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

[Michael.Schinke]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

I'm sorry, unlike some of my friends I don't have the encyclopedic knowlege I should


How many people have checked out David Gerrold's (the trouble with tribbles) Blood and Fire episode of Star Trek New Voyages? The long-censored AIDS script that would have brought gay characters to ST:TNG surfaces over 20 years later, rejiggered for the fan-film series. Sure the acting is amature, but the look and feel are spot-on, and many people who worked on real Trek, from the original through Enterprise contribute props, reference material and makeup have a hand in this show

http://www.startreknewvoyages.com

Part 2 will star Denise "Tasha Yar" Crosby when it hits "soon"

I've watched the episode and the only problem I had with it was the way the gay relationship was handled. It's not exploitative in any way, but it's also unnatural feeling. It's a little in your face instead of coming off as romantic. I do like the way they had Kirk handle it; like it was no big thing. He came across as if he would have reacted the same way regardless of the gender of those involved. Very classy.

[Jeff Kleist]

I agree with you the scene in Peter's quarters is bit awkward, but I chalk it up to a first time director and amature actors

Intimacy is very hard to act and direct

[FourToedStatue]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Ghostbusters 2 was done for a 2pack last year, one would assume it'd be the same time

I hope so, I like the sequel just as much.

[HeavyHitter]

Jeff,

Why is Warner only offering the Batman movies as a boxset? I guess they figure no one will buy that Batman and Robin POS otherwise. Oh well, I can always order them seperately from the UK I suppose.

[aygie]

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

Jeff,

Why is Warner only offering the Batman movies as a boxset? I guess they figure no one will buy that Batman and Robin POS otherwise. Oh well, I can always order them seperately from the UK I suppose.

....kinda answered your own question there....

[Jeff Kleist]

I think WB has pretty much established that they're going to ship franchises as boxes first

[Torsten Kaiser TLE]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

(...) Because they were restoring the film to the finished state it should have been upon release, and a theatrical re-release was planned, therefore the materials needed to be in a condition where that was possible. Unfortunately since some elements of the production chain did not do their work properly, we won't get that version on Blu-ray until such time as money is spent to re-do all that FX work that should have been done in HD to begin with

I can tell you that the Trek movies were worked on in reverse order so that lessons learned on the easier, newer films could be applied to the older material

Jeff, which theatrical re-release are you reffering to ? Is there something new in the wings (not that it would surprise me) ?
As far as the Director's Cut of STAR TREK - TMP goes (made available on DVD in 2001) that was supervised by Robert Wise, this one was finalized not back out to film but (in the end) rendered out to tape in NTSC 525 resolution. The transfer of the 35mm elements chosen was made in High Definition to HD-D5; the VFX were created (and, per claim of the producer of those FX at the time, still exist on HardDrives) in HD and above, but were rendered out only to an NTSC final master, all PAL masters are conversions. So, everything would have to be at least rendered out again; however, the transfer from back then is no longer as good as could be, either; there are much different and better options open now (as there were back then, too).

[Jeff Kleist]

Jeff, which theatrical re-release are you reffering to ? Is there something new in the wings (not that it would surprise me) ?
As far as the Director's Cut of STAR TREK - TMP goes (made available on DVD in 2001) that was supervised by Robert Wise, this one was finalized not back out to film but (in the end) rendered out to tape in NTSC 525 resolution. The transfer of the 35mm elements chosen was made in High Definition to HD-D5; the VFX were created (and, per claim of the producer of those FX at the time, still exist on HardDrives) in HD and above, but were rendered out only to an NTSC final master, all PAL masters are conversions. So, everything would have to be at least rendered out again; however, the transfer from back then is no longer as good as could be, either; there are much different and better options open now (as there were back then, too).

As it was explained to me at the time, the final master was indeed NTSC level. However there was work done on the original footage for a theatrical re-release until Paramount found out that all the new FX were only NTSC, at which point it was scuttled. Rendering out the FX from 2001 would probably entile far more expense than re-doing them, because you'd have to replicate the exact environment from then. High-end visual FX are very tempermental, and many times they're coding around various bugs that would no longer exist now (in fact I would doubt they're using the same hardware/software at all).

I agree it needs more work, I'm just saying that that's probably why the budget, if that number is correct is low, because a "base coat" had already been done in anticipation of that move

Please feel free to poke around and report back, I welcome being wrong about such things

[Bolty]

The Director's cut of Star Trek 2 is exactly 3 min 30 sec longer than the theatrical.

The theatrical of Trek 6 was never released and it has always been released with three additinal scenes:

Extended President's office scene ('Operation Retrieve')
The torpedo bay scene with Spock, Scott & Valeris &
the reveal of the assassin (Col West/Aberjonois) which is in two brief segments

The 2002 2 disc release had a few additional tweaks by Meyer that added about 4 seconds more to the running time for a grand total of 3 min 26 sec of added footage.

