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

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Vincent Pereira

I'm shocked and amazed that anybody working in the film industry would make condescending comments re: Blu-ray as a delivery format. A well-mastered BD from a proper film-to-video transfer literally LOOKS LIKE FILM. Even on the largest front-projection system, it can look like a near-perfectly projected pristine answer-print, so what's the problem?

lol, it’s Wally being Wally.
Remember the digital intermediate discussion we just had on the last couple pages?
Believe me, he’s said much worse publically about 3D filmmaking than his curt assessment of digital home media, despite the fact he’s seen little 3D because it’s still so new, hell he hadn’t even seen Avatar yet when he made some off-the-cuff remarks about 3D.

For that particular public “personal opinion” (anti-3D stance) laced with hyperbole, he got his hinny slapped by someone in the industry....and despite what some may be thinking right now at this moment, that particular can of whoop-ass for his public comments on 3D movies did not come from some division at Sony.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by sharkshark

I've not seen his comments, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were slightly exaggerated through retelling, and were of the same ilk at the decades Neil Young et. al. disparaged CDs as being "digital crap", even refusing to release certain titles on the format until "high def" formats like DVD-A came along.

That’s the whole point, unfortunately I’m not exaggerating anything in terms of what he has said.....except for “the can of whoop-ass” mentioned in the above post, which was literary license on my part....but, in that regard with no exaggeration, he definitely did get himself into trouble for his anti-3D comments.....which even he, has admitted to publically (I think some of the press was present) and of which I get the distinct impression he wears like a badge of traditional 2D snobbery/rebellion.

As far as his assessment of digital home media (and indirectly Blu-ray) and his prominence as a cinematographer (much deserved, I might add), studio executives really don’t give a hoot as to what he has to say or his personal opinion, as they carry little importance in the grand scheme of things.

[sharkshark]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Shark – so how did you end up doing with your office pool? The Final was quite boring except for your pic above.

Jim SD – We’re all watching the Tour de France right now (commercial/nature break). Did you see that wild boar they showed on the aerial view running through the field in the Alps?

Wasn't an office pool, per se (self employed!), was a friend of a friend that's put together a private pool of well over a hundred people... Top prize was over $1k, with the top three paying out.

In terms of score I tied for 8th.

Only boring cuz you didn't have any money on the line... It wasn't quite as dramatic as the other matches, but Spain clearly was the dominant team, with a couple of very tasty moments for Neth that the 'tender took care of (barely, at times).

Well, another 4 'till Brazil, and 2 years 'till Euro. Back to our regularly scheduled programming...

[JimSD]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Jim SD – We’re all watching the Tour de France right now (commercial/nature break). Did you see that wild boar they showed on the aerial view running through the field in the Alps?

Missed that somehow - probably too busy watching all the bad luck Lance avoided over the years happen in one stage. I did like some of Lance's comments - "I'm just going to enjoy the rest of my last Tour. No tears for me." Loved seeing Andy Schleck drop AC.

You don't watch Le Tour live? Where are your priorities? I was able to squeeze a fun MTB ride in between the Tour and the World Cup.

[DenonCI]

Penton,

Finally got to see "Hachi: A Dog's Tale" tonight. What a great movie about loyalty, but damn it was sad. The family had to share a box of Kleenex to get through the third act!

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by sharkshark

It wasn't quite as dramatic as the other matches, but Spain clearly was the dominant team, with a couple of very tasty moments for Neth that the 'tender took care of (barely, at times)...

Spain definitely deserved the win and when the Arsenal player came in, it sealed the deal for me to cheer them on.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by JimSD

Missed that somehow - probably too busy watching all the bad luck Lance avoided over the years happen in one stage. I did like some of Lance's comments - "I'm just going to enjoy the rest of my last Tour. No tears for me." Loved seeing Andy Schleck drop AC.

You don't watch Le Tour live? Where are your priorities? I was able to squeeze a fun MTB ride in between the Tour and the World Cup.

The boar ran in the field at the end of the next to the last climb where Lance was being dropped.

Watch it live? Dude, even when I'm not getting ready for an early ride, do you realize what time it starts for us PST folks?

