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

[Jeff Kleist]

Hitter has it right

You have the RIGHT to choose to buy it or not. To vote with your dollars
If you don't like what he's done, don't buy it. That sends the clearest possible message you can

Lucas can make party hats out of the negative if he so chooses. It's his property, legally and creatively to do with as he chooses., and yes many of us wish he would make better choices

[NoQuestion]

Penton,

Don't know if you have posted anything about this or not but I wanted to get your opinion on seven pounds. What did you think?

I thought it was a really good movie. Will Smith is the type of actor who can be put into just about any type of role and just run with it. It was a touching story, but one that I think Will pulled off well and I really can't see another actor that could have done the part justice.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by NoQuestion

Penton,

Don't know if you have posted anything about this or not but I wanted to get your opinion on seven pounds. What did you think?

I thought it was a really good movie. Will Smith is the type of actor who can be put into just about any type of role and just run with it. It was a touching story, but one that I think Will pulled off well and I really can't see another actor that could have done the part justice.

I also enjoyed the film and I'll let others decide if it "good", "mediocre" or "lousy". Everyone has their own personal opinions. I already posted my comment regarding the technical merit of the HD master just before Christmas.

I'll add that Will Smith is the type of actor that when the shoot is on location in something like the downtown area of a big city (for example, Hollywood and Highland Ave. during Hancock), instead of running to his trailer after the end of a typical long work day, he’ll make a special effort to walk up to the fans that are behind the barriers (watching the filmmaking) to meet and greet them with handshakes and such.

Like I said, nice guy for a true mega-star.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

I always find it curious when I hear Star Wars fans claim they own the rights to the originals. I see this on other forums quite often. I mean are they really serious?

Culture of entitlement.

Or: The money source thinks it rules the money sink.

People get mighty upset when it is employers/managers behaving that way.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Lucas can make party hats out of the negative if he so chooses.

That's sig worthy.

[Jeff Kleist]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

That's sig worthy.

Thank you sir

[Bobby Henderson]

Lucas can do what he likes, including keeping his movies off the Blu-ray format. There's a lot of other good viewing choices already available on Blu-ray and many more are coming.

[Robert Harris]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Attention RAH……………

I was PM’ed this link for your reading pleasure……………
http://www.studiodaily.com/main/topstory/10332.html

Interesting read, but there isn't anything in this situation that's any different from the way that workflow SHOULD be performed for any quality data harvest and either preservation or preparation for ancillary release.

Baraka is gorgeous film that in the overall scheme of things was in very good condition, with a few dupe shots going back to a 65 IP for scanning. Chris Reyna, who is one of the supreme techs in the large format arena, took things a step further, seeking out and fixing original production and optical problems.

The folks involved did their homework, went for quality, and that the reward is a high quality release.

This is the way that things should be done when the film warrants the time and expense, but unfortunately, rarely occurs.

[Joe Cain]

I haven't found much discussion of the excellent MPI BD release of Becket, a film I saw for the first time on 8mm in a junior high school world history class some 20-odd years ago. I've thoroughly enjoyed becoming reacquainted with O'Toole's and Burton's spectacular performances, but for me the BD's greatest revelation has been in its rendering of the magnificent sets---hard to believe all those interiors are on a soundstage at Shepperton and not on location.

The case liner reads "Once thought lost forever..."

Can we shed any light on the history of the elements and their restoration, or the film's ownership? It boggles my mind that a film with 12 Oscar nominations could be "lost" in any sense of the word---then again, this was originally released by Paramount, a studio with a legacy of asset protection issues. I notice the only place that name appears on this MPI release is in the film itself; does Paramount no longer hold any rights to the property?

[Torsten Kaiser TLE]

Originally Posted by Joe Cain

I haven't found much discussion of the excellent MPI BD release of Becket, a film I saw for the first time on 8mm in a junior high school world history class some 20-odd years ago. I've thoroughly enjoyed becoming reacquainted with O'Toole's and Burton's spectacular performances, but for me the BD's greatest revelation has been in its rendering of the magnificent sets---hard to believe all those interiors are on a soundstage at Shepperton and not on location.

The case liner reads "Once thought lost forever..."

