Ask questions to The Digital Bits team (Bill Hunt, Jeff Kleist et.al.)

[jw]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

^ Yup.
Thank you Blu News.

Just for clarification is Blu News also "Spartan" something from HDD from back in the format war days or someone entirely different?

hey penton, need a refresher, i was just reading those

[Esox50]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

^ Yup.
Thank you Blu News.

Just for clarification is Blu News also "Spartan" something from HDD from back in the format war days or someone entirely different?

SpartanJohnson. Penton, for an old man you have such a great memory!!

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

Yeah, I recently tried to watch DS9 from the beginning... but the first couple of seasons were too tough a slog for me. I liked the idea of Enterprise and I loved the last two seasons of it (sans the finale - Terra Prime was Enterprise its best), but I agree that Trek series have mostly been very uneven.

Thats too bad. Yeah, the first two seasons of DS9 are mostly a bore with only a handful of real good episodes. Basically, the first season of DS9 is TNG on a space station and that was back when Kira was an unlikable *****.

The second season slowly planet the seeds of what was to come but was mostly forgettable, even though it did have a few classic episodes in there.
The season finale was fantastic though.

By the time you got to Season 3 is when the show just absolutely took off and never looked back. It took me just the weekend to get through Season 3 when I got the set on dvd. Thats how hooked I got.

So Bill, if you get the chance and are able to make it through the first two seasons of DS9 I can promise you will be rewarded with some quality Trek that succeeds in being the least Trek of all.

Sorry, Jeff. I just HAD to try and convince Bill of what he is missing.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Esox50

SpartanJohnson. Penton, for an old man you have such a great memory!!

Dude, when doctorossi ran the "turtle" YouTube clip on my thread several days ago, the first person I thought of was the notorious red ant from HDD.

I just forgot the guy's handle but, I do remember his icon picture thingee.

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Dude, when doctorossi ran the "turtle" YouTube clip on my thread several days ago, the first person I thought of was the notorious red ant from HDD.

I just forgot the guy's handle but, I do remember his icon picture thingee.

Yeah, back in the day Spartan was getting fed a load of bull from the HD-DVD camp, which was then that I truly learned just how desperate they were to spread FUD. Right before the Warner switch he claimed that he had been getting phonecalls from Toshiba reps commenting on the actual negotiating process. I do believe he was getting calls from someone.

In Spartans (real name Loys Johnson) defense he has been very reliable, but Ill take the high road here and say that I agree with Bill here.

Van Ling also made some comments about the dangers of releasing info too soon

In this quote he is referring to the website Thearnoldfans.com (TAF) which posted a story about some features planned for a possible bluray release of a brand new Terminator special edition and it turned out that info was premature.

Originally Posted by Van Ling

Friends, there is a reason that the TAF story is down... I asked that it be removed. Let me tell you why... it may have effectively killed some of the features that were in the planning stages but were not in any way confirmed or committed, especially ones involving the participation of some of the original cast and crew.

I asked the head of the TAF website to take down that story because it will likely have a large and negative impact on all of the hard work I and many others have done to try to bring something special to the next release of this title. We were still in the process of trying to get firm commitments from many of the participants, and there are (as always) many legal hurdles and rights issues involving shooting locations and material clearances that may not happen and are less likely to happen now that they've been "committed" without their consent. The studio needs clearances before they will allow things to be included on the disc, and it sets back our ability to secure those clearances to have someone put out information (accurate or not) that insinuates that we are moving ahead with things.

While we are always thrilled and grateful that folks are excited and want to know about what we're doing, it is VERY important to understand that putting this kind of information out there --be it speculative or told in confidence-- damages the project by making it seem to those we are trying to commit to participate that we consider their participation a fait accompli.

