News Star Trek: The Motion Picture Director's Cut is being restored in 4K, launching first on Paramount+
- Thread starter KlingonCereal
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I'm even less likely to remain subscribed to them for seven years, especially since I think I'm done supporting the Kurtzman Trek machine. The only way they get me is a Blu-Ray.
The time for them to do it was after the TNG remaster. The team wanted to do it. They're not together anymore. Consumers didn't vote strongly enough.
The time for them to do it was after the TNG remaster. The team wanted to do it. They're not together anymore. Consumers didn't vote strongly enough.
Please keep them at 4x3.
I only say that because Jonathan West said that they were filmed widescreen safe, so a 16:9 presentation should be possible without cropping.
They would have no choice. But even holding the BDs back half a year would seem cynical, from the standpoint of people who have actually towed the line on physical media (and I certainly have, when it comes to ST). These aren't new shows.
So, I usually forget to bring this up whenever I'm in "consumers already had a chance to vote with their wallets" mode. But what about a half-and-half measure. Go upscale on all the special effects and and composite shots, but do full HD restoration for everything that's actually on film and doesn't require compositing. Means spending months/years finding everything, and eventually doing upscale on anything they can't find (a la TNG).
Where would that fall on the 1-10 scale of difficulty. Would it be like a 5, or more of a 7-8. 10 is the full TNG treatment (it's not going to happen again); 12-13 would be DS9/VOY getting the full TNG treatment (almost definitely never going to happen).
I'm fuzzy on this. Even when they showed TNG with set lights just outside the (usable) frame, I never understood how there was more than just the finished 4x3 picture.
Film was natively 4x3 (even if not the exact aspect ratio of television). If you wanted widescreen you shot in either scope or Super 35. Or just didn't use the whole frame (trimmed it down to a 1.85).
When they shot ENT in Super 35 (before switching to digital) it was a huge deal. Rick Berman patted himself on the back for it in press releases. It's hard to imagine all the TNG~VOY stuff was Super 35. VOY in particular looks very flat and 4x3 (it's the most Berman Trek of the Berman Treks).
Joss Whedon shot Angel/Buffy in a 16x9-compatible format (I assume Super 35), but didn't protect for it. This is of course after they stopped shooting 16mm. By most accounts, those shows are supposed to be 4x3.
But I can't imagine DS9/VOY getting any special consideration during photography that TNG did not.
They may have filmed live action footage to protect for widescreen, but that might not be the case with the model photography from the first half of the series.
As I understand it the expensive part isn't the effects, it's finding all the film, scanning it and re-editing each episode. I understand CBS no longer have this capacity in-house with the end of CBS Digital.
Found the source I was thinking of - this Tweet from the DS9 documentary team, on why they presented the HD footage in 16:9.
https://twitter.com/DS9Doc/status/1034231428282630144?s=19
Hey Billy! It’s a fair argument. We like what it does for look in context of our film - because we’re going to original film scans, we lose only minimal info on top & bottom and gain much more unseen detail on the sides. 1/2
We consulted with (original DP) Jonathan West who approved the idea and noted that they framed “action-safe” for widescreen to future-proof the series. But it’s NOT an example of what CBS would do, if they ever did a remaster. Just our take on it for limited use in the doc! 2/2
More here: https://blog.trekcore.com/2019/05/exclusive-star-trek-deep-space-nine-hd-what-we-left-behind-footage/
So it's probably the case that a full remaster a la TNG would still be 4:3, but it's not as clear cut as TNG which was definitely not protected for widescreen. The earlier seasons would be more problematic, which was also the case for The X-Files which was remastered in widescreen. There are clearly trade-offs which would have to be considered.
All this only comes in if they actually went back to the original negatives. I don't even think they'll do that - an AI upscale from the master tapes is probably more likely in the next decade. There's no way you could crop the master tapes to 16:9 without losing loads of the picture, so it's not something I'd ever support.
But all the filmed effects would be recomposited anyway, and the CGI would be re-rendered or remade where appropriate. This wouldn't be a major blocker.
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And the team working on the 4K DE is not the same as the group who worked on the theatrical 4K.
Floor logos are quite common.
But it's not.
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So will they re fix or unfix the fixes that have been done to the theatrical version?
I was under the impression that they were going to be handed the restoration of the theatrical cut and then they would add in the additional pieces from the director's Edition. But are they actually going to make further changes to the parts of the movie that are held over from the theatrical version?
Because I was kind of hoping and expecting that they would be handed a pristine fairly perfect version of the theatrical cut and then they would only have to work on the parts that were changed for the DE. But if some things have been botched on the theatrical version then it looks like they'll have to go back and do even more work to bring those elements up to par.
Except it's not that way in the original theatrical, AFAIK.
The DE team is determined to fix everything needed to give Robert Wise's legacy the best possible result. They are not attached to the creation of the existing 4K TMP.
My original assumption, too - but AFAIK, not what is happening, based on my personal interpretation of the team's resolve to honour the intention of the previous DE.
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AKAIK, the DE Team intends for physical disc options to be accommodated. There is still a lot of the buying audience not streaming, or not in locations where streaming is even possible. But the media release only mentions 4K release in 2022 on "Paramount+", not specifics as to other formats.
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In theory they are, but a lot of other shows from the same period (or even a fair bit later, 24 season 1 has a lot of visible crewmembers in it) which have had widescreen versions released have been terrible for seeing all sorts of behind the scenes stuff you're not supposed to. Buffy and Angel probably being the most notorious for it.
Schedules are tight on TV and gag effects sequences can be complicated, these shows may have been meant to be protecting themselves for decades to come, but it often came down to it being hard enough to get a finished episode done in the format it was going to be broadcast so the more careful framing slips. A lot.
It could well be DS9 is more like the X-Files which I don't think I've ever seen any complaints about the widescreen version of the early seasons, but I'd be surprised considering Trek is already a tricky beast to shoot anyway.
Are you sure though? It looks soft in a way it wouldn't if you were attempting to fix the shot digitally in 2021, but almost certainly would if you were in a rush to do it optically in 1979.
Basically a bad fix wouldn't look like that now, but it would in 1979.
Bill Hunt's contention is that it was changed back to the unfixed shot for the subsequent home video releases, and it's only now it has been restored. Unless someone has a 35mm print, I don't think we could disprove that for sure.
Oh well, I guess I'll just give up expressing my demand for a remaster of DS9/VOY since YOU have no interest.
I preordered/bought all the TNG-R BD sets as they were coming out, not just the seasons but also the specials. While it seemed the majority of fans vocal on the subject were "Meh, I don't want to buy TNG again... meh, I'll wait for the complete collection boxset... meh, I'll stream it... meh, I'll wait for the DS9 remaster... meh, meh, meh... I said 'meh' already!"
Then I got the ENT BDs, having previously passed on the DVDs for that show. I towed the line for them.
I bought every blu-ray that they released during that last decade. Except for the first two seasons of ENTERPRISE. I have my limits.
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