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

[milou6]

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

The vast majority of "black bar" and film grain haters are obviously fairly ignorant about such matters and based on my experience, they are fairly ignorant about their display and/or player's ability to use DNR and zoom features.

True, but there are a lot of people who love the EQUIPMENT and learn its features and like to show it off despite having no real understanding/appreciation of film. e.g. My father-in-law is quite comfortable stretching and zooming (and otherwise mangling the content) so that he's always filling his screen, bragging happily to people about how you "just need to know how to use the settings" but try to talk to him about o.a.r. and he looks at you like you're stupid.

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by milou6

True, but there are a lot of people who love the EQUIPMENT and learn its features and like to show it off despite having no real understanding/appreciation of film. e.g. My father-in-law is quite comfortable stretching and zooming (and otherwise mangling the content) so that he's always filling his screen, bragging happily to people about how you "just need to know how to use the settings" but try to talk to him about o.a.r. and he looks at you like you're stupid.

I think one more issue that is causing complaints from grain haters is calibration or lack of. Many of these people watch movies in the default "Vivid" mode which typically is excessively high in brightness, contrast, and sharpness. As a result, grain is much overly-accentuated. On a properly or even reasonably calibrated display, it's much less noticed.

[milou6]

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

I think one more issue that is causing complaints from grain haters is calibration or lack of. Many of these people watch movies in the default "Vivid" mode which typically is excessively high in brightness, contrast, and sharpness. As a result, grain is much overly-accentuated. On a properly or even reasonably calibrated display, it's much less noticed.

Good point. I hadn't thought about how the "store display" settings would accentuate grain. Wouldn't it also accentuate ee since it cranks up contrast?

My otherwise-beloved xbr4 comes out of the box on Vivid for all inputs and since it has more "punch" many people might assume it gives them more wow factor when showing off their equipment. Personally I think it was designed by hallucinating monkeys with retinal damage.

[J6P]

Originally Posted by mjbethancourt

Grain in the cinema is due to limitations in equipment, either in the print, or in the projection equipment, it's not an intentional decision. I defy you to give me a direct quote from a filmmaker saying "I want inferior picture quality".

You are demonstrating a solid 0% knowledge of filmmaking here. There are a myriad of decisions that go on during production that impact the grain level overall look of a movie, and each of those decisions are calculated and intentional. Exactly how far do you want to go down this road?

Cinematographer Roger Deakins on selecting film stock

I am pretty conservative with film negative choices and generally shoot on the three Kodak tungsten balanced stocks. I only once used daylight balanced stock preferring the look of tungsten film and the option of shooting it without correction. Of course the subject of the film and the 'look' I am going for will dictate that choice.

I also like a consistency of grain and texture. When I photographed "Shawshank Redemption" for instance I used mostly 5293 throughout the film. I loved it's rich shadows and contrast. It also reacted well when I shot it without the 85 correction and partially corrected print giving me the sharp cool grey look I was after. For some later scenes outside the prison I shot on slower stock and corrected with the 85 to give a more saturated and softer look.

On 'Jarhead' I used 5218 exclusively. I was going for a brittle look with some extra grain. We were shooting super 2:35 and the 5218 in conjunction with a partial bleach bypass development process on the negative gave me what I thought was the right amount . The contrast and saturation of the final image was finessed through a Digital intemediary.

I think from these two examples you can see that it is not just a choice of stock alone. The processing technique you might choose, and even the exposure range that one considers in conjunction with the stock will affect what that stock may be.

On "A Beautiful Mind" I pre-flashed the stock we used for the first period of the film with an orange light to give it a rich period look. I didn't want sepia but something with rich red shadow detail whilst holding more natural skin tones. In testing I found what I wanted with the Fugi negative which seemed to react better to the flashing than the Kodak stocks.

On "Courage Under Fire" I was trying to make the winter light of El Paso look hot and dusty. I overexposed the 5293 by 2 1/2 to 3 stops then pulled development 1 stop. This left me still printing a negative that was 1 1/2 to 2 stops over (up to a 55 printer light) but gave me a smooth blown out and desaturated look.

