Per Digital Bits:

A Few Notes on Lawrence of Arabia: Superbit

About a month ago I spent a rather long day - 13 hours to be exact - making near final color and density changes on the High Definition master of Lawrence of Arabia.

It was no secret that the previous release was problematic, but with new faces within Columbia's home video area who were behind an effort to make everything correct, and a Herculean effort from Columbia's Asset Protection guru, Grover Crisp, who had been instrumental in the re-timing and creation of the new batch of 70mm release prints, Lawrence as a video project was taken back to the drawing board.

The main effort took us all the way back to the "uncorrected" high definition transfer created several years ago, which was derived from a restored 65mm interpositive.

Earlier audio anomalies were eliminated as Mr. Crisp came forth with the original 6 track masters created in 1988 for the restoration.

The starting point removed layers of color and density correction as well as additional (and unnecessary) electronic sharpening added along the way.

New digital processes added secondary color controls, which were not available to a HiDef large format transfer at the time that the earlier work was created.

After having spent weeks making certain that the new 70mm prints were properly corrected, Grover was very aware of the proper look of the film.

He put in a great deal of time doing the first pass at color and density for the new release, literally starting from a fully uncorrected master.

After his pass, the studio shipped the master east where we spent our day at the new Technicolor facility, further correcting and honing the image on a shot by shot basis.

At the thirteen hour mark, my eyes began to go, and with that caveat, the master and its clone were shipped back to the studio for further work, especially on the final reels.

Now in compression and authoring, the release should be a version on video as close as possible to that which we created for the restoration fifteen years ago with David Lean and cinematographer Freddie Young overseeing the final production process.

It has been confirmed that there will be no electronic sharpening.

Although there is some question as to whether the final compression will allow the first half of the film to run to completion on disc one, the overriding factor must be one of quality and not quantity.

The image of the transfer, in HiDef, as viewed on a 32" high definition monitor is like looking through an open window to the desert; a testament to both the pin-registered transfer device via which it was mastered to video and to those who oversaw the actual film to tape transfer.

Sony and Columbia Home Video have given their full support and cooperation to this project. Enough cannot be said of Grover Crisp's input and extremely diligent efforts, without which the production of this DVD would not have been possible.

I fully expect this to be an awesome release.

Robert Harris




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what was so problematic about the original 2 dvd releases?

I'm going to get skewered for this, but... Mr. Harris has a tendency to be critical of every restoration a studio does which does not involve him. My guess would be that this was the main problem with the first release...

A question that only someone who worked on the restoration, Robert Harris, could answer.

Harris:

CB,

Not skewered at all, your opinion is your opinion and I don't know that you are wrong.

However, Harris was involved in the film restoration effort for Lawrence. His involvement in the vast majority of projects is on film restoration as opposed to home video transfers. Therefore, when he comments on home video transfer of Lawrence, it's not against a direct competitor.

I have read many of his articles and posts. He's kind of in a win/lose proposition. When he does write something negative is he telling it like it is or does he have other motives? Each will judge for himself. I have read many articles when he has been complementary of other video transfers that were well done. As for film restorations ... he tends not to comment much. Your probably right, he might be better served not commenting on film restoration publicly.

As for Lawrence many posters in other forums have been critical of the color of the video transfer - those that saw the restored film version in the theatres. They particularly noticed how the desert sand did not match up correctly. So to be fair, this is not some little issue that only a color correctionist would notice but one that movie fans noticed as well.

Not only were their color problems and too much edge enhancement, there were music cues in the wrong place because of errors with the audio master used.

Never saw the movie, is it really that good of a story to warrent a purchase or should I just rent the movie?

I'll only skewer you for your accuracy. Mr. Harris has been very complimentary of the DVD releases of "North by Northwest" and the upcoming "Casablanca" special edition, but he had no involvement in either one.

Dude,,, LOA is one of the greatest films ever made... Any serious film freak or student of film will tell you that.

I'm not one of those students of film or anything but I really liked this movie. Its friggin looooooong though!

It's playing on TCM sometime in the next week, I think the 4th of August if my memory is not mistaken. Uninterupted and in OAR, catch it then. It's an awesome film though.

