Interview with OTHELLO restoration producer Michael Dawson

[A Sled in Flames]

Okay then, guess I'm going to have to pick up the Second Sight version. I've yet to see the restored version actually. The Criterion is relatively impressive though.

[Le Chiffre]

Check OTHELLO out on Turner Classic Movies next time it plays. Dawson said that one is (or was) of pristine quality too, from the same source as the Second Sight, although he doesn't know whether they still have the contract to show that particular version. I never bothered to watch it on TCM because I had the Image DVD and was satisfied with it, but next time it plays there I'm going to take a look at it, just out of curiosity. Especially since they now broadcast in HD.

[Roger Ryan]

Actually, TCM doesn't quite broadcast in HD; all of the TCM-HD programming is upscaled. The result can still be good, but it's not like watching HD programming on AMC or HBO.

[Le Chiffre]

Yes, it still looks good. Of course, TCM has always looked good. Here's an interesting, although slightly bitchy, article which claims that about 25% of TCM's programming is genuine HD:

http://www.tvpredictions.com/turner030613.htm

[Roger Ryan]

There's no question that TCM-HD broadcasts films that have been mastered in HD, but it's similar to watching a DVD that has been "mastered in HD" which gives you the best possible image in a standard definition format. All of Robert Osbourne's introductions, as well as recent interview segments, may have been shot in HD, but they are clearly being transmitted in upscaled SD. If the channel isn't even equipped to transmit an HD signal for newly-shot in-studio footage (something most local news programming already does), then I'm not counting on any of their films being transmitted in true HD.

I don't want to sound too bitchy about this myself as I believe TCM is one of the few cable channels that has actually improved with time (a glorious resource for silent films, foreign and cult movies in addition to the Hollywood classics), but the failure to transition to a high definition signal (for the supposed 25% of programming available in HD) is puzzling.

[A Sled in Flames]

I agree with the fact that TCM HD just shows upscaled SD 24/7, regardless of whether or not their master was mastered in HD. I don't think I've ever seen a true HD broadcast movie from TCM.

That being said, I think the problem that TCM has encountered is that they lack a lot of HD masters; this article would have me believe that 75% of their content are from SD masters, which, to me even seems a conservative estimate. However, I don't understand why they can't broadcast the films they do have in HD (the alleged 25%) in real HD, instead of upscaled SD.

There is also the possibility that they have no HD masters whatsoever and their whole broadcast library is SD, hence the need to upscale all of it. That would be very, very unfortunate. This is somewhat supported by the fact that I see them still using pre Blu-Ray masters. Example, North by Northwest was shown a few months ago in its lackluster Lowry incarnation rather than its much-publicized 8K restoration. Of course, these old masters may be in HD but the fact that they're not upgraded to masters used for BDs is somewhat suspicious to me.

In closing, remember that a TCM upscaled broadcast is not necessarily better than upscaling a DVD with a good player. TCM seems to use grain reduction filtering occasionally. I compared their broadcast of The Magnificent Ambersons with the Warner Brothers DVD upscaled on my OPPO, and the DVD beat it, hands down. The DVD was dirtier but there was far more detail. It was the same master though.

[Roger Ryan]

I can tell that TCM-HD does broadcast some films using recent HD masters, often right around the same time the films are appearing on new Blu-ray editions. Several Criterion titles have appeared this way and the masters used have looked better than when the film was previously broadcast (using a presumably older master). A fantastic transfer of Keaton's short ONE WEEK was broadcast around the time of the Kino Blu-ray set release with the film looking better than ever. Of course, the actual Blu-ray image looked even stronger since the TCM broadcast was upscaled. The real giveaway is the fact that Osbourne's introductions are not in HD (I checked last night to confirm this is still the practice); inexplicably, the only thing "HD" about TCM-HD is that it resides among the all the other true HD channels on my cable system.

[jbrooks]

TCM has now (finally) started showing (at least some) titles in true HD. I noticed while watching "Fiddler on the Roof" last week. It looked fantastic and was obviously in true HD (not upscaled). My program guide now states "HD" for those TCM programs that are in true HD and omits the "HD" for those that are not. My quick glance at a few days of their calendar suggests the bulk of material is still upscaled SD. But some HD is better than nothing.

[Le Chiffre]

Here's an interesting event from last November that got past us:


https://indiememphis2015.eventive.org/s ... 0300be86a6

Chimes Memphis screening, November 2015

Indie Memphis (Facebook):
Celebrate the 100th anniversary of Orson Welles’ birth with one of the great treasures of cinema - CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT - presented on a rare 35mm film print.

*

Here's a tweet from Marguerite Rippy, author of a book on Welles's RKO projects,
"Orson Welles and the Unfinished RKO Projects: A Postmodern Perspective"
(http://www.amazon.com/Orson-Welles-Unfi ... 0809329123).
Margueritte H. Rippy on Twitter (November 2nd):
In Memphis next Sunday? Watch Welles' "Chimes at Midnight," 1pm; join me for post-screening talkback.

