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

[PaulGo]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

I would like to take this opportunity to extend my warmest wishes for a wonderful Holiday Season , with happiness and prosperity throughout the coming year to all Club Penton readers and posters.

Same to you and a wish of good health to everyone!

[DenonCI]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

How does that work out in regards to paying your taxes? Do you have to fill out some form at the venue before you pick up your winnings or are you obliged to report the income with your regular tax filling come next April?

Yes, you have to individually report it. If you win more than $5k in a tournament, you have to fill out a tax form on the spot. Lucky for me (or unlucky), I have a receipt for the main event ($10k buy-in), so I won't be claiming any earnings this year.

[pro-bassoonist]

Good afternoon Penton,

Merry Christmas to you and your entire family

Pro-B

[sharkshark]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Sorry Shark, I haven’t dove Cozumel since I was in high-school, so any recommendations I could give you would surely be out of date by now.

In the meantime, keep an eye out for more cinematographic skill from the Emmanuel Lubezki/Terrence Malick team for The Tree of Life next year….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLPe0...=youtu.be&hd=1 < D.I. workflow , Doc.

Yeah, I think I mentioned ToL somewhere way up there - during the Douglas Trumbull talk, he mentioned that he felt that was the closest he had come to experiencing the wonder he had with 2001.

I think Malick's got it in him to make a cogent film (I actually quite liked DAYS, as we discussed), but if this saunters off into wank-i-tude territory, I feel it'll be just as much a mess, if a beautiful one, as the failed poetry of THIN RED LINE.

Meanwhile, spent X-mas eve the way Jews are meant to, in a movie theatre - saw both KING'S SPEECH and TRUE GRIT. Tomorrow I'm hoping to see PLAY TIME for the first time, it's playing in 70mm at the Lightbox.

KING'S played TIFF, as you may know (it actually won the "People's Choice" as per SLUMDOG a couple years ago, PRECIOUS last year, etc.). The press screening was at the exact time as BLACK SWAN, and I chose, wisely, to see that instead. KS is great, with tremendous performances, but it's a slighter achievement.

TG, on the other hand, is hardly my jaw-dropping fav Coen, but it's still a small miracle from those guys. I watched the original for the first time just a week or so ago, and it makes for a very satisfying comparison between the two. Plus, you know, the Deakins.

[sharkshark]

ps. You'll find this amusing - this is where my family cottage is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ceLiqrg4WQ

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

I would like to take this opportunity to extend my warmest wishes for a wonderful Holiday Season , with happiness and prosperity throughout the coming year to all Club Penton readers and posters.

so would I, to you your family and to everyone else here and their families.

[Penton-Man]

I don’t normally do In Memoriam type posts but a belated R.I.P. to 3D pioneer and cinematographer who passed earlier this month…
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118029323?refCatId=13

And was formally honored last October…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHGRF...layer_embedded

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Anthony P

so would I, to you your family and to everyone else here and their families.

Thanks Anthony and to others for the Holiday well wishes.
I assume you didn’t hear any local viewer feedback about the 3D broadcast of the Montreal Canadiens vs Toronto Maple Leafs hockey game?

I’m looking forward to seeing the 3D broadcast of the 2011 BCS National Championship football game on Jan. 10, 2011. And no Denon CI, I haven’t forgotten about your passion either, as golf may just be a quintessential playground for 3D sports imagery by enabling the displaying of the relief and topography of fairways, bunkers and greens.
http://blog.broadcastengineering.com...en-in-january/

[DenonCI]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Thanks Anthony and to others for the Holiday well wishes.
I assume you didn’t hear any local viewer feedback about the 3D broadcast of the Montreal Canadiens vs Toronto Maple Leafs hockey game?

I’m looking forward to seeing the 3D broadcast of the 2011 BCS National Championship football game on Jan. 10, 2011. And no Denon CI, I haven’t forgotten about your passion either, as golf may just be a quintessential playground for 3D sports imagery by enabling the displaying of the relief and topography of fairways, bunkers and greens.
http://blog.broadcastengineering.com...en-in-january/

I've ordered a new projector and hopefully I'll have it before both the BCS championship and the golf tournament. What a great way to break it in!

