"Club Penton" - Ask questions to Hollywood insider "Penton-Man"

[Doctorossi]

Wise of you not to take the bait, sharkshark.

And, for an even better time, how 'bout a new topic, altogether?




Anybody seen any good movies lately?

[Slec]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

Wise of you not to take the bait, sharkshark.

And, for an even better time, how 'bout a new topic, altogether?




Anybody seen any good movies lately?

I'll bite (no pun intended).

Penton,
How does Hollywood view Francis Ford Coppola's latest effort Tetro? He's financing personal projects and distributing them himself. Clearly a much higher risk, but are studio's watching this to see what happens? With the economy as it is, any chance new directors and writers will be getting shots due to lower costs (albeit with some higher risk)?

Thanks,
Chris

[Doctorossi]

Speaking of Tetro, anybody seen it yet? I'm definitely intrigued.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by sharkshark

See, Penton? This is what happens when people skim posts.... Let the attacks begin!....

Hey, don’t come runnin to me for sympathy. I didn’t spread any FUD or lies.
The funniest lie posted on AVS by Amir was….”I go by direct information I have from Sony on why they didn't want to use VC-1. They were absolutely dedicated to finishing a title in two days or else” < that had us all rolling on the floor with laughter.

And his sneakiest move?
Trying online to bait paidgeek into publicly violating an evaluation agreement concerning VC-1 technology, of which paid was bound………and Amir knew that.

My God, the list of his shenanigans is endless.

P.S.
And in retrospect, I found out exactly where Amir got his “direct information”, see the attachment.

[Grubert]

Originally Posted by sharkshark

To the victor go the spoils

The real spoils would have been having a single format from day one. You can thank Microsoft for that.

[Penton-Man]

I've got to go guys and run to work.
Busy, busy week.

To those that have PM'ed me - I'm way behind in messages, I'll get to them when I can.

To Squid and Doctorossi -
I'm planning on catching up on my moto stuff Thurs. night so just be patient.

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

To Squid and Doctorossi -
I'm planning on catching up on my moto stuff Thurs. night so just be patient.

[sharkshark]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Hey, don’t come runnin to me for sympathy.

I'd run to you for many things, sir, but sympathy would not be one of them...

happy work day...

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

I've got to go guys and run to work.
Busy, busy week.

To those that have PM'ed me - I'm way behind in messages, I'll get to them when I can.

To Squid and Doctorossi -
I'm planning on catching up on my moto stuff Thurs. night so just be patient.

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

Where are your priorities man? Just FYI, it's a great race.

[Eternal_Sunshine]

Originally Posted by sharkshark

I'm not playing that game, for either format you'll note

All I note is that post after (lengthy) post of yours amounts to the same point: that there has to have been lies/FUD on both sides of the fence because "there always is".

Except this time it's just not true.

Originally Posted by sharkshark

We could just respect our differences and leave it at that...

Yes, please.

[Alan Gordon]

I've previously said a page or two back, that some people will believe whatever they WANT to believe... regardless of what is said, and I have no interest in continuing to pound my head against the wall, so...

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

And, for an even better time, how 'bout a new topic, altogether?

Anybody seen any good movies lately?

Depends on your definition of "good"?

I've been on a Steve McQueen/High School Musical streak recently...

I finally got around to watching my Blu-ray copy of "Bullitt" (I SO need to go back and watch the editing documentary "The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing" presented in 1080p on the Blu-ray), and I recently watched "Le Mans" that I recorded from HDNet Movies.

Some relatives of mine are having their 12-year-old niece staying with them for a couple of weeks, so I watched the first two HSM movies (which I've seen before) before I watch the third (which I haven't seen before) so I can give them to watch.

~Alan

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by Alan Gordon

I've been on a Steve McQueen/High School Musical streak recently...

Can you really call that one streak?

I've been known to go on a Steve McQueen kick, myself, now and again.

Haven't taken the HSM plunge, though.







Should I?

[Tok]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Hey, don’t come runnin to me for sympathy. I didn’t spread any FUD or lies.
The funniest lie posted on AVS by Amir was….”I go by direct information I have from Sony on why they didn't want to use VC-1. They were absolutely dedicated to finishing a title in two days or else” < that had us all rolling on the floor with laughter.

And his sneakiest move?
Trying online to bait paidgeek into publicly violating an evaluation agreement concerning VC-1 technology, of which paid was bound………and Amir knew that.

My God, the list of his shenanigans is endless.

P.S.
And in retrospect, I found out exactly where Amir got his “direct information”, see the attachment.

Classic!!! What I find truly funny is there some that still hang on his words at AVS. I recently re-subscribed to Widescreen Review. Had I remember Amir was writing for them (not sure if he still does) I would have opted not too.

Like Grubert said, we were so close to not having a format war, but MSFT basically changed that. If the losing side wants to still be PO'd at any entity be PO'd at MSFT because you fell for their old FUD tactics that they had been using for years to basically kill competing software/technologies. Only this time the competition actually followed through with a quality product after a few early hiccups.

