| "Se7en" The Second Time Around |
Widescreen Review, January/February 2001, Volume 10, Number 1, Issue 45, by Michael Coate Revisiting A Modern Classic When the DVD format was launched during March 1997 in a handful of test markets, a few dozen movies were released in support. The initial suppliers were Warner Home Video, New Line Home Video, MGM Home Entertainment, Columbia TriStar Home Video, plus a few independents. New Line Home Video's initial batch of DVD releases were The Mask, Mortal Kombat and David Fincher's Se7en, starring Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow. At the time, New Line was not committed to providing extensive added value bonus material and had not yet introduced their Platinum Series of Special Edition discs, nor were they committed to anamorphic widescreen transfers. Jump ahead to December 2000, three and-a-half years after the launch of the DVD format, which marks the release of two more entries into New Line's Platinum Series of DVDs: Se7en and The Cell. In the case of Se7en, it represents New Line's third two-disc set (Boogie Nights and Magnolia being the other two). While this marks the second DVD release of Se7en, the film has actually been on the home video market since early 1996 in various incarnations including, of course, a VHS edition, plus three separate LaserDisc editions. There was a widescreen/Dolby Digital LaserDisc and the much heralded Criterion Collection LaserDisc (in widescreen and Dolby Digital plus plenty of supplements), both released in March 1996 and reviewed in WSR Issue 19. In April 1997, a widescreen/DTS Digital Surround LaserDisc was released, which was reviewed in Issue 25. While many greeted the March 1997 DVD release of Se7en with open arms, there were just as many enthusiasts who were disappointed. Having embraced DVD for reasons of improvement of LaserDisc, the first Se7en DVD was considered by many to be a disappointment. While hindsight is "20/20," New Line's new Platinum Series edition attempts to make the previous edition nothing more than a footnote, so much so that New Line has discontinued it. The company's goal with this release was to create a definitive edition of the movie and to create a disc consumers would be happy with. Every flaw has been corrected, from a new anamorphic widescreen transfer to the movie being placed on a single-sided, dual-layer disc (the original 1997 DVD being a "flipper" release), to the inclusion of an array of excellent supplemental features, to providing the best possible image and sound quality. The DVD Release Enthusiasts have grumbled over the years--often justifiably so--about being "forced" to re-purchase the same titles over and over again in "new and improved" versions. This is certainly the case with anything that is considered collectible ... as the LaserDisc format was considered by many to be. Will people re-purchase the Se7en disc? "Yes," says enthusiastic DVD fan Blake Napier of Los Angeles. "I want the new disc because it's anamorphic and it's not one of those stupid 'flippers'." Ed Simpson of San Francisco is interested in the added value material New Line has prepared for the disc. "Se7en is my favorite movie of all time and I can't wait to hear the multiple audio commentaries." Mark Goldsmith of Long Beach isn't quite as enthused. "I'm really sick of buying the same stuff over and over again. I'll probably just hang on to my Criterion LaserDisc. But then, the new DVD is only $30, so we'll see." Why did it take over three years for a reissue to appear? "Se7en is one of New Line's crown jewels, and it's something we wanted to be sure to treat with the respect it deserves," says Mike Mulvihill, New Line Home Video Vice President of Content Development. "With Se7en, we wanted to make sure there wasn't a single opportunity missed-which means you don't want to rush the project. We originally tried to deliver it in early spring 2000, but as the process began and new opportunities arose to make a better disc, we postponed the release until we were able to capitalize on all of the opportunities that were available to us. We wanted to make sure we got it right." New Line has even created a Web site (www.se7enmovie.com) to whet the appetites of restless Se7en fans. Throughout the year there have been numerous leaks and speculation about the disc contents and release date information. Even WSR jumped the gun earlier in the year regarding the anticipated street date. Mulvihill comments, "There has been so much speculation and conjecture about what was going to be on the disc that the site we built was designed to put an end to all that. We set it up to help give the people who are looking forward to the release a clear understanding of what they can expect." The Movie With the number of movies being produced today, it is often difficult for the good ones to stand above the rest and attain special status. This feat usually takes time, and over the past few years, there have been perhaps only a few films to do such a thing. One of them has been David Fincher's Se7en, originally released to North America theatres on September 22, 1995. From excellent performances all-around, to Darius Khondji's expert and stylized photography, to Arthur Max's production design and Richard Francis Bruce's Oscar-nominated film editing, Se7en is a riveting detective story in the tradition of the