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

[Penton-Man]

I long gave up trying to figure out peoples’ reasoning in marketing and publicity, for which I have had more than one confrontation.

To give you an example, to this day, they are clueless to the fact that they lost the ‘online’ format war, at least in terms of PR, because with the exception of paidgeek and myself, they dismissed engaging altogether, so it was like 2 of us against an army of red ants headed by the A-man.

This 'loss' has had subtle raminifications to this day.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by sharkshark

Since you insist on liking the official/much-worse-than-the-superior-Kanaan Word Cup song, I see your Waka Waka

I bolded the relevant and correct word.

Try not to drool over the cover art…
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/ne...344/index.html

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

[Penton-Man]

Here Shark, I'll throw you a Canadian news bone...
http://www.itworldcanada.com/blogs/m...desktop/53130/

[Penton-Man]

I notice that one of the owners or admins have added yet another enhancement to this forum , i.e. all that info on the left underneath peoples’ posting handle.

I don’t have time to check it out now, but I just hope that ‘40’ doesn’t represent a person’s golf score for 9 holes of mini-golf.

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

I long gave up trying to figure out peoples’ reasoning in marketing and publicity, for which I have had more than one confrontation.

To give you an example, to this day, they are clueless to the fact that they lost the ‘online’ format war, at least in terms of PR, because with the exception of paidgeek and myself, they dismissed engaging altogether, so it was like 2 of us against an army of red ants headed by the A-man.

This 'loss' has had subtle raminifications to this day.

Yeah, I cant argue with any of that. Its just amazing how much FUD was spread and how the format war brought out the worst in so many people.

A-man is no more and seems to be more or less ignored. Of course, I haven't been to the "other" forum in quite some time.

[sharkshark]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

I bolded the relevant and correct word.

Try not to drool over the cover art…
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/ne...344/index.html

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

'till this latest link I hadn't realized that Shakira's on Sony Music. The confluence of interests makes more sense now...

As per your note above, during the heady early days most proponents of HD-DVD posted under their own names with their affiliations explicit (ie., Amir, Collins, et. al.). Meanwhile, as you say, the BD side execs were more relucatant to officially engage directly. Did this have an influence on why you, talk, paidgeek, etc. chose/choose the anonymous route, or is it because you're all secretly ninjas intent on redressing the wrongs of your ancestors as part of some global kabal?

FWIW, while MS was quite exceptional in their openness (questions about obfuscation remain, and I'm not defending or advocating their beliefs.) However, Toshiba was downright annoyingly reticent to discuss anything directly with the community, putting the likes of a certain retailer as a de facto spokesperson (already discussed in this thread).

Short sided actions on both sides, and things could have ended much sooner with an even stronger embrace of the format would those you engaged with not been deaf to your suggestions and protestations.

[sharkshark]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Here Shark, I'll throw you a Canadian news bone...
http://www.itworldcanada.com/blogs/m...desktop/53130/

As I've said before, the opposite of Schadenfreude is simply Jealousy...

Lucky (smart) prick...

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by merrick97

Penton, I love the job that Sony has done on bluray but I do have one peeve that they are getting into an annoying habit of doing and I wanted to politely let you know about it.

SPE has a habit of only releasing the first film of a films with sequels that are good, almost as good, or maybe even better than the original. Examples include:

Men in Black, but no MiB II
Ghostbusters -was majorly disappointed that II wasnt released last year as well.
Bad Boys- After The Rock, the 2nd Bad Boys is my fav Michael Bay film.

Not to mention- No Karate Kid 3 on bluray, but I cant say Im too upset with that omission.

Im just failing to see the point of releasing the above films without their sequels.

Thanks Penton.

Add Charlies Angels II to the list.

[Jeff Kleist]

Many people fighting the good fight dud so anonymously because Blu had no online team in an official capacity. I know of ONE person from an outside agency who was paid to do online interactions. While the rest if them were for the most part authorized to do so, none of the Blu people were being paid extra beyond their day job, and there was no centralized organized authority controlling them.

Electronics companies had never had to fight a hearts and minds war before, and even Sony Computer Ent hadn't because they'd been on top basically since day one. It's a war MS and the insurgents they and Tishiba hired knew how to fight. The damage they did still lingers to this day. I'm convinced to this day that Paramount would have never gone red. And that WB would have had reason to dump HDDVD sooner had the aggressive campaign that many were recommending been launched at CES 07, and they might have tossed the towel in time to gave Christmas to blus lonesome.

So the fact that we only took as many lumps as we did, the thanks goes out to many a masked man (no women to my knowlege but them too if there are) who took their time to do what needed to be done, even if their bosses were blind to it

[sharkshark]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

Add Charlies Angels II to the list.

Oh, crap... I made the dumb assumption that it was included in the announcement... CAII is AWESOME. I saw it twice in a day. So patently ridiculous (and one of the finer moments for a director's credit on film)

Damn.

[sharkshark]

so, I'm sitting here watching the live feed of the "Top Kill", and I'm thinking, just how deep has anybody really gone with only Scuba equipment.

The answer?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuno_Gomes_%28diver%29

1,044 feet (318.25 m)

(which, if you're not a diver, is CRAZYPANTS deep...)

14 minutes to get to depth, 12+ hours to come back.


IN-SANE....

[wallendo]

Originally Posted by sharkshark

so, I'm sitting here watching the live feed of the "Top Kill", and I'm thinking, just how deep has anybody really gone with only Scuba equipment.

The answer?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuno_Gomes_%28diver%29

1,044 feet (318.25 m)

(which, if you're not a diver, is CRAZYPANTS deep...)

14 minutes to get to depth, 12+ hours to come back.


IN-SANE....

