Archived: Insiders Thread

[aygie]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

I assure you, it really won't be out this year....

Thank you, i believe you! just wanted to be clear.

(shame though)

[Dave Mack]

Originally Posted by WriteSimply

That is the reality of some soft-focus shot films. You can't sharpen them EVER or you might lose the director's intent. I just hope that paidgeek and SPHE team are not too dishearten to see comments like this.


fuad

With all due respect, I know all about shooting styles and director's intent. I graduated NYU film school and used to DP myself for years until I went back to music. I'm talking about when people are noticing print belmishes, specks, dirt etc.. as well as it being very soft and desaturated looking. I have no problem with a "softer" shooting style, I actually think the BD of "A Christmas story" looks dandy. My copy should arrive today but all in honesty it sounds like they took a several year old master and just transferred it. When Halloween, a much older and more low budget film primarily shot at night can look like it was filmed last week and even surprise the esteemed Mr. Harris, it just make you think that they could've done perhaps a better job.
I KNOW Dracula's shooting style very well. I've seen it in the theaters several time, once kinda recently at a revival (yes, on 35mm before you ask) and have read many articles on the shooting process.
If you read back, I was critisizing Bracke earlier and DEFENDING the film's look. But more and more people keep chiming in with the same observations. I'm sorry but no matter the style this was shot in, (and it's not like they wrapped the camera in gauze or smeared it with vaseline...) it should still look more detailed than the SB.
If they did indeed just use "the old HD master" and that's how it looks, why the hell didn't they make a brand new one and maybe cleaned it up a bit? Many other lesser known films have had this priviledge.

[depooter]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

I assure you, it really won't be out this year....

What is Sony releasing in December? There doesn't seem to be anything on the schedule as of yet.????

[Jason One]

Originally Posted by depooter

What is Sony releasing in December? There doesn't seem to be anything on the schedule as of yet.????

Superbad (just announced) and 20 Million Miles to Earth, both on 12/4.

Paidgeek: Will Superbad use seamless branching to include both the unrated and theatrical cuts, or will it only have the unrated version?

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Dave Mack

If they did indeed just use "the old HD master" and that's how it looks, why the hell didn't they make a brand new one and maybe cleaned it up a bit? Many other lesser known films have had this priviledge.

Dave, I haven’t been following this discussion and forgive me if I’m a little woozy post-op from the aesthesia but, didn’t this title get a new transfer according to paidgeek or somebody else in the know ?

Therefore I assume by definition, the Blu-ray disc edition originated from a new master (SR tape, not the old D5 master of Dracula).

I think what you are asking for is why didn’t SPE expend the funds to do a complete restoration on the original film elements for this title, if in fact, the preliminary review(s) are justified.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by Jason One

Superbad (just announced) and 20 Million Miles to Earth, both on 12/4.

Paidgeek: Will Superbad use seamless branching to include both the unrated and theatrical cuts, or will it only have the unrated version?

No branching on Superbad. It will be the longer unrated version only.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by Dave Mack

With all due respect, I know all about shooting styles and director's intent. I graduated NYU film school and used to DP myself for years until I went back to music. I'm talking about when people are noticing print belmishes, specks, dirt etc.. as well as it being very soft and desaturated looking. I have no problem with a "softer" shooting style, I actually think the BD of "A Christmas story" looks dandy. My copy should arrive today but all in honesty it sounds like they took a several year old master and just transferred it. When Halloween, a much older and more low budget film primarily shot at night can look like it was filmed last week and even surprise the esteemed Mr. Harris, it just make you think that they could've done perhaps a better job.
I KNOW Dracula's shooting style very well. I've seen it in the theaters several time, once kinda recently at a revival (yes, on 35mm before you ask) and have read many articles on the shooting process.
If you read back, I was critisizing Bracke earlier and DEFENDING the film's look. But more and more people keep chiming in with the same observations. I'm sorry but no matter the style this was shot in, (and it's not like they wrapped the camera in gauze or smeared it with vaseline...) it should still look more detailed than the SB.
If they did indeed just use "the old HD master" and that's how it looks, why the hell didn't they make a brand new one and maybe cleaned it up a bit? Many other lesser known films have had this priviledge.

Let's chat after you watch it. There are titles that are "softer" than Dracula. The title also has many optical effects shots and this contributed to some of the comments of dirt. Existing tools (apart from hand painting frames) would have likely softened the picture further if used to aggressively on this type of dirt.

[depooter]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

No branching on Superbad. It will be the longer unrated version only.

I don't get this. Blu-Ray is made for this. Why not include both. Give consumers a choice of watching the theatrical or longer cut and show everyone the superior advantage of Blu-Ray.

Paid: Can you share our thoughts on this? We always want to the choice to watch the original theatrical version if possible...

thanks

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by depooter

I don't get this. Blu-Ray is made for this. Why not include both. Give consumers a choice of watching the theatrical or longer cut and show everyone the superior advantage of Blu-Ray.

Paid: Can you share our thoughts on this? We always want to the choice to watch the original theatrical version if possible...

thanks

We like using this feature too, but it is not trivial to implement and we didn't have time to do it and still get the title out in December. There is often a balance with new titles on how long we hold a title to add features versus getting it to market.

