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

» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Community   » The Afterlife   » 'Things to Come' BD - horribly bad audio

Author Topic: 'Things to Come' BD - horribly bad audio Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 06-08-2013 04:26 PM                        Just bought and viewed this BD and, with apologies for sounding so negative, want go give anyone thinking of doing likewise a heads-up. It's a flawed movie (stunning underlying idea, visuals and music, but awful dialogue and painfully slow direction) that has had a flawed preservation history, as the extensive essay by Nick Cooper in the booklet that comes with this disc documents beautifully. The picture transfer (of the 96-minute British version) is not bad, either: very sharp and detailed in most shots, but the odd analogue artefact and the absence of digital noise suggests to me that there was significant human input, and that this wasn't just a case of digital restoration tools having been left to get on with it after the film element (presumably the BFI's preservation master) was scanned. But the audio ... yeughhh! It's tinny, compressed and sounds like a bad Skype connection throughout. It sounds like it was put through Adobe Audition with the hiss removal filter applied using 'absolutely no hiss must remain whatsoever' settings, regardless of the fact that doing this nuked most of the signal along with the hiss. Arthur Bliss's music (one of the major selling points of the movie) has been destroyed to the point of being unlistenable. Such a pity, especially given that the picture transfer is pretty decent.  |  IP: Logged Mark Ogden Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 943 From: Little Falls, N.J. Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-08-2013 06:11 PM                     That's a little worrisome, because this film comes out on R1 Blu-Ray in just a few days via the Criterion Collection, and now you have me wondering if they will use the same transfer. They advertise an uncompressed monaural soundtrack for their BRD. I note that Bruce Elder reviewed the transfer on the same page and had high marks for it, so there's that. I've been waiting for this bad boy a long time. If you think its preservation history is flawed in the UK, you'll scream with rage over how this film has been treated over here. Most of the current US export materials are currently held by a former Kansas City drive-in owner who, many years ago, bought up the rights to a lot of classic 1940s - 1950s science fiction/noir titles like Jailbait, Detour, invaders From Mars, Kronos, and Rocketship XM, which he actually had the balls to go out and shoot new scenes for starring himself. He put out a murky and pretty choppy DVD of Things To Come many years back, but it was just a dub of his former VHS master. I presume this title is public domain now in all territories. You're right, of course, it's not a great movie by any means, but I've always found it fascinating since I ran a 16mm print of it at a college film group ages ago. Here's hoping for a good job of it this time around.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-10-2013 02:27 PM                        As far as I know, it is not PD in the US. Janus has rights, but no prints. Park Circus in the UK has one print and will supply it (for a fee) for screenings. I researched this last year as a possible booking, but it turned out to be rather expensive for a somewhat obscure title.  |  IP: Logged Jack Theakston Master Film Handler Posts: 411 From: New York, USA Registered: Sep 2007 posted 06-10-2013 03:36 PM                     This is still a major issue with a lot of releases. The picture gets the most attention, and the audio suffers for it. Another similar issue was the EQing of perfectly good optical tracks to drop out the bottom and middle-end so that it'd sound better on TV speakers.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 06-10-2013 04:57 PM                        On the copyright score, I fear that it'll be in copyright for a long time yet. Under British copyright law, the duration for a film is 70 years from the date of the first public screening or the final one of any of the following dies: director, screenwriter, author of the dialogue or the composer of music specially written for use in the film - whichever is last. In the case of TTC, that's Arthur Bliss in 1975 (H.G. Wells croaked in 1946, and William Cameron Menzies in 1957), meaning that the film will enter the public domain in 2045. As Britain and the US are both signatories to the Berne Convention, that applies in the US as well. I can't believe that Criterion will use that audio rendering. I've got 15-20 Criterion BDs, and none has a soundtrack that badly compressed and tinny. It's a pity, because in all other respects the British BD is a great package (and very good value, for £12). The picture transfer is carefully done (the bitrate is on the low side, but I couldn't see any digital artefacts to betray it), there's a nice slate of extras and the booklet essay is extensive and thoroughly researched. But the audio is just painful to listen to.  |  IP: Logged Mark Ogden Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 943 From: Little Falls, N.J. Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-18-2013 04:30 PM                     So the Criterion BD of this title came in the mail this morning, and I stopped what I was doing to watch it. According to the booklet that comes with it, this is a 4K transfer from a fine-grain print held by the BFI. The audio was "remastered at 24 bit from the optical track" of the same print and others, then given the ProTools treatment for clicks pops and nasties. It's VERY quiet when it should be, no bumps or crackle at all. It is uncompressed on BluRay. How does it sound? Not very good. There is little to no dynamic range to it. There is a reasonable amount of "bottom" to the music and effects, but it still sounds pretty plugged-up. The dialog by itself is quite thin. The "which shall it be?" chorus at the very end is distorted to the point of being unintelligible. It's still the best I've seen or heard it. I guess we'll have to lower our expectations for this 77 year old, probably not-very-well-recorded-in-the-first-place film. You're right about the copyright. The movie is preceded by both a Janus and an ITC Entertainment logo, and "copyright 1936 ITC Entertainment" has been matted over the last shot.  |  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.