The studio is putting out a widescreen edition of the show, but it has bungled the job so badly that one scene even shows a crew member standing around on the side of the screen. The remastered episodes have been airing since August, but a compilation of particularly egregious changes to the show began making the rounds today.
The problem is that the HD Buffy seems to have simply chosen at random how to change the program's aspect ratio. Some shots have added visual information at the edges, while others crop out visual information at the top and bottom, making the shot wider, sure, but also removing crucial context here and there. Some shots have even had effects and other important visual cues removed entirely.
Yes, that's a crew member in the shot. The new, wider image now includes things that were cropped out of the original broadcast, including the guy standing just off-camera.
A filter was originally applied to this shot to make it appear that the scene was taking place at night. That filter has apparently been removed, rendering this scene a little nonsensical.
Here you get a good sense of how zooming in on a portion of the shot to make it fill an entire 16:9 screen ruins the composition and removes some of the grandeur of a moment.
The problem is that the HD Buffy seems to have simply chosen at random how to change the program's aspect ratio. Some shots have added visual information at the edges, while others crop out visual information at the top and bottom, making the shot wider, sure, but also removing crucial context here and there. Some shots have even had effects and other important visual cues removed entirely.
Yes, that's a crew member in the shot. The new, wider image now includes things that were cropped out of the original broadcast, including the guy standing just off-camera.
A filter was originally applied to this shot to make it appear that the scene was taking place at night. That filter has apparently been removed, rendering this scene a little nonsensical.
Here you get a good sense of how zooming in on a portion of the shot to make it fill an entire 16:9 screen ruins the composition and removes some of the grandeur of a moment.
Buffy was shot 4x3 cuz TVs were shaped that way. Widescreen Buffy is nonsense. (Firefly was shot wide - Fox cropped it.) #apsectratiowoes
— Joss Whedon (@josswhedon) December 13, 2014Source:
If they ever plan on bringing this to Blu-Ray I hope they completely redo the HD.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the original Facebook post which highlights most of the changes, I have to say that most of them don't look TOO bad.
ReplyDeleteHasn't Joss been saying remastering Buffy to 16x9 is a bad idea for more than a decade?
ReplyDeleteRemastering the 4x3 fullscreen video to improve picture quality may be an option, but I don't know if a proper widescreen remaster is even possible. So much effort and time to do it "right"... if it can even be done right at all!
Truth be told, some remasters just never look quite right in the end anyway. Firefly as an example. I prefer to watch the DVD version compared to my bluray version. So much detail was lost in the BD remaster.
All this makes me wonder about The Wire HD remaster that was supposed to happen earlier this year....David Simon discusses many of te same issues in this article...
http://www.slashfilm.com/the-wire-aspect-ratio/
I'd actually buy the bluRay just for the crappy footage. Would be interesting too see how they messed up.
ReplyDeleteWhy even remaster it? Most fans (including me) own all the box sets and are happy with what they have. 30 years from now they may remaster it but now it's WAY too soon
this is a terrible idea! on the other hand this remastering will be great for the vidders on youtube
ReplyDeleteThat's just sad. But I guess it's good for bloopers.
ReplyDeleteI have 2 complete sets of Angel and Buffy, why you ask have 2 ?? Because someone was always wanting to borrow the one I was watching. ;) Never cared for the character Buffy, but LOVED Spike and Angel.
ReplyDeleteWhat a mess. Poor Buffy outlived monsters, gods, demons, and the like, only to be done in by "progress".
ReplyDeleteWhy not edit out the stuff like the crew member in that scene? I know film students who can easily do it so I know a multi billion dollar company like Fox can.
ReplyDeleteThe weird zooming and / or cutting out of scenery is bad enough, but how did they not notice stuff like lights and crew members? And the scene where it's supposed to be night in 'Angel' being turned to day is just ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteFox just doesn't give two shits about their old shows or fans. They have proven this so many times that it's not even funny anymore. No effort!
ReplyDeleteWhen I got a DVD of Buffy Joss had a letter say why he did not do Buffy in Widescreen. I hated when WB put Angel in Widescreen I did not know why they did that but now with what are TV's look like now its now needed and if Buffy ever comes out on Blu-ray I would not care about the flaws it just would be get too have.
ReplyDeleteHd would be nice but its another way to rip off fans especially since now it cant be done right so do us a favor leave it alone and release some deleted scenes bloopers behind the scenes that makes for happy fans
ReplyDeleteHoly crap that title scared the crap out of me! "ruined" made me think the original footage got damaged or something!
ReplyDeleteI totally freaked out and thought this was a Dark Shadows or Doctor Who situation, where the original prints were somehow destroyed. OMG.
ReplyDeleteSo George Lucas is responsible?
