Buffy in HD on Pivot

They've taken Buffy and made it look horrible. What a lovely sunset on the beach that no longer has a sunset. I'm so glad I still have my DVD's I won't watch this garbage on Pivot. And if this version makes it on Blu-ray I hope Buffy fans boycott it, do not give Fox any of your money for this butchered altered copy of Buffy.

Let's not forget how Fox still did screw us over with the DVD release by cutting out all of the "Previously" recaps that are absolutely a part of the show, as well as the bomb explosion in "End Of Days", I wish Buffy had been produced by a better studio.
 
I tried a few edits.

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MarlieTheSlayer
MarlieTheSlayer
great edits!
^Your edit looks great.

When I found out about Buffy being in HD, I was SOOO excited. I would love to have Buffy in HD widescreen on Blu Ray. I would buy it in a second.
However, I'm not very impressed with some of the cropping and colouring jobs they've done with the transfers. It's really disappointing. I hope that if they do decide to release Buffy on Blu Ray, they re-do the transfers, although that seems highly unlikely.
I know Buffy wasn't meant for widescreen, but I just love the idea of seeing it fill my widescreen TV and be in HD clarity.
 
I use to watch Buffy on broadcast tv with antenna. The picture wasnt great in 1997. Im happy with the Netflix version. Yes Bluray woulf be a plus.
 
Buffdale said:
I am writing to inform you that a Facebook page was created. It relates to the remastering of Buffy in High Definition. We are not at all happy about what was done. This is a pure massacre of our favorite series ! The colors are completely different, cropping is horrible (for exemple, in the first episode, when Xander is skateboarding, there's is a moment where he is beheaded !), and the natural grain of the film is totaly gone because of the massive DNR ! It looks like a plastic Barbie world !

Our goal is to show Fox that the series deserves more respect. Additionally, we send protest messages to Fox (the link is shown in the Facebook group).
We're here because we love "Buffy". We need all the support possible. Buffy deserves it. Joss Whedon and the rest of the team too.
We would be very happy if you help us. 😀

We can not leave things like that... :/
Please, if you are interested, send me a private message. I will send you the address of the Facebook group. We need to be heard...
Click to expand...

Cropping has been an issue dating back to the late 80s I think. Was watching a video with Ebert and Siskel discussing it just the other day. Cult shows like Buffy which were shot during the 90s (the early years anyway) are always going to look better its original style.

Have yet to get into the whole blu-ray thing. It just doesn't seem worth the extra cost to swarp my huge collection of DVDs just for a few extra special features and what may or may not be a much improved picture quality. The best thing seems to be the artwork for a lot of the cases. I am happy with Buffy as it is. In these examples change is very rarely for the better.
 
The way I see it, if they can give Firefly and Star Trek superior Blu-Ray treatment, then why mess around with Buffy? The main thing people have against it is the ratio aspect. "It wasn't made to be widescreen, 4:3 is the only way to watch it", and all that jazz. But I'm sorry, Buffy is already a cinematic show. Blu-Ray would make it look marvelous. Of course, I'll be happy either way. But if you're going to attempt to transfer it anyway, do it right.
 
Original team's comments for our video/Buffy's HD treatment :

Mark Metcalf (The Master): "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 Geller 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: "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. They definitely did not contact me at any time."

Aaron Miller about Brian Wankum: "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?"

Note that he probably meant they started shooting 35mm with season 3, season 2 was (super) 16mm.

Thanks to the social networks, we got some support from: Kristine Sutherland, James C. Leary, David Fury, Tim Minear and Nancy Holder.
 
Joss Whedon just answered on Twitter! "To Do: Nap Doze Nod off Obsessively check rotten tomatoes Drift Decide to start new project every 15 min Investigate Buffy blu-ray issue?"
 
Fuffy Baith
Fuffy Baith
That's cool.
I'm going to be honest here: I really couldn't care less if BtVS was ever remastered properly in HD - I'm fine reliving my youth in SD quality. However, seeing that there *is* an (albeit ridiculous) HD version - I'm surprised at how bloody difficult it is to find, beyond the first season. I was truly looking forward to watching along with people and tearing it apart, however it seems I'm doomed to merely watch the FB page for recaps and screenshots of what I'm missing. Darn you Pivot!
 
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