The Bits Interviews Apocalypse Now Blu-ray Production Team

The Digital Bits has published an in-depth interview with the production team at Lionsgate Home Entertainment and American Zoetrope discussing the upcoming Blu-ray release of Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, which will come out on October 19, on a two-disc Special Edition and a three-disc Full Disclosure Edition. The interview addresses the video transfer (including the controversial aspect ratio issue), as well as the documentary Hearts of Darknesss and new special features.

Bits editor Bill Hunt sat for nearly an hour with Lionsgate's Senior VP of DVD and Blu-ray Production, Miguel Casillas, and Zoetrope film archivist James Mockoski (who supervised the new restoration of the film), along with colorist Doug Delaney and Jay Miracle, the editor of Hearts of Darkness.

The interview reveals that the production team has worked under the principle of maximum respect towards the film, based on "how audiences would have seen Apocalypse Now back in 1979," as explains Lionsgate's Casillas.

Delaney adds that when restoring the movie, they didn't want to "cross that line of modernizing a seminal piece of American cinema" or to "leverage all of the digital technology to make it something as if it was shot on an HD camera today." After all, he says later, a source coming from a 4K scan "has so much more detail" that "there wasn't a lot of enhancement needed."

The more salient points are summarized below, but the whole interview is highly interested and recommended reading (and also includes some revealing screenshot comparisons).

For a complete list of the release details and special features, see Blu-ray.com, July 29.





Aspect ratio

Zoetrope's Mockoski says that 2.35:1 was included because "people wanted the 2.35:1." However, he clarifies that "we don't discount what Vittorio [Storaro] did," and that Coppola still supports the cinematographer's vision of 2:1.

In fact, the option of including both aspect ratios was discussed, but for this release Coppola wanted to offer both Redux and the original cut on one disc (as opposed to the 2006 release, where the film was broken up over two discs), so they had to choose between 2.35 or 2:1. Mockoski sums up: "We chose 2.35 because it was the original aspect ratio of the film."

Lionsgate's Casillas also raises the topic of the current prevalence of widescreen monitors, "which might not have been as prevalent back in 2001 but certainly is now," implying that the case for 2:1 is not as strong now than it was a decade ago, when most home displays were 1.33:1. He drives the point home by saying: "If you believe in the philosophy that Blu-ray offers the best verbatim reproduction of a theatrical experience, then that's one advantage of doing the 2.35 on the Blu-ray, along with the fact that it hadn't been done before. And if you could hearken back to how audiences would have seen Apocalypse Now back in 1979, it would have been in this visual presentation."

Video mastering and color

As source element, Zoetrope took the interpositive of Apocalypse Now Redux and had it transferred at 4K, which was later downconverted to 2K. That transfer is also used for the theatrical cut. If the theatrical cut is selected, the Blu-ray player skips over the Redux footage using seamless branching to present the 1979 cut.

Regarding color, Hunt asks about the difference in color timing, as color "seems more vibrant now, and contrasts are bolder." Colorist Doug Delaney explains that they wanted to get back to the look of the dye-transfer print, "in terms of not just aspect ratio, but the contrast and color saturation characteristics." The 2001 transfer supervised by Storaro was also considered as a reference. Mockoski adds: "Francis primarily was responsible for this restoration, with Vittorio's blessing of the print that he deposited in 2001."

Extensive cleanup was performed. Mockoski explains that, even though the 2001 D5 transfer "looked beautiful then," the 4K reveals "a lot of dirt and scratches. So we spent a lot of time cleaning up the film." However, he clarifies that "we could spend countless hours cleaning, but we didn't want to strip away that hands-on aspect of it." When the restoration team signaled to Coppola that a shot had a hair in the gate , "You know... this film is made by humans. Yes, there was a hair in the gate back in '79. I'm not going to be worried about that."

Hearts of Darkness

This documentary was also transferred in high definition from the interpositive. Jay Delaney says that, although it was shot in 16mm, "it just looks pristine," whereas the 2007 DVD release was sourced from a Digibeta that was made of a 1-inch source. "So people will have not seen Hearts of Darkness looking as good as this," says James Mockoski.

Special features

Lionsgate's Miguel Casillas illustrated that basically the idea was "that for the ultimate fan, this is probably as close as you can get to owning a piece of the film, with all of the mythology and lore, in one box set."

New content includes Coppola interviewing Martin Sheen, and also John Milius, because Coppola wanted to give Milius more credit for being a major inspiration for the movie.
A casting featurette has Fred Roos talking about his experiences with Francis to cast the film back in 1976. "We have a lot of rehearsal footage from a month before they go on to film," says Mockoski.

Regarding the compilation of trailers and promotional material, Casillas explains that they tried to include "the history of the film as it related to American and world cinema," and "you just can't leave out the whole marketing and promotion of the film, because there was a very certain elegance and beautiful style to it – to some of the posters and materials, and just how things were done back then, before the MTV and Internet generations came along."

MetaBeam, a Lionsgate partner has developed an application for the iPad and iPhone that makes it possible to display the marketing gallery in more detail on your device.

The 48-page booklet is something that Coppola came up with, to relate the experience of shooting the movie, with his own notes, including letters from the set and release memos to the crew in the Philippines. "So you get a good raw look at what it took to live in the Philippines" during the two-year-plus shoot.