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

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by Bobby Henderson

I think the movie studios, producers and filmmakers cared more about this sort of thing 10 or 20 years ago than they do now.

Funny; I had the same mantra, 10 and 20 years ago.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by DenonCI

Penton,

My Sharks are heading to the Western Conference finals for the second time. I hope they finally hoist the cup this year!

Hockey coming in 3D too…
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-relea...-93405784.html
This was a successful experiment…
http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=522628

And NASCAR?…
“It's coming. And there will be nothing like watching 43 people going 200 mph in 3D. It's going to be incredible.”
http://www.mikemulhern.net/index.php...some-dramamine

[Penton-Man]

Bobby H., I watched last night’s episode of House, which I must admit, I found personally to be the most boring episode I have seen in quite awhile.
Anyway, here’s a heads-up to next weeks episode (May 17) which will be shot with your camera (the 5D Mk II) and an interview which you may find interesting…
http://philipbloom.co.uk/2010/04/19/...-canon-5dmkii/

I must tell you that at the recent NAB 2010, the biggest topic and buzz, outside of 3D, was actually DSLR filmmaking…seems you’ve got the capability of the best of both worlds (still and video) going for you bud. I hope the monster tornado didn’t affect you.

b.t.w.,the second unit D.P. (Jonathan Taylor) used Mark IIs to film a tiny bit of the action sequence in Iron Man 2.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by merrick97

On another note I have a question:

If I wanted to make a film and I wanted it to look absolutely pristine would 70mm be the way to go?

Cue Oliver K.

[Bobby Henderson]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

I must tell you that at the recent NAB 2010, the biggest topic and buzz, outside of 3D, was actually DSLR filmmaking…seems you’ve got the capability of the best of both worlds (still and video) going for you bud. I hope the monster tornado didn’t affect you.

Thanks for the concern. Actually this part of Oklahoma (the Lawton-Fort Sill area) was missed just barely by all the bad weather. I left work yesterday afternoon to see massive super cell storms to the south and north of us. But none in town. The tornadic storms moved east to raise all kinds of hell. We didn't get a drop of rain even when the dry line passed. I've seen this numerous times before, which has me thinking this is one of the luckiest areas of Tornado Alley. The May 3, 1999 outbreak was the same story. The super cell that spawned the strongest tornado ever recorded formed over Fort Sill but didn't start dropping tornadoes until it was over Medicine Park. Then the storm made history as it roared alongside I-44 into metro Oklahoma City.

I have a theory the Wichita Mountains shields the Fort Sill and Lawton area to some degree from tornado strikes. Many of the nearby towns have their horror stories of tornado events. It has been over 30 years since a tornado has touched down inside Lawton-Fort Sill (the last strike being 1979 the same day a large F4 wedge tornado devastated Wichita Falls). The storms either form near Lawton and move east before doing any serious damage or they come at Lawton from the west or southwest and run out of gas before moving into town. I can't prove the point scientifically (and feel like knocking on wood when talking about it) but I'm convinced the mountains are a factor. If there was demonstrable meteorological proof it would be a major selling point in recruiting businesses to the area. The tourism business is growing steadily with nearby Medicine Park in the running for some "coolest small towns in America" contest.

On the topic of the EOS 5D Mark II, it's pretty easy to see from the episode preview why the camera was chosen to record the season finale of House . A storyline involving a building collapse that features lots of tight, claustrophobic angles is a natural for a video DSLR camera. It's like the camera is taking over the purpose of an Eyemo camera.

As great as the video capability of the EOS 5D Mark II (and 7D) is some improvements need to be made to future models. Aliasing can be a serious problem in shots with deep depth of field. OTOH, the 5D Mark II is often used for its capability of providing very shallow depth of field effects.

[Jeff Kleist]

Hey Penton,

Just want to thank Sony for using the Vortex eco cases. While they still feel a bit flimsy, not having artwork destroying windows cut in the case is great, glad to see they instead designined it SMARTER

I was watching my "Building Big" DVDs on skyscrapers, where just building a giant sloping foundation in ancient towers gave way to steel beam skeletons with thin outer skins. Glad to see some smart engineer applied the same principles to eco cases. Thicker plastic in the "skeleton" and thin windows between.