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by DenonCI

Penton,

Finally got to see "Hachi: A Dog's Tale" tonight. What a great movie about loyalty, but damn it was sad. The family had to share a box of Kleenex to get through the third act!

^ My God....a true ENTHUSIAST!
Not one mention of grain, extras, dnr, EE, price....nothing but the movie.
Denon, I think you'll be long involved in watching motion pictures at home for years to come no matter what the delivery format is.

I cried like a baby during Hachi.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Bobby Henderson

I wonder if any DP, or director for that matter, has enough clout to shoot an entire feature film in 5-perf 65mm format. As far as film purist stuff goes 70mm is as good as it gets. I guess I would be more impressed with Wally Pfister's stand if a movie like Inception was originated entirely on 70mm.

Chris N. has he clout to get an entire feature film shot in IMAX if he cared to but, he and Wally won't do it because of the camera noise.

[Penton-Man]

Peter THX - I'm working on getting an authentic vuvuzela from South Africa for you.....just the way you like it -

USED

like in the picture you posted with the guys all lined up in a row doing the honors in unison.

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Peter THX - I'm working on getting an authentic vuvuzela from South Africa for you.....just the way you like it -

USED

like in the picture you posted with the guys all lined up in a row doing the honors in unison.

Perfect representation of watching professional soccer.

[woodspoon]

I don´t see any other spaniard around here, so here it goes....WE WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Oliver K]

Originally Posted by Bobby Henderson

I wonder if any DP, or director for that matter, has enough clout to shoot an entire feature film in 5-perf 65mm format. As far as film purist stuff goes 70mm is as good as it gets. I guess I would be more impressed with Wally Pfister's stand if a movie like Inception was originated entirely on 70mm.

Unfortunately both major movie distributors and exhibition companies have nearly eliminated the ability to show a movie on 70mm to a paying audience. I think that's a shame. Quite a few traditional multiplex sites have 1 or more houses with screens too large for 35mm projection and digital projection. A few older theaters in sites scattered around the country still have 70mm capability.

As impossible as it seems for a movie to be shot on 65mm and presented to the public in 70mm, the practice is still do-able. A 5/70 print uses only 1/3 the amount of film as an IMAX print. 35/70 projectors can be installed in dozens of key sites in a matter of days. With digital sound, the audio side of things is no longer so complicated and costly. A DTS-XD10 or XD20 processor can also show a 70mm film with lossless audio, even with 7.1 or more audio channels. All it takes is some filmmakers, distributors and exhibitors talking on the phone with each other.

70mm has many nice benefits over Super 35 and anamorphic 35:

-it looks better on those Sony 4k projectors and of course on upcoming 8k+ projectors
-it looks better blown up to Imax
-it looks better on 35mm release prints
-and when you actually do a few 70mm prints (which would be nice and not as costly as many think) they will easily make back their money in the big cinemas that still have 70mm (to my knowledge there are still about half a dozen cinemas in Germany alone that show 70mm from time to time and about 20 to 30 that could start over again if we would get 70mm release prints of movies like Inception).

So I agree that I would prefer for Wally P to go completely for 65mm/5perf with his next movie - 10 or 15 minutes shot that way just aren't good enough.

BTW: Germany is as hot as the desert right now so I'll gladly trade in some of the sun that we have here for your rain

[Oliver K]

Originally Posted by sharkshark

oh, my... off the bar!!!

well, congrats to Oliver and the rest of the Deutschies...

Forlan should have scored...

Butt had his hand up there in case it would have flown a bit closer to the ground

Congrats to Spain and all hail the octopus - as I said the team that wins the game Spain vs Germany will go on to win the Worldcup. The Netherlands played a very hard and unfair game and should only have been 10 after about half an hour (this is not a martial arts tournament Mr. De Jong).

