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

[Jeff Kleist]

Originally Posted by GabrielB

Hi Jeff,

He said, "I haven't seen it yet (Dark City), but I have reason to believe this whole DNR thing will soon no longer be an issue at Warner."

+
"Can't really say more on this, but rest assured, I think Warner's finally got their ducks lined up right. Might take a few months to see the full impact, but after that I think we're going to be good."

I kept it here safe because I couldn't believe it...

The first quote was the New Line "Turn it up to 11" DNR issue. The fact that every title they were cranking out was almost candy coated they were so smooth. By comparison, WB is quite conservative.

The latter referred to lossless audio

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Yes, according to the b.o. receipts so far.

Does this mean it's getting poor reviews?

Casino Royale did fairly well here with critics.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

Does this mean it's getting poor reviews?

Casino Royale did fairly well here with critics.

Early reviews by *critics* so far are mixed….some good/great, some not so good; however, it blasted ($8 million) the UK box office opening day receipts compared to Casino Royale ($4.7 million).
Next opening will be on the continent of Asia………India to be specific (michel should be happy, I’ll even provide a Bollywood link)…………..
http://news.sawf.org/Bollywood/53534.aspx

The U.S. debut is after that.
Still no word as to an early private screening even on the Sony lot, so, no need to e-mail me asking………….Bill.

[GabrielB]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

The first quote was the New Line "Turn it up to 11" DNR issue. The fact that every title they were cranking out was almost candy coated they were so smooth. By comparison, WB is quite conservative.

The latter referred to lossless audio

No the latter referred to the DNR issues as well.
See the link: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...postcount=2305

So... Now you have to tell us more...
Why not tell us what's going on? You guys don't want the cake to collapse while still cooking and growing in the oven?...

[GreenScar]

MGM/Sony's Quantum Of Solace, the 22nd James Bond motion picture, had record-setting launches in the UK, France and Sweden this weekend. Total FSS take was $38.6 million on 2,123 prints, generating more than $18,000 per print.

Very nicely done! Can't wait for it to open here

[Slec]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Supposedly SPE earned over £100m in marketing agreements with various companies wishing to align themselves with the brand! Good bit of business if ever I saw it considering the movie cost $220m to produce and promote!

So If my math is right, anything beyond about a $60M take will help the bottom line. It will easily handle that. Thanks for giving your thoughts on the flick, I can't wait to go see it!

[hollywoodguy]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Best Bond movie ever...

Well, you are young, so we'll forgive you for that.

[Rob Tomlin]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Best Bond movie ever, Casino Royale pales in comparison. Only complaint is the heavy-handedness with Sony product placement, yes we know, SPE are in charge now!

Supposedly SPE earned over £100m in marketing agreements with various companies wishing to align themselves with the brand! Good bit of business if ever I saw it considering the movie cost $220m to produce and promote!

..

[Jeff Kleist]

Originally Posted by GabrielB

No the latter referred to the DNR issues as well.
See the link: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...postcount=2305

So... Now you have to tell us more...
Why not tell us what's going on? You guys don't want the cake to collapse while still cooking and growing in the oven?...

That's probably a good way to put it. One false step with things like this and the whole thing can come down on your head.

Reading the post.....it might get better in some areas, but soon may be a tad optimistic for an across the board change of policy.

Me and Bill and a bunch of other people are working on it, there won't be any press releases, just pleasant suprises I would think

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Indeed, it is especially bad in this one though, I do hope Sony tone it down a notch for Bond 23.

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

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

I've seen all Bond movies plenty of times.

In order of preference:

Quantum of Solace
Thunderball
Live and Let Die
Dr. No
Goldeneye
Casino Royale

The rest are much of a muchness...

Watch this new one first and then judge it, it is seriously awesome, could become the highest grossing Bond movie of all time...

One of the biggest allures for me as a viewer of the James Bond flicks were the fabulous exotic locations sometimes serving as backdrops that I never had the opportunity to visit as a youngin.

Quantum of Solace with set locations in Siena and Lake Garda will hold a special appeal to me in that it should bring back fond memories of locales that I actually have been fortunate enough to experience in my later adulthood.

Namely Lake Garda being the traditional finish to what many consider to have been the toughest mountain bike race in the world (starting out in Mittenwald Germany and 8 days later after 60,000 – 70,000 ft. of climbing through the Alps), I enjoyed the natural scenery of the Lake while relishing the past accomplishment with fellow competitors whilst sipping on a glass of the local wine.

And Siena ……..the city in Italy where I proposed to my wife (I couldn’t wait for us to get to Venice) and I believe (imho) has the most romantic piazza in all of Italy…..the Piazza del Campo but, I may be biased in that regard.

[Penton-Man]

^
Lake Garda…………on the Bond set –
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7356916.stm

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by hollywoodguy

Well, you are young, so we'll forgive you for that.

For some historical perspective on how it all began……………
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7347023.stm

[GabrielB]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

That's probably a good way to put it. One false step with things like this and the whole thing can come down on your head.

Reading the post.....it might get better in some areas, but soon may be a tad optimistic for an across the board change of policy.

Me and Bill and a bunch of other people are working on it, there won't be any press releases, just pleasant suprises I would think

OK thanks Jeff. Keep us informed if there's something you can safely share with us... This issue is so important. As for me I like film grain and the texture of a film's emulsion so much... BTW can you just tell us if you are optimistic?

