On Wednesday, 2 September 1998 17:00:00 UTC+10, cin...@hotmail.com wrote:

In 1989 I attended a 50th anniversary revival of GONE WITH THE WIND
at a cinema here in Sydney.It was shown in the old 4x3 format, and
all through the movie I was thinking that it was too big and too
good a movie to be shown on this pathetic square shaped little screen.
I know that this is the format the film was photographed in back in
1939, but this is 1998 and the last generation of viewers to even
remember going to see movies in this format must be getting close
to sixty.

Some time after I saw the same restored print at another cinema
that projected it at 1.75:1,and the difference was like chalk and
cheese. There were no heads cut off(and the projectionist did not
have to adjust the rack throughout the picture) and altogether it
was a far more impressive presentation, that a BIG motion picture
like GONE WITH THE WIND deserves.

It absolutely amazes me that the Distributors have gone to all
the trouble to make specially squeezed TECHNICOLOR matrixes so
that it can end up on some postage-stamp size screen with the
old fashioned almost square shape . Thirty years ago they blew
it up to 70MM and admittedly the picture didn't look that good,
mainly because the original negatives had to go through three
generations of printing using the then available duplicating
stocks(First generation EASTMAN 5253 Intermediate stock).With
the magnificently sharp and fine grained stocks available today
(Eastman 5244 Intermediate and the new Fuji Intermediate)a 70MM
print off a Blow-Up Internegative would look superb.

Another complaint about the last 70MM version was that the
so called stereophonic sound wasn't proper stereo, which it wasn't.
This was because the separate dialogue,music and effects tracks
couldn't be located at the time but more than twenty years later
when the 1989 restoration was done they were located and I assume
are still available for a proper stereo remix.

Let's make GONE WITH THE WIND the BIG picture it deserves to be
and not let the standards of the past limit us to postage stamp
sized screens we have not grown accustomed to. GWTW and its audience
deserve much,much more.

REGARDS,
Peter Mason.

the resulting 70MM print would look superb

Many people say that a film should be projected in the same aspect ratio

it was filmed. However BEN HUR(1959) was filmed in MGM Camera 65 also known as Ultra Panavision 70 with an aspect ratio of 2.75 :1 and between 1969 until after the year 2000 the only available 70mm prints were 2.2:1 70mm spherical prints with 20% of
the picture width missing.

The Fall of The Roman Empire(1964) was filmed in Ultra Panavision 70 and all the 70mm prints were 2.2:1(spherical) Not even one 70mm Anamorphic print.
I did not hear one person complain.

Shane was filmed in 1'37:1 and it received a great reception when it played on The Radio City Music Hall's 50x 30ft screen an aspect ratio of 1'66:1.

These days most people are used to Wide screen TV and 4x3 looks strange to them. Most TV shows are gradually being converted to 1.78:1 and most of the times the films are improved by this.
If GWTW is released in 1.78:1 I believe it would prove to be very pop[ular and the biggest increase in market will be young people.

Many people think of the 1967 70mm release and are put off by this.
In 1967 an Interpositive was made from the three-strip original Negatives
and the idea was to make a 65mm Inter-negative from the 35mm Eastman Intermediate, TYPE 5253 FILM USING THE "Tilt and Scan" technique and using one of nine different positions which were)
available.(see the article in the November 1967 American Cinematographer.) Unfortunately KODAK did not have sufficient stock othe 65mm Intermediate film, Type 5253 and apparently there was going to be a 3 month delay for KODAK to manufacture the 5253 stock.
Rather than wait 3 months a really dumb decision was made. They decided that they would make the 65mm Internegative using 65mm Eastman Color Negative Type 5251 camera stock.
This stock was much grainier than the Intermediate 5253 stock which had a speed of 2-3 ASA as opposed to 50 for the camera film.
Also the contrast/gamma was wrong. The Gamma of the 5253 Intermediate stock was one(or unity) The camera film, 5251 had a gamma of .65 and was way too low to yield proper looking prints.

GWTW was restored again in 1988 and a new Interpositive was made on the much improved 5243 Intermediate film(Type "A") which had much greater sharpness and Far finer grain than the old 5253 Intermediate film.

The Scenes that may have caused a problem back in 1954 for a !.75:1 presentation have been solved. New duplicate Safety negatives have been cut into the original negatives and these are preserved in 1988 Duplicate 35mm
Interpositive.

Ther are only 14 years left before the COPYRIGHT expires on GWTW(1939)
and remembering that most people reacted positively to the 1954 and 1961 WideScreen editions.

May i Suggest to The Copyright Holder if it is MGM that a Wiescreen release in 1.78:1 which is almost identical to the 1.75 Releases in 1954 and 1961
would be very welcome by the general public and a great source of revenue to The Copyright Holder whether that be MGM or some other entity.

I strongly suggest that as well as Blu-ray the new release should be made available in 4K.

In my opinion the best quality DVD of GWTW(1939) was the one contained on The "Flipper" DVD release of November 2000.
The Color and sharpness are extraordinary and in my opinion this is the
best quality and has more natural color and superior sharpness than any other release including Blu-Ray releases.

Please ask the Colorist to emulate the color in This release and The Wide-Screen(1.78:1) blu-ray, and 4k Release of Gone wIth The Wind in 2021 should be

absolutely extraordinary.

Best Regards,
Peter Mason





Not many people realise that at least three of the re-releases of Gone With The Wind(1939) were in fact in wide-screen.
In 1954 David O'Selznick sat down with MGM's executives and viewed a copy of GWTW(1939) to see what changes would need to be made to show GWTW in 1.75:1 aspect ratio. HE DECIDED THAT MOST OF THE PICTURE would sail through the conversion without any problems, there were four or five scenes that needed

-----== Posted via Deja News, The Leader in Internet Discussion ==----- http://www.dejanews.com/rg_mkgrp.xp Create Your Own Free Member Forum

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)