And you would only get 20% of the way down to BP's hole in the gulf.

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by sharkshark

Oh, crap... I made the dumb assumption that it was included in the announcement... CAII is AWESOME. I saw it twice in a day. So patently ridiculous (and one of the finer moments for a director's credit on film)

Damn.

[Jeff Kleist]

so, I'm sitting here watching the live feed of the "Top Kill", and I'm thinking, just how deep has anybody really gone with only Scuba equipment.

The answer?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuno_Gomes_%28diver%29

1,044 feet (318.25 m)

(which, if you're not a diver, is CRAZYPANTS deep...)

14 minutes to get to depth, 12+ hours to come back.


IN-SANE..

I have limited SCUBA experience, but I thought that 300ft was the limit, at least on the consumer level gear. Personally the most I've ever done is about 40

[sharkshark]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

I have limited SCUBA experience, but I thought that 300ft was the limit, at least on the consumer level gear. Personally the most I've ever done is about 40

standard cert you max out at 60ft, advanced at 120. Deepest I've ever been was with a computer (where you can go slightly deeper as a deco dive as it's doing the math for you on ascent) is 146. The deepest I've ever been, and (excuse the drama) a dive that almost killed me (had to go that deep to get my "buddy" who had left me, narcing, and eventually forced to pop, hypoxic and completely hyperventilating, from 86ft to surface in 20 seconds.).

Ask any diver and they'll tell you that's bad. Fun bit of diving trivia: Screaming the whole way up saved my life.

With mixed gasses there are people that go to 140-160ft, and with a rebreather you can go really deep (400+), but then you're talking some $30k in dive equipment and a hell of a lot of testicular fortitude, regardless of gender.

So, given all that, the fact that some nutbar took regular scuba equipment, dove down to ONE THOUSAND FEET, and then took half a day to swim back up is a little, well, silly.

If you did your diving in clear/warm/salt water, it's always the creepy part that things appear closer. It's the equivalent of just crossing the street to go look a the thing over there, where "across the street" underwater would go from depth of 60ft to, say, 120 pretty damn quick.

Finally, for those that have never dived (diven?), there's =zero= obvious "feeling" in difference between 4ft and 100ft. It's not that you feel (explicitly) squished, it's all the same, save for every foot down is another factor of concern/caution. And, yes, it's all worth it - the close to floating in outerspace and being an astronaut that I'll ever come.

[PaulGo]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

... I'm convinced to this day that Paramount would have never gone red. And that WB would have had reason to dump HDDVD sooner had the aggressive campaign that many were recommending been launched at CES 07, and they might have tossed the towel in time to gave Christmas to blus lonesome.

So the fact that we only took as many lumps as we did, the thanks goes out to many a masked man (no women to my knowlege but them too if there are) who took their time to do what needed to be done, even if their bosses were blind to it

I feel that Paramont going red may have actually helped bring on a Blu-ray victory. It caused the Blu-ray camp to wake up, dig in its heels and do whatever was necessary to bring on the deserved victory. The thing that stuck me as being sad was that so many HD-DVD followers were being led like a bunch of lemmings.

[Penton-Man]

Shark, heads-up, if you get the opportunity, go see this film …
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0765128/

It would have been nice if they could have gotten some shallow water footage of the Louisiana wetlands prior to the unrestricted daily flow of oil into the Gulf, for at least, documentation purposes prior to the negative aspects of current human activity on water creatures.

Oh wait, it’s not a GUSHER, the conventional terminology used by all those involved and even the press is a “spill”.

[sharkshark]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Shark, heads-up, if you get the opportunity, go see this film …
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0765128/

It would have been nice if they could have gotten some shallow water footage of the Louisiana wetlands prior to the unrestricted daily flow of oil into the Gulf, for at least, documentation purposes prior to the negative aspects of current human activity on water creatures.

Oh wait, it’s not a GUSHER, the conventional terminology used by all those involved and even the press is a “spill”.

Spending the day watching the live feed of the spill, some creepy stuff going on there.

Didn't know about Oceans, but March of the Penguins put me off so much (I thought Winged Migrations was very good, though, so maybe the third one's back on form).

P, have you actually watched the entirety of Blue Planet? (http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3925249792/tt0296310) Supposedly it'll never be on Blu because of the sources, but it's truly magnificent. Meanwhile, I was having a conversation the other day that the only films I'm really looking forward to this summer are the continuing episodes of Treme and the forthcoming BD release of Life (with Attenborough, naturally...)

Thanks for the link, P.

[Jeff Kleist]

I feel that Paramont going red may have actually helped bring on a Blu-ray victory. It caused the Blu-ray camp to wake up, dig in its heels and do whatever was necessary to bring on the deserved victory. The thing that stuck me as being sad was that so many HD-DVD followers were being led like a bunch of lemmings.

You are correct that Paramount going red definately lit some fires, but if WB had dumped HD DVD in the fall of 2007, which there was a strong chance they would had Paramount not given them a boost, then Paramount would have been right behind them. Supporting 2 formats was VERY expensive in terms of authoring time, even when you were repurposing HD DVD level VC-1

[DenonCI]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

You are correct that Paramount going red definately lit some fires, but if WB had dumped HD DVD in the fall of 2007, which there was a strong chance they would had Paramount not given them a boost, then Paramount would have been right behind them. Supporting 2 formats was VERY expensive in terms of authoring time, even when you were repurposing HD DVD level VC-1

Jeff,

Unlike Warner, Paramount was doing two different encodes at two different facilities. Some of its HD DVDs were VC-1 while the Blu-rays were AVC. Warner would just convert the HD DVD encode for Blu-ray. Regardless, it was expensive to do it for both studios and the most technologically advanced format won.