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

[JimSD]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

One moment….search word “pesky”.

Pesky Combo?

[sharkshark]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

But I’m personally glad to hear your thumbs-up for Cave Of Forgotten Dreams though so, thanks for that and it would be icing on the cake if that particular film changed Roger E.’s mindset about all 3D filmmaking.

...had a one way conversation (alas) with Mr. Ebert about that very subject. As you may know from the Vanity Fair piece he's got a few rote moves to demonstrate emotion, so he showed being very pleased at the Herzog and the (really excellent) Mike Leigh feature ANOTHER YEAR, a film that would still be pretty darn magnificent on VHS.

[micks_address]

Hi Penton,

Apologies if this has been asked already - but would you have any insight into if the ps3 will be able to pass full hd audio when playing 3d blu-ray in the future? I think its great that it can do 3d at all, and will be using it for my initial sampling of 3d hopefully in the next month or so..

Cheers,
Mick

p.s. do you think the ps3 could have the same sort of effect on 3d blu-ray adoption as it had with blu-ray adoption at the outset?

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by sharkshark

Awww, you missed me!

I was thinking about you while you were at TIFF because in the meantime a funny thing happened which reminded me of Toronto and thusly you, as the film was shot on location there….not to say that you are/were ever involved in this sort of predicament.

A guy (who has the reputation of being a *player*, the description of which I have no idea is true or untrue) mentioned to me during a lunch conversation that “Chloe is the perfect Blu-ray for the man who is cheating on his wife to show as a Saturday evening flick in his home theater to a wife who suspects him of being unfaithful”.
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Chloe.../11928/#Review

Luckily, being the happily married man that I am, I’ve personally never been presented with such a situation. My dilemmas are more on the order of my wife insisting we make the local premier and after party of Secretariat next Thursday when these days, by Thursdays, it seems I’m already a tired cowboy and just want to kick back and relax on the couch for a few hours before going to bed.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by JimSD

Pesky Combo?

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by sharkshark

...had a one way conversation (alas) with Mr. Ebert about that very subject. As you may know from the Vanity Fair piece he's got a few rote moves to demonstrate emotion, so he showed being very pleased at the Herzog and the (really excellent) Mike Leigh feature ANOTHER YEAR, a film that would still be pretty darn magnificent on VHS.

I haven’t read the piece but I’ve heard that Roger has increased peoples’ awareness thru past postings/interviews and such about thyroid cancer.
So, in the spirit of that noble effort by Roger, I’ll add my 2 cents.

Real World Advice that Could Save Your Life –

When you guys/esp. gals go see your family doc for a routine initial physical and if he/she fails to palpate your neck around your ‘Adam’s apple’, then I definitely recommend you go and get another family physician, esp. if you’re > 30 yrs old. Not to say that his happened with Roger but, forewarned is forearmed.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by micks_address

Hi Penton,

Apologies if this has been asked already - but would you have any insight into if the ps3 will be able to pass full hd audio when playing 3d blu-ray in the future? I think its great that it can do 3d at all, and will be using it for my initial sampling of 3d hopefully in the next month or so..

Cheers,
Mick

p.s. do you think the ps3 could have the same sort of effect on 3d blu-ray adoption as it had with blu-ray adoption at the outset?

Well, let’s put it this way….I wouldn’t hold my breath. Audio aside, on the flip-side, it’s difficult to argue with a freebie (3D capability), esp. when it was never promised by SCE nor expected from most home theater folks in the first place, when the PS3 launched.

P.S.
I don’t see the PS3 having quite the same magnitude of effect on 3D blu-ray adoption as it had with 2D blu-ray adoption at the outset. It should be a significant contributing factor though and every little bit helps.

[Penton-Man]

Member PM’ed me this for comment….
https://forum.blu-ray.com/blu-ray-te...s-blu-ray.html

Why don’t you send said executive this with the header 'Eat your heart out' ….
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...2255882358662#

[sharkshark]

Heh, I think we talked about Chloe last year (TIFF09 - http://filmfest.ca/2009/09/14/chloe/) My thoughts address what I feel is a slightly disingenuous part of the script. Plus, I have the total hots for both actresses, both of whom I've met in real life and are even more striking in person.

Meanwhile, you'll be amused that our fancy new "Lightbox" is living up to its hype, we've got 70mm showing of Kubrick in Dec, and in October Walter Murch is here for a couple days, showing AN:Redux and doing a "State of Cinema" talk on the next eve. Kane is screening with intro by Bogdanovich, Cronenberg's here tonight for Videodrome, and they're showing ALIEN on halloween. I got to see BREATHLESS on big screen a couple days ago at a pre-screen, thoughts here: http://filmfest.ca/2010/09/23/breathless/

So, how was CEDIA?

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

I was thinking about you while you were at TIFF because in the meantime a funny thing happened which reminded me of Toronto and thusly you, as the film was shot on location there….not to say that you are/were ever involved in this sort of predicament.

A guy (who has the reputation of being a *player*, the description of which I have no idea is true or untrue) mentioned to me during a lunch conversation that “Chloe is the perfect Blu-ray for the man who is cheating on his wife to show as a Saturday evening flick in his home theater to a wife who suspects him of being unfaithful”.
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Chloe.../11928/#Review

Luckily, being the happily married man that I am, I’ve personally never been presented with such a situation. My dilemmas are more on the order of my wife insisting we make the local premier and after party of Secretariat next Thursday when these days, by Thursdays, it seems I’m already a tired cowboy and just want to kick back and relax on the couch for a few hours before going to bed.

