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This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3
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Author
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Topic: Sound of Music DCP format
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Paul H. Rayton
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 210
From: Los Angeles, CA , USA
Registered: Aug 2003
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posted 07-17-2013 10:01 PM
I ran the "The Sound Of Music" DCP about 2 years ago, and at the time it was standard 5.1 audio only. It was a rather early rendition of the show to DCP and possibly (though I seriously doubt it) they remedied the situation in a later version. Possibly someone else will have a more recent report.
It kind of ticks me off, really: all these classic musicals, with wonderful original, 5-across sound mixes -- all being lost now, possibly forever. All that restoration work on "West Side Story"? Not on the DCP. It will only be possible to hear that classic, splendid original mix if played along with the 70mm print.
I don't begrudge the 70mm print it's excellent audio, but I do feel that there has been a conscious decision by the studio "powers that be" to simply forget 5-across sound, even though the original DCI audio tracks specifically included LE and RE (or, for us old codgers, tracks #2 and #4) for film soundtrack uses. And there is no shortage of places with the appropriate speakers and amps, more's the pity.
I have one piece of DCP content that actually does have all the "correct" 5-across audio (and it sounds great, FWIW). It's from a private party, not a major studio, wouldn't you know. One day we had those LE and RE amps turned on and later played a normal DCP, and were a bit surprised to discover that at least one of those official LE and RE audio pairs had been given over to the descriptive audio track.
So, I fear, the battle is lost. We will never hear full "Todd-AO" audio again with the legendary, great musicals of the past in DCPs. And, as I say, it's a pity because with 16 audio tracks available for DCI content, why didn't anyone read the specs and put the descriptive audio in one of the OTHER channels, 9-16? I know -- someone cheaped out, and then it was too late to remedy when others adopted the same incorrect channel usage. IMHO, that was inexcusable.
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Jonathan Goeldner
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1360
From: Washington, District of Columbia
Registered: Jun 2008
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posted 07-27-2013 11:18 PM
I'm digressing here, so who did the DCP encoding of 'Cleopatra'? Another Fox release that could and should retain the five screen channel mix. I know that it's being touted as the 4K restoration, but is the DCP "true" 4K resolution?
back on subject though, I read recently that Robert Wise wasn't all that enamored with the implementation of the constant use of surround sound to distract what is happening on screen. This is odd, since it appears that Fox Home Video is pretty much going against the grain, by making the DVD and the DCP with 5.1 (discrete stereo surround sound) and the bluray with an additional two channels in the surrounds (7.1) - talk about being excessive and not taking Wise's intent to heart.
MGM did this as well to the 7.1 blu-ray mixing of 'West Side Story'. I don't know if a DCP has been created, but I'd be certain it didn't use the recently found, restored five screen channel that were culled and added back to the recent 70mm prints that have been making the theatrical revival circuit.
(... oh and I was more than confused what Sony did with the DCP of 'Oliver!' that I recently saw at Landmark E Street. The DCP looked exactly like the German bluray I have... but... unlike the bluray which has 5.1 audio, the DCP was not presented as such. In two channel stereo, which placed nearly all the vocals either to the left or right of the screen and nothing in the middle 'center channel'. This movie got the deluxe 70mm / 6-track 'five screen' mix for it's initial theatrical run, here though, for a film like this NOT to have a center channel of sound was glaring and sounded waaaay off.)
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 07-31-2013 03:15 AM
Years ago when I was avidly anti-digital after seeing the first outings of pre-DCI digital projectors...you know, the ones that are now good for nothing more than being used as flower-pots. I remember countering someone who accused me of not being open to new technology. I said that I have no allegiance any particular technology; I just want the new technology, whatever it is that replaces the old, to be BETTER or at least as good as the old.
I am an exhibitor -- a curator of our motion picture heritage. All I want is to be able to recreate for my audiences the same incredible experiences I had when I sat as a youngster watching 70mm presentations of LAWRENCE or MYFLADY or 2001. I told my critic, if they have a system that would let me recreate the same level of image quality that I saw, I wouldn't care what the technology that was in my booth. I would be the first to embrace it wholeheartedly. But, I was absolutely, wholeheartedly sure what I was seeing in those first digital roll-outs couldn't even come close to reproducing even what 35mm film was doing at the time.
We certainly have come a long way with what digital can do, but as far as the great classics, if the studios are handing out a DCPs made from BR master and compressed on top of that, then digital is still nowhere near a faithful reproduction of what we know the original to be. If this is what the studios are pulling out their asses and passing it off as representative of those masterpieces in their libraries, then it is still a fact that taken as a complete system, from master scanning to the final DCP release and what audiences will see on the screen, digital STILL is not capable of giving my audience the same experience as those original classics. Without the will of the studios' honchos to make the BEST mastering for DPC rerelease, it never will.
What we have here is a failure to commit to the best reproduction quality possible. They are handing out a xerox copy of a Monet painting and telling the audience they are looking at an original. Damn Philistine swine.
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