British Film Institute (BFI) Discussion Thread

[fdm]

Got mine yesterday. Plan to watch it this weekend.

Its slipcover was a total disaster as the other blu-ray in the package either shifted while in transit or was packed stupidly and basically creased/dented the slipcover in several places mostly right down its middle. The case itself was just fine, so at least the slipcover served its most basic function of protecting its contents before it was relegated to the shredder.

Still haven't gotten the other order that shipped 7/1 which contained L'Age d'Or. Hopefully no such shifting of package contents will have happened if/when it ever arrives (it too shipped with one other blu-ray). Amazon says I have to wait a few more days yet before they will/can re-ship it.

[Zen_Amako]

I just got done watching Deep End and it was terrific. Until the Blu-ray was announced, I'd never heard of the film, but it's a real gem. I didn't notice any compression issues -- looked great to me. This is an easy purchase for film lovers.

I was glad to have the English subtitles. Sometimes I have a little trouble with British accents and slang.

[zombeaner]

Deep End was amazing. I reviewed it elsewhere, Jane Asher is stunning.

[Arkadin]

agreed. jane asher is stunning.

[Mr. Brightside]

"Deep End" is my favourite release of the year this far. Great to see this gem in HD. Thoroughly enjoyed the Starting Out doc, too.
Yes, Asher is a real stunner. Still treasure my "The Stone Tape" DVD.

[kristoffer]

I was just told on twitter by BFI that they won't release Seven Samurai in september after all.

[charnier]

Here's a post on Crtierion forum by Michael B which owners of An Autumn Afternoon should be aware of:

"An Autumn Afternoon looks kinda noisy though judging by the caps, and my question is this: Why is the film only 14GB?

I think releasing anything on Blu-ray on single layer only is kinda cheapy for a company like BFI, but then not using 10 GB of space? Why not try and get the best PQ possible?"

Sorry about the belated reply, but issues like this have to be thoroughly investigated before any public statement can be made. A good example being the saga over The Leopard, where three "flaws" were alleged - but only one turned out to be an authoring-stage glitch that demanded a repress.

Anyway, it seems that the same is true of An Autumn Afternoon, so here's an official statement from BFI DVD Publishing:

Quote:
After the release of our Dual Format Edition of Yasujiro Ozu’s An Autumn Afternoon we became aware that the Blu-ray Disc was encoded at a lower bit-rate than we would normally insist upon. In response to this, we have re-authored and re-pressed the project, and replacement discs are now available. If you are dissatisfied with the quality of the original Blu-ray Disc and would like a replacement, please contact Ben.Stoddart@bfi.org.uk giving details of your name and address and a new disc will be sent to you.

[rkish]

Originally Posted by charnier

Here's a post on Crtierion forum by Michael B which owners of An Autumn Afternoon should be aware of:

THANKS charnier! Much appreciated!

[nitin]

does this apply to customers outside of the UK?

I want to get this but have been holding off due to the encode. If the new pressing fixes the encoding, happy to buy it but with no guarantee of getting the right disc, I want to know if a replacement will be sent by BFI to Australia.

Now, if they could do the same for The Edge of the World, which looks mostly lovely but has 3-4 instances of very noticeable pixelization (most likely due to only using up 11Gb of disc space for the film)

[rkish]

Originally Posted by zui

Yes, it does. Just received a mail from Ben in which he stated that he could

Yes...I can confirm that...I just received a reply from Ben this morning.

BFI is a class act...much like MoC!

[Arkadin]

wow, that's great news!
Bfi really does seem to go the extra mile whenever possible, but it would be nice to know why that other release didn't use more space also.
from what I understand bfi is largely financed through the government so seems like there shouldn't be issues like this.
personally I've never understood why it apparently costs so much more to use the full space of the disc.
it continues to amaze me that these studios/distributors pay good money for new masters and/or restoration work, and then sabotage it in the process of bringing the transfer onto the disc.
makes absolutely no sense, yet we have seen this type of thing occur many times throughout the past 5 years.

[nitin]

Arkadin, yeah I dont get it either, seems like a no brainer to me. I understand costs involved in going from single to double layer, but surely there isnt any (or if any, minimal) in using about 60% of the layer capacity (whichever of single/dual you end up using).

Anyway, off to order An Autumn Afternoon.

[Yami]

Noticed a very interesting listing for French Cancan at the BBFC. Possible DVD/Blu-Ray on November 7th?

[Opdef]

Got the replacement of An Autumn Afternoon today. Great customer service from the BFI, I'd not got round to watching the previous copy, will probably watch it later today.

[nitin]

opdef,

if you are able to, a BDInfo log would be very much appreciated apart from general comments on any noticeable differences in motion.

[Opdef]

No worries, here's the details and comparison:

Film Size:
NEW: 23,464,445,952 bytes
OLD: 14,338,394,112 bytes


Disc Size:
NEW: 23,578,106,910
OLD: 14,451,307,742

I've not watched the old version so can't really comment on whether the picture looks noticeably better, but with such an improved bit rate I'd imagine it looks pretty good.

[TJS_Blu]

Revised cover art for the Humphrey Jennings set and new cover art for Turksib up. Gotta love that Turksib poster!

[nitin]

thanks, still single layer but thats still an appreciable bump in bitrate. Will order.

[tenia]

By the way, why BFI use so much single-layered discs ?
For instance, with Before the Revolution, the movie is 1h50 long ! That's already plenty enough to use a dual-layered disc, isn't it ?
I know it's a B&W movie, so easier to encode, but 20 Mbps, that's not especially a lot.

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by Deco King

On the You Tube website there is a BFI trailer for Hammer's 1958 version of Dracula ( Horror Of Dracula in the USA ) , this was the trailer for the new print struck by the BFI , and it has a cut restored of a staking sequence. The colours in the trailer look great and the picture quality is excellent.

See the link here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDTxH...om=PL&index=14


So having seen the trailer I telephoned the BFI and discovered happily that the BFI is in discussion with Warner Bros to get the rights to do a DVD and presumably a
Blu Ray from the "new" ( actually about two or three years old now ) print! Let's hope this comes off because the image quality was super!

So did anything come of this?