Thanks for the input, I checked the Cable Listings and could not find the movie playing. I will keep an eye out over the next couple of weeks.

I do love old movies, but I have never watched LOA before.

Here are some of the older movies I do have:
1. Ben-Hur
2. Gone with the wind
3. Sound of music
4. The Wizard of Oz
5. White Christmas: Special Edition
6. The Ten Commandments
7. Miracle on 34th Street
8. West Side Story (Not that old, but it is a classic)
9. Cassablanca (Will be buying the new release that comes out on August 5)
10. Fiddler on the Roof: Special Edition (Not that old, but it is a classic)
11. The King and I
12. Singing in the Rain (Will buy soon, one of the best musicals of all time, The Sound of Music is the all time best in MHO.

Sounds like a good candidate for any early HD-DVD release.

You also need to check out The Bridge On The River Kwai.

No Frank Capra?

It's a Wonderful Life and Mr. Smith Goes To Washington are two great movies.

According to the Turner Classic Movies Web site, "Lawrence of Arabia" is playing Sunday, Aug. 3 at 6 p.m. Eastern.

That sounds VERY nice... I was going to pass on the Superbit, but I think I'll have to get it. But it really makes me wish for a HiDef D-VHS of it!

And Turner Classic Movies shows the letterboxed version complete with overture, intermission, and exit music.

I'm very pleased with the news. The edge enhancement on the current release is awful and a very sick joke. The reasoning I have heard behind excessive EE on titles is so that it looks "sharper" on a VERY small display... Honestly, the people that own these small displays don't give a damn how sharp their picture looks if it even is giving some sort of dramatic increase in sharpness. If someone owns a 20 year old 15-19 inch set, chances are that they don't really give a rat's ass about quality and are just fine seeing the movie. Why should craploads of EE be applied, apparently to please them???

I wish Robert Harris would go back and take out the EE on Giant. It's really quite disgusting and whoever approved of that transfer should be shot.

There is just absolutely no reason at all to add EE to a transfer, it is so unbelievably pointless. Many dvd's with little to no EE look fantastic on a larger display, not HD, but still very nice. Titles like Giant on a large screen display make the viewer want to throw up.

Then, I'd say this is a step in the right direction... Personally, I thought Mr. Harris's attack on Warner Bros.'s in-house film restoration of WIZARD OF OZ was overdone and opportunistic.

Anyone have links to Harris's comments on the above video restorations? I'd love to read them. I think Lowry Digital Images does phenomenal work and John Lowry, with whom I've had dealings, is a terrific guy and a true lover of film.

I feel mr Harris's negitive review of THE SOUND OF MUSIC is unfounded. The soft focus is the directors choice and not the fault of the transfer.

Mr. Harris is hardly the only one to have negative comments about the transfer used on Fox's DVD edition of The Sound of Music.

I didn't read anything from Robert Harris regarding the last release of The Wizard of Oz, but if Warner were to release that film as one of their new 2-disc sets that have been showing up recently, I would be willing to bet it would look considerbly better than it does now. Singin' In The Rain anyone?

Lastly, if anyone questions whether Robet Harris is a "true lover of film", then that tells me they don't know Robert Harris. While I wouldn't call him a "bosom buddy", I do happen to know him well enough to know he is a "terrific guy".

The problems with The Sound of Music have to do with...

1. Excessive edge enhancement
2. Overly grainy image in some scenes (for a 65mm production, it should look like that)
3. Too much specks and scratches.

A lot of other people have problems with this DVD.

Well, that does it. I wasn't sure if I would get the Superbit, but with Harris involved, I definitely will.

One question: where will the break between discs be? The original release had it at the logical place, the intermission, but that's well over halfway through the film. To give the pre-intermission portion a higher bitrate (since the LE had no extras on the first disc) and keep a reasonably consistent rate throughout, they'll have to put the break before the intermission.

I think they'll put it .

You must be thinking of someone else. Robert Harris speaks kindly about the release of "The Wizard of Oz" here.

Not a single one of Mr. Harris' complaints about "The Sound of Music" DVD have to do with the softness of the picture. You can read his detailed comments here.