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Here's Don talking about his recent digital NOLD restoration for Dimension:
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Because I love all you folks on MHVF, I'm going to write a response regarding NOTLD here on this forum and only here. I'm only going to write this once here and, if you frequent other forums, you can certainly link my message below on any other forums you feel needs the information.
Not sure what caused the cropping (being in this business, I know it could've been caused by any number of reasons), but it was that way on the master I was provided. My personal "gut" feeling is that it may have been zoomed in to remove the "vignetting" present on the extreme edges, mic shadows, etc. Not sure though and I'll never get the answer because the lab that did the transfer (according to the slate at the head of the digital master I was given) is no longer even in business. I noticed it and I did contact not only the producer of the DVD, but I sent comparison screen grabs to George and company and I heard nothing back. I proceeded with the restoration on the master I was given. Based on his comments in interviews, etc. I can only assume that George is happy with it and approves the way it was presented, so that's really all I need to know to be proud of the way the film is presented on the new DVD. It's my personal opinion that this version of the film still blows away any other version of the film ever presented on home video, though, and you can quote me on that.
I spent a hell of a lot of time restoring the master. Basically it was 10 days of non-stop restoration/computer processing (seriously, I worked more than 16 hours each day, for 10 days, to get it done). I wanted more than two weeks to do everything, but I had to work in their time-frame and budget, so I did a lot in a limited time (I worked more on this than I have on ANY other movie in my career, really). There are some amazing differences between the Elite one and the Dimension one and, for sharpness, quality of image, etc. the Dimension version complete smokes the Elite one in many respects.
One of the things I am most proud of is that I was able to fix most of the annoying splices/jumps that occur at just about every single cut in NOTLD. This was an issue on the original negative from the very beginning and has been on every single version of the film... ever. We didn't have the technology, 15 years ago, to fix these on the Elite version very economically. At almost all cuts, from shot to shot, the film "bounced". I got rid of as many as I could and spent the most amount of time on this. You can see that the problem originated in the original negative cutting because one of the "jumps" I couldn't fix is right at the beginning during the opening credit optical... the film "jumps" behind one name block of onscreen credits, but the credit block names remain rock solid in the center of the screen.
I was also able to fix many of the water damaged frames, tears, and splices. There is one shot of Duane hammering nails in a board on a door/window that is MUCH cleaner than it was on Elite's version. We even digitally added back his fingers that were cut off because of a tear in the neg (the tear in the frame went right through his hand and, as such, we lost his fingers... we were able to capture his fingers from a previous frame and replace them in the torn footage).
Also, there IS a scene in the Dimension Films version that contains a heck of a lot more picture info on all four sides than the Elite version. I'm not entirely sure where it is right now, but it's a scene of Duane surrounded by zombies outside (with the camera placed slightly above the action aiming down at Duane, I think). On the Dimension version, you can see what looks like a wad of paper being thrown in the lower right hand corner of the frame. It arcs down and to the left from the lower right side of the frame and falls to the bottom of the frame. On the Elite version, the frame was repositioned to not have that in the shot... At the time of the Elite transfer, Karl Hardman didn't know what it was, so he requested that we frame it out of the shot. You can see it in the Dimension version and not the Elite. And, honestly, there may even be a few more shots in the Dimension one that has more picture info on the sides... I can't remember if Karl had us do other repos or not.
Also, the audio is FAR superior on the Dimension version. I spent almost two full days going in and retooling the original THX approved audio tracks and removing a lot of the optical hiss and "needle drops" that you could hear on the original PD music tracks in the film. All the music in the film was taken from vinyl records and there was always hiss and "pops" because of the record needles. We got most of that out... a good example of what was cleaned up is right when Judy O'Dea goes into the house at the beginning. Right after she opens the door and leans against it once she's in the house for the first time, listen to the differences in the music cue as she's leaning on the door from the inside if you have both versions... The Elite one has plenty of pops and hiss and the Dimension one is amazingly smooth now. That's just one example I can give... sonically, the Dimension version is far superior, too.
The Elite version was plagued with Digital Video Reduction and the Dimension one is not. If you watch the night scenes carefully, on the Dimension version, you can actually see all the moths and bugs flying around the actors (like when they try and get gas for the truck). Because of the DNR on the Elite one, many, many of these bugs/moths are completely erased and the sharpness of the entire film suffers because of the DNR.
Look, no one who has the Elite version should get rid of it anyway because of the extras that are not present on the Dimension release. But, I recommend at least springing for the Dimension version because of the image quality differences and Mike Felsher's excellently edited documentary from Robert Lucas/Chris Roe. When I watch just the NOTLD film from now on, I'm putting in the Dimension version, regardless of the cropping... honestly, the previous Elite DVDs of NOTLD have been a hard watch for me because I know of all the problems we tried to fix that didn't translate well to digital DVD. The Elite disc just drives me bonkers when I watch it now... I see too much wrong with it... and I worked on the damn thing. That's just my .02 cents.
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06-04-2008, 05:51 PM
*Runs for cover*
Linear Mode