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by sharkshark

we've got 70mm showing of Kubrick in Dec

Originally Posted by sharkshark

in October Walter Murch is

Originally Posted by sharkshark

doing a "State of Cinema" talk

Originally Posted by sharkshark

they're showing ALIEN on halloween

[sharkshark]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

Weirdly, my inbox was sticky from drool...

On a related note, Salo is being shown, intro'd by John Waters!

http://tiff.net/essential/specialevents

[JimSD]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Just a little joke. No Rubio's in your neck of the woods?

[sharkshark]

FINALLY posting, as per request, my writeup on the Springsteen/Norton interview I attended at TIFF:

http://filmfest.ca/2010/09/15/maveri...-by-ed-norton/

enjoy!

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by sharkshark

Heh, I think we talked about Chloe last year (TIFF09 - http://filmfest.ca/2009/09/14/chloe/) My thoughts address what I feel is a slightly disingenuous part of the script. Plus, I have the total hots for both actresses, both of whom I've met in real life and are even more striking in person.

Well, without giving away nuances of the plot to others who may have never seen it, I haven’t watched the flick since around the time it debuted and I personally don’t recall anything ‘disingenuous’ in the husband’s behavior/reaction given his primary proclivity of being *friendly* to others.

Anyway, I did learn one practical lesson from you, that being in the future to read your reviews of adult oriented motion pictures much more slowly and carefully, otherwise, seems I’m prone to replacing the letter “u” in some words with “o”.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by sharkshark

So, how was CEDIA?

I didn’t attend. The folks in Santa Ana probably provide a good summary of the expo here…
http://www.homemediamagazine.com/con...dia-expo-20694

^ All I would take issue with is the observation by “some” as in “However, some at CEDIA Expo said the relative lack of content was a black eye for 3D in the home.”

For cripes sake, how offering a still cutting edge premium feature gets negatively embellished into a “black eye” by some people at the Expo is beyond me. I think the primary thrust of all sales counselors at retail stores, home theater installers, etc. is (or at least should be) directed to consumers who are already in the market for a new TV now, or at least will be…come the holidays and that it would not be a bad idea to invest a few extra hundred dollars more for 3D capability in order to be as future-proof as possible if you think you have any inkling at all in the extra dimension as time goes by and things rev up.

The content will come in due course and motion pictures naturally will lag for awhile due to the inherent nature of the filmmaking process and ancillary products like 3DBDs compared to that of the expediency of broadcast programming.

[sharkshark]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Well, without giving away nuances of the plot to others who may have never seen it, I haven’t watched the flick since around the time it debuted and I personally don’t recall anything ‘disingenuous’ in the husband’s behavior/reaction given his primary proclivity of being *friendly* to others.

Anyway, I did learn one practical lesson from you, that being in the future to read your reviews of adult oriented motion pictures much more slowly and carefully, otherwise, seems I’m prone to replacing the letter “u” in some words with “o”.

Heh, it's implied that you actually -read- the review, but if not, my claim is this (to quote, major spoiler for those not having seen the film:

[Show spoiler]As it stands, the film relies upon the hard-to-swallow thought that Neeson’s reaction to hearing that his beautiful wife has had an affair with an equally beautiful young woman would be anything less than, “Great! Can I join in, please?”, given the proclivities he has demonstrated throughout the film to that point.

Crude, perhaps, but this type of subversion of typical cuckolding simply doesn’t not hold the same societal narrative weight that the same tale told from the opposite gender perspective would contain. It may be unfair to lump our gender specific views of infidelity onto this film, but as it stands it simply strains credulity, given the world of this film, and with the added altercations that ensue the pieces simply don’t fit together.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by sharkshark

FINALLY posting, as per request, my writeup on the Springsteen/Norton interview I attended at TIFF:

http://filmfest.ca/2010/09/15/maveri...-by-ed-norton/

enjoy!

Nice.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by JimSD

Just a little joke. No Rubio's in your neck of the woods?

I think there is one Rubio’s around here somewhere. I’ve got to get out more. Just never sampled their stuff except for one time my wife brought home a lobster taco for me after a grueling morning mountain bike ride and I must admit it was superb!

[Penton-Man]

I notice that Robin Hood debuted on Blu-ray this past week. So what’s the online buzz for the hi-def home media product? Yesterday, while chilling along the ocean I read an article in which the Director of Photography was interviewed (AC, June ’10).

Contrary to any misimpression which readers perhaps may conclude from reading the piece that little color correction was utilized for this particular motion picture….

Actually, I’m told a significant number of exterior shots were captured under bright, sunny days with blue skies and resultant hard shadows so, I wouldn’t underestimate the amount of extreme color correction that went into taking the deep blue out of the skies to produce a grey, overcast environment as well as softening up all the shadows in those shots….not to mention the color desaturation in general and more subtle *enhancements* of minutia such as blades of grass in some shots and even water drops in the later battle scenes near the oceanfront which I doubt even the screenshot scientists will recognize in their normal hunting for traditional sharpening effects.

So, perhaps not under John M.’s direct supervision, but ultimately, there was significant digital tweaking which went on during the course of the non-linear color grading for Robin Hood.

[Penton-Man]

^
Nobody? Did you think some of those swords look “naturally” that sharp and highlighted just with film acquisition and lighting?

O.K., selective sharpening aside, to all those screenshot scientists out there –
Does the Blu-ray incarnation expose the day-for-night scenes as such, or were ya’ll also clueless to that particular color correction aspect of the motion picture? I’ll bet the later…..at least as of the time and date of this posting.

I must say that I saw the theatrical version and I thought it looked superb so, I’m looking forward to watching the Director’s cut on Blu-ray. I wish someday Ridley S. would sit down and enlighten Wally Pfister as to the merits of the digital intermediate process.