criterionforum.org

Check these out...

http://jonpaulkaiser.blog.co.uk/2010/05 ... d-8563097/

I hope this guy decides to market these.

It's too early for the blu-ray version i tells ya! [-(

Norbie wrote:It's too early for the blu-ray version i tells ya! [-(

I was admiring the wonderful set that was the re-release of Seven Samurai and i was shocked to discover that it came out in 2006. Has it really been so long? :-k I swear that it was only yesterday.

If you're going to think outloud, use a blog rather than a discussion forum, please.

They just posted this on Facebook saying their first HD encodes have arrived. They then gloat about the quality.

Given their track record with Blu Ray, I think it is fair to give them the benefit of the doubt. If Sanjuro and Yojimbo are any indication, this should look nothing less than phenomenal.

Hmm .. that doesn't look all that great to me. I really wouldn't have thought their Blu-ray transfer would come from a kinescope.

isn't that shot taken from a camera phone? I think it is far from full 1080p quality.

Facebook compresses the hell out of images.

I think Brian C is just joking here.

"Now when you play a movie, on your telephone...."

Amazing, and if the screen grabs are anything to go by, because the prints aren't in the best shape, it makes me think the period Mizoguchi films would also look stunning...

Almost all of Kurosawa's Toho films are in FAR better condition than Oharu (and most other Mizoguchi films).

I was mainly referring to Sansho and Ugetsu, which I think could be brought up to a similar standard in High def

Does anyone know if Seven Samurai qualifies for Criterion's Blu ray upgrade program?

i can't imagine why it wouldn't.

Blu-Ray.com

I am so excited for this!

So Criterion posted on Facebook that their QC department clocked in a total of 1047 hours (423 for the DVD, 624 for the Blu-ray) in restoring Seven Samurai for release. That's like one guy working fulltime for over six months (unless they have him working sweatshop hours). Assuming they pay these guys, I dunno, $30 an hour, and Criterion makes, say, $20 for each copy they sell, they'd have to sell over 1500 copies just to break even on QC costs!

greggster59 wrote:Does anyone know if Seven Samurai qualifies for Criterion's Blu ray upgrade program?

They are no longer doing the upgrade program due to lack of consumer interest. This was explained in an email response from Criterion that was posted in the Criterion thread on blu-ray.com.

swo17 wrote:So Criterion posted on Facebook that their QC department clocked in a total of 1047 hours (423 for the DVD, 624 for the Blu-ray) in restoring Seven Samurai for release. That's like one guy working fulltime for over six months (unless they have him working sweatshop hours). Assuming they pay these guys, I dunno, $30 an hour, and Criterion makes, say, $20 for each copy they sell, they'd have to sell over 1500 copies just to break even on QC costs!

Well, I am sure they have more than one person on each project. But that is irrelevant to your math on how many they have to sell. The fact is that they will sell 1500 copies very easily of this title. Libraries alone will make that number and probably already have since it was remastered and rereleased three or four years ago (where the DVD hours number came from). As for Blu Ray and those hours, they will still sell that many, and I could even see them going through that in the first week until the end of the first month. There are 308,000,000 people in this country. 1,500 isn't a large number in that context.

swo17 wrote:So Criterion posted on Facebook that their QC department clocked in a total of 1047 hours (423 for the DVD, 624 for the Blu-ray) in restoring Seven Samurai for release. That's like one guy working fulltime for over six months (unless they have him working sweatshop hours). Assuming they pay these guys, I dunno, $30 an hour, and Criterion makes, say, $20 for each copy they sell, they'd have to sell over 1500 copies just to break even on QC costs!

A nonunion television online editor with a light resume and only a few gigs worth of experience makes closer to 75$/hour and a skilled video restorationist would make substantially more, probably closer to 100-150$ an hour.

Your 30$/hour would cover a very good assistant editor though (for reality television at least) and would get you a pretty mediocre assistant for scripted television or film work.

We need to get that guy who did the math problem in the Bigger Than Life thread

Slant

Had my copy for over a week now and have revisited the whole film once and some individual favourite moments multiple times over. Only The Magician looks better than this quite astonishing resto.