best thrillers, but at the same time done in a style all its own. Set in an unspecified city, Se7en features detective Somerset (Freeman) on his last case before retirement. While breaking in his replacement, Mills (Pitt), the pair work together on a case that draws them into the twisted mind of a serial killer obsessed with the seven deadly sins. And in a nice touch for first-time viewers, the actor portraying the serial killer isn't listed in the film's opening credits or featured in any trailers or advertising, to keep the element of surprise alive and well. With a worldwide box-office gross exceeding $300 million and a proven shelf life at video stores, audiences, and certainly fans of the movie, have found that Se7en succeeds on more levels than just that of a routine thriller. "There are much bigger issues dealt with on things like Star Trek than there are in Se7en," recalls director David Fincher. "But here was an opportunity to talk about apathy, an opportunity to talk about some of the conundrums of modern-day living, city dwelling, and certainly serial killing, that I always thought elevated the material and gave it a twist. And I always liked the idea of kind of suckering an audience under the guise of a police procedural and then hitting them with a sort of meditation on evil in our society. It's nice that a movie like this, that has at its core something so thriller-oriented as the seven deadly sins, can stop every once in a while to discuss what it means to people who live in a crowded place and talk about their fears." The DVD Image One of the immediately recognizable attributes of Se7en is its visual style. For the look of Se7en, Fincher teamed with cinematographer Darius Khondji, with whom he previously collaborated on some television commercials, and production designer Arthur Max. Se7en was an exercise in a style some might call "color nor," a style exemplified in such movies as Chinatown (1974) and Blade Runner (1982). Since the 1995 release of Se7en, you have no doubt seen this style in numerous films and countless TV spots and music videos. Se7en marked the first time Khondji and Fincher worked in Super 35, a photographic process both individuals have embraced and have used on numerous projects since (The Game and Fight Club for Fincher; Stealing Beauty, Alien Resurrection and The Beach for Khondji). In fact, the team are currently in pre-production on The Panic Room, which they plan to originate in a 3perf (instead of four) variation of Super 35, with the intention of utilizing digital intermediates to achieve their final release versions. By using Super 35, the production team was given the ability to create Se7en in Fincher's preferred 2.40:1 aspect ratio, along with the luxury of shooting the film in extreme low light conditions. During the transfer, a handful of shots that featured less-than-perfect composition were vertically re-framed. Had the film been originated with anamorphic lenses, the repositions would not have been possible, and for the low-light sequences, numerous focus and depth-of-field challenges would have arisen. One of the key components in the photographic style of Se7en was the decision to utilize DeLuxe Laboratories' Color Contrast Enhancement (CCE) process on a select number of the film's original 35mm release prints in an effort to heighten the blacks, desaturate the colors and enhance contrast. Although only a small percentage of the film's prints were prepared in this manner, audiences able to see that version experienced the film in a manner most closely intended by the filmmakers. In preparing the production, Fincher was drawn to DP Khondji's previous experience with silver retention/bleach bypass processes while working in Europe on projects such as Delicatessen (1991). For the previous video releases of Se7en, a low contrast print was utilized as the transfer element, and the intent was to replicate the look of the CCE prints. In the years since, Fincher and others associated with the film grew dissatisfied with the look of the movie in video versions. There was also a desire to test the limitations of current digital technology, both for qualitative reasons as well as archival. For these reasons, an unprecedented decision was made to transfer this new version of Se7en from the film's original camera negative. While original negatives are typically used for television productions where the element won't ever be physically cut, feature film use is unheard of. Typically, an interpositive (IP) or low-contrast print struck from the camera original is used for a transfer. The new 1080i hi-def transfer was done on a Spirit datacine at The Post Group under the supervision of Fincher and Evan Edelist, New Line's Vice President of Video Post Production. The colorist was Stephen Nakamura, and a da Vinci color corrector was employed. While previous editions (both film and video) of Se7en were used as a point of reference, viewers will notice numerous differences in the overall look of the new transfer. Fincher made some color and contrast-related alterations to the look, based on earlier versions being too dark, too bright or certain moments being "too pink." Fincher reveals, "It was amazing to see the new digital version. I feel that this new transfer has better image quality than the best release prints." Viewers can debate the creative merits of