MovieChat Forums > Becket (1964) Discussion > Current restoration is good; could be be...

Current restoration is good; could be better

posted 18 years ago by mpaulshore
10 replies | jump to latest

The currently playing restoration of Becket, which was in fact completed several years ago, required a significant amount of effort and money to accomplish, mostly to put together a new interpositive from the separation master, and to rescue the multitrack stereo soundtrack from serious physical deterioration of the available magnetic analog masters. You can read a bit about the restoration process at http://www.becketthemovie.com/becket_00.html.

There are four things I noticed, however, that could have been done better, and not necessarily with a great deal of extra expenditure.

First, there is an audio continuity error in one scene where Becket is chanting in Latin, and the pitch of his voice goes down a semitone from one shot to the next (something that as good a singer as he seems to be would essentially never have a reason to do in real life). This could have been corrected in a matter of minutes, by digitally lowering the pitch of his voice in the first shot.

Second, there is one scene where the colors fluctuate wildly for a minute or so, I suppose due to deterioration of one or more of the separation master elements. This could have been digitally corrected, I assume with a few person-days of labor at most.

Third, the film sounds as if, in the original final stereo mix of the soundtrack, the volume was subjected to some kind of compression or limiting, presumably as a concession to the inadequate amplifiers and speakers that were often in use in even some of the better stereo-equipped theaters of the 1960's. As a result, the dialogue, sound effects, and music never hit the volume peaks you expect them to: instead, they repeatedly wimp out at the climactic moments. It would have been nice if the restorers had done a little tasteful re-expansion of the soundtrack volume, so as to get rid of that unfortunate relic of a comparatively backward era in cinema audio.

Fourth, the soundtrack is a bit deficient in the bass frequencies, which again was probably done in the original final stereo mix to protect inadequate theater amplifiers and speakers from damage. Some tasteful re-equalization of the soundtrack would have been nice.

I wonder whether there's time left to correct some or all of these problems in the upcoming DVD rerelease.

[–] Cinemad--2 18 years ago

Apparently when shown at Seattle recently, reel 1 was washed out and the color balance was different to the other reels. Did you find this to be the case or was the Seattle print mistimed?

[–] mpaulshore 18 years ago

The print that I saw recently at the Landmark E Street Cinema in Washington, D.C. didn't have that problem.

[–] skwrking 18 years ago

I noticed the scene where the colours kept changing each time the shot changed. It was when Henry was talking to his wife and mother at the dinner table, and he stands up and walks over to the fireplace (?) while he's ranting.

[–] mpaulshore 18 years ago

Yes, that's the scene. My recollection is that the colors fluctuated even within individual shots.

[–] WallyB 18 years ago

and unfortunately it was not fixed before the DVD transfer. It's quite annoying, every fifth or sixth frame tinges yellow. I can't help but wonder, is it supposed to be a deliberate visual effect representing the fire ?

[–] Kinematico 17 years ago

About the scene where the colors fluctuates (The dinner when Henry II announces that his son would be declared officially heir to the crown the next day), it's kinda annoying and distracting, so much that I thought that there was something wrong with my player or the HDMI cable, but it wasn't the case.

The print have suffred major damages, and probably this is the best Becket will ever look on DVD. I guess we'd have to wait until "Becket" goes "Blu", since I don't think the DVD will be revisited anytime soon.

Anyway the image looks better than expected and honestly it's a privilege to have such wonderful film finally on DVD.

About the audio: IMO movies like Becket doesn't needs a fake 5.1 bump. It sounds quite good in its original stereo. If you want to hear sound coming out from all ur speakers, choose Dolby Prologic II from your A/V receiver. I tried it and sounds even better than the 5.1 mix. However I prefer the original stereo track just as it is.

[–] Cinemad--2 18 years ago

I know that in the past they used to use a form of compression referred to as the "Academy Curve" . I believe frequencies over 8000 cycles were rolled off.
Could this be what you are referring to?

[–] mpaulshore 18 years ago

The term "compression" refers to the process of reducing the dynamic range of an audio recording by a certain ratio; it has nothing to do with frequency range, which is what you're asking if I'm referring to. Compression in effect makes soft sounds louder and loud sounds softer, so that the recording's overall volume level is more nearly uniform. Radio stations often do this to make it easier for people to consistently hear the station's programming over background noise (such as the noise inside listeners' cars). Compression can also be used to protect inferior audio recording and reproduction equipment from damage.

An alternative procedure with a somewhat similar goal is limiting, which prevents the volume of an audio recording from rising above a certain level. Actually, what I heard in Becket sounded more like limiting than compression to me, though perhaps they used a combination of the two procedures.

I also complained about an apparent rolloff of low frequencies in Becket's stereo soundtrack. This could not be the result of application of the Academy Curve, however, for two reasons. First of all, the Academy Curve mainly functioned to roll off high frequencies, its low-frequency rolloff being much less severe; and the high frequencies in Becket seemed quite healthy. Second, the Academy Curve was only for optical mono soundtracks, not for magnetic stereo soundtracks such as that of Becket. The purpose of the Academy Curve was to protect early mono movie-theater sound systems from damage from high frequencies, and to a lesser extent from low frequencies. The stereo sound systems that were installed in some movie theaters beginning in the fifties were of considerably higher quality, and therefore didn't need such a drastic degree of protection.

While the Academy Curve could not have been used for the magnetic stereo soundtrack of this film, some procedure of frequency response alteration seems to have been applied, and presumably that procedure could have been counteracted in the restoration if the audio engineer or engineers working on it had wanted to. Likewise, the audio engineer or engineers could have taken steps, even if inexact ones, to counteract the compression and/or limiting that was clearly applied to the soundtrack's volume level.

[–] Cinemad--2 18 years ago

There were 70MM 6 track magnetic stereo prints of BECKET and there were a few 35MM 4 track magnetic stereo prints but the majority of the release prints were 35MM Mono optical sound track prints.

Does anybody know if the 70mm and/or 35MM magnetic prints had "discrete" dialogue. Did the dialogue follow the actors around the screen?

[–] bhaktigirl 18 years ago

Pick all you want, I'm overjoyed it's finally coming out! And if it just looks as good as the print I saw a couple months ago, I'll be happy...