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

I assume you didn’t hear any local viewer feedback about the 3D broadcast of the Montreal Canadiens vs Toronto Maple Leafs hockey game?

no

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Anthony P

no

Broadcast 3D should improve as time goes by as Guidelines and Best Practices become established and refined with experience, so, we are only at the very beginning of this particular 3D movement.

For example, at the current time, it seems that it be most optimal for cable/satellite services to display 3D by content providers, the majority of the time, not exceeding a negative disparity image separation at close points (out of screen) of about 1% and a positive disparity or image separation at distant points (into the screen) not exceeding about 2% (based on screen sizes in the 45”- 70” range) with occasional z axis forays, based on editorial or creative needs, stretching the limits to about 2.5% negative disparity (out of screen) and about 4% positive disparity (into screen) in order to avoid risking audience fatigue and discomfort.

In the recent past, one satellite provider was just willy-nilly broadcasting 3D stuff, raw, so to speak, which was not re-converged for the small screen (home theater) and it was somewhat uncomfortable to watch. For instance, I personally found the 3D broadcast of the Major League Baseball All-Star game this past July not just uncomfortable but, actually fatiguing to view over time. Even reps from the sponsor (Panny) have admitted as such in regards to the 3D broadcast of that particular game. Things should get better with time and experience for folks yearning for more and more broadcast 3D content.

Such technical stereoscopic alignment considerations, as I've described above, will not go ignored for this broadcast 3D joint venture…
http://corporate.discovery.com/disco...e-programming/

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by DenonCI

I've ordered a new projector and hopefully I'll have it before both the BCS championship and the golf tournament. What a great way to break it in!

Well, this upcoming summer/fall, I’ll be in the market for a large flat panel in a somewhat light-challenged room for the get-away place we keep in San Diego, as one of our current displays there is getting rather long in-the-tooth. The boss lady of the house now allows me to purchase pretty much any electronic/camera wizardry I choose to since my diagnosis of a-fib (her only qualification is…”Don’t expect to get the Korean model with the TV”), so, I’ll probably be taking a look-see at this TV, sans human model, of course …

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news...129_78679.html

[PaulGo]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Well, this upcoming summer/fall, I’ll be in the market for a large flat panel in a somewhat light-challenged room for the get-away place we keep in San Diego, as one of our current displays there is getting rather long in-the-tooth. The boss lady of the house now allows me to purchase pretty much any electronic/camera wizardry I choose to since my diagnosis of a-fib (her only qualification is…”Don’t expect to get the Korean model with the TV”), so, I’ll probably be taking a look-see at this TV, sans human model, of course …

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news...129_78679.html

The LG looks nice - one thing I found out with 3D TVs is bigger is better. The frame of the TV gives what is called a window effect so while it is still in 3D the mind says the 3D is beyond the window. If you can sit close enough to a large screen 3D TV so the frame is not in your sight you will get an IMAX effect where the items will pop out at you and you can almost feel you can touch the objects (no I have not viewed 3D porn ).

As you may remember I have both the 61" and 67" Samsung DLP (LED light source) and I was really perturbed that Mitsubishi was not support6ing my TVs with their 3D adapter. Thanks to a thread on AVS I was able to modify the EDID of my sets so it displays the Mits EDID information needed to make the Mits adapter work and not I can play PS3 games in 3D and view 3D Blu-ray movies and Comcast 3D content. From my personal experience the large 3D screen makes a big difference in viewing 3D content.

Now if the studios will put out some good 3D content on Blu-ray...

[JimSD]

Penton-Man,

Since there is a lot of 3-D talk in this thread, I thought i'd share my experiences and I'd appreciate your response. Our family has seen about half a dozen 3-D movies so far, but frankly, after the last few days we're not too high on it. Today we saw the latest Chronicles of Narnia film in 3-D. The increased depth was far outweighed by the soft image and muted colors throughout. It seemed like the picture was slightly out of focus the entire time. Is that a theater issue or typical of a live action 3-D film? We've usually had good experiences at this theater in the past, so it was quite disappointing and took me out of the movie right from the start. My wife's comments were that it's definitely not worth paying a premium for and makes you appreciate how good the Blu-ray picture is. I agreed.