Can we shed any light on the history of the elements and their restoration, or the film's ownership? It boggles my mind that a film with 12 Oscar nominations could be "lost" in any sense of the word---then again, this was originally released by Paramount, a studio with a legacy of asset protection issues. I notice the only place that name appears on this MPI release is in the film itself; does Paramount no longer hold any rights to the property?

Joe,

Paramount was distributor of this production, but the copyright has been for years in different hands. But the Academy sure remembered : The restoration was made by and on behalf of AMPAS, with funding from THE FILM FOUNDATION. There was definitely some legal wrangling going on since the restoration was finalized on the photochemical level in 2003, but MPI could not release its DVD issue until 2007.
The photochemical restoration afaIk was made from the black & white seperation protection masters (Y,C,M) as the original Technicolor Negative is presumed lost; and a new re-combined IP struck by YCM at Burbank under supervision of Michael Pogorzelski, the director of the Academy Film Archive.

The Audio was done by a team at Chace Productions in Burbank. That team apparently worked exclusively from a 35mm magnetic track, with much of it in an advanced state of decomposition. The Mono track was restored and new stereo and 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtracks crafted. That mono track is NOT on the Blu-ray; it only exists in the HE domain on the 1994 Laserdisc Edition, however, there it was taken, I believe, from a 35mm optical track.

The picture elements still are partially very problematic in stability (there seems to have been some major perforation damage or a copying error on the first reel) which were not digitally corrected.

RAH, have you seen the BECKET Blu-ray & if so, what do you think of the color timing [specifically the red tones] ?

[dred]

The info and knowledge I've gained from this site is huge. Having Insiders and people who know what they're talking about is great. I check a few threads everyday and I tend to keep my fingers quiet most of the time. Penton seems to be the man in the know with Sony, so I hope this is the right club to crash. Today, between bong hits, I went and purchased Pineapple Express from Columbia Pictures. I know us hippies might be dirty folk, but I didn't appreciate the Digital Copy and BD Live sticker to be under the cellophane and on the case itself. Our pits and our clothes may be dirty, but please, not our BD cases. With that being said, I do love Blu-Ray and since buying a PS3 last year, we've bought another Blu player and 2 new tv's and replaced the basement audio system just to keep up with the format. Thanks for the work. Now, back to my bong.

[Slec]

Originally Posted by dred

The info and knowledge I've gained from this site is huge. Having Insiders and people who know what they're talking about is great. I check a few threads everyday and I tend to keep my fingers quiet most of the time. Penton seems to be the man in the know with Sony, so I hope this is the right club to crash. Today, between bong hits, I went and purchased Pineapple Express from Columbia Pictures. I know us hippies might be dirty folk, but I didn't appreciate the Digital Copy and BD Live sticker to be under the cellophane and on the case itself. Our pits and our clothes may be dirty, but please, not our BD cases. With that being said, I do love Blu-Ray and since buying a PS3 last year, we've bought another Blu player and 2 new tv's and replaced the basement audio system just to keep up with the format. Thanks for the work. Now, back to my bong.

To borrow from Bill Simmons, "yes, these are your readers"

[Penton-Man]

As long as they all have good taste in music, film or formats, I am happy.

Dred, keep an eye out for this ………………….
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/movies.php?id=764
and as the song goes…………
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWpjLzKV1ZI

People I’m heading out very early tomorrow morning for CES so, excuse my absence for awhile.

[Uxi]

I'd like to see special editions fixed up a bit better. Greedo not shooting at all, etc, but I don't want to ever see the strings on the TIE fighters again. I mostly like the special editions better than the originals.

Phantom Menace could use a special edition, in fact. Replace the muppet with a CGI yoda, please.

If I could just get as is, though, I'd be happy. 1080p and DTS-HDMA 7.1!

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Uxi

but I don't want to ever see the strings on the TIE fighters again.

Strings?

They were mounted on rods in front of bluescreens shot with the first motion control cameras, all I can see are garbage mattes from time to time.

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Uxi

Phantom Menace could use a special edition, in fact. Replace the muppet with a CGI yoda, please.

This has already happened Ive read. It wont happen for the original trilogy Lucas has stated many times.

[Bobby Henderson]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

They were mounted on rods in front of bluescreens shot with the first motion control cameras, all I can see are garbage mattes from time to time.

