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June 14, 2014:

THE TRANQUIL FRIDAY THE 13TH

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, yesterday was Friday the 13th, and not one frightening thing happened.  It was a tranquil day filled with tranquil things.  I kept waiting for someone to walk down the street and hack off some limbs arbitrarily but it never happened.  I kept waiting to have someone jump out and scare the living daylights out of me, but it never happened, nor did anyone scare the living nightlights out of me.  My lights, both day and night, were tranquil.  I kept waiting for someone named Jason in a mask to do something nasty.  Instead, I looked at the cover of Jason Graae’s album, You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile – that was nasty and actually kind of scary.  No, yesterday was not a frightmare or a nightmare or even a sitemare – it was tranquil.  I like tranquil.

I did get a full eight hours of blessed sleep, then got up and answered quite a few e-mails, after which I did some work on the computer.  Then I went and had some lunch – a bacon cheeseburger, which was quite yummilicious.  After that, I picked up one package and then came home.  I had some telephonic calls of some length, and a very nice visit with our very own Mr. Nick Redman.  After that, I was feeling tranquil so I sat on my couch like so much fish.

Yesterday, I watched the new transfer of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, a transfer that has had quite a lot of controversy, mostly from people who haven’t actually seen the disc.  Screen caps were posted and if one was to believe them then entire film was bathed in yellow, with one memorable cap showing The Good in close-up with a green sky behind him.  People were canceling their orders, they were up in arms, they were calling for heads to roll.  Then suddenly some people who’d actually seen the disc began to post, saying the disc didn’t really resemble the caps at all – and that while it was certainly more yellow than other home video versions, it had a full range of colors.  For whatever reason, my pre-ordered version from Amazon took three weeks to deliver.  But I got it and here are my thoughts.

First of all, while I love the film, it is not my favorite Leone and not even my favorite of what’s called the dollars trilogy.  That said:

The Ugly: No US theatrical version.  I absolutely HATE all of the added scenes and think they all hurt the film enormously.

The Bad: No original English mono.  Unforgivable, especially considering the credit to Chace for restored mono.  Methinks someone screwed up somewhere.

The Good: The transfer.  I thought the previous Italian “restoration” (I really don’t think this film needed what any restoration expert would call a restoration) was very good.  That was just three or four years ago, so it’s fascinating they went back to it this quickly.  Is it miles ahead of the Italian Blu-ray (which I own) in terms of detail and clarity – not quite to the extent I was led to believe.  Yes, there is definitely more detail, but not as huge as some have said.  Whatever edge enhancement some small group think they were seeing on the Eyetalian Blu and Ray wasn’t visible to me and the detail that disc had would belie any was used, but that’s just my opinion.

But let’s get to the most important thing – the color. Let’s get one thing clear right away – the screen cap I spoke of, the close shot of Mr. Eastwood with a green sky in back of him. So, let me cut to the chase – at no time in this new transfer is there any shot with a green sky like that, or anything even resembling a green sky.  If someone is watching this transfer and is actually saying that when they see that shot there is a green sky, then all the calibration yakking in the world isn’t going to convince me their color settings are correct, which, I have to tell you, I do suspect somewhat frequently.  Again, there is not one shot in this transfer that has a green sky.

I watched both the Eyetalian and the new transfer (only after I finished the new one in its entirety), flipping back and forth on the same TV using two OPPOs.  The differences in color are interesting, especially as I viewed my former dye transfer print recently. Here’s what I think.  The new transfer: About 85% of it is pretty much spot on to what I saw in the dye transfer print. I know that’s not going to make the people who’ve been crying “someone urinated on the transfer” happy (yes, someone actually posted that), but, oh well.  The interiors are MUCH more accurate, color-wise, in the new transfer.  The exteriors in the previous “restoration” on the Eyetalian Blu-ray are almost completely lacking in yellow, which yields a much more Eastman color like image rather than an image from a dye transfer print – in other words, a lot more beige.  The added yellow in the new transfer, for the most part, makes the color just right, sometimes breathtakingly so.  In other words, there is not a yellow wash over everything – that kind of hyperbole is silly.  One look at any of the night scenes will tell you that is simply not so.

So, what about the other 15%?  Yes, they pushed the yellow too far and it’s too much – it really doesn’t happen often but WHEN it happens it’s very obvious because the other colors in those scenes are not correct.  Where they’ve done the right amount of yellow, all the other colors are true. One does wonder at the “additional color correction” credit – maybe after the fact, after the thing had been timed to match the Italian dye transfer print that was used for reference, someone went in and did some additional occasional pumping of the yellow.  Who knows?  So, not perfect, color-wise, but close.

I think most people will be very pleased with this, as I was.  Detail and contrast are just terrific.

After that, I had a bagel, then went to Netflix and watched, yes, another thriller, this one from last year, a motion picture entitled The Numbers Station, starring John Cusak, who is almost as ubiquitous and Nicholas Cage in movies that completely tank or only have the most perfunctory of releases.  This one was directed by a Danish fellow whose work I know because, as you know, I love the Swedish and Danish movies and TV shows.  He keeps everything moving along (the film, sans end credits, only runs eighty-four minutes), and there is less stupidity in this than in most of the crap I’ve been seeing.  No twists, no endless shootouts or car chases (the film basically all takes place in one location after the prologue) and no irony.  That alone was kind of refreshing.  The film played exactly one week in one multiplex theater in Burbank and the same in a few other key cities.  A month later it was on DVD and cable.  Go know.

Today, I have a morning meeting with the musical director of our And the World Goes Round recording.  We will go over all of the fixes we have to do – his list is a bit different than mine, and the two must be conformed because we don’t have a huge amount of time to do stuff.  So, we only can do what is absolutely necessary, and my list is ALL necessary.  So, we’ll go over it all and come up with a master plan and then we do that pick-up date in mid-July.  After that, we can finally finalize the mix after putting in all the fixes and then we can get the damn thing released at long last.  After the meeting, I’ll do some errands and whatnot, and then I’ll just relax and enjoy the day and evening.  Since I won’t eat much at the meeting, perhaps I’ll go have a nice early dinner somewhere.  We shall see.

Tomorrow is relaxation all the way and, of course, Father’s Day and since I am a Father it is MY day.  Perhaps someone will come spirit me away to celebrate in some fashion or other.  Next week are daily work sessions with Sandy and Lanny, as well as meetings and meals and a ton of other stuff.  Then on Sunday, Sandy does her show at The Federal.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a meeting, do errands and whatnot, hopefully pick up some packages, relax, eat, and relax.  Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Poetry Day – give us some of your favorite poems.  We’ve only done that once before and I remember discovering a lot of things I didn’t know.  Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland after a tranquil Friday the 13th.

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