The "rare 35mm film print" used for this screening was rented from Michael Dawson who said that it was one of the prints struck from the Master Dupe Negative that he mentioned in the interview I did with him a couple of years ago:
http://www.wellesnet.com/michael-dawson ... ew-part-2-–-the-chimes-at-midnight-restoration/

(Julian) Schlossberg had been talking with Bertrand Bagge who represents the Piedras,but then he tried to deal with Saltzman's American distributor Arthur Cantor to gain control of the original negative elements for the film. That's where a group of investors, which I happened to be a part of, stepped in to stop it.

So we obtained those elements from Arthur Cantor ourselves, by making a better offer. Three new 35mm release prints had already been made from those elements, and one of them was shown at the 1989 NYU symposium on Welles, which Oja Kodar attended. That print was extraordinary, and I'm still in possession of it.

Did anyone attend this recent Memphis event? It would be interesting to see how this print compares to the new Janus 4K DCP currently playing in NY and LA.

Quentin Tarantino on Digital vs. Film:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BON9Ksn1PqI

[Le Chiffre]

Dr. Rippy was kind enough to share her thoughts after seeing Janus's new 4K Chimes restoration this past weekend:

My overall impression from the Mr. Bongo/Filmoteca Española DCP from the E Street screening in D.C. Saturday afternoon is that Michael Dawson's 35mm version is better. While I am not a film preservationist, and didn't attend the Indie Memphis screening in anticipation of seeing this version as well, my impression is that the overall quality of the 35mm print I saw in Memphis was richer, sharper, and with fewer flaws.

It's hard to say without seeing them side by side, and it's also hard to compare a digitized version against the texture of film itself, which will always be less grainy, richer, with more depth. That said, my impression even in the opening sequence was that Dawson's print is of better quality.

I'm always happy to see a Welles film made available to the public, and I enjoyed the screening of what is a very enjoyable restoration. I just enjoyed the screening in Memphis more. There were several points at Saturday's screening during which I was uncomfortably aware of degraded visual and sound quality, and I didn't have that same experience in Memphis.

[Le Chiffre]

CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT
Mike Teal interviews Othello producer Michael Dawson (MD) regarding last year's release of CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT by Janus:

MT:
Have you bought the new Criterion Chimes Bluray disc?



MD:
I have not, but I may do so in the near future just to make it part of the inventory. I did see Janus's restoration (that the Criterion disc was made from) when it played theatrically last year.

MT:
What did you think of it?

MD:
Visually, I thought they did a very impressive job cleaning up the artifacts and lack of contrast that marred that previous, Filmoteca Espanola edition when it played theatrically during the 2015 centennial year. But I was disappointed that they didn't do more to fix the sound synchronization.

MT:
I saw the Filmoteca Espanola DCP in 2015, and like many others, including Beatrice Welles, was somewhat disappointed in it. Since the 2016 Janus release was supposedly a cleaned up version of that, I was concerned that it might be another disappointment, but I was much more impressed by the Janus, and Beatrice said on a New York radio program when it was shown there that she was thrilled with it, so that would seem to go a considerable way towards closing the case. However, I was struck by what Margueritte Rippy, author of “Orson Welles and the Unfinished RKO Projects”, said to us when she screened a print of your Chimes restoration at the Memphis Indie Film Festival last year. She said your version had more depth than the Janus version, which she also saw.

MD:
The stereo restoration of Chimes that we did for Adriana Saltzman in 2004 was taken straight from the master Dupe Negative, which we have owned since the mid-1990's. I don't know for sure the source for the recent Janus restoration, but I was struck by this excerpt from Ray Kelly’s interview with Peter Becker, president of Criterion, that was posted on Wellesnet not long ago:

"The goal of this restoration was to create the best possible theatrical experience audiences could enjoy today. Using the scan from the Filmoteca, made from the original negative, we were able to make marked improvements in both picture and sound over anything that has been shown before. Careful color correction improved contrast, grey scale, and black levels. Weeks of digital restoration at Criterion addressed dirt, tears, splices, stains, scratches, and flicker. Restoring and evening out the many opticals throughout the film was one of the greatest challenges. The soundtrack has been gently cleaned to remove surface dirt and distracting thumps that appeared at many of the scene changes,"

I could be wrong, but to me the above excerpt screams that the source for the Filmoteca – (which was subsequently used for the 2015 Mr. Bongo DVD release in the UK), - was not "the original negative", but either a composite answer or release print, and one that could have been projected a number of times.

I've even had several friends in Europe tell me that, in their opinion, it was not taken from the master negative (supposedly still in Europe), but rather was likely created from several good 35mm prints, with the best parts from each print combined to create one print with a minimum of flaws, and then cleaned up digitally from there; a high-quality stitch-together, in other words.

I think what happened here is that Janus is doing the same thing that Milestone did some years ago with "The Trial". Except that was pre-digital and they struck new prints and said it was "restored". Now this is not to say that Janus did not do clean up. But a proper restoration would be taken from the negative and would also eliminate any observance of the film being "post dubbed". My worry is for people seeing it for the first time and not being aware of Peter Becker's explanation or the circumstances in general. I would just hate to hear or read "the film looks great, but…"

The good news is Welles continues to be very relevant, and to stress again, Janus definitely improved it as a question of contrast and comparison. And on that basis people surely have been and should be impressed.

