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

[garyrc]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

... every year old movies get less profitable, outside the obvious 40-50 or so exceptions. Why? Because the people who remember them are dying off, and new fans are not replacing them, nor are they likely to

Part of the reason for this is the new fans are not being marketed to; many of these new fans are open to these films, with the right exposure. My daughter and her friends (in their very early 20's) are familiar with, and have seen "old movies" and cherish many of them, showing them to their friends. I'm referring to movies above and beyond the Disney Classics and The Wizard of Oz. At home (at about 10 years old), they saw Citizen Kane, Romeo and Juliet, Ben-Hur, and many of others; they walked out on ]Taming of the Shrew because of not being adequately prepared for the sexism and the sadism. In middle school they were shown many classicsl, including The Birds and other Hitchcock films, and several of them got together to film a Hitchcock homage. They watched some silent films, especially liking The Passion of Joan of Arc. Spartacus was discussed in History class (mildly criticized for not being historically accurate). 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was shown in middle school Science, and they saw Around the World in 80 Days at their homes. On their own, they rented Sunset Boulevard, and bought The 39 Steps. They debated the merits of the two versions of Moulin Rouge, and the multiple versions of Phantom of the Opera.

As I said once before, including high PQ clips of restored classics in the PREVIEWS might stir the curiosity of many of these kids.

The young audience is out there waiting.

[johndoyle123]

Originally Posted by garyrc

Part of the reason for this is the new fans are not being marketed to; many of these new fans are open to these films, with the right exposure. My daughter and her friends (in their very early 20's) are familiar with, and have seen "old movies" and cherish many of them, showing them to their friends. I'm referring to movies above and beyond the Disney Classics and The Wizard of Oz. At home (at about 10 years old), they saw Citizen Kane, Romeo and Juliet, Ben-Hur, and many of others; they walked out on ]Taming of the Shrew because of not being adequately prepared for the sexism and the sadism. In middle school they were shown many classicsl, including The Birds and other Hitchcock classics, and several of them got together to film a Hitchcock homage. They watched some silent films, especially liking The Passion of Joan of Arc. Spartacus was discussed in History class (mildly criticized for not being historically accurate). 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was shown in middle school Science, and they saw Around the World in 80 Days at their homes. On their own, they rented Sunset Boulevard, and bought The 39 Steps. They debated the merits of the two versions of Moulin Rouge, and the multiple versions of Phantom of the Opera.

As I said once before, including high PQ clips of restored classic in the PREVIEWS might stir the curiosity of many of these kids.

The young audience is out there waiting.

im 19 and only got into the classics when blu-ray came out

same with all my freinds

first classic i bought was the godfather blu-ray and it moved from there
we accept greatness no matter when it was made

[Jeff Kleist]

They debated the merits of the two versions of Moulin Rouge

I didn't even know it was a remake, so the original featured songs from the 1940s for no particular reason?

the 2001 version is the only movie I have ever returned to the rental store without finishing, I'm a huge Ewan MacGregor and John Leguizamo fan, and that only got me a third of the way through it. Very few people are willing to put forth the effort to put themselves in the mindset of another time, and as I said, aside from movies like Oz they will slowly fade away from disintrest. Which is not a commentary on their quality, simply on human nature

[DenonCI]

In regard to Paramount, why do people think they made the deal with Toshiba during the format war? It's cash flow was starting to decline then and I'm sure the recession hasn't helped matters in the interum. Hopefully the studio gets back on its feet soon, but they'll need a few low cost hits to get its house in order.

[al cos.]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

The number of people who won't buy it because it's the SE probably number in the hundreds at best. It's a very vocal minority.

Sure, but that's probably true of most extra stuff, isn't it? How many people were going to refuse to buy Blade Runner if it didn't have the workprint? But it's nice to put out the best product too, the "good enough" mentality for SW is kind of a bummer.
Question about a theoretical Next Generation HD re-do, if it happened is it likely that they would go widescreen (like Seinfeld)? Do we have a sense of what the general feeling among trekkies is about that? Right now I can't tell if they would prefer it or hate it.

[tvine2000]

Originally Posted by al cos.