We also checked out 4 different demos of 3-D TVs yesterday at Best Buy and Costco. The two demos at Costco looked lousy to me and I'm curious how much the default TV settings they probably use can impact the 3-D picture? Even though 2-D sets are normally in torch mode, I still feel like I can figure out which one is good - the 3-D demo setups were pretty negative for me.

The situation at BB was definitely better. The Panasonic 3-D plasma demo was pretty good. I thought the Sony 3-D LCD demo was even better, but my wife was seeing a flicker with that one, so that would be a no go for us (we have a Sony LCD as our main TV). How common is it for people to have that kind of problem with 3-D TVs?

We also saw a 3-D video game demo at BB and that was a bust too. The glasses would only work for 2-3 seconds before shutting off. I know that's not the kind of impression that 3-D proponents want to see in stores, but that's what we're seeing in our experience. We've had Blu-ray since just a few months after the PS3s introduction, so we should be in the target audience for 3-D right now, but we're just not feeling it. Have you seen much 3-D outside of controlled settings, in local theaters or store demos? If so, are you seeing the same quality out in the wild as you do in controlled settings?

[PaulGo]

I saw Narnia 3D in Cancun about two weeks ago - The colors and focus was excellent. The 3D added to the film and my wife and I enjoyed it very much. 3D demos in many stores are just not done correctly. My local Costco in Gaithersburg, MD is just a plain joke. The Panasonic display after the first week never worked correctly with the glasses becoming inoperative and people looking and the 3D display and wondering why they are seeing a blurry image. The Sony display is just incorrectly set so the 3D display is in 2D mode. Most of the time the Samsung 3D display is also not working.

What does this prove - the 3D setup is not idiot proof Just like when HD sets were first introduced and most stores were displaying SD material instead of HD material. Can home 3D be outstanding - yes with the correct TV and glasses. Most reviewers prefer Plasma over LCD because of less ghosting (DLP is also immune to ghosting). I also play 3D games with my PS3 and find it very enjoyable. Will the 3D displays become better - yes, the LCD technology is improving with faster refresh rates that minimize ghosting. I expect the 3D sets that will be announced at CES will have improvements that will make the 3D viewing experience even more enjoyable. As an example LG just announces a 65" LCD TV that uses a polarized screen so you can use passive (no batteries needed) glasses which are similar to the ones used in a movie theater.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by PaulGo

Now if the studios will put out some good 3D content on Blu-ray...

More will come, it just takes time. Heck, (taking the new tool [artistic expression utilizing dimensionalization] completely out of the equation for a moment – which, I hesitate to do, because at least for me, that really is the characteristic of 3D that captures my primary interest , rather than the potential additional revenue stream for studios)…now, at the very minimum, it is in the economic interest of the home entertainment divisions of all the majors to be more prolific in providing consumers with more and more good BD3D content.

Skip the assertions/analysis about Redbox, Netflix, etc. in the first half of T.K.’s article and pay attention to the comments and intentions of David from SPHE and the marketing executive from Disney here…
http://www.homemediamagazine.com/new...ansition-21512

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by JimSD

Penton-Man,
Since there is a lot of 3-D talk in this thread, I thought i'd share my experiences and I'd appreciate your response. Our family has seen about half a dozen 3-D movies so far, but frankly, after the last few days we're not too high on it. Today we saw the latest Chronicles of Narnia film in 3-D. The increased depth was far outweighed by the soft image and muted colors throughout. It seemed like the picture was slightly out of focus the entire time. Is that a theater issue or typical of a live action 3-D film?

For the moment…and hopefully, so that some 2D aficionados not feel unappreciated as they still are the heart and soul of packaged home media, for some thread balance, I’ll address a facet of color correction, which is independent of the extra dimension.

I haven’t seen Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader in 2D or 3D so I’m really hamstrung with regards to commenting about that motion picture.

