BAT FRAME conspiracy

General goings on in the 1966 Batman World

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FLOYDLEWIS
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BAT FRAME conspiracy

Post by FLOYDLEWIS »

unless someone knows otherwise.(and tell us where to find it if you know otherwise)...the 1966 batman movie has still not been restored due to framing formats..and may never be..below is a photo I took from my TV in the 1970s..it shows what is missing..others are from what we have now...frame cut to fit
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John Mack
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Re: BAT FRAME conspiracy

Post by John Mack »

Very interesting. Let's see what answer we get.
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Therin of Andor
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Re: BAT FRAME conspiracy

Post by Therin of Andor »

"Holy Hallucination, Batman! 20th Century Fox presents 'Batman: The Movie' on Blu-ray in a marvelous-for-a-42-year-old-film 1080p, 1.85:1 framed transfer.

"This film retains its natural grain structure that is ever-present over the image and adds to the campy cinematic charm of the film. Various stock footage shots are scattered throughout the image, and they, too, appear excessively grainy and decidedly unpolished, but that's the way stock footage should look. Background details appear soft throughout the entirety of the picture. The higher resolution of Blu-ray brings out all of the details in the costumes, both the good and the bad, including some questionable stitching, cheap materials, and what appears to be a press-on Bat logo on Batman's chest. In chapter seven, viewers can even see what seems to be a helicopter rotor on the top of the frame, obviously captured while filming the shot from above. Some special effects shots don't hold up well in 1080p, particularly evidenced by the plainly obviously haloing seen around the "guinea pigs" in chapter 18, or that the horizon as seen in chapter 28 is clearly a painted wall on the inside of a soundstage, but no worries -- it all adds to the silliness of the movie. The print exhibits the occasional speckle and mar, but Fox has assembled a mostly pristine, clean, and perfectly cinematic-in-appearance print. Flesh tones are generally accurate in nature, and black levels are solid with only a hint of gray about them. If this movie is anything other than pure cheese, it is abundantly colorful. Colors are marvelously bright and accentuate the camp feel of the movie drastically. Batman's gray and blue looks nice, but pales in comparison to the Boy Wonder's red, green, and yellow outfit or the Joker's green and pink garb. 'Batman: The Movie' is a cornucopia of color, and this Blu-ray edition brings it out as never before. Kudos to Fox for once again providing a disc true to the source, with all its original elements seemingly intact and allowing us to enjoy the movie in a true theatrical style."

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Batman-Th ... u-ray/789/
"Holy nostalgia, Batman!"
Therin of Andor

(aka Ian McLean, from Sydney, Australia)
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BATWINGED HORNET
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Re: BAT FRAME conspiracy

Post by BATWINGED HORNET »

The framing issue is disappointing. It seems there's always some old TV series or movie that is not as "restored" as advertised, with some inexplicable tinkering going on.

I know TV used a different aspect ratio, but one would assume that any film--once prepared for what would be a DVD or Blu-Ray transfer---would use the enitre frame as shot and/or projected in theaters?
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Bob Furmanek
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Re: BAT FRAME conspiracy

Post by Bob Furmanek »

The common practice for feature films since 1953 in cinematography is to compose for widescreen theatrical but to protect for the standard Academy ratio. Meaning, there is extra height to the image on the negative but it is not anything that is meant to be seen.

I used to have a 35mm print of the feature and it is printed full-height aperture meaning there is WAY more image exposed than you would ever see even in an old 4x3 television broadcast. When run open-matte, there are boom microphones, tops of sets and other visual anomalies.

Full details are here: http://www.3dfilmarchive.com/home/wides ... umentation
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Scott Sebring
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Re: BAT FRAME conspiracy

Post by Scott Sebring »

This looks like the 16mm print they showed at an Ohio movie house back in 2008 when a group of us got together at a convention back then. It was pretty obvious that the film was shot in non widescreen but was meant to be cropped for theatrical release. There is one scene where Batman gathers up the bomb and tries to throw it out the villains headquarters window. He sets the bomb on the shelf, climbs up the shelf and looks out the window. On the16mm print, in the shot of him looking out the window, he in not wearing his blue trunks. This made it pretty clear they knew they were going to crop for a widescreen movie release and lined up the shot accordingly. They probably shot the movie with the same 35mm cameras and lenses that they used for the show instead of using anamorphic widescreen lenses and just cropped the print in post production developing. From my understanding this was a pretty common practice. ( Bob and I must have been typing at the same time)
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Bob Furmanek
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Re: BAT FRAME conspiracy

Post by Bob Furmanek »

Hey Scott, I think you're right.

I remember screening the feature in 35mm without an aperture plate in the projector head so we could see the full height of the printed image. You could see the end of the cyclorama during the submarine fight, the top of the process screen during the shark scene, spotlights and the top of the set in Gordon's office and loads of boom microphones dipping into the shot!

In fact, my avatar is a full-height frame from 35mm. Notice how you're seeing more height to the image than intended?
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BATWINGED HORNET
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Re: BAT FRAME conspiracy

Post by BATWINGED HORNET »

good information, Bob & Scott. It would be interesting to see that print, just to see the tops of sets, etc.
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Bob Furmanek
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Re: BAT FRAME conspiracy

Post by Bob Furmanek »

Any 35mm print will have that information. I no longer have the full feature but have an odd reel around here somewhere...
Kamdan
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Re: BAT FRAME conspiracy

Post by Kamdan »

This is why I kept the 4X3 framed VHS version of the film. A problem with the initial DVD release was that the country names for the security council were cropped off, ruining the joke that they were speaking different languages. This was corrected for the Blu-ray, but the framing was still off with their headroom.
FLOYDLEWIS
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Re: BAT FRAME conspiracy

Post by FLOYDLEWIS »

could swear one of the guys ducked to be in the shot for the bluray...so you are in charge of framing...you have done 6 versions...what are the odds you would make a full frame copy just for yourself
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