Does anybody here have a slightest idea what has happened to the March footage? I am very shocked to see how it looks. I mean the colours are all red-shifted and there is less detail than I remember from the unofficial versions...
Was it again a deliberate decision like the previous releases? Yes, I'm talking about Montreal 81. It doesn't look intentional, it looks like fading.
But is it really caused by fading? I mean of course this is clearly a transfer of a film print, so this COULD be that they simply scanned a red faded print, but why did they do it?
I mean, we KNOW that EXCELLENT looking prints DO EXIST. We KNOW that, because we have seen various bits and pieces over the years in various documentaries produced by both BBC and Channel 4. Even the Swedish TV copy looks MUCH better dammit :) If QPL or Queen Films or Universal or whoever had just a badly faded print, why didn't they use one of the good looking prints?
Anybody has an idea? Sikke? Pablo? Gary? Greg? Anybody?
Don't get me wrong - I LOVE the deluxe box, and I'm happy that after many, many years I have a reason to be excited about a Queen product, but I'd really like to know why does an official release of the March show look worse than the unofficial copies sourced from TV recordings
I was thinking exactly the same.
I was also wondering how they know that 38 mins of extra footage exists? Do you think they've gone to the TV production company (or whoever) who own the original film, then refused to pay the amount they were asking but in the meantime discovered the TV company have 48 mins of footage in their archive?
I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case and they are now hunting down a lower gen copy they can hopefully get their hands on for free.
It looks like the footage is not remastered, they didn't bother for only two songs. If you ask me, the March footage will see the light of day in the future, in some re-release of Rainbow, is a good business movement, everybody will buy again Rianbow if we could see the March show, and then, probably, the quality of the footage will be crystal clear.
Saying that, put the March show on CD was an ACE movement by Queen Productions, this product will sell equally only with the November show, but the March gig was a great gift for the fans.
Doga wrote:
It looks like the footage is not remastered, they didn't bother for only two songs. If you ask me, the March footage will see the light of day in the future, in some re-release of Rainbow, is a good business movement, everybody will buy again Rianbow if we could see the March show, and then, probably, the quality of the footage will be crystal clear.
I don't think so. It can't be made to look much better unless they have a better source to work with. There's only so much they can do, correct the colours, remove grain etc. I do think that they added noise reduction to this March footage though since it looks smooth.
If you want to see non-remastered film footage check WATC studio session video from DOOL documentary Blu-Ray, it has film dirt and scratches but there is a lot of detail in it whereas in this March footage there's hardly much detail.
Hope I make sense. Writing from a phone so please excuse me :)
So you people really think they deliberately made it not as good so 5 or 10 or 20 yes from now they can re release it in the best quality they can create with the March one added?
kdj2hot wrote:
So you people really think they deliberately made it not as good so 5 or 10 or 20 yes from now they can re release it in the best quality they can create with the March one added?
AlexRocks wrote:
That was not done intentionally right? That was just the limitations of VHS.
No, i'm talking about the DVD, they released the second night of Wembley with a great documentary ''A Beautiful Day'' and five songs from the first night. And a few years later the two nights.
And i'm not blaming them, is business after all. I have march and november Rainbow, Montreal and Budapest. I'm happy.
kdj2hot wrote:
So you people really think they deliberately made it not as good so 5 or 10 or 20 yes from now they can re release it in the best quality they can create with the March one added?
I don't know. I was asking. Deliberately "worsening" releases makes no sense, but they've done it in the past. But using a faded print when much better prints exist makes no sense either.
I certainly hope the full March footage surfaces. Imagine - possible live video of Great King Rat and Fairy Feller, as well as the sensational version of White Queen!
On the point of quality, I don't believe the footage in the official release looks worse than in previous ones - on the contrary, it's much much sharper. The colourisation, though, does seem to have been newly added :/
Doga wrote:
It looks like the footage is not remastered, they didn't bother for only two songs. If you ask me, the March footage will see the light of day in the future, in some re-release of Rainbow, is a good business movement, everybody will buy again Rianbow if we could see the March show, and then, probably, the quality of the footage will be crystal clear.
Saying that, put the March show on CD was an ACE movement by Queen Productions, this product will sell equally only with the November show, but the March gig was a great gift for the fans.
Exactly! And the March show we'll have the 2nd encore!