Twilight Time Discussion Thread

[SpartanIre]

Originally Posted by ROclockCK

I do. And it's emphatically "NO"!

IMO, that's what we've experienced too much of already with Blu-ray...too many sloppy or indifferent DVD/HD-DVD ports. Give me high-def treated with some skill and care, and I don't mind paying a premium. Otherwise, why bother?

I am with you! I want the best possible VQ and AQ that a transfer will allow!

Originally Posted by ROclockCK

The one I really want to see done right by Warners is the 65mm Todd-AO version of Around the World in 80 Days.

That would be a fantastic film to see in HD...

[Vw Driver]

Interested in seeing Rapture and The Egyptian, both will be blind buys for me.

[anthonyls]

I would love to see TT put out the 1965 version of Flight of The Phoenix... starring Jimmy Stewart, Richard Attenborough, and Ernest Borgine. Does anyone think this might be a possibility?

[Page14]

Originally Posted by anthonyls

i would love to see tt put out the 1965 version of flight of the phoenix... Starring jimmy stewart, richard attenborough, and ernest borgine.

+1

[benbess]

Originally Posted by Page14

+1

+2

If you have a Facebook account, you can log right into the Twilight Time page and suggest it to them directly. Nick Redman of TT usually responds with a "like" if he thinks a suggestion might be possible someday...

[anthonyls]

Originally Posted by benbess

+2

If you have a Facebook account, you can log right into the Twilight Time page and suggest it to them directly. Nick Redman of TT usually responds with a "like" if he thinks a suggestion might be possible someday...

I don't have a facebook account. Can someone do it for me? I'd love to know their response.

[benbess]

Originally Posted by anthonyls

I don't have a facebook account. Can someone do it for me? I'd love to know their response.

If no one else suggests it, I'll do it in a couple of days. I've already given them 4-5 suggestions already over the past ten days, and I don't want to wear them out... But it's a really strong film with the great James Stewart--and so much better than the remake! It would be a perfect release for them.

[Page14]

Originally Posted by benbess

+2

If you have a Facebook account, you can log right into the Twilight Time page and suggest it to them directly. Nick Redman of TT usually responds with a "like" if he thinks a suggestion might be possible someday...

Good to know! Thank you.

Twilight Time is causing me much angst lately ... in a good way. :-) I have so many old DVDs still unopened that I told myself when I upgraded to bluray, that I won't buy any one movie if it costs more than $10 ... as a way to keep my impulses under control and my pile of unwatched movies down. But man, when I see all of these old favorite films getting the royal treatment by TT ... let's just say my trigger finger is getting very very itchy. I give myself leeway on my self-imposed $10 limit if I can come up with coupons or gift cards that I can use towards the purchase. Can any of you creative types out there give me an idea of how to get the cost down to $10 and still "feel" like I'm still sticking to my own rules (... even though I might be bending them quite a bit ... haha). Hmmm ... I still have a money gift from my mother at Christmas time that I haven't used yet. Hmmmmmm .... :-)

[HD Goofnut]

Another wasted opportunity with As Good as it Gets from Sony. So we can expect another $35 price tag and a bare bones release once again from Twilight Time? No thanks, yet again and I really wanted Mysterious Island until Sony cowered out.

[AgentOrange]

Originally Posted by ROclockCK

I do. And it's emphatically "NO"!

IMO, that's what we've experienced too much of already with Blu-ray...too many sloppy or indifferent DVD/HD-DVD ports. Give me high-def treated with some skill and care, and I don't mind paying a premium. Otherwise, why bother?

With Twilight Time, we are not paying a premium for the skill and care of the transfer. As you have previously established, these masters are already "lying around" through the studios normal course of business - continuously preserving and restoring many of their own films. The quality of the release has absolutely nothing to do with Twilight Time, and in fact they have made plenty of mistakes (chapter stops at 10 minute intervals, zero extra features whatsoever, lack of subtitles, etc).

Honestly, if Sony has basically given up on catalogue releases. Do we REALLY think these archivists' jobs are safe with Sony? Are they going to keep delving deeper into their catalogue and preparing 4K remasters if the market couldn't even support blu-ray? The prospects of that seem incredibly sketchy - even with Netflix and the prospects of 3rd party licensing I don't think from a business perspective that makes enough $$$ compared to traditional home video. It could easily be that the ability of Twilight Time to acquire such high quality HD transfers is a short lived phenomenon. In the future they might begin taking lesser transfers by default, as it seems clear they don't have resources to actually do any work themselves.

[benbess]

What Twilight Time is doing overall with many of its releases is letting films that wouldn't ordinarily get a release on blu a chance to be seen in HD. The prices are a bit high, but the quality is high too.

