Your Ultimate Film Format?

[HRC]

If you could invent a format for your films....what would you come up with? I'm thinking maybe like a 500gig memory stick in a nice book sized case with more than the usual packaging. Maybe have a nice little 100 page booklet with each film with the screenplay, photos, and other stuff. Maybe include the soundtrack on another stick for your memory stick audio player. Basically keep the format small and put money into really nice packaging. That's what I'd do.

[cajmoyper]

Are you on some sort of thread-making spree? I'm just kidding. This one is pretty interesting though. I would think of something like Sony has their noise-canceling mp3 players, somebody could invent some sort of ambiance-canceling environment that comes in a pair of sunglasses or something and taps into your cerebral system so that there is just you and the movie. Sweeeeeeet

[HRC]

Originally Posted by cajmoyper

Are you on some sort of thread-making spree? I'm just kidding. This one is pretty interesting though. I would think of something like Sony has their noise-canceling mp3 players, somebody could invent some sort of ambiance-canceling environment that comes in a pair of sunglasses or something and taps into your cerebral system so that there is just you and the movie. Sweeeeeeet

haha Yep!! I'm new so I'm getting it out! Most of them are decent though, right?


So, you wanna just plug right into the brain, huh?


I guess the ultimate format would drop you right into the matrix?

[Bobby Henderson]

The actual production quality of the movies themselves needs to improve further before we can start talking about any "ultimate" format.

If new 1.85:1 movies were filmed in VistaVision, Widescreen movies were filmed on 5-perf 65mm negative (and transferred directly to 70mm prints) and even some movies shot entirely in 15-perf 65mm IMAX format then we might be able to talk about some "ultimate" format to show off all that additional detail.

Instead, movies seem to be going in the reverse direction in terms of image quality.

Ever more widescreen movies are shot in Super35 rather than the superior anamorphic format. It's been nearly 40 years since 65mm/70mm film production was common and only a handful of feature films have been shot entirely in 65mm since then.

Worse yet, more and more movies are being shot in "digital" -which basically means the quality is typically bottle-necked down to HDTV quality and prone to the limits of video cameras.

Growth in use of 4K for CGI rendering and digital intermediate processes is still slow. Most movies have such work done merely in 2K. Maybe a decade from now when 4K, 6K and even 8K would be easy to do then we would have lots of new movies coming out in much higher standards of quality. But not right now.

[musicman1999]

Well said.


bill

[bix105]

I've always wanted to see a film on 70mm, like Lawrence of Arabia or something.

I know that's not what the OP is about but whatever

[HRC]

Originally Posted by Bobby Henderson

The actual production quality of the movies themselves needs to improve further before we can start talking about any "ultimate" format.

If new 1.85:1 movies were filmed in VistaVision, Widescreen movies were filmed on 5-perf 65mm negative (and transferred directly to 70mm prints) and even some movies shot entirely in 15-perf 65mm IMAX format then we might be able to talk about some "ultimate" format to show off all that additional detail.

Instead, movies seem to be going in the reverse direction in terms of image quality.

Ever more widescreen movies are shot in Super35 rather than the superior anamorphic format. It's been nearly 40 years since 65mm/70mm film production was common and only a handful of feature films have been shot entirely in 65mm since then.

Worse yet, more and more movies are being shot in "digital" -which basically means the quality is typically bottle-necked down to HDTV quality and prone to the limits of video cameras.

Growth in use of 4K for CGI rendering and digital intermediate processes is still slow. Most movies have such work done merely in 2K. Maybe a decade from now when 4K, 6K and even 8K would be easy to do then we would have lots of new movies coming out in much higher standards of quality. But not right now.

Bill, this is more of a "What If" type of thread. It's not meant to be reality. lol If you could have it any way...how would you do it?

[Gamma_Winstead]

Originally Posted by HRC

haha Yep!! I'm new so I'm getting it out! Most of them are decent though, right?

no not really. lol JK.

[Patranus]

Superbit DVD

Did not have any extras or bonus features to take up space.
-I mean, come on, how many different "making of" featurettes do i need to see on how movies do fake blood? It is all on the internet stop wasting space on my disc.

Did not have fancy menus with fancy graphics to take up space.
-Guess HDi did do something right. Those standard no-nothing menus that pop up on almost every Universal title could not have take up that much space.

Did not have a billion obscure language audio tracks to take up space. Don't get me started on a billion sub-title tracks.


Did use 99% of the disc for the MOVIE. Best picture quality and sound fidelity with the limited space available on DVD.

Until a format chooses to replicate Superbit DVD, in HD, there will never be a "better" format.

[Gamma_Winstead]

Originally Posted by Patranus

Superbit DVD

Did not have any extras or bonus features to take up space.
-I mean, come on, how many different "making of" featurettes do i need to see on how movies do fake blood? It is all on the internet stop wasting space on my disc.

Did not have fancy menus with fancy graphics to take up space.
-Guess HDi did do something right. Those standard no-nothing menus that pop up on almost every Universal title could not have take up that much space.

Did not have a billion obscure language audio tracks to take up space. Don't get me started on a billion sub-title tracks.