Now if Viva would only apply the same principles to their cases and stop using those tiny spindles in soft plastic and wonder why the weight of 6 discs hanging off them is breaking all those cases (that consumers can't get replacements for. So far I've had 3 broken 5+ disc cases from them, running about 30% broken on the 3 disc cases and the DVD 6 discers are 2 for 3 broken). They won't return my phone calls or anyone else in the press for that matter)

[Penton-Man]

And I want to thank you for gathering the data from the 'caring to make a real difference' fine contributing members in your Insider’s thread and *making the connection* with somebody a tad higher than a consumer rep at Paramount.

I skimmed the last few pages of the mainstream Saving Private Ryan thread here and there is barely a mention of the voluntary time, effort and success you put into this project.

A tip of the hat to you Jeff.
Job well done.

[Jeff Kleist]

Thanks Penton, I appreciate it

As I said over there, I also want to thank everyone that sent their stuff in, and everyone else for not freaking out and letting the problem just be solved. My bottle of aspirin went untouched, and the foxhole shovels unused with this issue, and we were able to have constructive talks WITHOUT most of the time being spent on damage control

I hope it'll be a model for the future for BOTH sides

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Bobby Henderson

On the topic of the EOS 5D Mark II, it's pretty easy to see from the episode preview why the camera was chosen to record the season finale of House . A storyline involving a building collapse that features lots of tight, claustrophobic angles is a natural for a video DSLR camera...

Which is a reason why they were used as crash cameras in Iron Man 2.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Thanks Penton, I appreciate it

As I said over there, I also want to thank everyone that sent their stuff in, and everyone else for not freaking out and letting the problem just be solved. My bottle of aspirin went untouched, and the foxhole shovels unused with this issue, and we were able to have constructive talks WITHOUT most of the time being spent on damage control

I hope it'll be a model for the future for BOTH sides

Well, you do realize there is a downside.

You risk taking away or detracting from some peoples’ hobby…
https://forum.blu-ray.com/insider-di...ml#post3222442

This is for those members who actually desire to learn something meaningful about Saving Private Ryan, after Jeff has already successfully resolved the audio synch problem on the behalf of home theater enthusiasts everywhere…
http://www.theasc.com/magazine/aug98/saving/pg1.htm

[Mr. Cinema]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Hey Penton,

Just want to thank Sony for using the Vortex eco cases. While they still feel a bit flimsy, not having artwork destroying windows cut in the case is great, glad to see they instead designined it SMARTER

I was watching my "Building Big" DVDs on skyscrapers, where just building a giant sloping foundation in ancient towers gave way to steel beam skeletons with thin outer skins. Glad to see some smart engineer applied the same principles to eco cases. Thicker plastic in the "skeleton" and thin windows between.

Now if Viva would only apply the same principles to their cases and stop using those tiny spindles in soft plastic and wonder why the weight of 6 discs hanging off them is breaking all those cases (that consumers can't get replacements for. So far I've had 3 broken 5+ disc cases from them, running about 30% broken on the 3 disc cases and the DVD 6 discers are 2 for 3 broken). They won't return my phone calls or anyone else in the press for that matter)

There is an ebay seller who carries 3-6 Viva Elite cases. Usually doesn't have them in stock for too long. Not surprising.

I used to have issues with the 3 and 4 disc cases. But at least to me, it seems like they've made the tray holders a bit sturdier than before. I haven't encountered anything broken on the inside in quite a while.

HOWEVER, Viva Elite cases are still way too prone to having broken corner pieces on the outside. I've had 4 or 5 this year where 1 corner piece falls off after I remove the shrinkwrap. I've yet to encounter any issue with the Vortex style.

[Jeff Kleist]

It's hard for me to take that kind of credit Penton, while data collection is very important, Paramount did it right, and if there wasn't people up and down their chain willing to work the problem in a constructive group effort way, which is a credit after the beating they took on Gladiato, this wouldn't have happened.

