Se7en (David Fincher, 1995)

[hearthesilence]

Jesus, if I got this right, then they actually created an 8K master which they had to dither down to 4K for distribution. (Even the IMAX screenings couldn't be more than 4K projection.) Is that going to be the standard someday, 8K? It seems well beyond the point of diminishing returns, at least for vintage films.

[flyonthewall2983]

I think the Japanese are ahead of us on that. They aired an 8K version of 2001 on television.

[Stefan Andersson]

Valuable rundown of Se7en on home video, focusing on colour correction and other differences between releases; includes screenshots:
https://notonbluray.com/blog/the-case-of-se7en/

[Finch]

Would be kind of nice actually if, since he's made minor changes to the film already, he got them to include a shorter version of the film where it cuts to the end credits immediately after

Spoiler

Pitt shoots Spacey (or maybe it was after the helicopter pilot says man down).

Neither Fincher nor Freeman were fans of the epilogue New Line made them tack on.

[Walter Kurtz]

Maybe they could also chop a little bit off the bottom of the special edition UHD packaging to coincide with this!

[Stefan Andersson]

Details about changes to the UHD master:
https://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=546224

[hearthesilence]

This detail was mentioned in another thread, but the "irritation" is a bit eye-rolling:

Door instead of curtain: In an interior scene with Brad Pitt, another door has now been added on the left side of the frame. This may be related to Fincher's statements in interviews that the curtain (?) actually seen there was primarily a prop used as a light source or the like. In any case, there was a lot of irritation from fans about the reason for this and we couldn't think of a really sensible explanation either.

Just look at the shot and it's obvious - your eyes are naturally drawn to a light source, and that's what happens here even when Pitt's character is at the center of the frame. That big source of light is always going to pull some of your attention away, but drop in a door that makes the left side of the frame blend in with everything else that's in shadow, and Pitt's character has much more of your focus.

Similarly the telephone poles in another shot likely serve a similar purpose - they break up an otherwise bright corner of the screen where you're seeing clear blue sky. The focus on that shot is probably meant to be the building's geometrical facade, and rather than attempt to change the sky into something else (which could cause bigger problems) they've cut it up.

[pistolwink]

It's weird to see that movie-censorship.com article use "scenes" to mean "shots," like I was reading a Variety review from 1919.

During the meeting between Somerset and Tracy, there are a few moments when a tiny strand of Paltrow's hair hangs over her cheek in the take used. As already mentioned in the interview linked above, this apparently bothered Fincher.

Obviously I'm not as much a perfectionist as David Fincher (who is?) but I cannot relate to these directors who meticulously (or not-so-meticulously) rework their past films decades later. You'd think that worrying that much about something you'd completed would be exhausting, maybe even debilitating.

[Beloved Aunt]

You'd think that worrying that much about something you'd completed would be exhausting, maybe even debilitating.

Imagine what he's like as a parent...

[tenia]

Soderbergh famously said it must be torture to get stuck on such minute details in every shot.

[Mr Sausage]

Fincher's said that pre-production is his favourite part and that he generally dislikes shooting. That might be why. Doing 50 takes to ensure you've controlled every little detail sounds maddening.

[ZolaBola]

Fincher's said that pre-production is his favourite part and that he generally dislikes shooting. That might be why. Doing 50 takes to ensure you've controlled every little detail sounds maddening.

Kubrick was a past-master at the 50+ take game. Just as Nicholson/Duvall, post The Shining!

But then again I can attest to some of that perfectionism when I paint a wall (a living room wall, for example), and I miss a bit even though to other people's eyes it would be hidden behind some furniture. It would nag at me knowing that that the wall is not totally complete to the point where I would give up the ghost and either reopen the existing tin of paint or in extremes, buy a new tin just to finish off the unpainted bit that is no bigger than a stamp!