[78-L] Wizard of Oz in hidef

[Sammy Jones]

Ken wrote:

> Today's audiences are so conditioned to the look of video that they
> think its an improvement over film.  Some of those video "restorations"
> are done by fools who destroy the original look of the film.  

Please tell me they're not cropping the Wizard of Oz to widescreen!

I have the deluxe standard DVD set that was released a few years ago, and
the picture is splendid.  It's restored with a new process that involves the
scanning of each of the three individual monochrome Technicolor negatives.
The images are then aligned perfectly to make (they say) better looking
images than were achievable in the original release prints.  

I believe original nitrate Technicolor prints are used as a reference for
color saturation, etc.  I'm not sure what they do about the grain on the
negatives.  I hope they left it in...

I haven't seen this version projected on the big screen, but on DVD it looks
great.  I assume the new theater release version probably uses the same
master.

Sammy Jones