Ken Burns' The Civil War Coming To BD From PBS

[BuckNaked2k]

Originally Posted by ElliesDad

Not really understanding people's aversion to wanting this in as wide a screen as possible. I know that it's popular, and proper, to want a classic film reproduced in the aspect ratio intended (no, I would not want to see "The Third Man" tinkered with), but to not want a documentary work of this magnitude and importance available in the 'biggest' and most dramatic manner possible seems odd.

Because in order to get it to fill up a 16x9 screen, the image has to be cropped and information is lost. The image is also zoomed, and thus the original composition is changed. Bigger does not always equal better.

[Thomas Guycott]

Originally Posted by ElliesDad

the 'biggest' and most dramatic

And artistically compromised.

No thanks: I want to see this the way it's supposed to be seen.

[Ernest Rister]

From the Article...

"I think the film will finally be seen exactly as Ken originally intended.”

"This is the first time the film will be seen with the exact same fidelity and framing as the negative that Burns and his co-cinematographers Allen Moore and Buddy Squires shot over 25 years ago."

[BuckNaked2k]

Hmmm. Maybe they composed in 16x9 but protected for 4x3. We shall see.

[Thomas Guycott]

Originally Posted by BuckNaked2k

Hmmm. Maybe they composed in 16x9 but protected for 4x3. We shall see.

In 1985-1990 for PBS? I seriously doubt it. At the absolute most I expect the frame will be opened up a little on all sides.

[Scarface32]

I thought Ken Burns was just an effect to make photos slowly zoom in. It's in most editors labeled as "The Ken Burns Effect"

Ken Burns is a person?

[ElliesDad]

Originally Posted by BuckNaked2k

Hmmm. Maybe they composed in 16x9 but protected for 4x3. We shall see.

Actually I think this is more what I had in mind when the question of 16:9 originally came up. As far as cropping vertically to get to 16:9 is concerned I guess a part of me is still trying to hold on to the idea that 'losing a bit of sky in one scene or showing three buttons on a uniform jacket instead of four in another' might justify the ends, but it's not a position I'd want to try to defend with any great enthusiasm! Unless I was doing the cropping.

[Thomas Guycott]

Originally Posted by Scarface32

I thought Ken Burns was just an effect to make photos slowly zoom in. It's in most editors labeled as "The Ken Burns Effect"

Ken Burns is a person?

What?

Why the hell would they give the trope a person's name if it wasn't named after a specific person?

The mind reels sometimes...

[Scarface32]

Originally Posted by Thomas Guycott

What?

Why the hell would they give the trope a person's name if it wasn't named after a specific person?

The mind reels sometimes...

Why did Microsoft give a paperclip (Clippy), a dog (Rover), and a yellow smilie face (BOB) a name.... These things just happen.

[Thomas Guycott]

Not even remotely comparable.

[ElliesDad]

Originally Posted by Scarface32

Why did Microsoft give a paperclip (Clippy), a dog (Rover), and a yellow smilie face (BOB) a name.... These things just happen.

Crazy world! Next somebody will be claiming there was a real person named Lou Gehrig!

[Scarface32]

Originally Posted by ElliesDad

Crazy world! Next somebody will be claiming there was a real person named Lou Gehrig!

He was a baseball player with a .340 batting average.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by Scarface32

I thought Ken Burns was just an effect to make photos slowly zoom in. It's in most editors labeled as "The Ken Burns Effect"

Ken Burns is a person?

Please tell me you're joking

[jc480]

Cannot wait to see this!

[hoytereden]

Originally Posted by ElliesDad

Crazy world! Next somebody will be claiming there was a real person named Lou Gehrig!

Originally Posted by Scarface32

He was a baseball player with a .340 batting average.

No, it's a medical condition!

[hoytereden]

I recently revisited this series on Netflix and was bothered by a what I would describe as a "wobble" at the bottom of the frame that lasted all though episode 1. None of the other episodes had that problem. It was so annoying that I actually masked off that part of my screen while watching it. Was this present on the DVD? I ask because it's been years since I saw the PBS broadcasts so I don't remember if it was there or is a problem specific to Netflix streaming. Thanks!

[Boob-Ray]

Originally Posted by Ernest Rister

From the Article...

"I think the film will finally be seen exactly as Ken originally intended.”

"This is the first time the film will be seen with the exact same fidelity and framing as the negative that Burns and his co-cinematographers Allen Moore and Buddy Squires shot over 25 years ago."

This is exactly what I was going to post/quote. Whether it's 16:9 or 4:3 doesn't matter at all to me. How it was shot and framed is what we should want. Also the article mentions the resolution of 4096 x 2160 which is wider than 16
X9, if that means anything.

[ElliesDad]

Originally Posted by Scarface32

He was a baseball player with a .340 batting average.

Originally Posted by hoytereden

No, it's a medical condition!

Both. He was a baseball legend who played for seventeen years with the New York Yankees in the '20's and '30's and he died from the condition subsequently popularized as Lou Gehrig's Disease, which I guess was catchier than 'Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis'. I was referencing, in response to the 'Ken Burns effect' posting, the old comic line, "Did you know that Lou Gehrig died of Lou Gehrig's disease? What are the odds!" Clearly civil war aficionados aren't the crazy madcap cut-ups I was expecting. (File under 'if you have to explain it, don't bother...')

More to point, I too put on the first couple of episodes of the first season and also experienced the wobble at the bottom of the frame, but I'm reasonably confident that this was a Netflix streaming issue and that in any case it wasn't a run of the remastered issue.

[Scarface32]

Originally Posted by ElliesDad

...subsequently popularized as Lou Gehrig's Disease, which I guess was catchier than 'Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis'.

I thought it was because he was the first person to ever get it, and they didn't know what it was, so they named it after him. And it wasn't given the name ALS until after they realized what it was and how it worked, decades later. So it's not just that it was a "catchier" name.

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

Please tell me you're joking

Of course I was joking, I'm not that stupid.

[hoytereden]

Originally Posted by ElliesDad

Both. He was a baseball legend who played for seventeen years with the New York Yankees in the '20's and '30's and he died from the condition subsequently popularized as Lou Gehrig's Disease, which I guess was catchier than 'Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis'. I was referencing, in response to the 'Ken Burns effect' posting, the old comic line, "Did you know that Lou Gehrig died of Lou Gehrig's disease? What are the odds!" Clearly civil war aficionados aren't the crazy madcap cut-ups I was expecting. (File under 'if you have to explain it, don't bother...')

More to point, I too put on the first couple of episodes of the first season and also experienced the wobble at the bottom of the frame, but I'm reasonably confident that this was a Netflix streaming issue and that in any case it wasn't a run of the remastered issue.

Actually, I was trying to be funny with my comment but I hit reply before I added an emoticon. I'll try again-"Sure, I know who Lou Gehrig was!": "I've seen Pride of the Yankees-He played Gary Cooper!"