Sure, but that's probably true of most extra stuff, isn't it? How many people were going to refuse to buy Blade Runner if it didn't have the workprint? But it's nice to put out the best product too, the "good enough" mentality here is kind of a bummer.
Question about a theoretical Next Generation HD re-do, if it happened is it likely that they would go widescreen (like Seinfeld)? Do we have a sense of what the general feeling among trekkies is about that? Right now I can't tell if they would prefer it or hate it.

Well i'm one startrek fan and i would like all the series to go widescreen. except enterprise which already is.

[Indyjones]

Originally Posted by merrick97

The ONLY changes I want undone in the SEs are Greedo shooting first and the musical number in Jabba's palace and maybe Hayden as Anakin. I'm fine with everything else.

Those are the only things I don't like about the SE's, especially the music number! I'm fine with Hayden being in ROTJ, but I don't necessarliy like how it was done - cut and paste over Shaw's body. It works I guess. The only thing I don't like in TESB is addition of Vader returning to the SSD towards the end. The editing is really choppy and I don't think it really needs to be there.

[garyrc]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

I didn't even know it was a remake, so the original featured songs from the 1940s for no particular reason?

the 2001 version is the only movie I have ever returned to the rental store without finishing, I'm a huge Ewan MacGregor and John Leguizamo fan, and that only got me a third of the way through it. Very few people are willing to put forth the effort to put themselves in the mindset of another time, and as I said, aside from movies like Oz they will slowly fade away from disintrest. Which is not a commentary on their quality, simply on human nature

I'm aware of two versions:

• The original (1952), which did not have songs from the '40s (as far as I know ) and was set in the 19th century. It had beautiful production design and cinematography, plus direction by John Huston, which was successful except in relation to Ms. Gabor.
• The remake, which was so different that it's debatable whether it is a remake ... more like the topography of Baz's unusual mind ... that did include anachronistic songs such as the Sound of Music (written in about 1960), as well as some music that was in period (Offenbach).

Sometimes it takes effort to put oneself "in the mindset of another time" (I assume you meant film, dialog, and convention style, rather than the time period of the movie), and under some circumstances it takes little or no effort! With or without effort, sometimes it's fun. My daughter's friends have no problem with it; they come from a variety of SES groups & family backgrounds, and range in age from about 17 to 24, but they are very open to these old films. In my generation (college in the '60s) the revival and art houses were full of students watching an approximately 3:1 mix of old to new movies. There were three such houses in Berkeley, and two in San Francisco, and they were always crowded. Although the young people then had been exposed to pristine 70 mm (e.g., Lawrence of Arabia) that made most of today's Blue Ray look bad, they were able to tolerate the extremely variable PQ of these old revivals, ranging from silents to classics of the '50s. By the way, the PQ batting average was much more favorable than that of catalog films on BD or DVD! Citizen Kane, in well circulated 35 mm copies had beautiful B&W values rivaling Ansel Adams prints. Albert Johnson managed to fill Wheeler Auditorium at U.C. Berkeley every time he did a several day retrospective, including ones that included almost all of the films of William Wyler, one on musicals, etc. The three local community colleges filled their auditoriums in much the same way. Griffith's nearly complete Intolerance was shown with SRO in one of these auditoriums.

Release high PQ restorations and they will come.

[Jeff Kleist]

Sometimes it takes effort to put oneself "in the mindset of another time" (I assume you meant film, dialog, and convention style, rather than the time period of the movie), and under some circumstances it takes little or no effort!

That little bit of effort is something most Americans and many foreign people are unwilling to expend. Look how many people watch horribly dubbed movies instead of the original language. It just takes a little effort to learn to read subtitles efficiently

[garyrc]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

That little bit of effort is something most Americans and many foreign people are unwilling to expend. Look how many people watch horribly dubbed movies instead of the original language. It just takes a little effort to learn to read subtitles efficiently

Sad.

But, since you brought up subtitles, in all of our projector tests so far for our future front projection Home Theater, we haven't tried subtitles, and there is something we don't know (we have to drive to another town to look at decent projectors) ... if we get a screen that is exactly 2.39:1, and use the zoom to fill the screen top to bottom with the image, no matter what the AR is, i.e., using "common height,"

• Can we assign the subtitles to be over the image, rather than over the black bar that is now off-screen?
• Does it depend on the disk (i.e., will some BDs of foreign films permit this, while others will not?)
• Does it depend on the projector?

