The Straight Story and Mulholland Drive on DVD

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Christian1989
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The Straight Story and Mulholland Drive on DVD

Post by Christian1989 »

Have these been released as David Lynch approved dvd's? You know, like Eraserhead 2000, INLAND EMPIRE, Twin Peaks Gold Box set etc... I read somewhere that Lynch was involved in releasing the R1 Disney release of The Straight Story, and the R1 Universal pictures release of MD. Are these rumours true?
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jmichael
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Post by jmichael »

Lynch has been involved with the currently in-print DVDs of all his film except DUNE. He has supervised or approved the audio and video transfers for all of them and in some cases, contributed to the special features (Notably on Eraserhead and Wild at Heart).

Lynch also supervised a transfer of Lost Highway - but that remains unreleased at this time.
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Post by Christian1989 »

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Post by jmichael »

Sure. And if you look at the front page of Dugpa.com - Brian (Dugpa) has them all for sale along the side bar, just keep scrolling down. I've copied the links here

Eraserhead (100% overseen by Lynch, includes lengthy interview with him as a special feature. The version for sale on DavidLynch.com comes with collectible packaging and a nice booklet).
The Elephant Man (Lynch approved transfer and Dolby remix)
Blue Velvet: Special Edition (Lynch approved transfer and Dolby remix. Nice special features, though Lynch is only shown in archive interviews)
Twin Peaks: Definitive Gold Box (Transfers and audio mixes approved by Lynch, who also participates in special features)
Wild at Heart: Special Edition (Transfer and Dolby remix supervised by Lynch. Nice special features, including several new interviews with Lynch.)
Twin Peaks - Fire Walk With Me (Lynch approved transfer and new audio mixes. Strangely edited documentary doesn't feature Lynch, though many cast members are interviewed.)
The Straight Story (Transfer and audio mix approved by Lynch. Includes a signed note from Lynch about why the DVD has no chapter stops. No special features).
Mulholland Drive (Transfer and audio mixes approved by Lynch. No special features.)
Inland Empire: Special Edition (Direct digital transfer and audio mixes supervised by Lynch. 2 discs with many nice special features, including two lengthy segments featuring Lynch himself).
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Post by Christian1989 »

Thanks a lot, jimicahel :D
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Christian1989
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Post by Christian1989 »

jmichael wrote:Lynch also supervised a transfer of Lost Highway - but that remains unreleased at this time.
Any information on this release, and why it hasn't been released (yet)?
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Post by kerplooey »

Christian1989 wrote:
jmichael wrote:Lynch also supervised a transfer of Lost Highway - but that remains unreleased at this time.
Any information on this release, and why it hasn't been released (yet)?
The more or less official reason (at least according to dugpa.com everytime we checked the news page, which tends to be a rather reliable source :wink: ) was that Universal was waiting until the Robert Blake trial was over before releasing it. Unfortunately, even now that things are settled, the powers that be have probably forgotten about it.
The new MK2 French edition is approved by Lynch, though, even though it does not come directly from the high definition transfer Lynch himself did for the original version. You have to be careful though if you're in France or on a French site: the first TF1 edition which was definitely not approved by Lynch (and which, although not horrible, is obviously inferior.... plus it has French subtitles that can't be removed) seems to be, for some strange reason, still available at many retailer's.

So, to be clear, the French version you don't want is this one: (TF1 video)
Image
while the Lynch-approved transfer is this one: (MK2)
Image

Unless you want to hold off for the US version that may still show up at some point, probably also in hd-dvd or blu-ray, using Lynch's transfer.

By the way, you may also like to know that the UK versions are also using the French MK2 transfers for their new editions of both Fire Walk With Me and Lost Highway.
Since they might be easier to order, have an english language packaging, and are often cheaper (last time I checked play.com was offering bot LH and FWWM special editions for dirt cheap -international postage included) the UK versions are probably the ones to get for most people since the transfers are the same as the French ones (I feel slightly guilty to be recommending those, being French myself ^^)
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Post by Christian1989 »

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Post by John Neff »

"Elephant Man" was the first film I remixed in 5.1 for DVD, followed by "TP:Fire, Walk With Me". "The Straight Story" and "Mulholland Drive" DVDs are the Theatrical mix David and I did together. "Blue Velvet" and "Wild At Heart" 5.1. DVD mixes were also done by us at David's studio, as well as a full restoration of the "Eraserhead" soundtrack, which was intentionally left in stereo. If and when "Lost Highway" comes out on DVD, that will be the Theatrical 5.1 mix (David's first), done by John Ross at Digital Sound and Picture (defunct now). The Scan for DVD was done in the Spring of '99 for USA Films, but they were sold to Universal, and the thing never saw the light of day, even though it has been done for over 8 years.
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Re: The Straight Story and Mulholland Drive on DVD

Post by jlyon1515 »

Resurrecting this thread from the dead... recently on Twitter, I learned that the video on the FWWM DVD was NOT Lynch approved. I swore I had seen it mentioned on some sites, and this came up as the first link.