Given the subject content of CoN 3, I would assume that the colors should not be muted or undersaturated and something was wrong at your local Cineplex.

As an aside, and speaking more to dramatic motion pictures, keep in mind that undersaturated colors are not in any way *inferior* to saturated colors when you’re dealing with an artistic medium like filmmaking in which they are purposely utilized to convey a certain feeling or vibe. There is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, it is subjective and all personal preference toward motion picture art….unless you’re into one of those judgmental *eye-candy* videophile rating threads they have on the net which, as far as I’m concerned, often only emphasize the disconnect between videophiles and cinephiles. It’s almost like judging the colors of the paintings of Paul Gauguin vs. someone like Gustave Cimiotti as one style being ‘correct’ or ‘incorrect’.

Muted or undersatured colors are more subtle than saturated colors and serve their storytelling purpose for the Director/D.P.
Quick examples coming to mind are Defiance…http://www.hpaonline.com/mc/page.do?sitePageId=96710

Or, even more extreme, The Road. It's all good if it advances the story.
Now, back to 3D.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by JimSD

Penton-Man,
Have you seen much 3-D outside of controlled settings, in local theaters or store demos?...

Frankly…or perhaps, in view of your unfortunate underwhelming local experiences, might I say, fortunately at least for me, no, I have not. Just about all 3D content which I have viewed, has been displayed vis-à-vis some sort of advanced quality control calibration which guarantees, as much as possible, the optimal functioning of the entire display chain.

I can relate to you anecdotal experiences which I’ve heard from colleagues concerning both theatrical presentations (local Multiplex cinemas) and home theater demos. In regards to the later, it seems there is a wide variance in both the set-up and maintenance of 3D display chains (TV’s, glasses, etc.) among big brand consumer electronics stores. This undoubtedly contributes to suboptimal performance, regardless of the brand, and ultimately results in consumer confusion like you’ve expressed.

To complicate matters even further, add into the mix more subtle challenges which even experienced calibrators might have to overcome, like for instance, the fact that at least one manufacturer does not allow you to calibrate their particular model display in any mode other than ‘Movie mode’, so people ultimately crank-up the brightness while viewing 3D content in order to compensate for some of the light lost (let’s say roughly 50%) while wearing those active shutter glasses. However, doing that work-around solution to help bring you a brighter 3D image, may very well screw up the TV’s gamma response and essentially negate all your previous 2D calibration tweaking.

Theatrical exhibition is also not immune to its 3D challenges. I’m hearing some theater owners are pushing the limits of the fL’s of their projectors beyond the accepted lower limit of normal in order to save money and some uninformed projectionists are doing crazy things to increase the brightness of the image like setting the projector in a 2.5-flash mode which may be a nice 2D projection trick that works but, won’t work for 3D and actually wrecks havoc with the image. A solution to the former frugal approach by theater owners may ultimately end up being the use of laser projectors.

Probably your best and safest bet is to listen to real-world experiences like PaulGo has expressed above and better yet, see if you can attend CES in Vegas for at least a day to aid in your purchasing decision.

[Penton-Man]

Lest I forget while in an inebriated state later this evening.

Happy New Year to one and all …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Eavp5frb0U

[PaulGo]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

More will come, it just takes time. Heck, (taking the new tool [artistic expression utilizing dimensionalization] completely out of the equation for a moment – which, I hesitate to do, because at least for me, that really is the characteristic of 3D that captures my primary interest , rather than the potential additional revenue stream for studios)…now, at the very minimum, it is in the economic interest of the home entertainment divisions of all the majors to be more prolific in providing consumers with more and more good BD3D content.

As long as studios don't loose track of what makes good 3D it should progress nicely. Unfortunately their have been some 2D to 3D movie conversions that I have read were disasters and as they say a few bad apples can do a lot to ruin the public perception of what good 3D can be. 3D in a movie can be used as a gimmick but it it is people will ultimately get tired of it. Done properly 3D can help the viewer become immersed in the movie and feel they are part of it.

Have a happy and healthy New Year!