Things have been a bit bumpy at a lot of studios with some of the beatings they've taken online, and I'm glad I can hold this one up as a success story now

[Mr. Cinema]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

It's hard for me to take that kind of credit Penton, while data collection is very important, Paramount did it right, and if there wasn't people up and down their chain willing to work the problem in a constructive group effort way, which is a credit after the beating they took on Gladiato, this wouldn't have happened.

Things have been a bit bumpy at a lot of studios with some of the beatings they've taken online, and I'm glad I can hold this one up as a success story now

Was this particular process sped up any due to this film's popularity and importance...and it being directed by that famous and powerful S.S. guy?

[PaulGo]

"Penton-Man
To the best of my knowledge the PS3 will not support checkerboard formatted output."

Thanks for checking about this - it was a long shot, but I was hoping. It appears the best solution will be to buy a Blu-ray 3D player that does checkerboard, unless someone finds out how to modify the Mitsubishi adapter or someone else comes out with a adapter for the Samsung DLP sets that have the checkerboard ability.

[Oliver K]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Cue Oliver K.

How did you know I am back from Oslo? I have to say that after a bunch of 70mm screenings a strong argument could still be made for classic large format photography with movies from 40 tor 50 years ago imo wiping the floor with more than 99.9% of what we have today.

I also got to watch a 70mm Blow-Up print of Dr. Zhiwago and now I am looking forward to seeing how the Blu-Ray fares against that one.
Unfortunately it occured to me too late but it would have been interesting to have a shootout of Dr. Zhiwago via a 70mm Blow-Up print vs the Blu-Ray version projected via a 4k Sony SRX-R220 (kind of like a digital Blow-Up).

And I got my yearly LOA fix and with the current rate of LOA 70mm screenings that I attended (3 screenings in 4 years) I am good to go for another year or two without getting the Blu-Ray so you guys can take the time to get everything right

Contrary to my previous belief I also got in early enough to still catch the tail end of the FIAF congress but unfortunately I was not able to attend the 4k screenings as these took place before I arrived.

Altogether I had a very pleasant stay and the level of enthusiasm shown for movie presentation was really impressive both in quality of equipment and in the way it was used and set up. Oslo has a fantastic facility there and I am sure the FIAF meeting there was a big success.

[MerrickG]

hey Penton,

Just watched the new Karate Kid bluray and found it to look quite good for an 80s film. For old 80s films all I ask is that they preserve all the grain and keep a film like look and thats what I got.

Not that SPE is known for DNR. :-)

My only disappointment is the neither films included deleted scenes, which it has been rumored that both films had some nice cut scenes. Jeff mentioned that films from that era often lost unused footage.

Nevertheless, I was pleased.

[Penton-Man]

^

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

...for a compressionist, it was not too difficult to capture as much appreciated detail as possible if you don’t have an aversion to grain, either aesthetically or due to its inherent increased data load which could place a burden on some predetermined bitrate budget established by the marketing folks to begin with … and SPHE had neither in regards to this particular title (nor does it have for any title really – we simply limit the added value or place it on another disc, if need be).

And, if you’re using a software encoder which has a scaling list that determines how the system’s H.264/AVC encoder treats fine detail in the frame. And if the operator sets it to the ‘grain preservation mode’, like…
http://pro.sony.com/bbsccms/assets/f..._params_22.jpg

so that the system will maintain film grain in the image which would otherwise be somewhat ignored during the encoding process in order to maximize the codec’s efficiency…well, when all of the above is done, I think you see for yourself that the results can be quite pleasing.

Now, don’t bother me, as I’m busy doing ‘research’…
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/370817...entertainment/

Oops, wrong “gimmick” link.
This is what I really wanted to post …
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/ente...d-channel.html

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Oliver K

How did you know I am back from Oslo? ...

Well, I figured you didn’t stay in Norway to herd reindeer.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by PaulGo

Thanks for...

You're welcome.

[DenonCI]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

^


Now, don’t bother me, as I’m busy doing ‘research’…
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/370817...entertainment/

Oops, wrong “gimmick” link.
This is what I really wanted to post …
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/ente...d-channel.html

That's just what we need....3D porn

Maybe porn can do for 3D what it did for the VCR