Ask questions to The Digital Bits team (Bill Hunt, Jeff Kleist et.al.)

[sharkshark]

re: "Lost extras"

I've always appreciated those reviews that actually spelled out just what we're missing on a given release. In this day and age, where even "deluxe" editions don't guarantee that we're scratching that obsessive-compulsive collector's itch, it's even more a schlepp. I'm still pissed that the footage from Woodstock was split between two exclusive editions (AZN and Target, a store not even located up here) and that the UK version came complete. A regular and a deluxe? Fine, so be it, one for the plebes, one for the obsessives. But this splitting of content (real content, not just EPK fluff) is a terrible annoyance.

That said, it strikes me as a no brainer to at the least include all relevant materials on the BD re-release (rights issues? not my problem... ) Some sites have a "cutting room floor" aspect to their review, spelling out explicitly what elements were dropped between editions. In fact, the comparisons at the Beaver, say, are for me far more valuable with regarded to additional content then they are for screenshots (treading around that particular topic carefully).

Bill, not sure it could be done without becoming a total schlepp, but if there was a way in your own reviews to make explicit consistently just what content was dropped between releases, provided you'd done the initial DVD review, it'd genuinely help in decisions about whether or not the upgrade of a given title from a given SD edition.

Very pleased that the Alien set is being truly exhaustive, kudos to the production team. And, yeah, still have a copy of the book you sent me years ago

[DenonCI]

Originally Posted by sharkshark

For future Catalogue releases, this made some money and is popular:
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-L...g-Blu-ray/751/

That title's coming in 2011 though.

[Bill Hunt]

By the way, for those of you who pay attention to my day job... which is The Digital Bits... we've just posted the first part of our 2003 coverage of the making of the Alien Quadrilogy DVD box set. This was from our book, and it was never posted on The Bits before, so for many of you it will be all-new material. We have 3 parts going up this week, and then we're currently working on a new follow-up piece on the added/updated content for the upcoming Blu-ray set - that should go up in a couple weeks. Here's the link...

Inside the Alien Quadrilogy

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by sharkshark

re: "Lost extras"
I've always appreciated those reviews that actually spelled out just what we're missing on a given release.

Bill, not sure it could be done without becoming a total schlepp, but if there was a way in your own reviews to make explicit consistently just what content was dropped between releases, provided you'd done the initial DVD review, it'd genuinely help in decisions about whether or not the upgrade of a given title from a given SD edition.

Very pleased that the Alien set is being truly exhaustive, kudos to the production team. And, yeah, still have a copy of the book you sent me years ago

I always try to spell that out in my own reviews, thought I haven't done many lately for a variey of reasons. I'll try to see if we can't do it more often in the future.

Oh... so YOU were the guy who bought our book! Thank you.

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by sharkshark

For future Catalogue releases, this made some money and is popular:
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-L...g-Blu-ray/751/

I get your point, Merrick, but I'm really not sure that BTTF is radically different than the likes of Apocalypse - both film series that for many were initiated before many BD fans were born (god, that makes me feel old). Aliens, with its ancillary products and other tie ins has been made to feel mildly more contemporary, I think.

Originally Posted by sharkshark

However, I'm not sure you can have it both ways - I'm not sure what other 'classics' you want, but if that list of forthcoming Criterions in particular doesn't make you nipply then I'm frankly not sure just what films aren't coming out that you'd be in line to get. Jurassic? Star Wars? It's an honest question, what's not coming out that you're really missing out on?

Like I said, I am getting BttF and AA this year so as far as I'm concerned I'm set. Despite how it sounds there is not a whole lot not coming out that I am missing out on aside from the things everyone wants (e.g Star Wars, Indiana, Jurassic). I am just saying that more and more often I find myself looking at the release dates for each specific month and finding titles I want to buy becomes smaller and smaller. This summer for instance I barely picked up any movies while last summer I picked MANY films that I didn't expect to get on bluray for quite some time (ex. Major League, Waynes World 1 and 2). Do personal tastes play a part? Absolutely.

As for my tastes, I fall somewhere inbetween hardcore and casual in terms of film love. I said a few times (and I got ripped for it) that I simply was not a fan of older films made before the 70s just because the oldschool look of those films don't do anything for me. Which means I am not one of those people who is going to go crazy when Lawrence of Arabia finally gets released on bluray.

