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

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by sharkshark

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.

I did read it. From my memory, nothing struck me as 'out-of-character' in his behavior to undermine the plot.

Maybe I should watch it again to see what you mean. Do you think Ondine –
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Ondin.../12932/#Review
strains credibility also or were you able to just go with the flow with that movie?

[sharkshark]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

I did read it. From my memory, nothing struck me as 'out-of-character' in his behavior to undermine the plot.

Maybe I should watch it again to see what you mean. Do you think Ondine –
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Ondin.../12932/#Review
strains credibility also or were you able to just go with the flow with that movie?

...haven't seen it, was interested in do so. It's a silly thing to complain about with Chloe, but I just felt that it was stretching a bit for the sake of a shock that I'm not sure was earned.

Amusingly, there are parts of Toronto they visit that, despite being a block or two away from where I'm typing, I've never bothered going to. For LA residents, this ain't new, but it's kind of comical for us here...

[Doctorossi]

P-Man, perhaps in your zeal to paint the "scientists" ignorant, you're overlooking the possibility that you are not seeing outrage emanate from their quarter for the opposite reason. Maybe they're well aware of the difference between digital processing used to create a movie and that used to prepare a video release of said movie.

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

P-Man, perhaps in your zeal to paint the "scientists" ignorant, you're overlooking the possibility that you are not seeing outrage emanate from their quarter for the opposite reason. Maybe they're well aware of the difference between digital processing used to create a movie and that used to prepare a video release of said movie.

No, they have demonstrated over & over absolutely no knowledge of the process, as their Baraka debacle demonstrates that willful ignorance beautifully.

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

No, they have demonstrated over & over absolutely no knowledge of the process, as their Baraka debacle demonstrates that willful ignorance beautifully.

The issue with Baraka is not a product of the film's original production.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by sharkshark

...Amusingly, there are parts of Toronto they visit that, despite being a block or two away from where I'm typing, I've never bothered going to....

Well, I think he did your town well . If I was drawn to the colder climates, it looks like a nice place to live while you're watching the flick.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

P-Man, perhaps in your zeal to paint the "scientists" ignorant, you're overlooking the possibility that you are not seeing outrage emanate from their quarter for the opposite reason. Maybe they're well aware of the difference between digital processing used to create a movie and that used to prepare a video release of said movie.

I sense a hostile tone.

That wasn’t a pitch to point out the scientists as “ignorant”.

I just specifically referred to those folks collectively in the above post(s) because I think they are fascinated by all types of digital processing as a general topic of discussion and speculation and I was revealing some rather unique or perhaps at least, unappreciated information for them to reflect upon retrospectively after their screenshot analysis and hopefully real time viewing.

Geez, chill Doc.

[Doctorossi]

I didn't mean to come off hostile. It just looked to me like you were fishing for something where it may not be. You seemed to be taking a 'guilty until proven innocent' approach and I felt like a counterpoint should be represented.

[PaulGo]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

I sense a hostile tone.

That wasn’t a pitch to point out the scientists as “ignorant”.

I just specifically referred to those folks collectively in the above post(s) because I think they are fascinated by all types of digital processing as a general topic of discussion and speculation and I was revealing some rather unique or perhaps at least, unappreciated information for them to reflect upon retrospectively after their screenshot analysis and hopefully real time viewing.

Geez, chill Doc.

I agree when you do that much analysis they can't enjoy the movie. They are not enjoying the movie plot but the movie technical details and they would have improved it (if possible).

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

I didn't mean to come off hostile. It just looked to me like you were fishing for something where it may not be. You seemed to be taking a 'guilty until proven innocent' approach and I felt like a counterpoint should be represented.

I think you may be confusing me for my good friend Jeff Kleist …..”However, the point still stands that the AVS people are longtime proven idiots when it comes to these things, so their analysis should be defaulted to wrong until proven right.”
https://forum.blu-ray.com/insider-di...ml#post1864138

Honestly Doc, I think you overacted to my comment as I doubt many home video observers, screenshot scientist or not, would have picked up on the nuances of the non-linear color grading for Robin Hood of which I posted above, just like few if any could do log to lin conversion LUTs for the color of ancillary products like Blu-rays. They just seem to be more interested in the technical digital processing stuff than the mainstream forum folks.