MT:
Why wouldn't they use the original master negative? After all, Peter Becker has said that they were going to look the world over for the best elements available for use. They claim on the liner notes for the Chimes Bluray set that the Filmoteca Espanola was indeed taken directly from the original camera negative, but your stitch-together theory is one I’ve heard before, and even on Wellesnet too, with someone posing the possibility that the Master negative of Chimes in Europe was not stored properly and so is now unusable for making new prints.

MD:
Yes, I’ve heard that too, and it’s possible. On the other hand, the Master Dupe negative that we have here was stored with absolute care and remains in perfect condition.

I believe the British release from Mr. Bongo also showed reel change marks. So, if it was a 4K transfer from the "original camera negative", then why was there such a quality issue? You might remember the quote by Beatrice that Peter had done miracles with what she had previously seen? The only explanation is that the negative used - if it even was used - was not in good condition. I am still scratching my head regarding "reel change" marks. I think that at minimum Criterion worked pretty hard to improve image quality. So it’s the old “point of departure” dynamic. The main point being that I am in possession of a superior negative.

Now it might be that Peter Becker is more administrative than technical, and in the dynamic of picking up a lexicon of phrases or terms of descriptions like “reel change marks”, may have just provided terms loosely to soften expectations as an explanation for the motivation to do additional work. But when you combine it with what he states they want to do, then it strongly points to what I have suggested. Any post production technician in Hollywood worth his or her salt reading the post will recognize or immediately question the situation. On the other hand, I have also been told that that their restoration was “not derived” from the Filmoteca/Mr. Bongo release.

MT:
Did you contact Criterion about all this?

MD:
I sent several emails. I also spoke via a skype connection at the University of Michigan Welles Symposium to Criterion’s Issa Clubb. But there was never any follow up response. Again, let me stress that the Janus version I saw last year is very good, but it could be better. Again, it's really a question of the point of departure: why depart from a 35mm print or a battered negative when you could depart from a much better original camera negative?

MT:
You just said a proper restoration would eliminate any observance of the film being "post dubbed", but Peter Becker reportedly said that they decided not to fix the film’s faulty dialogue sync because they wanted it to be seen exactly as it was when it was first released. Many leading Welles scholars concurred with this, but I say, why not try and make it better than it originally was if the technical means are available?

MD:
Absolutely. In addition to fixing the sync, our restoration utilizes the original stereo tracks that Lavignino’s score was originally recorded in. It’s true, there was a mono mix for the film’s release, but was this because that’s what Welles wanted aesthetically, or was it an issue of practicality? A stereo sound mix would have been much more expensive.

MT:
So one could argue that the stereo or two-track soundtrack for Chimes is the real soundtrack?

MD:
Well, the argument is that there is a monaural optical soundtrack; therefore, that’s what he wanted. Well maybe, maybe not. The technology, particularly the optical printer, available to him in 1965 must be considered. It would have cost him more in post-production to go with stereo and Welles was wanting to just get the film done. But the master mag tracks for the music were definitely recorded in stereo. And again, we are talking basic left and right microphone placement. But it is apparent and it enhances the overall audio experience. I had several conversations with Gary Graver who said on more than one occasion that Welles wanted to re-release all his Shakespeare films in stereo including Macbeth. If my memory serves correct Gary said the same thing to Welles scholar Jonathan Rosenbaum.

Furthermore, when we acquired all of the original elements for Chimes back in the 1990’s, including the master dupe negative, we also received from Cam Cine, the Italian owner and studio producer of the music score, additional DAT masters transferred from 35mm mag tracks. We didn’t bother to open and listen to them for a long time. We presumed they were A B music tracks since they had initially provided a master stereo DAT tape, although I remember at the time thinking it was slightly odd that there would be 35mm mag tracks for left and right channels.

When we finally did open and listen to them we discovered that one box contained sound effects elements that were not in the Suevia Films DVD release or any of the 35mm or 16mm prints in my possession. They were simple environmental sounds like fire crackling, wind, horses, etc. The other box contained long passages of what initially seemed like silence. We soon realized these were “presence tracks”. These are used to create a greater sense of depth in the sound track, because every environment makes some kind of atmospheric sound, even if there is no other sound. My best guess is that somehow these got separated during post-production, but we have also restored all these elements back into the film, and the difference in sound quality and depth is subtle, but it’s definitely there.

MT:
So why has this 2004 version not been released yet?

MD:
It was mainly a matter of not being able to trace a clear chain-of-title regarding ownership, which was difficult due to conflicts between certain members of the Saltzman family, plus the prolonged legal wranglings with the Piedra family. Another factor was new technologies coming into play which were game changers for the project.

MT:
What are the chances that Adriana Saltzman will authorize a release of your restored version in the near future?

MD:
All I can say at this point is stay tuned.