I don't know if that answers your question but its my best effort. If you want to further continue this discussion lets do it via PM. I want to let other people get their posts in since my posts seem elicit posts that create several other posts and cause other posts to get ignored.

[Paul.R.S]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

Write them a letter, send them an e-mail.

And what makes you think I haven't done/don't do that?

Not only have I, but I've talked directly to execs (note the mention of Steve F.). I was at one point in time infamous in some Fox circles for having written a two-page letter to Cameron, copying Mechanic, Jim G., Pat Wyatt, Eric Doctorow and every studio home vid exec, about the importance of an anamorphic Titanic DVD back in the day. Heck I copied you on that.

The very dismissal that you mention by some execs of the same "opinion repeater" online community they still selectively take advantage of is exactly why I posted my comments to you in response to the notion that this is an acceptable albeit less-than-desirable compromise. I will continue to do more than my part re direct-to-studio feedback. But I also think execs may take the pro-supps argument and criticism of their release strategies in those regards more seriously if they hear it from you speaking on behalf of a good chunk of your readership?

Basically what I'm also saying is that, respectfully, it sounded like you were under the impression in your response to Nick G. that the EFNY package includes the DVD's supps when I don't think that's the case. I therefore wanted to encourage this subject to not get even put on a middle burner in your ongoing dialogue with Fox. This is still a hot issue for many of us and I hope the impression has not been created in Fox' mind that "we" consider it an acceptable situation. I've reached a point wherein I have no delusions about any purported efficacy my polite e-mails and letters may have. I simply haven't bought Cast Away or Rocky, but will be buying Thin Red Line.

Also re "preaching to the choir": not everyone in these fora values supps. I've got the battle scars to prove it.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

It was either a kid pulling the alarm, or the snack bar in the dealer's room having some kind of smoke issue with their grill from what I heard. All I know is that it torpedoed my guys's autograph session and I had to walk celebs through 30,000 people lining the streets half a mile around the convention center (instead of using the much faster paths we usually take)



Micro started asking me to come back on Friday We'll see what happens in the future. The Yoshida Brothers were equally enthusiastic, they were really impressed with the packed house and the huge respect the audience showed them. I'll see if I can make some of the pictures that were taken public, but I need the label's permission first. There will be a DVD almost certainly at some point, probably bundled with the next album or maxi-single.

It's nice to get the kudos from you, almost no one on the HT side of things ever sees that part of my life

The guys really appreciate the extra sound quality of Blu-ray (I think they were one of the first J-concert discs to get a 48/24 PCM track and it really improves things), and they're going to be picking up some of the music titles before they go home (I pushed Dave Matthews)

You probably saw me there, depending on how full the room was at your point of entry i was either panicking or very happy

The universal favorite Blu from the band and management is Blade Runner BTW, congrats Charlie if you're reading Now to take a day or two off to recover...

By the way, my congratulations as well Jeff! I hear the band blew the roof off the place!

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by Paul.R.S

And what makes you think I haven't done/don't do that?

Not only have I, but I've talked directly to execs (note the mention of Steve F.). I was at one point in time infamous in some Fox circles for having written a two-page letter to Cameron, copying Mechanic, Jim G., Pat Wyatt, Eric Doctorow and every studio home vid exec, about the importance of an anamorphic Titanic DVD back in the day. Heck I copied you on that.

The very dismissal that you mention by some execs of the same "opinion repeater" online community they still selectively take advantage of is exactly why I posted my comments to you in response to the notion that this is an acceptable albeit less-than-desirable compromise. I will continue to do more than my part re direct-to-studio feedback. But I also think execs may take the pro-supps argument and criticism of their release strategies in those regards more seriously if they hear it from you speaking on behalf of a good chunk of your readership?

Basically what I'm also saying is that, respectfully, it sounded like you were under the impression in your response to Nick G. that the EFNY package includes the DVD's supps when I don't think that's the case. I therefore wanted to encourage this subject to not get even put on a middle burner in your ongoing dialogue with Fox. This is still a hot issue for many of us and I hope the impression has not been created in Fox' mind that "we" consider it an acceptable situation. I've reached a point wherein I have no delusions about any purported efficacy my polite e-mails and letters may have. I simply haven't bought Cast Away or Rocky, but will be buying Thin Red Line.

Also re "preaching to the choir": not everyone in these fora values supps. I've got the battle scars to prove it.