"The Man Who Wasn't There" was shot on 5277 col. neg. and printed on a B/W sound stock. It was all about the combination of soft negative stock and contrasty print stock. Of course the 320 ASA stock was a great help when it came to low light night work which I would have had more trouble with on a conventional B/W film negative.

[Rob Tomlin]

..

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by GarettP

Thanks Bill for helping all of us with Warner Bros. hopefully they don't screw the pooch with Speed Racer, been looking forward to it on Blu ever since my Son and I saw it at the theatre!

I'm still not sure if the title is actually BD-50 or 25 (I'm waiting to hear back), but the Home Media ad does mention TrueHD audio...

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by Nick Graham

Bill, catch the Watchmen trailer yet? It's now up in Quicktime HD. I'm already salivating over the potential of the Blu-Ray, especially with the standalone release of Tales Of The Black Freighter.

It certainly looks interesting... the Watchmen panel is about the only thing I'm really interested in checking out down at Comic-Con...

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by Majoran

Bill,

Just wondering if you can clear some things up regarding the Nov. Release of "A Christmas Story UCE"

This site said that this release will be a BD-25 (no other specs) here:
https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=1530
and here:
https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=1492

High Def Digest reports that it will be a BD-50 with DD 5.1 here:
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/sh...Packaging/1903

Just wondering which one is the correct one.....With the recent "snafus" in information it would be nice to know who is correct. Thank you for any information you can get for us. This is one title I would like to get, and all this mis-information is killing the fans...

My information is that it's the EXACT same disc has was released previously, albiet with some new swag.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Nice to see someone finally getting their house in order.
Extreme allegations and rhetoric are no better than extreme processing techniques.

Well... you know. I don't know if "getting our house in order" is accurate. Everyone has their opinion,and I'm not one to really tell our columnists what they can and can't say, and what opinions they should have. Although, I agree that the situation was getting a bit out of hand and that it wasn't helping matters any. I do think it's gotten better. Most of what we try to do at the Bits in situations like this happens behind the scenes, so a public rallying cry on the boards isn't the most effective way to handle things. Especially after the format war, the studios really don't think much of the boards by and large.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by Monkey

Those are pretty much the main reasons I haven't sold off my HD DVD player and library yet. Well Chronicles of Riddick.


Are Pitch Black and Chronicles of Riddick going to be released on blu any time this year?

I'll look into it. I'm sure they're coming. The studio is working to update their HD slate to Blu-ray a few titles at a time.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by Woody

Hello Bill, WB made a brief mention of HEAT earlier in the year. Any news on that?

Thanks

It's coming. Definitely next year.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by lgans316

Members in AVS have confirmed DNR on Dark City. This stupid act of applying DNR is at it's peak.

I kindly request Bill to check on this and revert back.

I haven't seen it yet, but I have reason to believe this whole DNR thing will soon no longer be an issue at Warner.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by horseflesh

Bill, forgive me for asking another random question....
Any ideas what's happened with Kiss of the Spider Woman?
http://www.amazon.com/Kiss-Spider-Wo...508715&sr=1-10

I'm not sure. I'm neck-deep in preparations for Comic-Con right now. I'll try to see what I can find out.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

Many consumers have stated they don't like grain on their Blu-rays.

Mixed messages.

Gary

Yes, I believe so. At least the catalog folks do. I'm looking into the new releases.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by Rob Tomlin

Bullshit.

Yeah, I agree. I'm not sure who 'mjbethancourt' is, but anyone arguing that grain shouldn't be there is far off the mark.

[aramis109]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

I haven't seen it yet, but I have reason to believe this whole DNR thing will soon no longer be an issue at Warner.

While obviously intentionally ambiguous this is potentially the best news I've read in awhile. It would be really great to get the hardcore movie collectors and the studios in agreeance on the subject.

I'm eager to hear the news related to this in the coming days/weeks/months.

[Knight-Errant]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

I haven't seen it yet, but I have reason to believe this whole DNR thing will soon no longer be an issue at Warner.

Awesome news, Bill

[FourToedStatue]

What I don't get is why Longest Day and Patton? Why not Predator and Commando for example?

[CAB]

Originally Posted by Rob Tomlin

Bullshit.

I think I found my sig quote.

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by JackBauer24

What I don't get is why Longest Day and Patton? Why not Predator and Commando for example?

I hope you're not serious.