Well, dear readers, we all know my feelings on the Internet wags who post on Blu-ray discussion boards, oh, yes, we all know my feelings on the Internet wags who post on Blu-ray discussion boards. These know-it-alls, where do they come by their knowledge? They haven’t worked in the film industry, they haven’t handled film, they haven’t been in a telecine room, hell, in most cases with any film over twenty years old, they haven’t even seen the film projected. And yet they know everything – they can bandy about such words as DNR and edge enhancement without really knowing anything about either, other than what they’ve read on the Internet and what’s been pointed out to them. They don’t know what the make-up of the 1940s and 1950s looked like, they don’t know about diffusion filters, they don’t know about backlighting or how light can appear on film. But on they post, daily, and not just once or twice, but restating the same tired stuff ad nauseum with an emphasis on the latter. They have in many cases caused irreparable harm to good releases. When Breakfast at Tiffany’s was released in what is virtually a perfect transfer, the wags were out in force saying the shots lacked focus and looked “waxy,” another favorite catchphrase for DNR. Only guess what? The shots that lacked sharpness were shot with diffusion filters, a practice very common when photographing leading ladies of the era. They are, in fact, perfectly rendered on the Blu-ray. There is nothing waxy about any shot in Breakfast at Tiffany’s and the proof is there in every location shot, every scene on a set. It’s as if these people think Paramount and its team went in and only applied this stuff to occasional shots but not others? It is to laugh. What’s more to laugh is that many of the people posting those comments hadn’t actually seen the disc – they were basing their comments on screen captures. The same thing happened with The Ten Commandments, another perfect transfer. Someone posted screen caps and the wailing began. Only the fellow who posted the screen caps had his settings off and his caps represented nothing that was on the Blu-ray. Oops. But even after it had been proven how great the Blu-ray was, the people who’d cancelled their orders because of incorrect screen captures never came back, never apparently bought the thing, and it was just sickening.
All that by way of saying that I have finally watched the new Twilight Time Blu and Ray of Journey to the Center of the Earth. The reviews of the Blu and Ray have actually been pretty positive. But many posters, and most of them on one specific site, have complained long and loud about this transfer, citing edge enhancement, BAD edge enhancement as the culprit, along with a lack of sharpness. Funnily, though, edge enhancement sharpens the image so how can it have been applied if they’re right about the lack of sharpness? Exactly. Not one post on the Home Theater Forum, even the ones who are less than thrilled with the transfer, used the words “edge enhancement.” And yet on another site, five or six of the regulars there have been doing nothing but berating this transfer about the edge enhancement that they are seeing. Most of those doing the berating hadn’t actually seen the disc – they were basing it on screen caps on the site. They presented one specific cap, blew up the image, drew arrows to show the egregious “haloes” around Miss Arlene Dahl’s cape in a shot on a mountaintop – that shot also includes other cast members, but funnily there are no “haloes” anywhere else in the shot. So, what does that leave us with? That there is backlight coming on to Miss Dahl and that is what they are seeing. In motion, you can barely even seen the backlight, frankly. Then one wag complained bitterly about the scene where Pat Boone comes to dinner – they said it’s so bad there that there are white “force fields” around everyone, moving with them. Well, sorry, there aren’t. It makes you wonder just how these people are watching what they’re watching. I sat with Twilight Time’s Mr. Nick Redman and watched these specific scenes – we even freeze-framed the image – I later stuck my nose up against the screen, and I did not see one instance of what is real edge enhancement. Not that one should be watching a movie like that, but that is what these people do – they are obsessed with this stuff and will find it wherever they look, even if what they’re finding is not edge enhancement or DNR. Make no mistake about it, some transfers have edge enhancement and DNR and it’s very easy to identify.
I frankly never really understood the DNR and edge enhancement thing, because I really do tend to WATCH movies and I tend to notice contrast, sharpness, and color (or black-and-white) long before I’ll ever be aware of DNR or edge enhancement. So, I actually learned about it by watching it applied. When we were doing the Nudie Musical transfer, there was some initial discussion about the grain and whether we should lighten it a little. I didn’t really want to, but I still wanted to see how the process worked. So, the lab arranged for me to sit in a telecine room where they did DNR and edge enhancement. I sat with the engineer who was working on a scene from Disney’s The Love Bug, a film loaded with opticals. I saw the before shot (inside Herbie, with Dean Jones and Buddy Hackett) – very grainy but wonderful detail and sharpness. Then next to it I saw the DNR version – light DNR but to my eyes instantly noticeable because the sharpness was lost. I preferred the grain and the sharpness, but I understood the want to lessen the grain to be more of a piece with the production photography that had no opticals. He then showed me the same shot with a little edge enhancement added – that sharpened up the image so that it was almost commensurate with the original, but applied very subtly. I asked him about these “haloes” everyone posts about. He said if the edge enhancement is applied subtly no one would be able to notice it in any way, shape, or form. I then asked him to push it, to make it less subtle. He did and kept doing so until I finally saw the haloes – they were there and they were obvious instantly. But he’d had to push it a LOT to get there.
