantage of 4K technology and fix ("mess") it up. The same can be said of the mixing of sound to Atmos and not retaining the original mixes - are we at that point where in order to make everything look shiny and new, destroy what it looked and sounded like prior?

[Geoff D]

I was gonna say, RAH may well have been party to the HDR regrade so that would be worth a gander.

[dvdmike]

Originally Posted by Dubstar

but Sony doesn't have a specific team ruffling through new and older movies thinking how can we change and alter the colors to take advantage of 4K technology and fix ("mess") it up. The same can be said of the mixing of sound to Atmos and not retaining the original mixes - are we at that point where in order to make everything look shiny and new, destroy what it looked and sounded like prior?

We got to that point when DVD came out, and BD made it worse

[infiniteCR]

What a waste of Mr Harris' time if he gets used to oversee HDR conversions rather than make more perfect 4k transfers.

[Dubstar]

Originally Posted by infiniteCR

What a waste of Mr Harris' time if he gets used to oversee HDR conversions rather than make more perfect 4k transfers.

what I don't understand is - why wouldn't the first 4K files or even what was used for the theatrical DCP encoding be acceptable - why futz with the image again to HDR specifications? yes that would be a waste of time - that's like saying after the original completion of the 4K master "It looks great Robert, but eh... you can do better - brighter! fix the colors there!" most anyone giving suggestions like that would be shown the door.

[bruceames]

If Criterion gets on board will they be using HDR too?

[Dubstar]

Originally Posted by bruceames.

If Criterion gets on board will they be using HDR too?

I guess my confusion over all this is why does HDR have to implemented at all on UHD discs? or is it a requirement? Why isn't a standard 4K scan/transfer (something that Criterion does do currently) acceptable without the additional tweaking of 'HDR' ---- or am I missing something completely different in all of this?