I have a feeling that the format war had more to do with Sony including BD in the PS3 and then choosing Java to keep as many of the MSFT tools out of the console, HDi. MSFT was PO'd about the choice of Sun toolset over theirs. In the end I think this format war had a lot more to do with the consoles' battle for the living room. Had MSFT based the 360 around HD DVD instead of old DVD tech and a quirky add-on it may have been a different story.

Neither side was perfect, but I think we have some pretty clear examples with evidence to back it up that one side was playing a little more of a dirty pool game. Penton's examples here and we have clear evidence that Paramount got substantial incentives to drop Blu at the time. I still have not heard any hard facts that TimeWarner got paid to drop HD DVD. If it did it would have to show up on the books somewhere since TimeWarner is a publically traded company. If any one remembers that is what clearly showed that Paramounts parent company got paid for support from Toshiba.

Did Warner get some concessions? I am sure they did, but I also believe what they said regarding the format war. If the consumer indifference lasted much longer neither was going to make it. They knew if they went HD DVD, the split was roughly 50-50 and a stalemate was a strong possibility. If they went the other way, it would pretty much be the end of HD DVD and the studios could unify behind one HD format. They made the right and logical decision if they truly believed in having a unified standard.

Is it that hard to believe? I mean Toshiba was behind the eightball from day one. They had to be more agressive. If it was not for Blu's extremely poor launch that summer, HD DVD might not have gained a foothold with some of the early adopters.

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by Eternal_Sunshine

Translation: you cannot name any lies/FUD from BD insiders...

Exactly.

[Alan Gordon]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

Haven't taken the HSM plunge, though.

Should I?

It all depends on your personal taste. The HSM movies will certainly never be among my favorite movies (by ANY means), nor will the music sung within be among my favorite music (though some are "catchy"), but I enjoy "wholesome" entertainment from time to time, which these are, and the music's enjoyable (though not great), and I'm impressed by the work involved in some of the choreography.

Good films for kids too, with good messages, and less "silly" than most of the "crap" peddled to kids these days...

I would've gotten around to HSM3 last night, but my ear infection got worse (again), and my hearing followed....

~Alan

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by CraigW

I have a feeling that the format war had more to do with Sony including BD in the PS3 and then choosing Java to keep as many of the MSFT tools out of the console, HDi. MSFT was PO'd about the choice of Sun toolset over theirs. In the end I think this format war had a lot more to do with the consoles' battle for the living room.

To my understanding, MS' interest in HD DVD had more to do with their desire to court a Japanese CE company (in this case, Toshiba) for various other future purposes, realized or intended. The opportunity to spread FUD about Sony's baby was icing.

[Tok]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

To my understanding, MS' interest in HD DVD had more to do with their desire to court a Japanese CE company (in this case, Toshiba) for various other future purposes, realized or intended. The opportunity to spread FUD about Sony's baby was icing.

I have heard that too. But you have to remember that is just the author's perspective. I don't doubt that MSFT was trying to strengthen ties with an actual hardware maker. But MSFT has historically been a software company and how does a software company make money? By selling their tools and software solutions... MSFT was not happy about Blu-ray being tied to a Sun based toolset. The competition between MSFT and Sun is not a happy history.

And you can't fault Sony for trying to keep as much of the competition's product out of their primary PS3 box. Do you think that the 360 has any Sony developed solutions? There might be a few but I doubt that much of the hardware in the 360 has a Sony logo on the ICs.

The whole point of going after Toshiba was that Sony probably would not work with them since they were competing in the same product space. Do you think MSFT would have trusted Sony to build the 360? Can you imagine the conspiracy theories on a Sony produced 360?

[Monkey]

Do you think MSFT would have trusted Sony to build the 360? Can you imagine the conspiracy theories on a Sony produced 360?

Imagine that, a reliable 360 Cardboard coffin industry would go under resulting in thousands of lost jobs

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by Monkey

Cardboard coffin industry would go under resulting in thousands of lost jobs

Haven't you heard? They've stopped providing the cardboard coffins. You have to supply your own now.

Customer service!

[Jeff Kleist]

You're both right actually. MS wanted to court a Japanese CE to get a better foothold there, and they also wanted their software and codecs running the show.

So they decided being the content gatekeeper is a much better way to do things, but I also think that iTunes is starting to teach some lessons in general

No one person of company should have they ability to deny competition, and while we wait for antitrust law to catch up with Apple, I don't think anyone wants a single solution owned by a single entity. That's why there's a universal "digital rights locker" in the process of development. All vendors will feed into that locker enabling content. MS is extremely jealous of iTunes, but they're not taking into account the same thing that Apple isn't: They don't own any content.

Steve Jobs isn't on the board of Disney as part of the Pixar deal for nothing, but thus far he's been less than successful pushing them to do iTunes exclusives, because I don't think they want to be wrapped up in that game at all

One thing I would like to see done in the interim: Digital copies are great, but the use-once disc is environmentally unsound, and annoying for the consumer because you can't re-access the content. Surely the ability to pay apple a quarter or whatever they're charging the studios as an authorization fee to re-rip the disc (only works for material already registered to your account) can't be that hard to do.