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Season 2 First Thoughts

Watch any theatrical film, especially those exhibited at a 1.85:1 aspect ratio and you'll see plenty of "cropped heads." This is called a "close up" and is a deliberate choice. The director is emphasizing the actor's eyes, pulling in close and giving the shot a slightly claustrophic feel. The reason nobody complains about this in feature films is because they've never seen the raw film stock that was shot on the day - which is always in 1.33:1 ratio for 1.85:1 films. The "dead" space at the top and bottom is not part of the intended composition, and is largely ignored by the director and the cinematographer. It exists so that someone can later create a butchered version of the film more easily for airline and TV playback - which helps the film make money, in the long run.

Jeez, nobody cries "Foul!" when Marlon Brando's forehead is cut off in The Godfather. :)

Just because you saw the 1.33:1 version of B5 first doesn't make that the "right" version, and it doesn't make the 1.77:1 version "wrong". JMS has said that if anything they cheated towards making the widescreen version look the best all during shooting on the theory that it would be seen by far more people over the years than the "standard" TV version ever was.

Not every difference between the two is a mistake.

Regards,

Joe
 
Watch any theatrical film, especially those exhibited at a 1.85:1 aspect ratio and you'll see plenty of "cropped heads." This is called a "close up" and is a deliberate choice. The director is emphasizing the actor's eyes, pulling in close and giving the shot a slightly claustrophic feel
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I have seen this in movies and I know exactly what you mean. However this secen (and I will be interested to know what you think after you watch this secen) is a wide shot showing Garibaldi entering a room, so he is in the distance and has half his head missing, it just looks plain silly when it is not a close up.

I am probably not explaining myself properly.
 
You're referring to the scene at 39:30.
Garibaldi walks into the room, middle left of frame, Sheridan is sitting down far bottom right.
As Garibaldi walks in, stops and stands, the top of his head is indeed cut off. The problem with re-framing this scene is that with Sheridan in the lower right corner, to have moved the frame up would have cramped Sheridian too much in the lower right corner, which would also have looked bad.

I seem to recall, and I know someone here will correct me if I'm wrong, that JMS once claimed that although B5 was not filmed in widescreen per-se, it was framed with wide screen in mind. If this is indeed true, then this was clearly a mistake by the director of this episode, and any other episodes which exhibit the problem because they were not framing the scene appropriately.
 
Watch any theatrical film, especially those exhibited at a 1.85:1
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Joe, you have jumped to a conclusion without looking at the actual evidence.
The scene referred to was not a close up in any way, shape, or form.
The scene is mis-framed and is most likely the fault of the director.
 
Sorry for re-surfacing an old thread. But just to let those know who really care, the problem with Delenn's hair on the first 2 episode's title sequences has been "fixed" on the R2 release.

We are getting the proper "bone head".

:p
 
Sorry for re-surfacing an old thread. But just to let those know who really care, the problem with Delenn's hair on the first 2 episode's title sequences has been "fixed" on the R2 release.

We are getting the proper "bone head".

:p
 
Oh dear. I think I just found something very disturbing. I noticed a few heads half of the screen on the first episode (Points of Departure). I thought this is how it must be and ignored it.

Today I watched the episode Spider in the Web and at the 40 min (or there about) another cropped head. It is the scene in which Garibaldi asks Sheridan how he knew about Project Lazarus. Half his head is missing, it looks very amateurish.

Now I don’t remember issues like this on the broadcast versions, so I dug out my vhs copy that I taped all those years ago and saw the scene in question, and Garibaldi is all on screen.

Have WB screwed up again, or is this something to do with the strange way in which B5 was filmed?
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I have just been looking at one of my other forums and a disscussion has come about these seen, apprently this scene is presente9 with both actors heads in the screen. However there seems to be different scene in the R2 that have heads chopped off.
 
Oh dear. I think I just found something very disturbing. I noticed a few heads half of the screen on the first episode (Points of Departure). I thought this is how it must be and ignored it.

