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

[Buddy Christ]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

The bigger problem with 2D-3D, outside of the paper doll effect is that for peopel who get headaches from 3D, they are far more likely to get triggered by the fake stuff due to misalignments of the 2 eyes.

Dang it Jeff. Ya got me Googling "Paper Doll effect" and I can't get nothin'. Ugh!

[Bobby Henderson]

A few days ago the this thread (with some help from yours truly) briefly drifted into the subject of movie poster art and illustration -and how illustration can be a lot more visually compelling than the typical boring Photoshopped photography that appears on nearly every movie poster.

With that said, I want to mention the passing of Frank Frazetta. The guy is a legend to many comic book artists, fantasy artists, illustrators, painters, etc. He pioneered much of the sword and sorcery genre of illustration. Frank passed away Monday, May 10 from complications due to a stroke.

[cjamescook]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

“When girls are good they are very good, but when they are bad they are even better.”
I think THAT ^ is much better than this …http://www.sonypictures.com/homevide...396306011.html

Not to reply with the obvious, but wasn't it Mae West who said it better with:
"Good girls go to heaven. Bad girls go everywhere."

(Thanks for the Sony DVD release link.)

[Vincent Pereira]

Originally Posted by cjamescook

Hey, thanks! I've been meaning to ask for the name of this kind of shot. I first noticed it only a few years ago on TV. Your link characterizes it as somewhat overused, so how did I miss it for so long?

I've never heard of this type of shot referred to as a "trombone". I've always heard it referred to as a stretch. It's achieved rather simply, either by dollying in while zooming out at the same time, or vice versa (i.e., dolly out, zoom in). Scorsese actually does BOTH versions during the same shot with no cuts in GOODFELLAS when during the final act of the film Liotta meets up with DeNiro in the diner. When we did a variation of this kind of shot (using a hand-held camera no less) for my own itsy-bitsy 16mm movie A BETTER PLACE, we lovingly referred to it as "the Scorsese stretch".

Vincent

[Jeff Kleist]

Dang it Jeff. Ya got me Googling "Paper Doll effect" and I can't get nothin'. Ugh!

It looks like the figures were cut out like a paper doll and moved through 3D space. The people themselves have no depth but move like they do anyway

[cjamescook]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

...So when you're wavering on whether or not to wait for a sale when that midrange catalog disc comes out, try to err on purchasing it sooner rather than later. Good first week #s make for happy studios, and happy studios=more catalog. They're not UNHAPPY per say, but I wouldn't say "thrilled" is accurate either. The sky is not falling, there is no disaster around the bend, please do not twist this into one

I usually buy one or two per month, usually divided between science/nature and back catalog.

Side note: We saw "The Ugly Truth" last weekend. I don't care what the reviews said - we liked it!

[cjamescook]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

...They have raw sales numbers through the same reports everyone else gets, but they can only compare to their own authoring/production bills.

So, if I understand this correctly, all the studios know all the sales numbers for all studios, but the numbers are a big secret from the rest of the world?

This is not the first industry in which I've seen something like this, but it does not make me like it any better.

[Jeff Kleist]

They know how many were sold, raw numbers

Nielsen's entire business is trading in the information surrounding these kinds of things, and obviously no big buisiness ever wants anyone on the outside to have the big picture.

Here's a good example

New Release X in early 2007 (these are made up, but generally ballpark numbers) sold 1.5 million DVDs its first week (that's good!). On Blu-ray, it sold 16,000 (to the uneducated eye, that's bad). But that 15,000 represented 60% of all Blu-rays sold that week (that's good!), which could give a perception that the entire Blu industry, only moving 26,000ish units that week was a big bomb (that's bad).

So that's why such things aren't public

And yes, the sales do contain potassium benzoate

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Given his talent I'm down with it, but male or female please keep the talentless eye candy off the screen. Thus is certainly the first project since 5th Element that might actually be good. Milla isn't talentless, but her career choices have been......poor

Almost makes you think she was under the influence of something when she agreed to them...

And yes, the sales do contain potassium benzoate

(Pause) That's bad.

[cjamescook]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

B.T.W., Men in Black 3 will be shot in 3D but, ...

BTW, willl Linda Fiorentino be back?

Or would that require her winning another poker game?

[cjamescook]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

...Here's a good example:
<hypothetical sales numbers deleted> ...

Cool! Thanks!

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

...And yes, the sales do contain potassium benzoate

Potassium benzoate is also used as the whistle in many fireworks.

[cjamescook]

Penton-

Is there anything you can say about the sound restoration for the Marx Brothers blu-ray releases?