I really wasn’t singling them out in a negative fashion. If anyone should feel slighted with the above post(s) it should be Wally “I’m not a big fan of 3-D. Maybe it's because I'm a drunk and I get nauseous watching it” Pfister.

[Batman1980]

I wonder what Penton-Man thinks of the Iron Man 2 blu-ray and what he hopes for/sees coming in the third installment of the franchise.

[sharkshark]

Wowza:
http://starwars.com/movies/saga/announce3d/index.html

[Bobby Henderson]

I thought George Lucas had already announced that a couple years ago.

I'm skeptical the 3D conversion will be anything close to as good as native 3D photography. Obviously every object in a shot has to be isolated, extracted out of the background and floated into 3D space. Not only that, but each floating object then has to be given 3D volume to avoid looking like a flat cut-out. This is not easy to do, even with the latest and greatest technology in photo manipulation software.

[sharkshark]

Originally Posted by Bobby Henderson

I thought George Lucas had already announced that a couple years ago.

...yeah, and LAWRENCE OF ARABIA was announced for Blu.

All kidding aside, apparently they did tests, weren't happy, and it was shelved. Now they're happy, it's all official like. Let the naysayers speak (we're going to hear them for the next 6+ years no doubt).

Meanwhile, got to see RED today (liked it quite a bit), well worth seeing. Also saw UNCLE BOONMEE, which won Palme D'or, and was terrrrrrible....

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Bobby Henderson

I thought George Lucas had already announced that a couple years ago.

I'm skeptical the 3D conversion will be anything close to as good as native 3D photography. Obviously every object in a shot has to be isolated, extracted out of the background and floated into 3D space. Not only that, but each floating object then has to be given 3D volume to avoid looking like a flat cut-out. This is not easy to do, even with the latest and greatest technology in photo manipulation software.

ILM is doing the conversion, not some fly-by-night hired at the last minute. If anyone can do it, it's them. They pioneered the new 3-D process with Chicken Little, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and they did the test for James Cameron to show Avatar could be done (and done well) in 3-D.

[HeavyHitter]

Time will tell, but my guess is these Star Wars 3D conversions will look quite good and not like some of the other crap that's been done before.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Stormcrow

I wonder what Penton-Man thinks of the Iron Man 2 blu-ray and what he hopes for/sees coming in the third installment of the franchise.

I have no opinion/knowledge as I’ve seen neither the theatrical nor the Blu-ray incarnation yet.

Looking forward to watching the Iron Man 2 Blu though.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by sharkshark

Wowza:
http://starwars.com/movies/saga/announce3d/index.html

Yup, now that it's officially confirmed, it's certainly the buzz around town today and I suspect all over the news sites on the internet.

It's kind of ironic because one of the keynotes at the recent 3D Entertainment Summit in Hollywood was a rather provocative speech condemning the practice, in general, of all 2D -> 3D conversions.

I hope George Lucas proves the speaker wrong.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

ILM is doing the conversion, not some fly-by-night hired at the last minute. If anyone can do it, it's them. They pioneered the new 3-D process with Chicken Little, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and they did the test for James Cameron to show Avatar could be done (and done well) in 3-D.

Peter, you may want to confirm that (i.e. who is doing the actual *in the trenches* work) with your friends at ILM because I’m thinking that the actual conversion will be contracted to an outside facility with oversight of the process/results by ILM.

In regards to AVATAR, a little known factoid is that because of a problem with the stereo camera rig/set-up, a couple shots in AVATAR were actually 2D -> 3D conversions in which an outside facility converted one of the camera images to match the stereoscopic imagery.

Another thing that few people realize is that (based upon what the exhibitors honestly thought their projectors could output in terms of foot-lamberts) Jim Cameron had the foresight and vision to actually customize the digital cinema files to best fit the variant projector capabilities of particular venues, so, different, so-to-speak, ‘light rated’ digital cinema packages were supplied to different theaters in order to better show-off the movie without audiences suffering from ‘the 3D looks too dark’ syndrome.

Pretty insightful on the part of the filmmaker.

[sharkshark]

Nice tidbits as always, P.

Meanwhile, I had one of the more egregious digital cinema moments yesterday - there's a sweeping, 360 degree pan at the beginning of RED that made the image stutter like it was having a seizure. The rest of the image was rock solid, but the "judder" (if in fact that's what it's called when there's no pulldown) was pretty damn stark.