If the wags had been in that room, they would not be making with the posts. But these armchair experts really feel they know it all and anyone who takes exception is immediately labeled a Twilight Time apologist and fanboy. It is to laugh. How can the wags see something that’s so obvious when an equal number of people see nothing at all? The people who see nothing at all? Blind, according to the wags. The one thing our very own Mr. Nick Redman knows is that I call it as I see it and I have a good deal of knowledge about these things. So, how is Journey to the Center of the Earth’s transfer?
Let’s discuss the elements first – apparently the camera negative is not in good shape at all. They did some major work on it and from that major work (done in the day before labs had the tools they have today) they made a new internegative. That was used for the DVD transfer. A new transfer from that element was made in 2010. So, we’re a few generations away from the camera negative, which, of course, will result in a less sharp image. That said, this new Blu and Ray of Journey to the Center of the Earth looks pretty terrific. It’s mostly very sharp and when it isn’t very sharp some of that can also be attributed to the lenses that were used, some to the many opticals. The color is excellent, and there is plenty of detail. Others have said it’s not much of a step-up from the DVD. Well, sorry, it’s a HUGE step-up and a side-by-side comparison makes that only too obvious. So, once again, unknowledgeable people cause others to not purchase a disc they might like to have. The fact that anyone listens or takes seriously these posts is equally astonishing. Now, I’m not blowing up the image to project on a 100 inch screen – I’m watching on a fifty-five inch LED TV that renders a beautiful picture. Nor do I sit with my nose pressed up against the screen – I don’t do that in movie theaters either, but the couple of times I’ve been forced to sit close has – guess what – resulted in a soft, ugly viewing experience.
Journey remains a very entertaining film all these years later. It helps, always, to have a great actor like James Mason doing the lead – he gives a certain amount of heft to a film like this. So does Bernard Herrmann’s absolutely brilliant score, and so do the supporting players, Leo Tover’s camerawork, and a robust 4.0 stereo track. In other words, if you haven’t ordered it, what on Earth are you waiting for? And let me tell you here and now and also now and here, had I not liked this transfer you would have heard about it loud and clear as well as clear and loud. What I DON’T like are a bunch of know-it-alls whose total sum of knowledge about Blu-ray or DVD or transfers has been gotten from discussion boards and the Internet and not from having actually seen these films projected. They should be ashamed of themselves for the harm they cause – but then again they’d have to be knowledgeable enough to know how wrong they are.
Now wait just a darned minute – was that a rant. Did I just rant? Did I go on a tear? Don’t I have notes to write and haven’t I already written enough for two days? Well, let me just encapsulate the rest of this section. I got up after a great night of sleep, had no time to jog, did work on the computer, ate a light luncheon, picked up no packages, had a visit with Mr. Redman, watched Journey to the Center of the Earth, and then watched the third Van Veeteren film, which was just as good as the first two – which is very good indeed. And looking at a list of what’s coming for the next few months from Kritzerland, was very happy and am sure that lovers of Golden Age film music will be equally happy, since most other companies have pretty much given up on anything from that era except the holiest of holy grails. I’m happy to have Kritzerland pick up the slack and just hope that there are enough fans to make these at least a tiny bit profitable.
Then we had a two-hour work session with Juliana Hansen – just singing through bunches of stuff. As I heard songs, some ideas started to form and I took notes and wrote lots of questions. We’re not anywhere near making final song choices, but it became obvious what some of the songs that weren’t going to work were. After that, Juliana, her ever-lovin’ Jimmy, and I went out for a light bite to eat.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I really must get another good night’s beauty sleep.
Today, I shall do a few errands and whatnot, see and hopefully approve some packaging, have a lunch meeting with Juliana, hopefully pick up some packages, and then relax.
Tomorrow, I’m taking the helper out for a birthday brunch and was supposedly taping a Skip E. Lowe show, although I’ve had no confirmation of that. Friday and the weekend will be spent on show order and commentary and another set of liner notes.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, do a few errands and whatnot, see and hopefully approve packaging, have a lunch meeting, hopefully pick up some packages, pay some bills, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, as I hit the road to dreamland where my dreams shall have no DNR or edge enhancement, even though the dream wags will see haloes and waxy faces.