BR / Charisma

[MileFilms at aol.com]

In a message dated 1/14/01 8:09:34 PM, amnornes at umich.edu writes:

<< Dennis, I didn't understand your, "just look at any Wings of Desire print"
comment... >>

Markus,
Wings of Desire was mostly shot in B&W that for some reason (most likely the 
availability of stock or because of the price comparison) the distributors 
chose to print on color stock. Unfortunately, the US prints all were heavily 
in the blue/green range which Wenders himself noted was not his intention. 
For the first run of Schindler's List, Spielberg used B&W stock and they 
supposedly looked great. Unfortunately, there was such a huge demand for 
prints after opening weekend, that they were forced to go to color stock and 
though they came as close as possible to B&W as anyone has seen, there was 
still a slight hue.

Here's a different problem but concerns the future. For "The Sorrow and the 
Pity," we used B&W print stock but sadly, there is no acetate stock being 
produced these days (threat of vinegar syndrome), and I had to print on the 
thinner polyester stock. So what we gained in look, we sacrificed the quality 
of the laser subtitles. (The thinner the stock, the less there is to "grab" 
onto in the process.) For "The Mystery of Picasso" which is partly in B&W, I 
went to color stock for the whole film. 

Does the audience notice all this? Not always, but I believe von Stroheim was 
right about the silk underwear...


Dennis