Looking at Demetrius and the Gladiators, we can perhaps try to imagine where some of the money is going. It lists at 29.95, and so the total revenue for this title if it sells all of its 3000 copies is a shade less than $90,000. A good chunk of that goes to Fox. And Fox surely spent a good deal of money creating this restored HD master a few years ago, but this release probably pays for a good bit of that. Something must go Screen Archives for distributing. A little something to Julie Kirgo for her wonderful essays written especially for TT. The rest goes to help keep this little micro company TT afloat and pay the bills. Their model is to pay everything for a title all in advance to the studio. That's why they are getting such great titles. But this also means that as soon as they earn money on one title, they are turning around with the revenue for it and writing a check for the next one.

I see buying a title on blu-ray from Twilight Time as fairly directly supporting the production of HD masters at the studios. The home video departments of Fox and Columbia can say to their bosses--here's some cold, hard cash we've earned on these HD masters from our library. Doesn't it makes sense to make some more? We all love movies, but here's the economic justification for saving more of them and introducing them to audiences today so that they can live on...

[benbess]

Originally Posted by Page14

Good to know! Thank you.

Twilight Time is causing me much angst lately ... in a good way. :-) I have so many old DVDs still unopened that I told myself when I upgraded to bluray, that I won't buy any one movie if it costs more than $10 ... as a way to keep my impulses under control and my pile of unwatched movies down. But man, when I see all of these old favorite films getting the royal treatment by TT ... let's just say my trigger finger is getting very very itchy. I give myself leeway on my self-imposed $10 limit if I can come up with coupons or gift cards that I can use towards the purchase. Can any of you creative types out there give me an idea of how to get the cost down to $10 and still "feel" like I'm still sticking to my own rules (... even though I might be bending them quite a bit ... haha). Hmmm ... I still have a money gift from my mother at Christmas time that I haven't used yet. Hmmmmmm .... :-)

Sorry, but I don't think they are ever going to be anywhere near $10. As far as I can tell there are no coupons, no discounts, and no way to get free shipping.

But these are good movies from a really, really small company that is making a go of it and cares about old films. And the money you pay, as I tried to say above, I think helps support the release of other classic movies by TT and others...

[benbess]

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

Another wasted opportunity with As Good as it Gets from Sony. So we can expect another $35 price tag and a bare bones release once again from Twilight Time? No thanks, yet again and I really wanted Mysterious Island until Sony cowered out.

Mysterious Island is really good! Fun film. Love those monsters. Hope you'll reconsider. But if not, try to move on...

It's crystal clear that Sony/Columbia as well as Fox have just decided that unless an older title is a sure-fire seller they are not likely to put it out on blu.

The earlier releases of Ray Harryhausen's films, which apparently sold in only lukewarm numbers, convinced them that they couldn't make any profit, or at least not much of one.

So for Mysterious Island on blu-ray it was either TT (or someone like them) or nothing at all...

[BluBonnet]

Originally Posted by benbess

I see buying a title on blu-ray from Twilight Time as fairly directly supporting the production of HD masters at the studios. The home video departments of Fox and Columbia can say to their bosses--here's some cold, hard cash we've earned on these HD masters from our library. Doesn't it makes sense to make some more? We all love movies, but here's the economic justification for saving more of them and introducing them to audiences today so that they can live on...

Yeah, in a perfect world all the studios would easily realize why it is in their best interest to protect and preserve the assets sitting in their vaults. The problem is that after the boom of the DVD market, it became a little harder for the studios to figure out how to best monetize the assets in their vaults. Many titles can sell some copies, but perhaps not enough to support the old-fashioned kind of release, where many thousands of copies were manufactured and expected to sell.

So hopefully the studios will realize via TT & others that the demand is still there, when there is some supply. They won't be selling huge numbers of all the titles, necessarily, but they'll still be making money on stuff they already own.

[AgentOrange]

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

Another wasted opportunity with As Good as it Gets from Sony. So we can expect another $35 price tag and a bare bones release once again from Twilight Time? No thanks, yet again and I really wanted Mysterious Island until Sony cowered out.

I agree with you to some extent, but Mysterious Island is a bit more understandable than Fright Night or As Good as it Gets. The latter just seems incredible to me, I have no real interest in getting this film again anyway, but it's just crazy that this is where Sony is going even with major 1990s titles. The blu-ray market is not in THAT bad of shape, but if this is where the biggest (supposed) champion of the format is going... then that doesn't spell good things in 2013 and beyond.

