TMP Director's Edition Coming To Blu-ray

[Warped9]

ST-TMP DE on Blu-Ray, that I would buy. Otherwise, no sale.

[OneBuckFilms]

Foundation Imaging did a great job, but looking at the TNG Blu-Rays, I suspect CBS-D would be perfect for reproducing the work on the DE, as well as recompositing the original shots (assuming the original elements still exist independent of the movie).

Getting Darren Dochtorman, David C. Fein and Michael Mattesino et al consulting and working on the project would also ensure that they are doing it right for reproducing the VFX elements.

CBS-D would be able to work on the restoration of the original print, and the re-editing of the movie to match the DE DVD master (timing, sound mix etc.).

The issue with a project like this is money, more specifically, the lack of.

Paramount own the movie itself, and would need to be the ones behind such a restoration.

To do it right now would be bad timing, as it would take focus from Star Trek Into Darkness.

Not impossible, and I want it, but lnot likely in the short term.

[Maurice]

Again, it's unlikely there ARE any elements to recomposite.

Frankly, if a DE had to be re-done I'd junk some of the dumb decisions made for the 2001 release which violated the intent of the artists who originally worked on the film (I'm looking at you, San Francisco). Why get the Doctormans of the world to consult instead of the Proberts of the world, who actually worked on the damned thing originally?

[CorporalCaptain]

I don't like the DE soundtrack at all, so I'll never pay money to have another copy of that.

[Maurice]

You mean the audio mix?

[CorporalCaptain]

Maurice wrote:

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You mean the audio mix?

Yes, that's what I meant.

[trevanian]

Maurice wrote:

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Again, it's unlikely there ARE any elements to recomposite.

Frankly, if a DE had to be re-done I'd junk some of the dumb decisions made for the 2001 release which violated the intent of the artists who originally worked on the film (I'm looking at you, San Francisco). Why get the Doctormans of the world to consult instead of the Proberts of the world, who actually worked on the damned thing originally?

You sure wouldn't have wound up with that single nacelle view from the lounge, which is probably nearly as awkward as anything that got replaced for the DE, if you count the unfixed uniform color change aspect in the lounge opticals.

I think Vulcan, while representative of SOME old boards, is also a mess on the DE. Even if they didn't go back to Yuricich's discarded (why discarded? WHY?) Vulcan painting, there was a version Mike Minor did that was in a yellow-ish vein (seen in the ENTERPRISE INCIDENTS in which he was interviewed) that still looks better than the theatrical and the DE versions.

Still would love to find out why the Vulcan theatrical shot was pulled from EEG and taken 'elsewhere' ... and where elsewhere actually was. More Katzenberg messups?

I think this Burnette guy would probably be my choice to supervise any new version. While he knows Dochterman, I don't think he'd be unduly influenced by what was done (right or wrong) on the DE, given the chance to get things right or better this time (snip off that lil guy fleeing epsilon 9 before he gets so close to camera, it is AWFULLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Don't recall ever cringing so much for somebody else's work before that day in 79.)

[NewHorizon]

Maurice wrote:

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Again, it's unlikely there ARE any elements to recomposite.

Frankly, if a DE had to be re-done I'd junk some of the dumb decisions made for the 2001 release which violated the intent of the artists who originally worked on the film (I'm looking at you, San Francisco). Why get the Doctormans of the world to consult instead of the Proberts of the world, who actually worked on the damned thing originally?

Sadly, getting the original guys who worked on it is not always a guarantee that the final product will be good. I'm thinking of a recent project, TNG: S2 on bluray perhaps? HTV and a few of the original crew made a pretty poor job of that. Not to say the TMP guys would do poorly, just saying it's no guarantee.

I'm one who enjoyed the DE more than the original cut and would be happy if they simply re-rendered the new shots in HD.

If Paramount would only listen.

[Maurice]

NewHorizon wrote:

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Sadly, getting the original guys who worked on it is not always a guarantee that the final product will be good.

Which you could apply to anyone, so it's kind of meaningless argument. The chances it'll be closer to the original intent are likely higher if you used people who actually worked on the original. No guarantee, but more likely just because their knowledge of the subject is likely more intimate.

[Jeyl]

Maurice wrote:

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Again, it's unlikely there ARE any elements to recomposite.

The first season of The Next Generation used raw elements made for TMP. Even the new making of documentaries shows some of the visual effect shots done for TMP in their raw form.

[trevanian]

Jeyl wrote:

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The first season of The Next Generation used raw elements made for TMP. Even the new making of documentaries shows some of the visual effect shots done for TMP in their raw form.

I don't know about the doc stuff, but 1st season TNG's lifts were just stock lifts, not elements, at least the ones I remember. the approaching spacedock stuff in the binar show according to Cinefex involved pasting the -d OVER the Ent, and the San Francisco matte shot in the show with the bugs in Remmick was just a blown up or panNscanned version of the same shot from TVH.

The only original element stuff I'm aware of is some TIN MAN footage, a couple seconds' worth of TMP, and even there it is hard to know where it came from -- it could have been extra frames cut from a longer pre-final print so they seem new but were already on hand.

There's actually support for that in TWOK, inasmuch as it has an extended version of the same 'looking up at the spotlight thingie on the underside of the dish' shot that was in TMP, but the quality looked just as bad as the rest of the stock shots in TWOK (which is to say in the theater all that stuff looked like a dupe, contrasty as hell - not as evident on homevid, but that doesn't change anything else in the argument.)

But if you could provide a precis of what they say on this doc, I'd find it of great interest. Especially if it contradicts the stories from EEG/Apogee.

[Harvey]

The first season TNG Blu-Ray features a few seconds of the Klingon cruiser raw elements that were re-used from TMP as well. But some elements remaining is hardly indicate of them all remaining.

[Maurice]

Harvey wrote:

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The first season TNG Blu-Ray features a few seconds of the Klingon cruiser raw elements that were re-used from TMP as well. But some elements remaining is hardly indicate of them all remaining.

I'm curious how you know it's a raw element.

[trevanian]

Yeah, I thought that klingon ship element in TNG had perhaps been rotoscoped off the the stock shot ... it has a kind of odd shiny look to it, at least as I recall it in its low-definition TNG-era form.

[Harvey]

Maurice wrote:

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I'm curious how you know it's a raw element.

Perhaps I'm speaking beyond my technical knowledge (essentially, none), but the documentary includes footage of the model against a blue screen. Perhaps Trek Core has a screen capture of this?

EDIT: Not blue screen, against black. Here's the image. Here's another.

(Is it perhaps not stock at all, but a new shot?)