the various differences-subtle and extreme-but it is doubtful anyone will not believe this new version isn't sharper and more detailed than anything previously seen. "Our goal was to create a reference standard disc using Se7en," remarks Mulvihill, "Obviously, it is a very impactful film--one of the best from the past decade. And when we put it on disc, we were using all of the opportunities that were available to us technically. This is why it was so important to have Fincher involved for the subjective decision-making portions of the picture transfer and soundtrack." The DVD Soundtrack With this project, New Line decided to test the waters with not just Dolby Digital Surround EX but also with DTS-ES Discrete 6.1. They also continued their trend to work with Mi Casa Studio in creating near-field mixes that are optimized for home theatre playback. Se7en has become the second DVD to have a repurposed Surround EX track created (Terminator 2: Judgment Day was the first). All of the other handful of EX-encoded DVD releases (The Bone Collector, Fight Club, Toy Story 2, etc.) were mixed in that fashion for their initial theatrical releases. The presence of the two discrete digital tracks on the disc plus a matrixed 2.0 track, along with four commentary tracks, on top of the already two hour-plus movie, necessitated the need for more than just two layers of program content. Mulvihill rationalizes, "New Line has taken the position that there is a higher perceived value from two DVD-9s than one DVD-18, which is why Magnolia, Boogie Nights and Se7en are all two-disc sets." Mulvihill adds, "We will continue to approach the question of whether or not we will do DTS on a title-by-title basis, but on Se7en, we felt it was an easy decision to make. Our goal from the outset was to create the reference standard DVD for picture and sound quality. The experts in our Mastering Department, working with David Fincher, Sound Designer Ren Klyce, and the award-winning engineers at Mi Casa Multimedia did such a great job creating the near-field mix that we told them to master it in both Dolby Digital EX and DTS-ES Discrete 6.1. This provides DVD enthusiasts the perfect reference for examining the unique benefits each audio standard provides." In reacting to the new near-field and repurposed mixes, director Fincher recalls that sound designer Ren Klyce "has always been a proponent of near-field mixes and was the one who hit me with the idea five years ago that it's not the same [as a theatrical mix]. A near-field is essential, and is more satisfying for home theatre presentations. It's such an important part of the production process, and we now insist on it." Sound Designer Ren Klyce, who has worked with Fincher on Fight Club and The Game, as well as Se7en, oversaw the remastering effort performed by Brant Biles and Robert Margouleff at Mi Casa Studios. Klyce found the remastering job was made easier by the fact that no changes were made to the image, content-wise. Unlike some other recent re-issues, no new scenes were added or deleted from the movie-it is the same 127-minute cut. The main changes were in the creation of a nearfield mix, which optimizes the soundtrack for playback in smaller rooms, such as one's living room, as opposed to a large auditorium. The other change was in going from a 5.1 palette to a 6.1. Selected music cues, as well as certain sound effects, were integrated into the channels differently than in the earlier mix. The final sequence in the film, which features a helicopter, for instance, is a perfect example of how the film's sound effects were configured in a slightly different manner. Changing things seems to be becoming a trend, and is that a good thing? Klyce is cautious, and likes to create some rules or guidelines for projects that are being revisited. He hopes that the trend doesn't continue simply for the sake of marketing or hype. "I think it's important for people when they are watching a film to get a sense of what it was originally, so you don't want to change too many things," says Klyce. "I think it's cheating if you fix or change too many things in a new mix. On recent re-issues like The Exorcist or Jaws, for instance, they have added sounds that weren't in the mix originally, and have added new Foley or spruced up certain sounds or added ambience and background sounds. The original people weren't involved in these remixing jobs, and I have a real problem with that ... I hate it! I like to think that films are what they are. They represent a certain point where the filmmakers were at the time." Unlike many other recent remixing/remastering jobs, Se7en doesn't contain any sounds that didn't originally exist. Klyce adds, "We tried to finesse the new mix had we originally been given more time. The music was spread out a little, and that was as bold a move that we made. We tried to keep what we had originally done out of respect to the original mixers." Ren believes the best part of the new Se7en mixes is that there is now greater clarity in the soundtrack. "Even if you don't have EX playback capability, you get a better sense of overall clarity compared to the earlier version. The sound is more focused," Klyce explains. "A benefit of having a center back surround channel is that for those people sitting close to a side wall, EX playback will pull the sound away from that wall and