[Nighthawk]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

I just got off the phone with the orthopedist who I asked to fax me a copy of the O.R. Report.

He only said one thing to me…..”Behave yourself”.
(Apparently, in the recovery room, while coming out of anesthesia, I had very little inhibition [I blame that on the drugs they gave me], while conversing with some of the nurses caring for me. )

PM, I know your pain. I've felt it before myself. Blame the goddamn hot looking nurses. They kill us guys. They make us expose ourselves.

[hollywoodguy]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

We like using this feature too, but it is not trivial to implement and we didn't have time to do it and still get the title out in December. There is often a balance with new titles on how long we hold a title to add features versus getting it to market.

What many people underestimate is the amount of work and money that goes into creating certain features. Paid, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the first Blu-ray to have seamless branching was Fox's Alien vs. Predator, right? I can pretty much guarantee that Fox would not have turned a profit on a bare bones release, let alone on the version that they did put out, which was quite complex for a movie that is not yet exactly a catalog evergreen.

It's not just looking for branching points, press a couple of buttons and wham, seamless branching. Paid, maybe you can shed some light on how complex for example the international versions of the Close Encounters Blu-ray are? Those with the two English streams, probably five+ dubbed languages, at least 10 subtitle streams (maybe 20, 25?) and all of that for THREE different seamless cuts that have to be tested on various players for compatibility etc. Then the individual countries have to approve their assets and when e.g. French subtitles go out of synch for two seconds at one of dozens of branching points, a whole new run of check discs has to be created again, checked again, etc., rinse, repeat, until all territories are satified.

Considering the size of the market at this point, every time we get seamless branching, it can be considered a gift from the studios (unless it's an ultra-high profile release and the branching is considered part of the appeal). The same, by the way, goes for any kind of extensive restauration of original film material or, I assume, for HD DVD's IME features and the like. In light of this, a new version of The Fifth Element including a free exchange program is literally the studio equivalent of giving you twenty bucks cash back when you buy it.

As Penton has previously alluded to, SPHE is breaking the bank on the Lawrence restauration (Rob, I expect at least a in response). It's not because they think they can turn a profit on it, it's because, thankfully, some people still love film and its history (unlike others, as, once again, Penton has pointed out before [some only act when you make them an offer they can't refuse]). When Lawrence comes out and I hear someone say, "but it's soft for ten seconds" I swear I'm going to make them watch Crank ten times in a row.

[/end rant]

[depooter]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

We like using this feature too, but it is not trivial to implement and we didn't have time to do it and still get the title out in December. There is often a balance with new titles on how long we hold a title to add features versus getting it to market.

makes sense. thanks for the explanation.
Greg

[WickyWoo]

When Lawrence comes out and I hear someone say, "but it's soft for ten seconds" I swear I'm going to make them watch Crank ten times in a row.

I'm with you

Luckily Lawrence is sourced from 65mm, and there are really no opticals outside of titles.

[darkedgex]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

Spiderman 2 uses bonafide seamless branching. I hope we get more positive comments on this feature like yours. I think this a good feature for use on other titles. It's a lot of work, but it shows a real strength of the format.

Just wanted to chime in, I love seamless branching. If I had my say, I'd make every film that had alternate cuts use it (I'm a big fan of being able to watch the theatrical cut, then compare it against the alternate cut(s)). Even for seemingly unimportant releases (like comedies) I'd like to see this used.

Question:

Any update on when/if SPHE will start including 20/24-bit audio on their releases?

Thanks for the hard work, paid.

[Uxi]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

We like using this feature too, but it is not trivial to implement and we didn't have time to do it and still get the title out in December. There is often a balance with new titles on how long we hold a title to add features versus getting it to market.

Right. And there's always the possibility of a more feature packed re-release/new SKU in the future, right?

I'm all for seamless branching, but I've found myself only wanting the extended cuts so haven't been disapointed at all in the way Blu-ray has emphasized that.

[Dave Mack]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

Let's chat after you watch it. There are titles that are "softer" than Dracula. The title also has many optical effects shots and this contributed to some of the comments of dirt. Existing tools (apart from hand painting frames) would have likely softened the picture further if used to aggressively on this type of dirt.

Gotcha. My copy should be here tom'w. I do know there was alot of optical printing involved and what that entails. I'm just wondering what the selected color desaturation in certain scenes some have commented on is.

[Rob Tomlin]

Lawrence will not be "soft"!

[hollywoodguy]

Originally Posted by Rob Tomlin

Lawrence will not be "soft"!

Gotcha.

[Titus37]

I'm really excited to hear about the hard work that is going into Lawrence of Arabia. I'm looking forward to seeing the end results.

[dobyblue]

Originally Posted by darkedgex

Question:

Any update on when/if SPHE will start including 20/24-bit audio on their releases?

Spider-man 2 and Spider-man 3 both feature 24-bit/48kHz Dolby TrueHD mixes from the 24/48 master.
Spider-man 1 has a 24/48 THD mix from a 16/48 master.