Close Encounters Blu-ray - question about blurry picture

I watched the Director's Cut of the film from the bluray set.

There are a large number of shots that are blurry at the top and bottom of the image. Not every shot is this way. Some shots within the same scene vary between being blurry and clear.

This transfer shows the film grain very nicely, so it is easy to spot the blurry shots. There are images of newspapers and newspaper clippings where you can clearly see that the image is in focus from top to bottom.

So my question is this: Was this something that has always been there or maybe the film wasn't flat in the "gate" (or however the hell they do it these days) when the transfer was done at some point.

** unrelated nerdy note **
I had never noticed the review of Star Wars that is on the page that Teri Garr uses the scissors to clip a story from. You can actually read most of the text if you pause it. I thought that was very cool.

 

It may have something to do with Close Encounters Of The Third Kind Being shot with anamorphic/spherical lenses.

 

I think you have the answer there. Effects shots were 65mm and used spherical lenses. The anamorphic part wouldnt' make a huge difference for that sort of top and bottom blur. There would be possibly some more chromatic aberration, which is evident in some of the scenes (eg: massive light through the windows). Perhaps some of it is just the way Spielberg framed the scenes, he did use some shallow DOFs and perhaps you are just noticing that?

Would love some screenshots of what you are talking about.

 

Would love to post screenshots, but I have no way to do it.

It is definitely not DOF that I was talking about, but I did notice his use of DOF throughout the film. I don't remember noticing it on any outdoor scenes. Mainly indoor where the wall paper patterns made the focus easy to see.

 

Vilmos Zsigmond used a ton of diffusion on this picture, and it was simply part of the photographic style of that era. Also, it was all shot on the old Eastman color negative 5254 (if memory serves), and it just wasn't that sharp as a stock. Plus it was anamorphic. Tons of 1970s scope movies are soft as hell; some are a nightmare to transfer. (Two I mastered are King Kong and The Way We Were, and after working on both, I thought my eyesight was going.)

Star Wars was even softer, if you want to know the truth. The effects were sharp but the live action stuff -- particularly the exteriors -- are really soft and diffuse. Lucas went for a completely different visual style for Episodes 1, 2 & 3 (aside from the latter two being shot on HD video).

 

The video style was "what cgi looks like at the moment"

 

I just this title on Blu Ray and I was amazed at the picture quality. I feel that all older movies should be remastered into high def with this quality of detail and attention.

 

Those visual signatures were always there, but are now more apparent due to the wonderful Blu-ray. While I never bought the VHS, I do have the Criterion CAV LD, and the 2 disc DVD SE. The Blu-ray set is stunning, and I'm still dumbfounded that this can be had for under $15 with some digging.

 

I can't wait to check out all the special features on the set. It really is an amazing value to get all three versions one one disc, with another disc of bonus material. The "view from above" feature is nice, too. It allows you to watch any version of the film, and an icon pops up at the top of the screen when a scene is unique to that particular version.

As far as the blurry edges, it is nice to have technology that allows me to see these kind of things clearly. I went from seeing the film on VHS to the new bluray transfer, so it is an amazing revelation.

 

Star Wars makes another appearance in the film. If you haven't watched the supplemental material before, I'll let you find it for yourself. One of those little things you can't possibly see just watching the movie (or I never would have anyway) but they point it out in one of the supplements (at least they did on the DVD).

 

I have to admit, the documentaries on the Close Encounters Blu-ray disc were astonishingly good. Really, really cool stuff in there.

I just wish they could've gotten Vilmos to talk about how Spielberg blamed most of the movie's production problems on him and got the cinematographer fired before filming ended. (Absolutely true story, related in producer Julia Phillips' infamous book You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again.) It was almost 20 years before Vilmos would speak to Spielberg again.

I would also point out that while I love the movie in many ways, it's very dated. There's something about Spielberg's contemporary films that they don't age well to me; but his more "historical" films (Private Ryan, Indiana Jones, Schindler's List, etc.) seem to hold up better over the years, IMHO.

BTW, great story in the trades about 100,000 defective Blu-ray copies of Private Ryan being recalled due to an audio sync problem. Ya gotta hate when that happens...

--Marc W.

 

I produced and wrote (and came up with the name) for the "A View From Above" feature on the disc, that closely compares all three cuts of the film. I also wrote all of the copy on the accompanying printed insert for "A View From Above," in addition to art directing the new menus.

What a job, as some of the differences are very slight to say the least! But it was an honor to work on one of my favorite movies of all time.

I agree that the transfer is great, and can attest that it was approved by the filmmaker.

 

Wow, thank you. You did a wonderful job.