We would be grateful for any info.

Thanks.

[Jeff Kleist]

# Can we assign the subtitles to be over the image, rather than over the black bar that is now off-screen?
# Does it depend on the disk (i.e., will some BDs of foreign films permit this, while others will not?)
# Does it depend on the projector?

Depends on the disc. Sony is in the middle of moving their subtitles into a common height friendly zone, but since discs are not released in the order in which they were produced, things are still spotty. I believe Oppo is adding some kind of subtitle shift feature but I"m not 100% positive. Projector can't help you because the subs have to be placed during the decoding process

[Vincent Pereira]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

... I hated Shia before this movie once he started popping up in everything under the sun with the same performance, and I wish Spielberg would stop having the man crushes on mediocre actors like Shia or Dakota Fanning and putting them in everything...

This is interesting, because Dakota Fanning was not the problem I had with WAR OF THE WORLDS- a movie I mostly like- rather it's that awful young actor who plays her brother and who inexplicably threatened to become the young "it" actor for a while before THE INVISIBLE thankfully tanked at the box-office and put a stop to that. Seriously, Justin Chatwin is just an incredibly uninteresting actor, but he seemed to have some "heat" behind him due to his role as the villain in the awful indie film THE CHUMSCRUBBER, which played at Sundance, and then due to Spielberg casting him as the brother in WAR OF THE WORLDS. Although I tend to like what David Goyer has done as a writer, I am glad that THE INVISIBLE remake he directed flopped because otherwise we might have to be subjected to a lot more of Justin Chatwin on the big screen.

Vincent

[Vincent Pereira]

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

Earlier film I think of was where Leo was excellent in Gilbert Grape.

Leo is even greater in an even earlier film, the very underappreciated THIS BOY'S LIFE.

Vincent

[Jeff Kleist]

Justin Chatwin also starred in the horrible US Dragonball movie that unfortunately made a fortune overseas. He's not dead and buried yet.

Not that anyone could have made a good movie out of Dragonball, it was sad to see people like Chow-yun-Fat and James Marsters in that movie with him

And we'll probably be subjected to at least a few more rounds with Channing Tatum before he's on his way out

[Vincent Pereira]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Justin Chatwin also starred in the horrible US Dragonball movie that unfortunately made a fortune overseas. He's not dead and buried yet...

So we at least agree that he's terrible, right Jeff?

Vincent

[Jeff Kleist]

Awful

[Vincent Pereira]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Awful

Good to hear.

Down with awful, "hot young" actors!

Vincent

[Batman1980]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Justin Chatwin also starred in the horrible US Dragonball movie that unfortunately made a fortune overseas. He's not dead and buried yet.

Not that anyone could have made a good movie out of Dragonball, it was sad to see people like Chow-yun-Fat and James Marsters in that movie with him

And we'll probably be subjected to at least a few more rounds with Channing Tatum before he's on his way out

I like Dragon Ball Z enough that I'll probably blind buy the movie, even if they say it's nothing like the anime.

[Jeff Kleist]

It's been out on Blu for close to a year...shows you how poor it is, even the fans don't know it exists

Down with awful, "hot young" actors!

And actresses. If you're going to see someone in a movie simply because they're hot, you'd better be in a booth in the bad part of town Please keep the talentless out of the "real" movies

[Oliver K]

Originally Posted by garyrc

Sad.

But, since you brought up subtitles, in all of our projector tests so far for our future front projection Home Theater, we haven't tried subtitles, and there is something we don't know (we have to drive to another town to look at decent projectors) ... if we get a screen that is exactly 2.39:1, and use the zoom to fill the screen top to bottom with the image, no matter what the AR is, i.e., using "common height,"

• Can we assign the subtitles to be over the image, rather than over the black bar that is now off-screen?
• Does it depend on the disk (i.e., will some BDs of foreign films permit this, while others will not?)
• Does it depend on the projector?

We would be grateful for any info.

Thanks.

Gary,

we can make this very short:

There is a Philips Blu-Ray player that does shift subtitles, so you are good except for the extremely rare cases where subtitles might be directly encoded into the black bars of the m2ts file that is the movie.

If I was you I would definitely not worry about that miniscule 0.1 percent of cases.