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

[GabrielB]

Originally Posted by Michael.Schinke

Hey Jeff, do you know who's working the HD angle for Focus Features? The cable box has been tempting me with an HD broadcast of one of my favorite flicks of the last few yeras, Brick, and I'm wondering if there is a plan for a BD release. Thanks!

yeah we need more questions about independent films...
Focus is distributed by Universal. They released a few titles from Focus on HD DVD (Lost in Translation, Pride & Prejudice, Eternal Sunshine, The Pianist, ...)

There are a lot of indie flicks or non-Holly films that I'd buy in a heartbeat...
Perhaps this year or next we'll see more of them on BD.

[monkeyjb1988]

For fans of TNG, DS9, and VOY, some encouraging proof that HD treatments can be done for them: (Made me feel better)

http://www.hddvd.org/messageboard/topic/8274/3/0

By the way, also a huge fan for Deep Space Nine. Would love to see it in HD and it would kick @$$ on Blu-Ray.

[Jeff Kleist]

It's not a matter of whether it CAN be done, it's whether Paramount cares to invest $150 million+ per show to do it

A lot of the guy's figures were off. 4 months for Seinfeld? Maybe once they actually found all the trims. A great many of the episode specific ship shots were done on videotape as well (which these are is painfully obvious , they're usually very bright and edgy), along with all the phasers and such.

He makes a great many assumptions. They don't have most of the matte paintings anymore for example, and many of those were also shot on video

The first 2 seasons were shot 16mm as well

He thinks it would only take a year or two, well, it took the Okuda's team give or take 3 years to do Star Trek: Remastered, and that was 76 episodes which they already knew where the pre-assembled broadcast negative was. Do you really think they can do 176 episodes where they have to rebuild from scratch, after digging out the materials in that time?

[Mr. Cinema]

Jeff,

Best Buy has Babel on sale this week for $14.99, which is a solid price. The drawbacks are that it doesn't have that 80 minute documentary that showed up on the 2-disc dvd release or TrueHD audio. Give me some buying advice. Should I get this, or is there any sort of chance that a re-release would come sooner than later? I like the movie quite a bit. Since Brad Pitt is in it, I figure that may help move it up the ladder on their TrueHD do-over list.

[Jeff Kleist]

I 4really have no idea, but I would err on the side of them not re-doing it any time soon. It's an arty movie

[Jason One]

Wow, that's excellent news about Star Trek 6 being 2.35:1. I'm glad Meyer changed his mind.

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

A great many of the episode specific ship shots were done on videotape as well (which these are is painfully obvious , they're usually very bright and edgy), along with all the phasers and such.

That was just the low-rez compositing. The ships were shot motion control in 35MM by Image-G. They even built a special rig called the "bulldog" for later seasons allowing for more dynamic ship shots, like when the "future" Enterprise-D swoops in to rescue the USS Pasteur in "All Good Things".

The first 2 seasons were shot 16mm as well

It was all 35MM Panavision (flat). The low resolution is caused by the D1 they transferred to. Later seasons used D2.

/Trek+tech nerd.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by GabrielB

yeah we need more questions about independent films...

Tune in if you can.
http://spiritawards.com/

[woodlandwolf]

Jeff over at the hidef digest site they did a story about classic warner blus

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/sh...ke_Heart!/2502

and George Feltenstein talks about we may see Astaire-Rogers films make their Blu-ray debut in 2010, A Star is Born in 2010, 'The Music Man,' 'Doctor Zhivago,' and 'Meet Me in St. Louis' also will see high-def releases in the next two to three years, Citizen Kane in 2011. Now if this does happen is this a very good sign that we may start seeing more classic titles from other studios if these sale well? Just want your take on it.

Thanks,

Woodlandwolf

[Mr_Bester]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Tune in if you can.
http://spiritawards.com/

I never miss it. The show always seems more fun than the big show.

[MerrickG]

Jeff,

Any comments about the rumored trilogy release of Aliens on bluray as reported on the main page?

Why only the trilogy? Makes no sense to me.

[Jeff Kleist]

and George Feltenstein talks about we may see Astaire-Rogers films make their Blu-ray debut in 2010, A Star is Born in 2010, 'The Music Man,' 'Doctor Zhivago,' and 'Meet Me in St. Louis' also will see high-def releases in the next two to three years, Citizen Kane in 2011. Now if this does happen is this a very good sign that we may start seeing more classic titles from other studios if these sale well? Just want your take on it.

They talked to Mr. Feltenstein, he talked, simple as that

Any comments about the rumored trilogy release of Aliens on bluray as reported on the main page?

Why only the trilogy? Makes no sense to me.

Because Bloody Disgusting doesn't have very good sources, and very poor knowlege of video production. Check out the up-convert comment. Boy are they going to be mad when they see Aliens.

It's very obvious that they're getting this from someone who works in some facility where the Alien movies have come through. Alien 1-3 are much older vintage than Alien 4, and likely doesn't require much work. If they'd been getting it from someone higher up, then they wouldn't be saying it's just the trilogy. Just for reference, Star Trek was being worked on a year ago, literally, and while Alien would certainly be perfect for this year's Christmas bonanza, it's by no means a done deal

[Bobby Henderson]

How ever Fox chooses to package the Alien movies, I just hope they have them available in separate releases as well.

I loved Alien and Aliens, but have hated all the others and merely pretend they don't exist. AVP-R aired on HBO last night. Pretty embarrassing stuff. If others want to buy a huge box set containing all the recent installments, more power to them. I'm sure Fox will probably oblige.

[Jeff Kleist]

Bobby, if you haven't seen the true cut of Alien 3, I highly recommend you give it a shot. MUCH better

The AVP movies are an embarrassment. They should have been AWESOME

They simply failed to realize that Aliens vs Predator vs COLONIAL MARINES is the missing ingredient

[aygie]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Bobby, if you haven't seen the true cut of Alien 3, I highly recommend you give it a shot. MUCH better

The AVP movies are an embarrassment. They should have been AWESOME

They simply failed to realize that Aliens vs Predator vs COLONIAL MARINES is the missing ingredient

Jeff have you seen the alternate versions of the Alien 3 scripts? Some of the ideas were fantastic.

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Bobby, if you haven't seen the true cut of Alien 3, I highly recommend you give it a shot.

I'm still waiting for Alien 2.

I think it's somewhere on a hidden shelf next to Rambo 2.

[RustyK94]

Do you think they will bring out the TNG Star Trek Movies this year with the release of the new Star Trek Movie on Blu-ray.

I relay want to get First Contact i think. It's a very underrated powerful movie.

[Jeff Kleist]

They're coming out for Christmas

[RustyK94]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

They're coming out for Christmas

Wow just like that you said it

Cheers Jeff

Whats your fav Star Trek movie any way

[Jeff Kleist]

Khhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!