Did use 99% of the disc for the MOVIE. Best picture quality and sound fidelity with the limited space available on DVD.

Until a format chooses to replicate Superbit DVD, in HD, there will never be a "better" format.

Superbit Blu-ray. duh.

[Patranus]

Originally Posted by gamma626

Superbit Blu-ray. duh.

yes, but that is never going to happen.

some where along the line studios got it into their heads that bonus material was more important than the actual movie. Some is ok, such as outtakes but when they star putting 10+ movie trailers on the disc, it is out of control.

Because of their own practices, people are being driven away from their traditional revenue streams and are trying to jump on the band wagon in bad ways.

99% of bonus material is available over the internet via you tube or other online sites.

The fact of the matter is, I don't even really care if the movie has menus.

If studios were to release "Superbit" versions of movies on Blu-Ray it would most likely be on BD25. This would be justified by cost constraints I mean who really needs the movie to look that good?

I am getting sick of this mentality that if something is fine, it is good enough. People and companies are not willing to put any effort or take the extra step to make their product the best it can possibility be.

As technology progresses, there will be higher resolution televisions, audio formats, and video formats. Storage technology will continue to grow at an exponential rate. No matter how much space you have available, the same practices will just continue and continue and drive away more people.

I just want to best possible picture and audio. As long as studios are driven by other things than their final product we will never see this happen.

[Bobby Henderson]

Bill, this is more of a "What If" type of thread. It's not meant to be reality. lol If you could have it any way...how would you do it?

You got my name wrong. Anyway, there's nothing wrong at all with the Blu-ray Disc format. It doesn't currently need to be replaced by any sort of "ultimate" format.

The only way to outdo the audio-visual quality of movies on Blu-ray is to somehow deliver the formats used by digital cinemas. But that isn't practical with today's technology. D-cinema movies are delivered on reusable 300GB portable hard discs. If you want something equivalent to the archival digital master files then you'll need a few terabytes worth of hard disc space.

I think optical discs are still the best approach to use for the matter of cost. Flash memory and hard discs are still going to cost a lot more in terms of price per gigabyte. If engineers can come up with multi-layer discs with 200GB or more capacity (and be able to be replicated on a truly reliable basis) then that will open high quality video up to new things.

Aside from all that, I'm still wishing for movie productions to step up from 35mm and start using 65mm more often. And I think the experiments with "digital" are just silly. There's nothing better about "digital." It does not improve image quality. It's a step down from film. The actual advantages of "digital" are more about convenience rather than improving quality.

[unreal1080p]

Originally Posted by HRC

This is a "What If" thread. It's not meant to be reality. If you could have it any way...how would you do it?

The girls (harem) of the holodeck gone wild

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLgeZ8OPJ-g

[HRC]

OOOPS...sorry Bobby. Just think the year 3027. I'm just curious as to what everyone would want with thier own ideas with absolutely no specification limitations. I like my idea of a small stick with unlimited capacity but focus on super nice packaging. The idea of a bluray...while the best yet in reality...would be horrible compared to my idea. Exposed disc and big. Just think...a little chip with all the quality of bluray and more. I just wanted to hear wild cool ideas is all really. Not on the limitations of reality.

[trey]

OP - you sure do like your extras and all that big case junk (read another thread).

I personally would make the cases about the size of nintendo DS games. Definitely not memory sticks. if anything SD cards

I think bobby is trying to say that his ultimate format would be 65mm film. I think he's said that a few times. We may have to get to your unlimited capacity superstick before people decide to do that though. Although it bafffles me why they don't try to capture the closest to what the eye sees. Digital is for me filming my dogs at home, not for the cinema and production movies

[HRC]

Originally Posted by trey

OP - you sure do like your extras and all that big case junk (read another thread).

I personally would make the cases about the size of nintendo DS games. Definitely not memory sticks. if anything SD cards

Yeah, just small well protected media but with nice extras such as books, screenplays, and stuff like that. I really just wanted to see some imagination on the matter. Not really talk about what can or can't be done or limitations.

Edit: Even the actual BOOK the film was made from......with a space for the media to fit into. Mainly just more of a collectable type packed with cool little media loaded with the highest quality period.

Just ideas.

[trey]

Originally Posted by HRC

Edit: Even the actual BOOK the film was made from......with a space for the media to fit into. Mainly just more of a collectable type packed with cool little media loaded with the highest quality period.

Just ideas.

I personally would prefer to not have these "extras" that you speak of. In my opinion, that's why the sell books. Just sell me the movie, no junk and take up as little space as possible. If it's my favorite movie, I can by the extras separately if I want. I just hope there's always the option to just get the movie

[Deciazulado]

mmm .. how about around 2K x 5K pixels for narrative films (or more for Imax immersive screen angles), better than Technicolor camera filters' (Wratten 25, 58, 47B, or better ) color gamut, 10 or more bits per pixel, up to 60fps, 3-D, and compability refresh for all legacy frame rates (so up to 120 Hz refresh for flat and 240 for stereoscopic ), ANSI contrast of 10,000:1, 5 front channels, not 3, the rest is basically already covered in high res audio, like 192/24 or DSD.

oh well