Modern viewers often complain that the wires used to suspend the Martian war machines are plainly visible throughout the film. The film was originally shot in three strip Technicolor, with prints made using a dye transfer process that resulted in very saturated colors but a slight reduction in overall resolution. This reduction in resolution “fuzzed out” the wires in original prints, making them effectively invisible.<\/p>\n
Later prints were made in Eastman Color, which uses a photographic process and yields sharper prints, but here had the side effect of making the support and electric wires plainly visible. (The models had electrical wires as the side pods of the machines really lit up green and the “cobra heads” lit up as well.) It is common practice in the film industry to take into account what details will be visible when a print is projected so as not to waste production time and money on details that will never actually be visible to a viewing audience, especially in the areas of effects and matte paintings. Thus the filmmakers never thought the wires would be visible and in fact they weren’t until the first Eastman Color prints of the film were struck in the late 1960s, and they have become even more visible on modern video releases as there is no dye sublimation resolution loss when making video masters from the original negatives.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
One of the fun aspects of this film is the setting, being an old California native (from the Pomona area). \u00a0The initial landing in the Chino Hills (just south of my old townhouse in Phillips Ranch), falling back to north of highway 60, maneuvering around near \u00a0Corona, and a nuke dropped in the Puente Hills (think of the shopping mall!), all fill me with insider glee. \u00a0Plus, I can never pass under the “Stack” on the Harbor Freeway without thinking of the evacuation scene in the film.<\/p>\n
Fun. \u00a0Next stop, the adaptation Pal chose when the Wells’ estate offered their appreciation for his job on WotW by letting him choose any other Wells tale to adapt: \u00a0The Time Machine<\/em> (1960).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Finally got Kay to sit still for the George Pal <i>War of the Worlds<\/i>. \u00a0As a movie, it has no more personality than Wells’ original, but the effects — in particular the Martian War Machines — still are Teh Awesome. A bit of fun trivia from IMDB: Modern viewers often complain that the wires used … Continue reading “War of the Worlds<\/i> (1953)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19148,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media-movies"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/WarOfTheWorlds_pal.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":132159,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/04\/martian-war-machines.html","url_meta":{"origin":19147,"position":0},"title":"Martian War Machines","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 4-Dec-16 7:54pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I dearly love the Albert Nozaki design for the war machines in George Pal's 1953 The War of the Worlds. They are smooth, elegant, still unique, and (coupled with the sound design) utterly menacing.The 1980s TV show had many flaws, but whenever they threw in one of these babies (which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/The-War-Of-The-Worlds-115B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/The-War-Of-The-Worlds-115B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/The-War-Of-The-Worlds-115B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":132154,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/05\/movie-review-the-war-of-the-worlds-1953.html","url_meta":{"origin":19147,"position":1},"title":"Movie Review: "The War of the Worlds" (1953)","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 5-Dec-16 12:01am","format":false,"excerpt":"One of my favorite SF movies when I was a kid, the gorgeous Martian War Machines remain an icon. Don't watch it expecting a personal drama: this film is all about SFX, amazing miniatures, and faith as the source of resistance to the evils of this world.Three stars and a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/war-of-the-worlds5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/war-of-the-worlds5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/war-of-the-worlds5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6402,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/09\/09\/war_of_the_worl.html","url_meta":{"origin":19147,"position":2},"title":"War of the Worlds","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 9-Sep-04 6:21am","format":false,"excerpt":"Like Uncle Bear, I have a bad feeling about this. Tom Cruise has become the highest-earning actor in Hollywood history after signing a deal that could reportedly earn him $519...","rel":"","context":"In "Media & Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Media & Culture","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":128221,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/04\/movie-review-the-martian-2015.html","url_meta":{"origin":19147,"position":3},"title":"Movie Review: "The Martian" (2015)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 4-Oct-15 4:31pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It is a rare movie adaptation that matches the strengths of the book. It's rarer still for both book and movie to be so excellent.http:\/\/letterboxd.com\/three_star_dave\/film\/the-martian\/Very glad I saw it. (In 2D -- though I have heard the 3D is pretty darned fine.)And the best commentary I have seen for it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/poster-the-martian-6805B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/poster-the-martian-6805B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/poster-the-martian-6805B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":128256,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/07\/scripting-the-martian.html","url_meta":{"origin":19147,"position":4},"title":"Scripting "The Martian"","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 7-Oct-15 4:46am","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a faboo interview with Drew Goddard, the screenwriter (and, at one point, the planned director) for \"The Martian\" about the process of turning the excellent novel into an excellent screenplay. He hits on a lot of the decision points I noted in changing the story the movie (and which,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":52031,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/02\/5-of-5-stars-to-the-martian-by-andy-weir.html","url_meta":{"origin":19147,"position":5},"title":"5 of 5 stars to The Martian by Andy Weir","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 2-Aug-15 10:35am","format":false,"excerpt":"5 of 5 stars to The Martian by Andy Weir https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/review\/show\/1346297757 View on Twitter","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/WarOfTheWorlds_pal.jpg\" "\\"War")
<\/a>Finally got Kay to sit still for the George Pal <i>War of the Worlds<\/a><\/i>. \u00a0As a movie, it has no more personality than Wells’ original, but the effects — in particular the Martian War Machines — still are Teh Awesome.<\/p>\n