my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Operations   » Film Handlers' Forum   » Correct aspect ratio and Dolby format for 35mm "Eraserhead"?

Author Topic: Correct aspect ratio and Dolby format for 35mm "Eraserhead"? Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 10-06-2015 08:30 PM                        IMDB says 1.37, but I can't find anything else online that agrees with them: everything else says 1.85, including the Criterion BD. I'm therefore tending towards 1.85 for Thursday's show, on the basis that Criterion would surely have got the definitive answer from Lynch during the mastering of their version. The print I have is from Janus, on 2302 stock and made by FotoKem in 2012. The track is SVA, but the FotoKem labels just say "stereo" - they don't state whether A-type or SR. As the original release appears to have been mono, I'm guessing that this is a 2012 remix and therefore SR (though why didn't they do a digital track?). In the absence of any definitive answer, I guess it's a case of a listening test and going with what sounds better. Does anyone have any info or thoughts on either of these? Many thanks in advance.  |  IP: Logged Steve Kraus Film God Posts: 4094 From: Chicago, IL, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 10-06-2015 08:43 PM                    I guess you could try asking him though there's no guaranty he'll see it in time or at all. https://twitter.com/david_lynch  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 10-06-2015 08:55 PM                     I played the movie in the early 80's in 1.85:1, where it was full frame and it did have the mono track.  |  IP: Logged Jerry Axelsson Expert Film Handler Posts: 107 From: Stockholm, Sweden Registered: May 2005 posted 10-07-2015 12:40 AM                     Hello Leo, a soundtrack marked "Stereo" on a print without further info, is as far I can remember always equal to DOLBY A. Early 1990:s Universal titles had "DTS STEREO" on some occasions, which also behaved like Dolby A. I also have seen Ultra Stereo labeled as "STEREO" which is compatible with Dolby A. All SR prints I have come across have been labeled: DOLBY SR, STEREO SR or just SR/SRD/DTS etc. Do a test run on the print at hand. You should be able to confirm what sounds correct. Regards, Jerry  |  IP: Logged Jesse Skeen Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1517 From: Sacramento, CA Registered: Aug 2000 posted 10-07-2015 02:13 AM                     My rule has always been to play in Dolby A unless it SPECIFICALLY says it's Dolby SR- playing SR when it's not supposed to be sounds awful!  |  IP: Logged Fredrik Sandstrom Film Handler Posts: 63 From: Turku, Varsinais-Suomi, FINLAND Registered: Mar 2014 posted 10-07-2015 06:16 AM                     I ran an Eraserhead print a couple of years ago that was from the 1990s and marked SR. It surprised me but sounded good played that way.  |  IP: Logged Mitchell Dvoskin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1869 From: West Milford, NJ, USA Registered: Jan 2001 posted 10-07-2015 09:43 AM                     Regardless of whether or not the film was printed 1.37, the film would have been shown 1.85 here in the US.of.A. I know this is meaningless, but the Criterion Bluray is 1.85 and frames perfectly. As too sound, what Jesse said above.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 10-07-2015 12:17 PM                        I also have a vague memory of playing a re-release in the late '90s that was specifically marked SR. We know that the SVA track isn't original (that release was mono), and so if it the audio was remastered in the late '90s or later, I can't think of any reason why it would be A-Type. France continued to release new movies with A-Type audio into the late '90s: I remember this because I was working in an arthouse in England at the time, which showed a lot of French movies. If memory serves me correctly, the last A-type new release I showed was Secret défense. But the rest of the world had moved to SR (or very occasionally one of the knockoff SVA systems, e.g. DTS Stereo) by the middle of that decade. So if a full-scale remastering of the Eraserhead audio took place in the late '90s, resulting in an SVA final mix, I'd have expected it to be SR. Maybe FotoKem labelled the 2012 print I'm showing tomorrow as simply "stereo", because they struck it from a 1990s final mix track dupe neg that wasn't properly labelled itself, and so they simply didn't know either? Whatever the answer, I'm going to have to fit a listening test into tomorrow afternoon's show prep. Thanks again everyone.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 10-08-2015 07:22 PM                        Well, that was an anticlimax. Almost the entire movie has a pink noise/rumble/general audio crap background playing. It's actually meant to sound like the B-chain is completely screwed up, and so whether it's supposed to be played in A-type or SR is basically irrelevant. I sat through three reels of it, and in all of them there was only one short dialog scene that was completely free of this background noise, just before the end of R1. It doesn't last long enough to play some in A, go back to the booth, change the CP200 to SR and come back out into the house again. A-type sounds as OK as this film is ever going to, to my ears, and so A-type it's going to be. 1.85 definitely looks right.  |  IP: Logged Jesse Skeen Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1517 From: Sacramento, CA Registered: Aug 2000 posted 10-14-2015 02:37 AM                     :lol: I hadn't even considered anybody being unfamiliar with the movie itself- yes, it is WEIRD! They even put out a soundtrack album for it, basically the movie edited to the length of a record.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 10-14-2015 10:55 AM                        With all that out-of-phase low frequency rumble, I imagine that you'd have needed to replace the cartridge, stylus and bass speaker cones when you flipped the record over. I have a dim memory of the movie from showing it in the late '90s and that it was weird and experimental, but yeah, I did look somewhat silly worrying about the details of the audio reproduction in that show. It would have been a bit like fussing over getting the color temperature of the light in a gallery exactly right for an exhibition of Hitler's paintings: that is not going to be why the audience is there. I never did really go for David Lynch, though I must make the effort to see Inland Empire sometime, given it's named after the area in which I live, and apparently some of it was shot on the street where I work. But the fact that it's three hours long and reportedly has no coherent plot is somewhat of a disincentive...  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-14-2015 01:55 PM                        The end credits for Inland Empire has a really great dance/musical troupe performance. Just fast forward.  |  IP: Logged Rick Raskin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1100 From: Manassas Virginia Registered: Jan 2003 posted 10-14-2015 07:03 PM                     quote: Leo Enticknap It would have been a bit like fussing over getting the color temperature of the light in a gallery exactly right for an exhibition of Hitler's paintings... That's a great analogy Leo.  |  IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

Printer-friendly view of this topic

Hop To: Select a Forum: Category: Operations -------------------- Digital Cinema Forum Film Handlers' Forum Large Format Forum Ground Level Feature Info, Trailer Attachments & REAL Credit Offsets Category: Community -------------------- Film-Yak Film Handlers' Movie Reviews The Afterlife Bob Maar's Joke-A-Thon Category: Classified -------------------- Equipment and Supplies Wanted/For Sale Help Wanted/Seeking Employment Category: System -------------------- Software Beta Testing Forum

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.