ReplyDeleteOh dear, I think this is one of those cases where the phrase 'if it aint broke dont fix it' should be applied
ReplyDeleteAh this mess....
ReplyDeleteA big stake through 20th Century Fox's heart from Buffy fans everywhere. Do it right or don't do it all. The Whed-man must be fit to be tied and I can't say I would blame him.
ReplyDeleteHi, you forgot to mention your source. You will also find many other examples there:
ReplyDeletefacebook.com/notes/buffy-the-vampire-slayer-hd-blu-ray/whats-wrong-with-buffys-hd/590282824407343
Have a nice day.
If they bring Buffy to Blu-Ray, they better not use this.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Joss' reaction is why it took more than a decade to get a remastered version. My cousin just got a full series boxset for Christmas. She was giddy. I really hope it wasn't this set.
ReplyDeleteIt is such a crying shame that the networks/studios are so money hungry they do a half assed job turning out product. I can't even watch my copy of 21 Jump Street because the music was handled so poorly. (the replacement music is bad and it's so loud it's intrusive)
That's how I was with Smallville. Didn't particularly care about Clark or Chloe....but I loved pre-villain Lex. He was complex and interesting and the only reason I watched the show.
ReplyDeleteAlso: I completely agree with your comment about FOX.
I get so annoyed by replacement music like that!
ReplyDeleteIt just throws me off since it feels so different... so wrong.
they figure we couldn't possibly notice. idiots
ReplyDeleteit did make me appreciate the showrunner of Roswell who made considered alternate selections and even the showrunner on Werewolf who abandoned the release rather than lose a critical song
Some original team's members answered to the new video "What's Wrong With Buffy's HD?" (available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F28XcxHxH6k). You can find Joss Whedon's, David Fury's and Steven DeKnight's answers in it.
ReplyDeleteMark Metcalf (The Master) on his Facebook Page:
"I probably should know more about this before I open my big mouth but
from the little I do know Fox has made a mess of remastering the great
work of Joss Whedon and Sarah Michelle Gellar and all the other
actors, directors and technicians who worked on Buffy the Vampire
Slayer. The show and the work were important to me at the time and
there are fans throughout the world that still get inspiration from the
little girl with the big wooden stake and her struggle for justice and
a simple dinner date in a nice black dress. This is worth a look."
Aaron Miller by private message:
"I was the post coordinator for Season 5 and we actually made a list
of 16X9 fixes for every show that would need to be done when the show
was remastered for HD. [Fox] definitely did not contact me at any
time."
Aaron Miller: "Here's a comment from my post supervisor/AP
that I worked with on Buffy. He was a post PA on Season 1 and moved up
to AP by Season 6. He and I both went to work on Firefly so we did not
do Season 7:
[Brian Wankum:] Thanks for
asking! I am a little torn. The true purists should only ever watch the
4:3 standard def original release versions (exception being the "Once
More With Feeling" which was intended to be shown widescreen). Not only
is the framing as was originally intended, but i suspect that there
will be lots of details in sets, props, costumes and makeup that might
not hold up in HD.
That's for the purists. BUT... Right or
wrong there is a large population of average Joes who just want the
picture to fill their frame. The same group who 15 years ago would have
preferred the center cut to the black bars on top and bottom. Would be
a shame for a whole new generation to miss out just because they (or
their local TV station which is more likely) got turned off by black
side bars. I agree that if it must be done there's a better way to do
it. Season 1 was 16mm 4X3 so there is no way to make it 16:9 without
blowing up the image. One of the things that bugs me the most about the
ones I have seen is that top of show credits appear over peoples
faces. We always had a rule to keep credits below the chin in closeups.
Starting with season 2 we shot 35mm composed for 4X3 but protecting
for 16X9. After we delivered the 4:3 air master I would sit down and
watch the 16:9 version and take notes and do blowups and repos where
necessary to avoid crew, equipment and ends of sets in shots. We called
these the "16X9 safe masters" and archived them with everything else. I
thought these were pretty cool to watch, the problem is when they went
back to negative for the HD rexfer in this latest release it looks
like they did not consult the original for either color timing or
re-framing reference. I'm sure the stories and characters will hold up
but it's too bad more care was not taken. Nobody asked me, but if they
did I would have loved to have consulted on this. Probably could have
organized a crowdsourcing effort of comparing the originals to the
re-transfers. Lots of crew alumni with lots of love for the originals
would have likely participated. Maybe for the 4K/3D version?"
He probably meant they started shooting 35mm with season 3. Season 2 was (super) 16mm.
Note that the video was also shared by Kristine Sutherland (Joyce
Summers), James C. Leary (Clem), David Fury, Tim Minear (producer,
writer and director on "Angel" the TV show) and Nancy Holder (writer).