Rapture for me is the perfect title for a company like Twilight Time to release. I hope it sells well. I already have my eye on Swamp Water which is another title that seems like it would be impossible to release outside of the slim chance of another niche label like Criterion or Kino grabbing it. At the end of the day its' probably good for Twilight Time to get films like Fright Night and As Good as it Gets, because they are guaranteed sell outs. I'm with you though, in that I will say "no thanks" to AGaiG in particular.

I do think you should get Mysterious Island though, and use that opportunity to pick up Rapture which is EXACTLY the type of title this company should be specializing in.

[Page14]

Originally Posted by benbess

<snip>

But these are good movies from a really, really small company that is making a go of it and cares about old films. And the money you pay, as I tried to say above, I think helps support the release of other classic movies by TT and others...

Yes, I understand. It puts a different light on things ... from the "usual" movie buying experience. Thanks.

[AgentOrange]

Originally Posted by Page14

Good to know! Thank you.

Twilight Time is causing me much angst lately ... in a good way. :-) I have so many old DVDs still unopened that I told myself when I upgraded to bluray, that I won't buy any one movie if it costs more than $10 ... as a way to keep my impulses under control and my pile of unwatched movies down. But man, when I see all of these old favorite films getting the royal treatment by TT ... let's just say my trigger finger is getting very very itchy. I give myself leeway on my self-imposed $10 limit if I can come up with coupons or gift cards that I can use towards the purchase. Can any of you creative types out there give me an idea of how to get the cost down to $10 and still "feel" like I'm still sticking to my own rules (... even though I might be bending them quite a bit ... haha). Hmmm ... I still have a money gift from my mother at Christmas time that I haven't used yet. Hmmmmmm .... :-)

There is really no way to cut costs right now - not even buying them used. I own four Twilight Time titles, and I only did that when they had a deal "spend $100, get Fright Night for free". I got the Egyptian, Rapture, Mysterious Island, and Fright Night for around $110 including shipping.

The only thing I can tell you is to be choosy, and try and buy 3 or 4 at a time so at least you don't give away $20 on shipping them individually. I will probably try to do that when some of these new ones go up for pre-order (the Big Heat, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Swamp Water).

BTW every release so far has been quality, but they are hardly getting "the royal treatment". Basically these are barebones releases. No extras. No subtitles. At least they come in a non-eco case, and include a little booklet. I can live without special features so that's not rally a major issue to me that they are bare-bones, but it is what they are.

[Seymour]

Originally Posted by AgentOrange

There is really no way to cut costs right now - not even buying them used. I own four Twilight Time titles, and I only did that when they had a deal "spend $100, get Fright Night for free". I got the Egyptian, Rapture, Mysterious Island, and Fright Night for around $110 including shipping.

The only thing I can tell you is to be choosy, and try and buy 3 or 4 at a time so at least you don't give away $20 on shipping them individually. I will probably try to do that when some of these new ones go up for pre-order (the Big Heat, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Swamp Water).

BTW every release so far has been quality, but they are hardly getting "the royal treatment". Basically these are barebones releases. No extras. No subtitles. At least they come in a non-eco case, and include a little booklet. I can live with special features so that's not rally a major issue to me that they are bare-bones, but it is what they are.

To be fair, the Sony releases do have ENG subtitles (two of the four you bought: Fright Night, Mysterious Island).

[Page14]

Originally Posted by AgentOrange

<snip>

BTW every release so far has been quality, but they are hardly getting "the royal treatment". Basically these are barebones releases. No extras. No subtitles. At least they come in a non-eco case, and include a little booklet. I can live with special features so that's not rally a major issue to me that they are bare-bones, but it is what they are.

Sorry ... bad choice of words when I said "royal treatment". I was referring to the care and compassion given to these movies by the people at TT ... and the reported high quality picture of the films they're putting out.

FWIW, I love special features, so of course am disappointed when I see bare-bones releases.

[AgentOrange]

Originally Posted by Page14

Sorry ... bad choice of words when I said "royal treatment". I was referring to the care and compassion given to these movies by the people at TT ... and the reported high quality picture of the films they're putting out.

FWIW, I love special features, so of course am disappointed when I see bare-bones releases.

Oh. I see what you are saying.

But to be fair, these masters were all prepared by Sony and Fox. So I'm not really sure how much Twilight Time has to do with the picture quality either. Maybe nothing at all.

I do appreciate Twilight Time's EXISTANCE and the fact they are working closely with Fox/Sony to release pictures that those studios, for whatever reason, aren't willing to release (even when they are sitting there with HD masters just "lying around"). I'm thrilled to discover aa film like Rapture that I had never heard of before. Likewise I was glad to see The Egyptian and Mysterious Island for the first time and with excellent picture quality on both. Fright Night was one I was initially upset was getting a limited relese, and really it still is a pointless release to me. As will be the case with As Good as it Gets.