The extended version of 6 wasn't labeled a "Director's cut' but the additions were stuff Meyer was forced to cut in 1991 and were imediately added back for the first VHS & Laser Disc releases.

From looking at the scripts, reading interviews, looking at still photos & 'bootleg' footage, it is pretty clear 2, 3 & 6 each had about 15 minutes of footage cut from the 'rough cut' stage to their present lengths. Trek 4 has only about 5 minutes (pretty efficient scripting)

For some like me, seeing those deleted scenes is the holy grail and hopefully this Blu-ray release will have at least some deleted/extended scenes.

[Torsten Kaiser TLE]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

As it was explained to me at the time, the final master was indeed NTSC level. However there was work done on the original footage for a theatrical re-release until Paramount found out that all the new FX were only NTSC, at which point it was scuttled. Rendering out the FX from 2001 would probably entile far more expense than re-doing them, because you'd have to replicate the exact environment from then. High-end visual FX are very tempermental, and many times they're coding around various bugs that would no longer exist now (in fact I would doubt they're using the same hardware/software at all).

I agree it needs more work, I'm just saying that that's probably why the budget, if that number is correct is low, because a "base coat" had already been done in anticipation of that move

Please feel free to poke around * and report back, I welcome being wrong about such things

I agree re: VFX being very difficult to match - that was what I was referring to re: new and more precise technologies available now. A new scan (which is what should be done) would require everything to be done anew anyway. A DI would be a good idea, but ...

This whole thing sounds very much like two departments working on the same thing without one knowing what the other has in mind or is doing. The choice of HD-D5 was odd to begin with; ordering the whole thing to be rendered out to NTSC as a final master (which was definitively not the VFX crew's idea) also lacked considerable foresight. I hope this is changing. They have an excellent team of people overseeing their library there now, I hope the new leadership is listening more to them.

re: * -- that reminds me of a line from Billy Wilder's ONE TWO THREE uttered by one of the Russian "entrepreneurs" - "Swiss cheese - Unacceptable! Full of holes!" I'll be poking, but always respectfully

[Jeff Kleist]

I'll definately agree that one hand was not talking to the other. Sharpline Arts tended to do everything on a budget it seemed. Check out their Last Starfighter documentary with poor Lance cold reading the whole intro. Painful

If memory serves they had a BBQ at Nick Castle's house, invited everyone and set up a green screen

[mark antony]

Sorry I'm a bit confused about what actually is happening on the Blu Ray of ST:TMP, is it just gonna be the theatrical version, or are Paramount re-doing the Director's cut in HD?

Thanks

M

[Jeff Kleist]

As of right now, theatrical only

[Michael.Schinke]

The general attitude of Paramount in regards to Star Trek has always seemed a bit coarse to me, to be delicate in my repose. Is there any indication in regards to these Blu-ray releases to consider there may be a change in atmosphere over on the mountain?

[Jeff Kleist]

There isn't any information available in regard to additional supplements

Obviously since they're trying to restart the movie franchise, it's definately at the top end of their radars at the moment. What that translates into remains to be seen

[patrick99]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

RE Science

A true scientist delights in being proven wrong, because it opens up whole new avenues of intellectual discovery. No matter how many times people who do these things for a living tell them, they never listen. Science is, after all, the search for truth. There are small but vocal groups of people out there, particuarly when it comes to fields like biology and geology who have pre-concieved notions that they then go out to "prove" by throwing out anything that can contradict it and only keeping the supporting evidence. They then complain that they're being opressed because they don't get published (because they didn't follow the same rules everyone else does). Penton's favorite people operate in a similar manner. They see what they think is DNR, they see halos, and it's always a malicious act on the part of the studio, instead of (like Zodiac for example) a choice by the filmmaker. They don't bother to research, they slap a scarlet D on and move on.

And sometimes "they" see things like stretching in Event Horizon and The Truman Show. . .

[Jeff Kleist]

I agree that the stretching is so minor, that if you didn't go looking for it, you won't even notice

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

I agree that the stretching is so minor, that if you didn't go looking for it, you won't even notice

Well, I still don't feel we should let the studios off the hook for it.

Just like the difference between a lossy and lossless soundtrack can be minor, yet it's better to error on the side of what's better.

[Jeff Kleist]

I didn't say that it was right, just that it's not a dealbreak on one's ability to enjoy the film

[NoQuestion]

Jeff,

Posted this over in Penton's thread. But can you let everyone in this thread know who is releasing QoS?

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...=1#post1490447