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>> the ethical and artistic arguments >Those are all baloney. Doing what I suggest does not destroy the originals in any way. It's simply making the movies mor
by shiroiuma 3y ago
>> the ethical and artistic arguments
>Those are all baloney. Doing what I suggest does not destroy the originals in any way. It's simply making the movies more enjoyable. Apparently, a lot of purists want people to suffer watching them: suffer with grainy, blotchy film, difficult to make out flickering black & white, and bad piano music.
I think there's 2 separate issues actually: there's the "artist's intent", and then there's refusal to utilize any modern technology. The latter I agree is baloney: if you can use modern technology to clean up and improve old stuff (such as taking an original Star Wars film print and removing the scratches in the film, improving flaws in the FX, etc.), I think it's ridiculous to argue against that kind of thing. Then there's the artist's intent: if the original artist intended that the movie have "bad piano music" as you call it, should you be changing that? It's like changing the dialog in Lord of the Rings so the characters all talk like modern American hipsters: how is this helpful? These movies are a product of their time, and the music is too.
If you could bring the original artists back from the dead, and ask them if they'd like to use modern technology to clean up their old silent movies to sharpen them, remove the noise, etc., I'm sure they'd agree: why wouldn't they want the print to look as good as possible? If you ask them about colorizing, there might be some debate; some might like it, others might not. It's not like they had a choice back then, but even today some people like B&W photos for artistic reasons. If you ask them about adding modern music, I don't think they'd like that much at all.
- WalterBright 3y agoHow many movie arteests today would choose black and white? A number indistinguishable from zero. How many would choose dialog cards over voice? Zilch. How many would make a film and says to the movie theater "play any music you want for the show"? Zip. If I made a movie, I'd be pleased if people far in the future watched it. If that meant using their technology to improve it, that's fine with me. After all, I've suggested to many people that they improve my game Empire with modern graphics and AI and sound.
- JoelEinbinder 3y agoI don't think you can change a work that drastically without the change itself being a piece of art. And the original artists might not want to be left out of that process. See David Simon's experience with the HD remaster of the Wire for similar themes: https://davidsimon.com/the-wire-hd-with-videos/ https://davidsimon.com/the-wire-hd-with-videos/
- WalterBright 3y agoThe original artists for silent and B+W are all dead.
- jameshart 3y agoArteests like… George Miller, Stephen Spielberg, Bong Joon Ho, Steven Soderbergh… Look up Fury Road: Black and Chrome. And take a look at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz-30KI2bsw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz-30KI2bsw
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- nativeit 3y agoWorth noting, among the “number indistinguishable from zero” are contemporary classics such as: Schindler’s List, Dead Man, Good Night & Good Luck, Ed Wood, Clerks, Raging Bull, Nebraska, et al… Anyone who studied Media Theory will be well aware of the ubiquitous Marshall McLuhan quote, “The medium is the message,” and understands that the means with which a piece of media is produced and distributed tells a story in and of itself. Sometimes that’s in service to the broader narrative, and sometimes it’s simply a product of circumstance, but either way it carries its own value for the audience, and I would argue that it would be arrogant for one to unilaterally decide whether such things are important or not to preserve.