It's like being in the middle of negotiations with an actor to do a movie and going out with a premature press release saying they've signed on... because that actor (or his/her agent) are then less inclined to do it because they feel pressured... or just on principle. In the case of DVD special features, participants do NOT get paid to do interviews or commentaries; studios cannot afford to do so, because if they pay one, they have to pay them all, and subsequently would have to raise the price of the discs you buy in order to justify that payment. Actors and main crew get residuals (small royalty payments) for each sale of the film (be it cable or DVD or theatrical run), so it is considered by the studios to be part of the promotion of the film to have special features... which can help drive sales of the movie on disc. Since we cannot afford to pay the participants in the special features, we have to get them to do it for free if we want them to be in them. While some folks are happy to do an interview or commentary for free (since they know that anything they can do to help sell more discs will help them get more in residuals), others feel differently... and are more than willing to walk away if they feel like they've been taken for granted (Ever wonder why David Prowse was not in the SW "Empire of Dreams" doc or William Sanderson was not in the "Blade Runner" doc? I'm just saying).

I'm sure we all understand the power of expectation and the importance of setting such expectations realistically... which is why Will's note about his expectations being through the roof kind of bums me out. As a disc producer, I am always trying to give the fans what they want, and more... because I'm a film fan myself. But what's a wishlist and what's reality are invariably two different things, and a lot of these wishes only come true through a lot of hard word, respect, and trust... from all sides.

Fortunately, these are traits shared by Randy at the TAF website, and he took down the story. The last thing I need is the studio coming down on Jeff Dawn (who is a great guy and a great interviewee) by telling me that I can't use any of his material on the disc. Or for Jim or Arnold or anyone else to choose not to participate because it sounds like we jumped the gun. That only hurts the disc and the fans. I fear we have already lost one or two major participants. Thus endeth the lesson.

V

[Bill Hunt]

Exactly. This is EXACTLY the kind of thing I'm talking about (see my comments above). These producers are working incredibly hard to bring you the best special editions of your favorite fans that they can. And info leaks too early make their jobs that much harder.

Also, I've discovered that some newer enthusiasts who read these sites and forums often take such leaked information literally. So they read that a title is coming online, and then assume it's been officially announced. Then, when it doesn't show up when they expect it to, they get upset and wonder why the studio delayed the title. When in reality, the title had never even been announced in the first place! Look, this isn't life or death stuff here, but such leaks can have a very negative effect on the quality of the special editions we all love.

It's just incredibly irresponsible for someone to leak and post an entire release slate for a studio for a whole year, without regard to the consequences. People complain that there aren't enough Rumor Mill updates on The Bits. This is why. We try very hard to be careful and responsible with what we post. There's a balance to be struck between our readers eagerness to have the information and the need to make sure that what we post doesn't actually screw up the titles we're all waiting for.

[neo_reloaded]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

Believe me, I know enough independent and in-house special edition producers to know what I'm talking about.

Oh I believe you. I just didn't know the underlying reasons, so I was asking for clarification. Thanks for your explanation.

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by neo_reloaded

Oh I believe you. I just didn't know the underlying reasons, so I was asking for clarification. Thanks for your explanation.

I felt the same way. After I read Van Lings explanation it made perfect sense to me.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by neo_reloaded

Oh I believe you. I just didn't know the underlying reasons, so I was asking for clarification. Thanks for your explanation.

Sure thing. I'm not trying to beat the point into the ground or anything. I'm sure "Blu news" or "Spartan" or whoever meant well. But it is a very important point to make.

[Blu-News]

Bill Hunt is right, now that I think of it, it may have been too much for one day especially. I have known about a lot of these for quite a while, but I got the okay from my source yesterday to post a bit of the plans.

I didn't mean for people to take the list as official announcement by any means, merely just a sample of things to come. Like everything, nothing is official until announced by Paramount Home Entertainment.

I apologize to anyone I may have upset or angered by posting a bit of the information, but please know I had good intentions.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

Also, I've discovered that some newer enthusiasts who read these sites and forums often take such leaked information literally. So they read that a title is coming online, and then assume it's been officially announced. Then, when it doesn't show up when they expect it to, they get upset and wonder why the studio delayed the title. When in reality, the title had never even been announced in the first place!