And you will have to explain a bit more about the French and winning the war - I don't know of any French food that reminds me of guerre - but then my French is really really bad as I never liked the language for some reason

[Oliver K]

Hi Penton,

getting back to the topic at hand here is a question for you and my compliments to your guys at Sony Colorworks :

Studio Daily Blog writes about Colorworks handling Il Gattopardo (The Leopard) for the film foundation here:

http://www.studiodaily.com/blog/?p=3524#more-3524

As I take it that contrary to what the article says they did not really work off a Technirama print that for all I know never existed I would like to know if they got an IP to work with or even the OCN?

And might I humbly but enthusiastically suggest that the film foundation also revisit El Cid as their next (Super) Technirama project and that again they give that project to Sony Colorworks? As I know that Sony handles distribution of the Weinstein movies this would make for a nice first classic release after Sony taking over

And yes I am going out on a limb here but seeing that The Leopard got the great minds, organisations and capabilities of Sony Colorworks and Scorsese and its film foundation together I just had to ask for an encore with one of my (and Scorseses') favourite epics

[mark antony]

Originally Posted by Oliver K

And might I humbly but enthusiastically suggest that the film foundation also revisit El Cid as their next (Super) Technirama project and that again they give that project to Sony Colorworks? As I know that Sony handles distribution of the Weinstein movies this would make for a nice first classic release after Sony taking over

Believe it or not but El Cid was one of the FF's first "restorations" back in the early 90's. Unfortunately what was touted as a restoration at the time was merely producing a few new 35mm prints of an old IP.

This is why the latest dvd looks so poor as it was taken from this same, years old, unrestored, unremarkable IP and then digitally scrubbed...(this IP is the same source as the criterion LD as well.)

If only Scorsese could/would pay to do it properly...

M

[PaulGo]

Enthusiasts do not pay the bills for the movie studios, sure their dollars are welcome, but they only represent a very small percentage of the revenue stream. In most instances studios will aim their promotions at the general consumer and decide what is cost effective.

Should we be passionate about picture quality - sure! It does help - take a look at what happened to Comcast when they screw up the picture quality when they didn't properly set up the compression when packing multiple channels into a QAM slot. The negative publicity put them on the right track and not the extensively test their compression technology before implementing it. The main point is we need to be realistic in what our criticism can accomplish.

[JimSD]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Watch it live? Dude, even when I'm not getting ready for an early ride, do you realize what time it starts for us PST folks?

I guess with all those late night parties you Hollywood types have a different definition of early than us folks just south of you.

[Oliver K]

Originally Posted by mark antony

Believe it or not but El Cid was one of the FF's first "restorations" back in the early 90's. Unfortunately what was touted as a restoration at the time was merely producing a few new 35mm prints of an old IP.

I know, they made a few prints (that according to somebody who saw one of them looked really good) but they did not go back to the OCN.
So there was no photochemical restoration of the OCN but in the end it might be for the better as what can be done today would give the ability to make El Cid perfect also for the digital age, complete with the option for 2k and 4k projection and Blu-Ray and of course maybe, just maybe a new 70mm print or two.

Originally Posted by mark antony

This is why the latest dvd looks so poor as it was taken from this same, years old, unrestored, unremarkable IP and then digitally scrubbed...(this IP is the same source as the criterion LD as well.)

If only Scorsese could/would pay to do it properly...

M

I was in communication with a British gentleman who is also featured in the extras on the El Cid DVD and according to him the material sent to Weinstein was two 35mm "locon" prints for both El Cid and Fall of the Roman Empire. It seems both movies got a cheap 2k scan that finally resulted in rather disappointing Blu-Rays (think worse than Patton/The Longest Day).

I have to say that I hoped for years that a big studio would buy the 4 last Bronston productions but unfortunately nothing ever happened. With Martin Scorsese revisiting movies that have been worked on before (The Leopard) maybe he will also find the time and resources to revisit El Cid. He has a great partner this time with Sony Colorworks and if this would lead to a Blu-Ray release he could finally be proud of a disc based release of El Cid that he lends his name to.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Oliver K

Congrats to Spain and all hail the octopus...

Did he retire with a perfect record?

People in the office this morning claim it is so.

I think Lance should have done the same.
JimSD – the end of yesterday’s stage was very painful for me to watch as I am and always will be a big fan of Sir Lance.