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Sneakers (1992) – 4K makeover sourced from the original camera negative

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Re: Sneakers (1992) – 4K makeover sourced from the original camera negative

#251

Post by jamesdwilson »

istillwritecode wrote: post #248
jackgavigan wrote: post #106

One of the great things about Sneakers is that the McGuffin's core concept still holds up as reasonably credible 30+ years later. I first saw this movie in the mid-90s, and it sparked a mild fascination with how cryptography (specifically, RSA) works, that arguably influenced my career path. Fun fact: Leonard Adleman (the A in RSA) drafted the words and slides used for the lecture scene: https://molecularscience.usc.…

They spelled Len's name wrong in the credits. :/

You might be right, but keep in mind actors often adopt variations for their names and may not even be consistent.

Re: Sneakers (1992) – 4K makeover sourced from the original camera negative

#252

Post by neckro23 »

NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #142
gnomesteel wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shows like The Simpsons that were only made for broadcast never had a film negative. It was likely mastered to analog tape.

They're solidly pre-digital. Somewhere, the individual frames were drawn/painted on cel, were they not? In principle, remastering should still be possible.

It would take a ton of work, especially for a show as long-running as The Simpsons. The original materials probably aren't even available anymore.

I believe the reason they were able to remaster lots of old Japanese anime OVAs in HD is because the animation was recorded to film first. I wouldn't be surprised if the Simpsons just used videotape instead.

Re: Sneakers (1992) – 4K makeover sourced from the original camera negative

#253

Post by pixelmonkey »

I really love “Sneakers.” It’s one of the best classic “hacker” films. This essay also does a nice job of breaking down a scene you might not have otherwise noticed, which has some lovely filmmaking technique and subtle sound design at play:

https://slate.com/culture/2012/09/searching-for-playtronics....

The ensuing despair over how to proceed is interrupted by the voice of Whistler (David Strathairn, Bay Area native), the team’s blind technician. “What did the road sound like?” he asks. “Did you go over any speed bumps? Gravel? How about a bridge?”

I nearly stood up in the theater from excitement. I’d never seen anything like it: the geography of San Francisco turned into a puzzle to be solved.

Re: Sneakers (1992) – 4K makeover sourced from the original camera negative

#255

Post by meifun »

imacomputertoo wrote: post #242
meifun wrote: post #71

This movie helped me: 1. Relate to a blind student in our school when they could hear things differently than the rest of us. 2. Realize that social engineering is thing and I tried to practice it in high school to gain access to computer rooms where the "fancy" computers were. 3. Realize that a government can steal or in general can be sneaky/secretive.

I saw this movie as a kid when it came out on vhs. it blew me away! I loved the blind guy. He was amazing. That part where he listens to the sounds on the road to determine where they took Robert Redford. You're right, it made blind people cool.

Yes. And the part where he knew where the cryptography device was on the desk.

Don’t look, listen.

Then he taps two tuning forks together.

Re: Sneakers (1992) – 4K makeover sourced from the original camera negative

#256

Post by ddingus »

KennyBlanken wrote: post #240
DamnInteresting wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "A computer matched her with him? I don't think so." When I first watched this movie, I felt like this was a weak moment in the film. "Computer dating" at the time was laughably bad, so seeing a character regard it as infallible ruined the immersion. With age and experience, I now see that some people just throw themselves behind certain technologies, and fail to find flaw. So maybe this character was just a misgui…

Keep in mind the script was from a top-shelf writer who worked on it for ages. It's established earlier in the film that the crew think it's completely plausible a computer dating service would set the two of them up. "...Fellas. Fellas, look at this man's trash. He's not looking for "buff." The man who folded this tube of Crest...is looking for someone...meticulous. Refined. Anal . ...What?" I think Cosmo's comment…

I agree, and would add:

Cosmo has been in prison for a long time. His perception of dating service implications are unlikely to be contemporary.

Re: Sneakers (1992) – 4K makeover sourced from the original camera negative

#257

Post by aksss »

meifun wrote: post #71

This movie helped me: 1. Relate to a blind student in our school when they could hear things differently than the rest of us. 2. Realize that social engineering is thing and I tried to practice it in high school to gain access to computer rooms where the "fancy" computers were. 3. Realize that a government can steal or in general can be sneaky/secretive.

2 & 3 for me came from War Games with Matthew Broderick

Re: Sneakers (1992) – 4K makeover sourced from the original camera negative

#260

Post by dylan604 »

coreyo wrote: post #250
dylan604 wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I also can’t imagine the film masters were trashed, or that the show was composited to video tape. So many shows very much were composited to analog video tape. I personally worked on edit sessions where multiple film-to-tape transfers were composited to 1" then BetacamSP then digital formats like DigiBeta and everything that followed. I get it is hard to grok for eople without direct experience only ever knowing di…

amusing that the studios do all this work in contracts to make sure they have rights as long as they possibly can and then they forget to take care of the physical media

I think you're confusing modern day contracts with content from pre-2000. With DVDs, people started paying attention to the quality of the content to the point that additional things were added to the contracts to have cast/crew available for behind the scenes during principle photography, after edit for commentary, etc. Before that, it was just take the released version and dub it to VHS were quality was an after thought.

That older content just had no concepts of ever being used for anything other than the original broadcast, or eventually, hopefully, syndicated broadcasts. People survived off of royalties from syndication which is why it was a big deal reach that 100th episode. Once they reached 100, they could phone it in. That's why so many older shows had 20+ episodes per season to get to 100 faster.

times have changed. the quality of home video is so much better than it was, and now people pay attention to those details. compare a 4k HDR with surround to a VHS with maybe HiFi stereo audio tracks played back on most commonly the speakers on the TV itself. The timeline from VHS->DVD->HD->4K is not linear which is something I think a lot of people do not appreciate.

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