There is just something I'd wanted to know. Since you said at Warner DNR was standard operation procedure, I was wondering about other studios.
We know Warner/New Line has been the worst for this but do all studios DNR a little their films for BD releases? (without approval or input by the filamkers)

We've seen releases from Fox and Universal with DNR. SPE is said to be problem free. What about Paramount, Disney and the others?

I know it must a title by title thing but I was just wondering if those also use DNR as SOP on all titles but much less of course than WB/NL? Have we ever seen an entirely DNR-free BD or all of them have a bit of it applied?

[JimSD]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

One of the biggest allures for me as a viewer of the James Bond flicks were the fabulous exotic locations sometimes serving as backdrops that I never had the opportunity to visit as a youngin.

Me too. I always love the various locations in Bond films, especially the European locales.

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Namely Lake Garda being the traditional finish to what many consider to have been the toughest mountain bike race in the world (starting out in Mittenwald Germany and 8 days later after 60,000 – 70,000 ft. of climbing through the Alps), I enjoyed the natural scenery of the Lake while relishing the past accomplishment with fellow competitors whilst sipping on a glass of the local wine.

You raced the TransAlp? Consider me impressed. Based on pictures you've posted previously I knew you were an MTBer, but not to that extent. I think I remember reading about that race in Bike magazine years ago. I was only a Sport class racer in SoCal races at Big Bear and other spots before my future mountain bike champion started demanding my time.

[horseflesh]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

One of the biggest allures for me as a viewer of the James Bond flicks were the fabulous exotic locations sometimes serving as backdrops that I never had the opportunity to visit as a youngin.

Quantum of Solace with set locations in Siena and Lake Garda will hold a special appeal to me in that it should bring back fond memories of locales that I actually have been fortunate enough to experience in my later adulthood.

Namely Lake Garda being the traditional finish to what many consider to have been the toughest mountain bike race in the world (starting out in Mittenwald Germany and 8 days later after 60,000 – 70,000 ft. of climbing through the Alps), I enjoyed the natural scenery of the Lake while relishing the past accomplishment with fellow competitors whilst sipping on a glass of the local wine.

And Siena ……..the city in Italy where I proposed to my wife (I couldn’t wait for us to get to Venice) and I believe (imho) has the most romantic piazza in all of Italy…..the Piazza del Campo but, I may be biased in that regard.

I was saying to myself last night that some of those scenes looked familiar!
We had our family vacation at Lake Garda this Summer, in Peschiera del Garda on the south of the lake. Beautiful place, shame the weather wasn't so good

[Jeff Kleist]

Originally Posted by GabrielB

OK thanks Jeff. Keep us informed if there's something you can safely share with us... This issue is so important. As for me I like film grain and the texture of a film's emulsion so much... BTW can you just tell us if you are optimistic?

That they'll eventually come around? Yes

There is just something I'd wanted to know. Since you said at Warner DNR was standard operation procedure, I was wondering about other studios.
We know Warner/New Line has been the worst for this but do all studios DNR a little their films for BD releases? (without approval or input by the filamkers)

DNR is like cordrazine, a few drops can provide miracle cures, too much and Joan Collins gets run over by a car

We've seen releases from Fox and Universal with DNR. SPE is said to be problem free. What about Paramount, Disney and the others?

I believe the DNR that people thought they saw on Universal was actually the result of the HD DVD being artificially sharpened, check Penton's posts.
SPE has had some issues, Gattaca for instance (EE ringing). Patton and Longest Day were an isolated incident and not any indication of studio policy.

Disney is the only one that seems to be blemish free in that department, LG seems to be rehashing a lot of DVD transfers that have varying DNR levels (see the review of Universal Solider on this site)

More and more movies are using it when creating their DIs, Iron Man is one of them for instance.

WB is the only one that has a standing policy on the subject so far as I know

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by GabrielB

We've seen releases from Fox and Universal with DNR. SPE is said to be problem free. What about Paramount, Disney and the others?

SPE essentially is problem free in terms of dnr.
Blu-ray movie production at Sony is performed and Q/A’ed in conjunction with large LCD monitors (which tend to accentuate these artifacts compared to thee ole CRT displays) and when digital noise reduction is indeed deemed necessary, it is applied very sparingly and for a reason…………

that reason being to even out the grain between some scenes in order not to bring attention to its disparate appearance between scenes and thusly *take the person out of the movie*, which believe me, the grain would do- if you saw some of these particular HD masters, because as I have said countless times before on this forum……….

Sometimes characteristics (such as the visibility of grain) are revealed on some HD masters that were not intended by the filmmaker, for audiences to see. Today’s full resolution consumer displays showing their Blu-ray movies running in their Blu-ray players are more capable of mimicking the video master than the film’s theatrical presentation, for one, due to the film out process for release prints and the inherent nature of theatrical presentation with its weave, optics and projector light output.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by JimSD

You raced the TransAlp? Consider me impressed......

Amongst other endurance mountain bike races.

I’ll post a pic of one of my Finisher's jerseys from that event when I get back home (this evening after work) from the Wall of Fame in my Man’s Room………..or to which my wife affectionately refers to as “your own personal bar with all that junk hanging on the wall that nobody knows or cares about and just serves to collect dust”.

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

DNR is like cordrazine, a few drops can provide miracle cures, too much and Joan Collins gets run over by a car

Actually she doesn't get hit by the car because of this.

They have to correct the timeline so she does.

If McCoy hadn't shot himself up he wouldn't have leaped into the Guardian and altered history, Edith Keeler was meant to die but somehow he prevented that.


/Trek nut