Bill, it’s even worse than that.

Sometimes you can’t even track down where some of these rumors came from. For example, nobody having any real authority from SPHE, or even the publicist firm they employ, mentioned to a certain online retailer that Taxi Driver was to debut on Blu-ray on the date which they had listed for their preorder customers.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by Blu-News

Bill Hunt is right, now that I think of it, it may have been too much for one day especially. I have known about a lot of these for quite a while, but I got the okay from my source yesterday to post a bit of the plans.

I didn't mean for people to take the list as official announcement by any means, merely just a sample of things to come. Like everything, nothing is official until announced by Paramount Home Entertainment.

I apologize to anyone I may have upset or angered by posting a bit of the information, but please know I had good intentions.

Not at all, Blu. And let me just say that I TOTALLY respect you and your original intent in making the post. Believe me, I wasn't trying to slam you, and I completely understand the enthusiasm for upcoming title news. It's just that I do hear from producers all the time that such information, when leaked too early, makes their jobs a lot harder and can actually make the final special edition product less "special" than it might have been otherwise. Van's comments are important reading in this regard. Hope you understand the context of my own comments here.

[aramis109]

Originally Posted by Blu-News

Bill Hunt is right, now that I think of it, it may have been too much for one day especially. I have known about a lot of these for quite a while, but I got the okay from my source yesterday to post a bit of the plans.

I didn't mean for people to take the list as official announcement by any means, merely just a sample of things to come. Like everything, nothing is official until announced by Paramount Home Entertainment.

I apologize to anyone I may have upset or angered by posting a bit of the information, but please know I had good intentions.

"Too much", but not enough to take it down from the website, I guess?

[Penton-Man]

In a peripheral sort of way, this also brings up an interesting point regarding the fact that often times some people wonder why so much extra space is left over on the discs of some BD 50 movies which could have been utilized to increase the bitrate on the encoding of the feature film itself.

The fact of the matter is, a certain amount of space is allocated to the encode and a certain amount of space is allocated to the extras or supplemental material by guess -timate because their ultimate presence on the disc is not assured, or written in stone, so to speak. Sometimes, for a variety of reasons (including legal), some extras just don’t make it to the disc and if they don’t, one ends up not using all the space on the disc.

In those cases, it really has nothing to do with the incompetence of the compressionist as some people in the past have implied.

[Blu-News]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

Not at all, Blu. And let me just say that I TOTALLY respect you and your original intent in making the post. Believe me, I wasn't trying to slam you, and I completely understand the enthusiasm for upcoming title news. It's just that I do hear from producers all the time that such information, when leaked too early, makes their jobs a lot harder and can actually make the final special edition product less "special" than it might have been otherwise. Van's comments are important reading in this regard. Hope you understand the context of my own comments here.

Yes, I understand what you mean completely. I didn't realize completely what negative effects it could have for those involved in the projects, and I know you do know a lot about that. I tried to stay pretty general, but you are right.

[Slec]

Originally Posted by aramis109

"Too much", but not enough to take it down from the website, I guess?

it's only been 8 minutes since we know he saw something on this... put out the torches for a bit.

[aramis109]

Originally Posted by Slec

it's only been 8 minutes since we know he saw something on this... put out the torches for a bit.

It was too easy of a cheap shot to pass up.

[Blu-News]

So what does everyone suggest? Should I take the information down from my site, since it has already spread to the forum? Or should I just edit my post to clarify none of the information has been officially announced by the studio, and is subject to change?

[gpn]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

The Right Stuff is at least on the radar at Warner. Not sure when it's due, but I have heard that it's being considered.

Thanks, Bill! The Right Stuff is a Top Ten movie for me and I'd love to see it on Blu some day.

Greg

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by Blu-News

So what does everyone suggest? Should I take the information down from my site, since it has already spread to the forum?

The cat's outta the bag on those. You should give us additional info about titles of greater interest to us and then run away.