place it behind you, so you're not just hearing what's close to the wall." For more on the soundtrack featured on Se7en, please see Movie Sound Editor Perry Sun's sidebar at the end of this article. The DVD Supplements In terms of supplements for this new DVD, New Line faced a huge dilemma: how to improve upon what is regarded as one of Criterion's very best LaserDisc Special Edition releases as well as creating a disc worthy of revisiting. For this feat, New Line called upon Mark Rance, who has supplied added value material for over a dozen DVD releases for New Line through his company Three Legged Cat Productions. Rance--a former producer for Criterion--created supplements for New Line titles including Spawn, Blade, Lost In Space, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, The Corruptor, Detroit Rock City, A Nightmare On Elm Street, and the upcoming Special Edition releases of Rocky and In The Heat Of The Night for MGM and The Crow for Buena Vista. "With Se7en, I wanted to go back to what Criterion calls third party voices," says Rance. "With some of the Criterion LaserDiscs, Bruce Eder was the voice on a lot of the discs where the filmmakers had departed. You hear him most famously on the first three James Bond films. I felt that was a great model for Se7en because it is a cutting-edge work both aesthetically and technically-so there was a lot of room for depth." One of the supplemental highlights are the multiple commentary tracks. "By having so many objective viewpoints," says Rance, "it reminds the viewer that maybe the filmmaker doesn't own outright the interpretation of a movie. And I think that is an important thing that is getting lost with many of the DVDs being made now. It really helps to give the viewer the authority to make up their own mind about the film." The contents of the disc are: Four Audio Commentary Tracks
On Disc Two, the supplements include:
DVD-ROM content continues to be included on many DVDs, with New Line exploiting these opportunities on many of their releases. "Our goal at New Line is to never penalize set-top users because they don't have a ROM drive," says Mulvihill. "We like to focus content for the ROM side that is appropriate for that environment." Those familiar with the Criterion LaserDisc may recognize that some of the new DVD's supplements are similar. Some of the material is indeed similar, though the presentation is all new, and was found to be a more thorough representation of the entire production. Should fans throw out their prized Se7en LaserDisc that cost over $100 a few years ago? Of course not. For fans of the movie, the two complement one another. The four DVD audio commentaries are all-new recordings and are among the most scholarly you will encounter. The commentary track featured on the Criterion LaserDisc was not re-used, along with a couple additional segments such as the one on Rob Bottin's makeup effects. Was New Line concerned about duplicating or excluding any of the Criterion content? Mulvihill explains, "We were very aware of the impact that the Criterion LaserDisc had on the film's audience, and that was something we didn't want this disc to fall in the shadow of. We felt that five years after the fact, we had a better perspective on the film than when it originally came out." Supplements producer Rance believes that audio commentary tracks are best when some time has passed from the initial release of a film for the sake of perspective. What does Fincher think of commentaries? "I think commentaries are a much more valuable piece of the history of a movie than things like interviews," says the director. "Often when you are working on a project, you are very myopic about your world, so it's nice to get in a room with people after the film is completed to do a commentary. I like doing commentaries with a group because there is more honesty." Commenting on the process of watching movies at a young age, Fincher adds that he would have been "really excited as a teenager to have had access to audio commentary tracks." I wonder if enrollment in the nation's various film schools will decline now that the cost of a DVD player and a collection of discs with audio commentary and well-done documentaries is cheaper than college enrollment! In addition to a great array of supplements, Se7en boasts some incredible menus that capture the essence of the production. They were designed by Belief, which supplies menus for plenty of New Line DVD projects. New And Improved We've all been suckered at one time or another into believing the hype behind the famous "new and improved" slogan. With the Se7en Platinum Series DVD however, I believe New Line has created a genuine improvement to their admittedly rushed-to-market 1997 DVD release. That version may be sufficient for the average viewer, but for the home theatre enthusiast who demands the very best presentations, and the movie buff who craves well thought-out supplements and no side break in the middle of the film, the New Line Platinum Series edition of Se7en deserves to be in your DVD collection. Now if only Warner Home Video can be convinced to revisit their long list of "flippers"! Mulvihill comments, "Our hope is that the disc will be
received with great praise." My prediction is that praise will be on its
way to New Line very soon.
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