The K2/Warner DVD release of Chaplin films impressed me what could be done with the picture (even if some say they revealed too much detail), so I know what to expect there. My (old) memories of the sound in Mark Brothers films are that they lacked clarity.

(I think SPE still has the rights to some of them, no?)

Have a good weekend!

[sharkshark]

Working my way through three weeks of posts. Fun stuff.

Originally Posted by FilmMixer

Regarding SPR..

It was mixed on 6trk SR mag...

...and cut on a flatbed, as per all of his films.

FM, nice to see you posting here, you've often in the past adressed some of my more nerdy questions.

As for AI, that's actually a film that I'm very interested in revisiting. I didn't necessarily hate it theatrically, but haven't bothered watching it a second time. With so much pent up expectation as the 'lost' Kubrick film, it'll certainly be warranted to give it another shot without so much baggage.

As for worst Spielberg film, 1941 or Hook, or even Sugarland Express don't even come close. For a truly awful, awful film, look no further than Amistad. Fluffy films that fail don't have the baggage of overly earnest films that not only bore, they in so many ways seem to undermine the very topic they're trying to illuminate. It's offensively bad on almost every level. If Schindler's was remarkable for its restraint (and only occasional moments of sachrine "Spielbergness") than Amistad is is full on, train-off-the-rails schmaltzfest with a boring-ass court scene that makes Anthony Hopkins seem like some drunk Santa Claus.

Terrible.

SS is adverse to doing commentary, but Bouzereau does a great job with his docs that often serve the purpose - I'd love very much a deluxe AI that really delves into the relationship with SK, and to have some sort of formal look at the continuing use of analogue editing (and sound, it seems) equipment in his film arsenal.

Also, Penton, your link to the "trombone" shot was amusing, I'd never heard it described that way ("vertigo shot" is my usual frame of reference). And as for the Jason and the Argonauts release, well, that's pleasing for a number of reasons, notwithstanding the fact that apparently it's what was playing on TV the day of my birth, and I share a name with the lead character.

[sharkshark]

Originally Posted by Vincent Pereira

Scorsese actually does BOTH versions during the same shot with no cuts in GOODFELLAS when during the final act of the film Liotta meets up with DeNiro in the diner.

..ah, what a scene. The diner conversation from hell, and a master class in what makes DeNiro a god - he's barely talking, just fuming. Awesome.

Meanwhile, I'm also catching up on some TV - the tragically underrated Community did a fabulous take on Goodfellas and its ilk a couple weeks back (with a lovely Zombie/Die Hard take the week after). Just a great, clever and witty show that's likely to die a horrible death just cuz I enjoy it so.

[sharkshark]

We'll, I've come back to this:

The pity is that Spartacus, like Out of Africa and Elizabeth makes Blu-ray appear to be something that it is not – a flawed technological system for viewing motion pictures in home theaters. I was hopeful that the lessons learned with the Blu-ray releases of Patton, The Longest Day and Gangs of New York might have been taken to heart.



They have not.

Thanks RAH for delving into Spartacus - if I recall correctly, you had avoided doing so during the last unsatisfactory release. I for one had hoped this BD go round would have corrected some of the more egregious errors. Alas.

I know you're fighting for Alamo, and god bless, but I for one would rather we fought for this and Patton to be rethought. After all, Gangs got its due finally, no?

I've not seen the BD (I do have the "red" version, and it was a mess). The only think I think we can pray for now is that that Uni gives up on this title and lets Criterion have their way with it....

[micks_address]

we liked ugly truth the first time we watched it.. but put it on recently again and it really had lost its shine...

Originally Posted by cjamescook

I usually buy one or two per month, usually divided between science/nature and back catalog.

Side note: We saw "The Ugly Truth" last weekend. I don't care what the reviews said - we liked it!

[Tok]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

It looks like the figures were cut out like a paper doll and moved through 3D space. The people themselves have no depth but move like they do anyway

I call it the Viewmaster effect. 2 planes of depth but each unique plane is essentially 2D.

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by sharkshark

Working my way through three weeks of posts.

He's baaaaaaaaaaaack!

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by Vincent Pereira

I've never heard of this type of shot referred to as a "trombone".

In my circles, it's always been a "Spielberg" and a "reverse-Spielberg". I was actually on set for one of the better-known "reverse-Spielbergs".

[sharkshark]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

In my circles, it's always been a "Spielberg" and a "reverse-Spielberg". I was actually on set for one of the better-known "reverse-Spielbergs".

Oooh, a challenge!

Hrm... You were on set for Battlestar Galactica season 4?