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

[Alan Gordon]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

B.T.W., good pick-up on Hancock, as it’s pretty much perfect.

Price matched Sears $19.99 price at Wal-Mart yesterday (Sears was out), and I agree! Kudos to the Geekster!

~Alan

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Stacey Spears

The compression folk, at GDMX, have been using TVLogic 1080p LCDs to QC for the last three years. They don't optimize anything for 720p.

The PCs used for QC can send both 1080/24 PSF over HD-SDI and 1080p60 over DVI. The same holds true for Deluxe, who does some WHV titles.

Stacey,
Since I know that you’re a budding filmmaker now interested in things like lenses and such (once asking me a question in a PM regarding lenses for the RedOne, if I recall correctly).

Re. The Dark Knight, the lenses on the IMAX cameras are essentially stills lenses (pretty much just like on the large format Hasselblad stills camera) so they’re not really modern spherical lenses and when you pull-focus on them, the image breathes heavily, so that when one does set-up lens grids and such, it’s a very similar process for what one would have to do for a standard anamorphic shoot.

[Penton-Man]

People (in a PM) have asked why I “highlighted” by specifically mentioning the score in my past post here……..as a heads-up to screenings for Guild members……………..
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...ld#post1352674

Well, the answer is that I felt it deserves at least some kind of ‘unofficial’ recognition by film enthusiasts given the unfortunate situation reported here……………..
http://www.variety.com/article/VR111...&cs=1&nid=2564

P.S.
If the above link doesn’t work for some, then try this…………..
http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/11/12/...consideration/

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Masters received by GDMX.....

The only good thing about the area of town where GDMX is located are the “Gentleman’s Clubs” …………or so they tell me, I wouldn’t know myself.

[Michael.Schinke]

Hey Penton, been readin the formum for a bit and gleaning some interesting information from it. I'm a big fan of knowing as much about your hobby as possible, so I thank you for your insights.

What I'm interested in knowing, in regard to WB is how they came to the culture of thought they have concerning the production of their hi-def materials. From limited observation it really appears that they were throwing a lot of weight behind HD-DVD back when it might hae made a differance. I can assume that their whole operational process was geared towards producing content on that format with the understanding that they could then just simply re-code the material for Blu-ray and release it for those that chose that route. Is it then a matter that they just haven't bothered to update the culture of their production department to think Blu, as it were, or is there a more specific reason they seem to be behind the curve in terms of their Blu-ray releases?

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Michael.Schinke

Hey Penton, been readin the forum for a bit and gleaning some interesting information from it. I'm a big fan of knowing as much about your hobby as possible, so I thank you for your insights.

What I'm interested in knowing, in regard to WB is how they came to the culture of thought they have concerning the production of their hi-def materials........

It all stems from the philosophy of “the Father of DVD” and the subsequent culture.

I’ll let Max or Jeff elaborate as I don’t want to get myself into trouble for Monday’s conference.

[aygie]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

It all stems from the philosophy of “the Father of DVD” and the subsequent culture.

I’ll let Max or Jeff elaborate as I don’t want to get myself into trouble for Monday’s conference.

Warren Lieberfarb??

[DenonCI]

Warner has been filtering their masters for DVD for many years now and they carried the practice over to HD media. On DVD it may have helped because the compression required didn't handle grain well, but that isn't the case with Blu-ray and their titles really pale in comparison to other companies (like Sony & Disney, who consistently put out great looking Blu-rays--with only the occasional dud).

[Paul H]

Originally Posted by Grubert

Does anybody here remember debates about...

- Misframing, incorrect black levels and missing lines on Reservoir Dogs (Artisan)
- Excessive edge enhancement on Tombstone (Disney)
- Out-of-sync audio on Moulin Rouge (Fox)
- English dub partially pasted onto Chinese audio on Drunken Master (Sony)
- Misframing on Back to the Future II (Universal)
- Lack of anamorphic enhancement on A Clockwork Orange (Warner)

...and on and on...

Don't remember any paranoia involved with the above debates.

Originally Posted by DenonCI

(like Sony & Disney, who consistently put out great looking Blu-rays--with only the occasional dud).

I would like to thank Sony Pictures Home Entertainment for sending me (received it in todays mail) the remastered copy of "Starship Troopers" on Blu-ray, proving that they do strive "to bring the highest quality entertainment product available".

The quote was from the letter enclosed with the replacement disc, and this was replaced because of a few frames, jut a second in time that was repeated in one war scene on the U.S. version.

Nice job Sony!.

Paul

[Kris Deering]

What surprises me the most about Warner is their lack of lossless audio as they were one of the big pushers for this in a high def format along with Disney, yet they are the only major studio not supporting it 100%. Even the independents are releasing the vast majority of their new titles in lossless.

[DenonCI]

I wonder how much Warner's heart is in HD media. I'm surprised about the lack of lossless as well.

[Bobby Henderson]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Re. The Dark Knight, the lenses on the IMAX cameras are essentially stills lenses (pretty much just like on the large format Hasselblad stills camera) so they’re not really modern spherical lenses and when you pull-focus on them, the image breathes heavily, so that when one does set-up lens grids and such, it’s a very similar process for what one would have to do for a standard anamorphic shoot.

We can thank short sighted Hollywood studios for that one. IMAX was just getting started not long after major studios effectively killed off native 65mm film production around 1970. Companies like Panavision, etc. only needed to create 35mm oriented lenses after that.

Perhaps if some of the folks running major movie studios woke up and realized it might help the shelf life of their really expensive movie projects they might help in supporting the market for 65mm film origination.