Garbage mattes have been the only flaws I've seen in the original effects shots as well. Never saw any strings.

It's challenging enough to clean up crude, polygonal garbage mattes out of effects shots. I'm hoping Warner Bros. has put for the effort to do that on the upcoming BD release of 2010. I watched the movie not too long ago on HD Net Movies and garbage mattes were plainly visible in a few shots.

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Bobby Henderson

It's challenging enough to clean up crude, polygonal garbage mattes out of effects shots. I'm hoping Warner Bros. has put for the effort to do that on the upcoming BD release of 2010. I watched the movie not too long ago on HD Net Movies and garbage mattes were plainly visible in a few shots.

Unlikely they'd pay for yet another new HD transfer. I frequently refer to HDNet Movies as "The Blu-ray Preview Channel" since they frequently show films recently released or announced on BD.

Getting rid of garbage mattes requires them to dial down the contrast for the VFX shots (the mattes never showed up theatrically). A lot of home video transfers are way too bright. The telecine operator is often clueless on how they looked in the theaters, I remember them talking about this in WSR when they did the THX LDs of the original Star Wars Trilogy. For those the telecine operator sat and watched those films projected theatrically, made notes on the contrast levels, and adjusted the telecine to match.

ILM even put a blue filter at the time on the starfields. Return of the Jedi, Star Trek III, Explorers, and Enemy Mine all had stars tinted blue theatrically. Only the LD of Jedi and the DVD of Trek III was it transferred correctly. The filter on Jedi was removed for the SE recomposites, and the garbage mattes are fairly obvious even when projected now.

[Torsten Kaiser TLE]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

(...)Getting rid of garbage mattes requires them to dial down the contrast for the VFX shots (the mattes never showed up theatrically). A lot of home video transfers are way to bright. *

The telecine operator is often clueless on how they looked in the theaters, I remember them talking about this in WSR when they did the THX LDs of the original Star Wars Trilogy. For those the telecine operator sat and watched those films projected theatrically, made notes on the contrast levels, and adjusted the telecine to match.**

ILM even put a blue filter at the time on the starfields. Return of the Jedi, Star Trek III, Explorers, and Enemy Mine all had stars tinted blue theatrically. Only the LD of Jedi and the DVD of Trek III was it transferred correctly. The filter on Jedi was removed for the SE recomposites, and the garbage mattes are fairly obvious even when projected now.

re: * -- This is an issue in black level and in gamma which I still fail to understand to this day. This is something you HAVE to see as a colorist, and that has to pop up during QC. Yet, to this day I come across masters that show this are similar kind of problems. I remember very vividly the Laserdisc and the DVD issue of 2010; and both had their share of troubles in this matter. Several 65mm composite shots were "revealed" making them literally a laughing stock. But this also goes for B/W transfers of classic even ranging to the FILM NOIR genre. Knowledge of film stock and especially the nature of nitrate film is key, and unfortunately lacking in (way too many) transfers.

re: ** -- This is how it normally should be, at the very least. Another (better) option would be to work with constant supervision, with very selected colorists; ideal is to work under these conditions with 2K monitors and projection EQ (and above) as well as measuring instruments to match (OmniTek), with supervisors and colorists holding/sharing knowledge of photochemical processing, photo-optics and the digital domain. This, however, is not the norm but (unfortunately) just as rare as the work flow RAH was referring to in another post re: encoding to Blu-ray (and I could not agree more). I remember being asked in 2003 "why do you do this ? Who needs this for transfers, mastering or restorations ?". Some were laughing then. Not anymore. Now they can see their masters made on small CRTs at the time dissolve in front of their very eyes when viewed on a good (normal household) 40 or 50" plasma. The new technology available through far better displays, scanners, telecines (SPIRIT) and HDCAMSR or (preferably) uncompressed dpx files reveals also the mistakes made. When you work for a DI output, at the very least you need the environment to make it work on a big screen - all the time. Things are changing, but slowly.

[Josh]

Penton,

Hope you are enjoying the show; wish I could be there.

A while ago, you mentioned that the color timing on Sling Blade was incorrect theatrically, and that if it was going to be released on Blu-ray, the master would show the true/intended color timing.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...postcount=4762

Well, now that Disney has formally announced the title, do you know if the color timing will be correct on the Blu-ray?