"Club Penton" - Ask questions to Hollywood insider "Penton-Man"

[Penton-Man]

^
Regardless, the way the economy is going (despite the fact that my wife and I have a very diversified portfolio, including real property), I’ll be lucky if I’m not living out of my car with the animals in a few years …………..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSaayEn61EI

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Slec

I love the last line in that story... HA

A blast from the past just brings tears to my eyes…………………….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pesc_...eature=related

[GreenScar]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

A blast from the past just brings tears to my eyes…………………….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pesc_...eature=related

Wound + Salt

[mikejet]

Two questions!

1. Will the production of Spiderman 4 put the live action Robotech/Macross into pre-production hell?

2. What's taking Ender's Game and World War Z so long?

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Can anyone out there name any of the lensers that speak for a little bit on style during this clip?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBH7kjQISks

Some folks still need a little help regarding facial/voice recognition ?
#9 be Steven Poster, ASC
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0692925/

By the way, on the imdb link, if you scroll down to the “Camera and Electrical Dept”, you will note the #11 entry, which means he was also given (and actually carries on him often) one of these special Swiss Army knives………….
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...postcount=3917
And to the person that PM’ed me back in June about the inscription, yes , I am sure it says “Blade Runner 1981”, not 1982 which was the year of its theatrical release.
’81 being the year in which a good portion of the production elbow grease was performed.

[Penton-Man]

Attention to any Blu-ray Movie Reviewers out there -

After a quick perusal of the efficiently organized and informative “Upcoming Blu-ray Releases” link………………..
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/movie...how=comingsoon
I noticed that The Jewel of the Nile is due to street next week. I seem to recall a tidbit regarding its Blu-ray production (done awhile ago) that a colleague from 20th Century Fox mentioned to me several weeks ago. PM me, if interested, and you are planning to review the title.

[Penton-Man]

To 3D enthusiasts this should be an interesting read, for people like Rob Tomlin, you can just skip on down and start reading at paragraph #3………………..
http://bitstream.soundandvisionmag.c...d-4k-in-0.html
Just something to keep in mind for further reference, i.e. a 4K sample projected with a 4K projector onto a really big screen.

P.S.
To any super rich folk out there having Sony 4K projectors in their home theaters that are interested in obtaining a 3D adapter next spring, models LKRL-A003 (X1.9 - 3.3) and LKRL-A002 (X1.1 -1.9) will be available.

[Rob Tomlin]

..

[Jeff Kleist]

Didn't much impress the journalists?!

A lot of these are probably the same people who don't see a lot of difference between upconversion and Blu-ray

Honestly I think half the people covering the tech beat in professional media are there because they got roped/assigned into it, not because they have passion for it.

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Didn't much impress the journalists?!

A lot of these are probably the same people who don't see a lot of difference between upconversion and Blu-ray

Honestly I think half the people covering the tech beat in professional media are there because they got roped/assigned into it, not because they have passion for it.

That would certainly help explain a lot!

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Rob Tomlin

From what I saw and heard, the demos of 4K video transferred from film — clips of Lawrence of Arabia and Hancock — didn’t much impress the assembled journalists.

Didn't much impress the journalists?!

Not to worry, I believe that every astute observer that was seated 1½ screen heights away (or closer) to the screen was “impressed”………….plus, keep in mind, many people attended expecting to have their socks blown off with 3D imagery, so, the preliminaries were somewhat of an appetizer in that sense.

Point is, I told you guys months ago, this film was being test scanned at a higher resolution than 1080p.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Can anyone out there name any of the lensers that speak for a little bit on style during this clip?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBH7kjQISks

#8 is…………
Allen Daviau, ASC
Zee Chief lenser for this project…………………..
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...postcount=1714

or, perhaps to jog everyone’s recent restoration recollections………….
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...au#post1166512

P.S.
Cinematic trivia that I doubt many people are aware of.
For the feature film Empire of the Sun, Allen and Steven S. tested on 65mm.
Ah.........what could have been.

[Bobby Henderson]

I think Empire of the Sun, which was released in 1987, was made before Arri introduced the modern Arri 765 camera. Panavision developed their Super Panaflex camera in the early 1990s (it had some high profile use on Far and Away). If those new camera and lens systems (as well as new 65mm film stocks) were available in 1987 there may have been a better chance for the movie to be produced in 65mm.

