Magnum, P.I. film reels/negatives question

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Magnum, P.I. film reels/negatives question

#1 Post by MagnumFan »

Has anyone ever seen any of the original reels/negatives of the show?

I ask in query wondering if there's any extra room on the negative to create a 16x9 version without boom mikes and other such things being visible? Like they did with Friends.

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Re: Magnum, P.I. film reels/negatives question

#2 Post by JungleBird »

Good question. I'm also wondering what happened to them as I'm very interested in the possibility of a 16:9 or just at least a real 1080p (/4k) 4:3 version (not like this BluRay set where maybe only about 20% really are FullHD, 60% are upscaled 720p and the later seasons even just look like on DVD! :| ).

What I found strange while watching the (so-called) 1080p BluRays and 720p HD-tv reruns is that it seems so random; I mean, throughout one season, there often are very big differences/changes in quality from one episode to the next one. Or even in some episodes, for example the first half looks brilliant (like 1080p or 720p) but suddenly it changes to rubbish DVD-like quality with more grain etc. :?
To some extent this is also visible on the DVD versions.

So my assumption is that when they did these transfers, they pretty often used poor-quality copies instead of the original masters (strangely, sometimes even in the middle of an episode for just a short time) when they didn't have the original ones at hand. Now, the question is why. Was it because they are lost? Because they didn't have the money/time to search for them/ scan them again? Why does it seem like only some parts of these episodes were missing in good quality?! Maybe because of damage done to the master reels through one of the Universal archive fires..? Have they maybe even dumped the original camera negatives (a terrible thought! :shock: ) back then?

So many questions.. I'm afraid we really would need someone who worked with the masters, negatives/ at the "remastering" process or so to maybe get them answered...
Unfortunately I just don't know where to find someone who has this knowledge... we'd need some sort of private investigator to find out :magnum:

Anyone here who maybe knows more about what happened to the original negatives/ masters? Some experts :higgins: / people who worked on production..? :?:

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Re: Magnum, P.I. film reels/negatives question

#3 Post by Nikita70 »

I’d pay a few hundred to get a Region A or Free blue ray set that had subtitles and had a great 1080 picture. Maybe one day. Hopefully it won’t be a budget house like MC that can’t be bothered with subtitles. Those cut into the profits ya know.

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Re: Magnum, P.I. film reels/negatives question

#4 Post by marlboro »

Why would you want a 16:9 version of a show that was never intended to be 16:9?

Cropping a picture to fit a widescreen tv is just as bad as cropping movies to fit the old 4:3 tvs, imo.

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Re: Magnum, P.I. film reels/negatives question

#5 Post by JungleBird »

Hi marlboro,

well, my wish for a 16:9 release is because of very good examples ("Seinfeld") where they didn't crop the image (you're absolutely right about that, that would the worst thing you could do!) but instead they used the extra information that was on the camera negatives. The reason they were able to do that was because back in the day, they actually shot the material in 16:9 and later cropped it to fit the usual 4:3 TV aspect ratio.
Question is whether they actually did that on Magnum too. I don't know.

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Re: Magnum, P.I. film reels/negatives question

#6 Post by Styles Bitchley »

JungleBird wrote:The reason they were able to do that was because back in the day, they actually shot the material in 16:9 and later cropped it to fit the usual 4:3 TV aspect ratio.
Interesting. I didn't know that! That'd be worth it to me.
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Re: Magnum, P.I. film reels/negatives question

#7 Post by marlboro »

I didn't make this overlay. All credit to Captainjoe201:


Image




Even if you you can find examples where you gain more than you lose picture wise, it is important to consider that the cinematographers and directors likely never intended for their films to be shown like this. What I'm saying is that they composed their shot anticipating that it would be shown on a 4:3 tv or on a theater screen. Sometimes the way a shot is framed can have a big impact on the feel of a scene.

Just my opinion, but if a movie was intended to be seen widescreen - keep it that way. If a tv show was intended to be shown in 4:3 - keep it that way.

Think of movies that really benefit from being in widescreen. Movies with sweeping vistas like you find in westerns. Movies that have highly choreographed and large action sequences (Ben Hur's classic chariot scene for example.) Now why in the heck would a sitcom need to be shot in that AR? It makes no sense.

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Re: Magnum, P.I. film reels/negatives question

#8 Post by marlboro »

Hope I don't come across as to much of a dick. Just a pet peeve of mine.

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Re: Magnum, P.I. film reels/negatives question

#9 Post by Styles Bitchley »

marlboro wrote:Hope I don't come across as to much of a dick. Just a pet peeve of mine.
Not at all. You’re making a lot of sense, actually.
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Re: Magnum, P.I. film reels/negatives question

#10 Post by Nikita70 »

I bought the deluxe release Blu-ray of the original Battlestar Galactica TV show from 1978. It has both the original full screen and the new widescreen version. At first I watched the widescreen version, then I watched the original full screen. It made me become an OAR purist. Not only did you lose a small amount of video on the cropped widescreen, it was not as clear or defined as the full screen and some shots were super grainy.
Having said that, would I buy a Blu-ray Magnum set that was cropped into a ‘new’ widescreen version? If it had subtitles then I would have to buy it. But I’d very much prefer the original.

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Re: Magnum, P.I. film reels/negatives question

#11 Post by ConchRepublican »

marlboro wrote:Hope I don't come across as to much of a dick. Just a pet peeve of mine.
LOL! I call myself out the same way.
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Re: Magnum, P.I. film reels/negatives question

#12 Post by Pahonu »

I'm with Marlboro on this. So perhaps I'm partially dickish. :wink: I don't really understand why people want to watch a film or TV show in a different format, intentionally I mean. I frequently find myself thinking the opposite when seeing a film on TV. What would this have been like on the big screen? What scenes were cut or parts of the image cropped? How did it sound? I don't know why, but these things wander into my head if I notice something in a scene. Films make much greater use of sound range and light contrast than do TV shows. The cinematographer and sound editor know you'll be experiencing the film in a dark quiet place free of distraction and they make decisions accordingly. That's definitely true of the aspect ratio and how they compose a shot. Wanting to see a TV series like a widescreen film is no different, it seems. That's just not what it is.

Most people don't realize that the classic It's a Wonderful Life was filmed in a 1:1 aspect ratio. I had a chance to see it that way in a theater and it was, ahem.. wonderful. They opened the curtains wide enough to show the square image on screen exactly as was intended by its creators. To me, wanting it changed seems like wishing DaVinci's Mona Lisa was larger or a different shape, or Monet's Water Lilies had different colors or wasn't so blurry. As I think about it, my daughter is pretty bothered whenever the black bars are at the top and bottom of the screen and will enlarge it cutting out some of the image. I know it's a common sentiment but I still don't get it. In any event, it's my TV, so if I'm watching with her, she has to live with the annoyance. :lol:

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