Posted: Fri Aug 06, 2004 10:08 am
Just for comparison and as checklist for possible extras (or glitches) that may be included or left out from the 4 disc DVD here's the contents of the supplements on the GONE WITH THE WIND Deluxe CAV Laserdisc.
1- Supplement Introduction
2- 1939 Teaser Trailer
3- 1939 News of the Day Newsreel
4- 1961 Reisue Trailer
5- 1961 Atlanta Civil War Centennial Re-Premiere
6- 1967 Reissue Trailer
7- Foreing Language Prologue
8- Foreign Language Versions
9-Highlights from the Making of a Legend: Gone With The Wind
The CAV Laserdisc had a 2 channel PCM digital sound 44.1kHz 16-bit (no compression) original Mono soundtrack made from the original 35mm nitrate Mono track print, plus an analog CX coded isolated music and effects mono track. The film included overture, intermission, and exit music.
The video image was transfered from a new 35mm interpositive made from the original 35mm three strip b/w Technicolor negative, except for some parts that had been changed, or "replaced" actually, on the negatives themselves. The CAV Laserdisc comes with an 8 page 12" (30cm) booklet that dedicates 2 pages to the restoration process.
The "replaced" parts were some wide shots that had been "letterboxed" (made into "hard matte" images) by printing black bands on the dupe negative to insure that projectionists centered the image correctly in the "widescreen" version "created" in 1954 which was projected at 1.66
(Some years later in 1967 a more vertically cropped 2.20 wide 70mm version was "created" also, btw)
Gone With the Wind, being an Academy Ratio film, is 1.375 wide of course.
Those "Letterboxed" 1.66 sections are usually presented now in pan/scan on 4:3 full frame editions by filling the frame again by blowing up vertically the 1.66 image to eliminate the black bands, a process which then chops off the sides too.
(So those shots end up being pan/scanned on 4:3 Full Frame, both vertically and horizontally, just showing 69% of the original image)
(Very bad for the shot of the fallen soldiers trying to stablish the scope and magnitude of war. 30% less horrible)
According to the 1991 booklet, the original 1.375 negatives (with the full image) for those scenes no longer exist. Hopefully the people at Warner and Lowry have had the smart head and time to look for original Technicolor prints of these scenes and digitally copy (or composite) the missing image areas from these? (That's what I would do
)
Apart from those shots, which if found, would be only a generation away from the original, Lowry's transfer of the film, being made from the b/w Technicolor negative itself, is one generation less than the interpositive version one (in other words it's a digital duplicate of the original image
) so it should make for a very clear grainless picture with colors of great purity and lots of shadow and highlight detail 
1- Supplement Introduction
2- 1939 Teaser Trailer
3- 1939 News of the Day Newsreel
4- 1961 Reisue Trailer
5- 1961 Atlanta Civil War Centennial Re-Premiere
6- 1967 Reissue Trailer
7- Foreing Language Prologue
8- Foreign Language Versions
9-Highlights from the Making of a Legend: Gone With The Wind
The CAV Laserdisc had a 2 channel PCM digital sound 44.1kHz 16-bit (no compression) original Mono soundtrack made from the original 35mm nitrate Mono track print, plus an analog CX coded isolated music and effects mono track. The film included overture, intermission, and exit music.
The video image was transfered from a new 35mm interpositive made from the original 35mm three strip b/w Technicolor negative, except for some parts that had been changed, or "replaced" actually, on the negatives themselves. The CAV Laserdisc comes with an 8 page 12" (30cm) booklet that dedicates 2 pages to the restoration process.
The "replaced" parts were some wide shots that had been "letterboxed" (made into "hard matte" images) by printing black bands on the dupe negative to insure that projectionists centered the image correctly in the "widescreen" version "created" in 1954 which was projected at 1.66
(Some years later in 1967 a more vertically cropped 2.20 wide 70mm version was "created" also, btw)
Gone With the Wind, being an Academy Ratio film, is 1.375 wide of course.
Those "Letterboxed" 1.66 sections are usually presented now in pan/scan on 4:3 full frame editions by filling the frame again by blowing up vertically the 1.66 image to eliminate the black bands, a process which then chops off the sides too.
(So those shots end up being pan/scanned on 4:3 Full Frame, both vertically and horizontally, just showing 69% of the original image)
(Very bad for the shot of the fallen soldiers trying to stablish the scope and magnitude of war. 30% less horrible)
According to the 1991 booklet, the original 1.375 negatives (with the full image) for those scenes no longer exist. Hopefully the people at Warner and Lowry have had the smart head and time to look for original Technicolor prints of these scenes and digitally copy (or composite) the missing image areas from these? (That's what I would do
)Apart from those shots, which if found, would be only a generation away from the original, Lowry's transfer of the film, being made from the b/w Technicolor negative itself, is one generation less than the interpositive version one (in other words it's a digital duplicate of the original image
) so it should make for a very clear grainless picture with colors of great purity and lots of shadow and highlight detail 