Unfortunately, it's always a struggle. At least these days. When a catalog Blu-ray comes out, there almost always seems to be some issue with it for someone. Is there too much grain or too much DNR? Is the color timing changed? Are all the DVD extras included? Are there any new features? From my perspective, I have to tell you it's a bit exhausting. Not to say I'm not going to keep fighting for this stuff, but my 13 years of experience with this industry tell me you have to pick and choose your battles. Right now, the one I've been focusing on is the grain/DNR issue. To quote a South Park episode... "Step One: Collect underpants..."

[SpaceDog]

Originally Posted by sharkshark

re: "Lost extras"

I've always appreciated those reviews that actually spelled out just what we're missing on a given release. In this day and age, where even "deluxe" editions don't guarantee that we're scratching that obsessive-compulsive collector's itch, it's even more a schlepp. I'm still pissed that the footage from Woodstock was split between two exclusive editions (AZN and Target, a store not even located up here) and that the UK version came complete. A regular and a deluxe? Fine, so be it, one for the plebes, one for the obsessives. But this splitting of content (real content, not just EPK fluff) is a terrible annoyance.

This is actually the reason that I bought no version of the Woodstock release.

[tvine2000]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

I suspect it's more likely that Sony is the only one that has standards which meet your standards.

And that means...what?

[Jeff Kleist]

Thanks Bill

The DJ just twittered the "with the crowd" end of show pic

http://twitpic.com/2armdd

The text says "Just finished first American live show, 5000 people going insane, totally impressed, THANK YOU!"

[garyrc]

Originally Posted by Esox50

...big titles we were suppose to get are still MIA cause catalog titles aren't selling. The answer, don't release catalog titles. LOL.
Oh well, the studios don't get it ...

Originally Posted by Arkadin

the real tragedy in the end is all the less than stellar catalog films that have been released on bd that anyone would know right away weren't even high mid shelf releases.
I mean don't get me wrong--there are some great catalog releases, but imo the studios have wasted too many releases on some very unworthy films.
and then they act so surprised that many haven't sold.
they really should have focused on the cream of the crop catalogwise from the very beginning for every release.
I'm honestly really concerned now that we will never see literally 100's of films that I thought would have been guaranteed bd releases.

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

... Catalog sales have a lot of the studios hesitating at the moment. On the other hand, the catalog activity has picked up dramatically for the 4th quarter, so maybe a strong holiday season will shake more catalog titles loose again. We'll see.

The studios need to teach ... they need to expose the potential buyers to older, popular classics as well as films that would have been included in college film appreciation courses in the past. There are people who might love some of these films who don't know they exist, particularly the Black and White ones that are rarely on broadcast or cable. They need to be lovingly put on BD and the previews should be saturated with them. I'm wondering if very few people take film appreciation or film history anymore because they think they have been exposed to all the good films via home media. I may have seen the beginning of the decline of these courses when I had a student assistant who was constantly complaining about the crappy quality of the video displays of classic films (projection in powerpoint-like displays) even her professor apologized for Citizen Kane being soft and green. As she said, this treatment "took the edge off" the impact of these great films. I went over an took a look (I was in a different department), and she was absolutely right. When my daughter went to OSU (just graduated), the film course image quality was just as bad. Of course, the success of the studios in pulling off good catalog sales depends on them providing top quality PQ on BD, something that doesn't always happen. Even big, pre-sold, catalog releases, like Spartacus, if they have removed the natural detail, can sell less than they might. My fingers are sore from being crossed for Ben-Hur.

[KubrickFan]

Originally Posted by garyrc

The studios need to teach ... they need to expose the potential buyers to older, popular classics as well as films that would have been included in college film appreciation courses in the past. There are people who might love some of these films who don't know they exist, particularly the Black and White ones that are rarely on broadcast or cable. They need to be lovingly put on BD and the previews should be saturated with them. I'm wondering if very few people take film appreciation or film history anymore because they think they have been exposed to all the good films via home media. I may have seen the beginning of the decline of these courses when I had a student assistant who was constantly complaining about the crappy quality of the video displays of classic films (projection in powerpoint-like displays) even her professor apologized for Citizen Kane being soft and green. As she said, this treatment "took the edge off" the impact of these great films. I went over an took a look (I was in a different department), and she was absolutely right. When my daughter went to OSU (just graduated), the film course image quality was just as bad. Of course, the success of the studios in pulling off good catalog sales depends on them providing top quality PQ on BD, something that doesn't always happen. Even big, pre-sold, catalog releases, like Spartacus, if they have removed the natural detail, can sell less than they might. My fingers are sore from being crossed for Ben-Hur.