65mm filming definitely does pay off in home video, especially now with more precise formats like Blu-ray being far more effective in revealing original photography flaws. Blu-ray is just the beginning. Give it another decade or 15 years. We'll have a 4K home video format in the pipeline. Then maybe something better than that. Movies filmed in 65mm will still look really good for whatever new ultra high def format is developed many years in the future.

Consider how great The Searchers looks on Blu-ray. That movie is half a century old. Yet it looks as good as anything out today. And that is thanks to its unusual 8-perf 35mm origins.

I rented Get Smart this evening. Pretty funny comedy. Better than I expected. However, the image quality of the BD was pretty disappointing. Maybe the BD-25 disc limits had something to do with it. However, I think the movie's digital video camera origins also built in a lot of limits on the image quality too. I mean this movie really looked liked video much of the time. Normally the post production work done on "digital filmed" movies is good enough to hide the video look of the project. It did not work this time on Get Smart. IMHO, digital video camera technology still has quite a way to go before it can be a credible replacement for 35mm film cameras.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

...... I'm really looking forward to Dark Knight.

I think you will be very happy.
Watch and enjoy the movie, and don’t be a halo hunter. This motion picture is extremely engaging and easy to escape into.

Technically, I believe that the filmmakers did an excellent job sharpening and de-graining the scope capture (as well as the VistaVision stuff) so that it would flow as seamlessly as possible with the IMAX capture. Pay no attention to the disproportionate outcry on some other internet boards concerning what they speculate are artifacts secondary to digital processing during the encoding stage of the Blu-ray production.

Given the integration of the multitude of different visual effects formats, colorspaces, cameras and film stocks, this motion picture is truly a technological masterpiece and the resultant Blu-ray home media edition looks excellent.

The Director’s radical decision to use changing aspect ratios could be debated as to how it might affect one’s personal enjoyment of the flick but, it certainly didn’t bother me nor a wide spectrum of viewers that watched the Blu-ray movie with me.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Bobby Henderson

I rented Get Smart this evening. Pretty funny comedy. Better than I expected. However, the image quality of the BD was pretty disappointing. Maybe the BD-25 disc limits had something to do with it. However, I think the movie's digital video camera origins also built in a lot of limits on the image quality too. I mean this movie really looked liked video much of the time. Normally the post production work done on "digital filmed" movies is good enough to hide the video look of the project. It did not work this time on Get Smart. IMHO, digital video camera technology still has quite a way to go before it can be a credible replacement for 35mm film cameras.

Bobby, I haven’t seen the Blu-ray of Get Smart yet so, I would really rather not comment at this time.

All I can offer you is that I believe many home theater enthusiasts thoroughly disliked the *look* of You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, and that motion picture was shot with the same type camera, and the Blu-ray movie is essentially transparent to the imagery of the HDCAM SR master.

In the case of You Don't Mess with the Zohan, the filmmakers wanted it to look like that and the objections raised by some were in no way related to the limitations of the acquisition device, i.e. a Panavision Genesis.

[Oliver K]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Well, you’ve got some catching-up to do then because there’s a lot of good stuff here, you’re a grain dude right?

I think you could pretty much say that I would like to see grain strutcture retained where it is on negatives and release prints, so thanks for that link.

I have my doubts if the technique talked about by Lowry would have been able to retain the grain structure as seen in the transfers of Hancock and Wanted, both of which had rather prominent grain in some scenes, or the Godfather movies for that matter. So I would rather have it that somebody not mess with the grain in that kind of way except for extreme cases where one might want to get a more uniform presentation because of the variety of elements originally used. There are so many releases that show us how to get things right without these tools for most "normal" releases, some of them with very heavy grain like Felon.

Imo grain reduction is not a necessity anymore with the capacity Blu-Ray has - that is one of the reason I finally adopted it as my format of choice after seeing the improvements possible starting with titles like X-Men 3 or Close Encounters of The Third Kind.

So is it possible to get a list of films that have run through this process by Lowry ? Maybe the older Bond movies in the recent boxes ?

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

B.T.W., good pick-up on Hancock, as it’s pretty much perfect.

Yes it is, Sony and Disney have now been doing the right thing with their transfers for quite some time which is quite a turnaround for Sony from its DVD days. I have nothing but good things to say about them going that way. Even their recent classic releases point in the same direction and in that regard they have now a unique position in the market - few classic releases, but they are all of very high quality - I should know as I own many of them

[Jeff Kleist]

The Director’s radical decision to use changing aspect ratios could be debated as to how it might affect one’s personal enjoyment of the flick but, it certainly didn’t bother me nor a wide spectrum of viewers that watched the Blu-ray movie with me.

I would love it if Galaxy quest could retain its ratio change. I realize it doesn't work as well at home, but damn it was cool

Who can name the only other film (to my knowlege) currently on DVD to use that trick theatrically? (tip, the US release is crappy )

[Jeff Kleist]

Lossless audio as standard would be the easiest thing in the world to implement, I mean Fox, MGM and Universal get their stuff done almost free!

And that would be the reason why studios "choose" DTS. So would you if it's saving you $5000+ a disc. DTS knows that the CEs have no reason to include a second lossless codec on anything but high end hardware unless they make themselves indispensible

[Blu Man]

Any uh Batman 3 talk? Or Superman Reboot talk? Just curious.

[Esox50]

I was pleasantly surprised this week with the job Warner/New Line did with the Austin Powers set.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

I would love it if Galaxy quest could retain its ratio change. I realize it doesn't work as well at home, but damn it was cool

Who can name the only other film (to my knowlege) currently on DVD to use that trick theatrically? (tip, the US release is crappy )

I think you’ve got anime on your mind because of your trip to Japan.