Today I watched the episode Spider in the Web and at the 40 min (or there about) another cropped head. It is the scene in which Garibaldi asks Sheridan how he knew about Project Lazarus. Half his head is missing, it looks very amateurish.

Now I don’t remember issues like this on the broadcast versions, so I dug out my vhs copy that I taped all those years ago and saw the scene in question, and Garibaldi is all on screen.

Have WB screwed up again, or is this something to do with the strange way in which B5 was filmed?
Click to expand...

I have just been looking at one of my other forums and a disscussion has come about these seen, apprently this scene is presente9 with both actors heads in the screen. However there seems to be different scene in the R2 that have heads chopped off.
 
First of all, I'm new to the board, so I'd like to say hello.

I got my R2 season 2 on Wednesday and promply stayed up until 3AM watching. :rolleyes:

I did notice two problems though; one is minor, the other is incredibly annoying. The booklet detailing the episodes and special features is in French and not English; this isn't so bad, as I can puzzle out what episode is which. However, on "The Coming of Shadows", there is severe video distortion which is most notable on the CGI sequences. It's sort of a lined "shimmering"; it also appears on a few live action sequences. Also, one scene in particular looks incredibly fuzzy. Has anyone else noticed this problem, or did I get a bad disc?
 
Mine was OK, but I'd be in touch with whoever you bought it from about the booklet. I can't believe Warners could make a mistake this big! :p

Here's the latest from DVD.co.uk (who I bought it from):

As you are aware there has been a manufacturing fault with this release.

We have spoken to our suppliers are in contact with Warner regarding this problem.

As soon as we have any further information regarding the replacement booklets we will let you know.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Thank you for your patience in this matter.

Regards,

Jason Nicolson
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However, on "The Coming of Shadows", there is severe video distortion which is most notable on the CGI sequences. It's sort of a lined "shimmering"; it also appears on a few live action sequences. Also, one scene in particular looks incredibly fuzzy. Has anyone else noticed this problem, or did I get a bad disc?
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Yes, I noticed this too - I'm surprised that more people haven't noticed this one, as the way DVDs are made I don't think it could be a limited issue.

It looks like the two sets of fields which make up the picture (alternate lines of the image) are half a frame out of sync, so the second field of one frame will be mixed with the first field from the next. As you say, this is particularly noticable on scenes involving a lot of movement such as external space station shots which pan across space.

I found that setting outline sharpening on my PS2 to a negative setting made the effect less distracting and the episode became somewhat watchable, although it was still annoying.
 
Due to the problems with S1 I have delayed buying S2. Judging by this thread, there seem to be a few problems again :(

The main issues seem to be:
1. distortion on Coming of Shadows
2. Bad cropping (missing heads etc.) in some episodes.

Are these problems only on R2? or are they on R1 as well? If R1 is okay then I'll probably get it instead!
 
I haven't noticed these problems in my R1 set, however, I've printed out the applicable posts and am going to go back and check. Overall, I'm much more pleased with my Season 2 R1 set, than my Season 1 R1 set.
 
It's possible that the fault on Coming of Shadows was introduced during the NTSC->PAL conversion. If this turns out to be the case, then the fault would only be on the R2 release.
 
Something a bit odd -- the voice at the end of each episode, over the WB logo. Is it just me, or does it sound like President Morgan Clark?
 
WB those cheap bastards, they didn't redo the end titles, they just stretched them. The logo at the end is a dead give-away.

I feel that they should have left And Now for a Word in 4:3 format. Being a news broadcast it would have added to the feel off the show and they wouldn't have needed to do any clumsy cropping. Plus the fans would have an idea of how great the uncropped effects would have looked.
 
It's possible that the fault on Coming of Shadows was introduced during the NTSC->PAL conversion. If this turns out to be the case, then the fault would only be on the R2 release.
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Not entirely, my (dutch) R2 dvd set is fine. And the booklet is in english too, not in french as some have commented. But there is something else wrong with my booklet: the minbari cruiser on the cover art is upside down!
 
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