So what's the deal, why didn't Lynch approve the video if he did the audio?
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Ross
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Re: The Straight Story and Mulholland Drive on DVD

Post by Ross »

jlyon1515 wrote:Resurrecting this thread from the dead... recently on Twitter, I learned that the video on the FWWM DVD was NOT Lynch approved. I swore I had seen it mentioned on some sites, and this came up as the first link.

So what's the deal, why didn't Lynch approve the video if he did the audio?
And how could he have approved the audio, when its so botched?
"I can see half my life's history in your face... And I'm not sure that I want to."
http://twinpeakssoundtrackdesign.blogspot.com/
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Re: The Straight Story and Mulholland Drive on DVD

Post by bosguy1981 »

Ross wrote:
jlyon1515 wrote:Resurrecting this thread from the dead... recently on Twitter, I learned that the video on the FWWM DVD was NOT Lynch approved. I swore I had seen it mentioned on some sites, and this came up as the first link.

So what's the deal, why didn't Lynch approve the video if he did the audio?
And how could he have approved the audio, when its so botched?
If I remember correctly, he approved the audio on the original Blue Velvet DVD too. But later, he admitted he approved it without listening to the entire thing and was upset when he watched the DVD with his son years later and realized it wasn't right. Isn't that why he re-did the audio for the Blue Velvet DVD on the Lime Green set?

I bet he won't make that mistake a second time. :wink:
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jmichael
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Re: The Straight Story and Mulholland Drive on DVD

Post by jmichael »

jlyon1515 wrote:Resurrecting this thread from the dead... recently on Twitter, I learned that the video on the FWWM DVD was NOT Lynch approved. I swore I had seen it mentioned on some sites, and this came up as the first link.

So what's the deal, why didn't Lynch approve the video if he did the audio?
That's definitely news to me, though I guess it's not entirely surprising given that we can now say pretty conclusively the DVD transfer does not match the color timing of the theatrical release. Perhaps he wasn't asked or, like the Blue Velvet DVD, he only gave it a cursory glance. It does strike me as odd, as John Neff, who was still working with David at the time, did the audio mix, plus there is the Lynch-provided Easter Egg code that worked on the old Davidlynch.com and the navigation buttons on the menus matched the navigation buttons from the old website too. So his hand was definitely in the release, at least a little bit.

Can you link to the tweet where it was revealed he didn't approve the video transfer? Did he Tweet that himself? I follow him, but if he said that I missed it.
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Re: The Straight Story and Mulholland Drive on DVD

Post by dugpa »

I was the one that posted as this is what I was told by folks at New Line. Specifically that Lynch did not supervise the color correction on the transfer. Check the credits. It lists the cnoany that did the transfer and does not give credit to Lynch but it does guve credit to Lynch on the audio mix.

The obvious reason is that New Line didn't want to pay for having Lynch supervise the video transfer.

Each time a company wants to get Lynch involved, it requires getting his time to work on the project. As it was explained to me once if Lynch is working months on a DVD release it means that he is not working in another project.

I am pretty sure that once things went south on the Deleted Scenes for FWWM, New Line decided to cheap out on the release and release what was available.
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Re: The Straight Story and Mulholland Drive on DVD

Post by John Neff »

I can't speak to the video transfer of FWWM, though I knew he hated the packaging. It is quite possible he was not involved. As to the mix, I did the 5.1 remix for the DVD, under David's supervision and approval, just like all the others I mentioned years ago, above. The only negative comments I got on the mix after the DVD came out were about the Pink Room scene. Apparently nobody wanted to understand what was on the dialog track, because it was unintelligible in the original Dolby Stereo mix, hence the subtitles. But the dialog track in the 5.1 mix was exactly as loud as it was in the stereo original - I had that mix in the session as a guide. Dave specifically saw and approved that scene. Problem was-now the dialog track had a discrete center channel all to itself, and wasn't squashed into the same tracks as music and effects. Remember too, that if you only ever saw the VHS tape, and not on the screen on film, you never heard the original mix anyway. Audio on VHS was very compressed and very compromised.

As to Blue Velvet, David most certainly heard the entire mix in 5.1 and approved it before delivery.
At issue on that mix was that we did not receive all the original sound elements. Mag sound reels listed on the warehouse manifest were not there. Some scenes had to have new sounds made for them, as the original sounds were gone. One scene in particular was the night scene where Kyle and Laura are walking down the sidewalk. All the ambiences and Foley were missing. I had to re-create that, once again using the Dolby Stereo mix as a guide. There were a lot of problems on that one because of the missing elements, in terms of certain things sounding different than the original mix.
The Dino de Laurentis Company had gone bankrupt and the film went through several owners by the time we got it for DVD, and the elements (called 'assets') had been moved several times.

I suspect they eventually found more of the reels and that's why it was re-mixed.
It is even possible that Dave did not remember why certain parts sounded different, as it had been many years since I did the original 5.1 mix. One day I will ask him.
The film company liked my new mix well enough to strike new 35mm film prints using the new surround mix for the Blue Velvet revival screenings around 2000-2001.
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