I just can't understand why a big action movie couldn't be filmed entirely in 5-perf 65mm. With major portions of The Dark Knight being filmed in native IMAX format it sure makes a lot of those "70mm is too difficult / expensive" complainers to look relatively wimpy by comparison.

[Jeff Kleist]

I just can't understand why a big action movie couldn't be filmed entirely in 5-perf 65mm. With major portions of The Dark Knight being filmed in native IMAX format it sure makes a lot of those "70mm is too difficult / expensive" complainers to look relatively wimpy by comparison.

As much of an enthusiast as I am for 70mm and for what Nolan did. The figures I saw the shoot it straight up IMAX was in the neighborhood of $20-30 million additional, which is far more than IMAX theaters are probably even capable of generating worldwide (though they were PACKED)

Given the virtually billion dollar boxoffice and surefire gangbuster video sales, I'm betting that "I want my IMAX money" is near the top of Nolan's demand list to sign onto Batman 3.

[Ben]

I hope everyone saw this very funny T-Shirt:
analogtshirt.jpg

[Bobby Henderson]

The figures I saw the shoot it straight up IMAX was in the neighborhood of $20-30 million additional, which is far more than IMAX theaters are probably even capable of generating worldwide (though they were PACKED)

That figure sounds strangely high. If IMAX was that expensive to use we wouldn't be seeing much of anything at all in terms of 15/70 documentaries.

A figure I saw on Far and Away stated it cost $800,000 more to shoot the movie in 65mm on top of what it would have cost to shoot it in 35mm. Of course, dollar values are different now to what they were in 1992. Extrapolating that figure to today it could mean an additional $2-$3 million difference.

What was the total budget on Kenneth Brannaugh's 4 hour version of Hamlet? That's another all-65mm movie.

Film camera/lens systems and film emulsions are so much better now than they were 20 years ago. That still doesn't mean shooting in 5/65 is easy. You still need quite a bit more light -especially to overcome the lower depth of field which comes as a possible cost of the 250% larger negative. At the same time, cinematographers have had to deal with incredible challenges for decades. With today's technology 5/65 is do-able. And us movie fans and even fans of the Blu-ray format stand to benefit a great deal from that large format use. Instead of doing silly DNR and edge enhancement stunts with movies shot in Super35, Hollywood should just be shooting at least some of its movies in 65mm.

[Jeff Kleist]

Originally Posted by Bobby Henderson

That figure sounds strangely high. If IMAX was that expensive to use we wouldn't be seeing much of anything at all in terms of 15/70 documentaries.

Documentaries are not shooting dramatic feature films. If you're shooting for 70mm, it's not just the stock and the cameras. The sets, makeup everything has to be bumped up. Piles more light needs to be thrown out there for proper exposure etc. I'm sure Penton could elaborate further. I'm not married to the number or anything, but that's the one I was given by several people

A good example of this is the Stargate SG-1 Blu-rays. The problem they have there is that all their sets, makeup, and CG models were designed for SD for the most part. Check out all the shots of the Goa'uld motherships attacking Earth. The plate photgraphy is razor sharp, while the ships are all soft blurry messes. With all the recycled TV sets in Ark of Truth, especially in the opening scene, that one's going to hurt big time. The same goes for 35mm/IMAX as is upping from SD to HD.

Good page on some of the challenges:

http://www.studiodaily.com/main/topstory/9645.html

[Jack Torrance]

Originally Posted by Rob Tomlin

From what I saw and heard, the demos of 4K video transferred from film — clips of Lawrence of Arabia and Hancock — didn’t much impress the assembled journalists.

Didn't much impress the journalists?!

Rob/PM:

For what it's worth, if this was the same demonstration at Sony I'm thinking of, a friend of mine who's an editor of a Digital filmmaking magazine was present and he was VERY impressed at what he saw.

[HeavyHitter]

It appears one of the AVS scientists is making the claim that the color timing of the Sleeping Beauty BD is wrong. Based on what you ask? Well screenshots posted by someone on another forum, of course.

[pro-bassoonist]

O, dear....Matt_Stevens.

End of debate.

Pro-B