I absolutely agree. People just need to get over the stigma that's around older movies, and just need to watch them. Surely it can't only be the age thing, because I'm 22 and I can watch movies from all ages, and in all languages. As long as the movie is good, nothing else should matter.

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by tvine2000

And that means...what?

That means that I find it incredibly unlikely that Sony is the only studio with Blu-ray production standards in place and far more likely that you are simply unable to intuit where the 'lines' of those other studios' standards are drawn.

[al cos.]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

Paths of Glory, Escape from NY, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Sound of Music, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Bridge on the River Kwai and I'm sure more

It would be even better to actually be able to buy Escape from New York, but yeah. (can't find it anywhere, guess I'm ordering it. Really wanted it today.)

[tvine2000]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

That means that I find it incredibly unlikely that Sony is the only studio with Blu-ray production standards in place and far more likely that you are simply unable to intuit where the 'lines' of those other studios' standards are drawn.

you mean like universal?

[sharkshark]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

Oh... so YOU were the guy who bought our book! Thank you.

No, I got it for free. I mailed you a Zizou hat in exchange. Never did get any SW swag...

Just sayin', I go back with that book... For those that tend to skim over internet posts, it's well worth the read, go delve into the chapter hosted at the 'Bits. It certainly gave me a far better look at this nebulous "DVD Producer" career that sounded just as weird and magical as "Key Grip", "Best Boy" or "Gaffer" or any other such bizarre Hollywood jobs easily misunderstood.

[sharkshark]

Originally Posted by SpaceDog

This is actually the reason that I bought no version of the Woodstock release.

Well, FYI, you can buy the UK version and get it all (well, as least as ALL as is currently considered all.)

It was even more annoying that I pre-ordered the deluxe set from the US site (the fancy box wasn't available from .CA) and after receiving found out I missed out on an entire Who song performance.

More recently, I remain pissed there's no nice way of being able to get the making-of docs in HD for Planet Earth (they're on the DVD). Hell, I was dumb enough to buy the Oprah version in addition to the (fantastically superior) Attenborough version, because of a number of reviews that suggested there was a different making-of Doc. There is indeed another doc, an entire episode that's literally Oprah narrating over truncated versions of the "diaries" at the end of every episode on the UK version. So, yeah, in the fight for completeness, I got burned yet again.

Grrr..

[Musashi]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

It was either a kid pulling the alarm, or the snack bar in the dealer's room having some kind of smoke issue with their grill from what I heard.

Not surprised; that's what most alarms are.

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

All I know is that it torpedoed my guys's autograph session and I had to walk celebs through 30,000 people lining the streets half a mile around the convention center (instead of using the much faster paths we usually take)

I myself was right about to meet up with a friend I made last year at a terrace photo shoot. After readmittance it was straight to the busy part of my day: AMV Contest, Quick dinner, Masquerade.

Incidentaly, my gf was attending the Kikuta panel during the evac, and during it a Jeff spoke about finding them later on the Dealer room. Was that you?

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

It's nice to get the kudos from you, almost no one on the HT side of things ever sees that part of my life

Y'find interesting things in the back of the con book. I still have my first manual from '03.

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

The guys really appreciate the extra sound quality of Blu-ray (I think they were one of the first J-concert discs to get a 48/24 PCM track and it really improves things), and they're going to be picking up some of the music titles before they go home (I pushed Dave Matthews)

You probably saw me there, depending on how full the room was at your point of entry i was either panicking or very happy

The universal favorite Blu from the band and management is Blade Runner BTW, congrats Charlie if you're reading Now to take a day or two off to recover...

I've a few blu-ray concerts I might get for my next BD expansion. I actually looked for you briefly after the concert but got moving to my next planned meeting shortly after.

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

By the way, my congratulations as well Jeff! I hear the band blew the roof off the place!

Definitely. I was a ways back in the big hall and still felt the bass vibrating my vitals. Going first few rows to the HMK concert's not for the weak of heart.

[sharkshark]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Thanks Bill

The DJ just twittered the "with the crowd" end of show pic

http://twitpic.com/2armdd

The text says "Just finished first American live show, 5000 people going insane, totally impressed, THANK YOU!"

A smartphone photo of the back of a Canon DSLR. Wow. Meta.

As they say in Japan, Mazel Tov-a