Ask questions to R&B Films, Ltd insider "RBFilms"

[RBFilms]

I will be happy to work with Ben...) We will let him advise and supervise to assure the results are satisfactory.

Originally Posted by PaulGo

Richard we may have some progress! It hasn't been easy having a discussion with Ben because Amir keeps on interjecting his thoughts. Amir at times can be just plain rude (just not to me but others) but:

[RBFilms]

Thank you. I am happy to be here...

I am also happy with our decision. I am thinking of lowering all of my HD-DVD disc prices and blowing out what I have left in inventory.

I tried the link but it did not work. Maybe they deleted that thread as well? I see a lot of threads get locked, shut down, and posts deleted on AVS. It is a pretty common thing that happens over there I guess.

Originally Posted by phansson

Rich, thank you for your participation in this forum. You will be a great asset. Glad to see you declare Blu Ray exclusive. I can't believe you waited that long.....

A thread at AVS has popped up about your HD DVD exclusivity. Just thought everyone might wan't to go post and show support.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...2#post12884192

[RBFilms]

Two of my favorite cities as well. I lived in Brooklyn ... Park Slope for quite some time. I also lived on 84th Street and Central park West in Manhattan for some time as well. Now I have a place to hang my hat in Long Island, Santa Monica, and Boston.

I have some very elite Audiophile friends that live in your neck of the woods as well ... and one of the studios / labs I use for high end work is not all that far away from you in Virginia.

Originally Posted by PaulGo

What part of New York? Originally I lived in Brooklyn. I also lived in Smithtown for nine year before I moved to the I moved to Maryland about 20 year ago.

My two favorite US places to visit are Manhattan and San Francisco.

[RBFilms]

Thank you. I am a 4x4 fan ... I own two (2) Toyota Land Cruisers which are in the process of being modified and my GF owns a 2008 fully equipped Jeep Rubicon. It is Detonator Yellow and has RBFILMS plates on it ... she loves it...

I would like to do some great 4x4 doc...like an "Endless Summer" or "On Any Sunday" .... but it is hard to find the time these days. However, it is on my list...so you never know..

Originally Posted by CGYBLU

In the process of reading through your AVS post. C'est Magnifique!

I must say that I think your idea for a 4x4 film you alluded to earlier is a brilliant idea!

[RBFilms]

Thank you..I truly enjoy the more pleasant, appreciative, and intelligent environment here....

Originally Posted by Ben

I applaud your decision to drop HD DVD support. Eventually, some of these forum trolls who spew abuse in the direction of people who try to better the enthusiast community's access to good information and cutting-edge content, are going to have to realise that there are consequences to their childish and insulting behavior. Frankly, you displayed more patience than they deserved.

Thanks for joining us! You won't encounter any such negativity from the fantastic membership here!

[RBFilms]

We raise the bar n every new release...so look for better content and better performance with every new "DRS" release. Our "DRS" titles are the ones that get the special attention... We will be releasing some standard definition programming this year as well as some High Definition programming that will not get the "DRS" treatment due to the nature of the content and source material. However, I can assure you that we have several interesting things in the works for our Audiophile / Videophile friends in this forum..

Originally Posted by Seretur

Richard, I haven't followed your struggles over the past year or so all that closely, but I know you were one of the few professionals who really went the distance to optimize your releases for each format's strengths. And it had been truly saddening to see you get such a negative response from the deluded side of the hi-def crowd.

Here's to a 2008 that has none of that aggravation, and lots of splendid new releases.

It's good to have you here!

[RBFilms]

I 100% agree that NY gals have it all over the West Coast women. Seattle and San Francisco can give 'em a run for the money if you like that whole "Crystal Clutcher" / "Tree Hugger" / "Earth Mother" thing ... which I do actually and became very accustomed to from living in both of those cities for quite some time...

However, no women can match the neurotic, in your face, brutally honest, feisty, fiery, and fun nature of a NY gal. They can chew up and spit out most anyone who does not have a real spine and genuine clue. I love it..

Originally Posted by juanleche

Hey if you need women who look great in HD I suggest making the trip back to NY. Brooklyn more specifically for some native specimins, and a tour of Bayridge to Sheepshead bay can get you some great HD worthy material. I'm sure Paulgo can back up my claims, and if you need a talent scout ...

[RBFilms]

Thank you.

Nature's Journey uses live HD Footage with CG overlays to enhance the content. There is quite a bit of CG .... probably almost every frame actually has something going on ... but most of the time ... they are very subtle enhancements to give it that "ever so much more so" that makes it almost surreal at times. Once in a while, it is quote obvious, but there is plenty of subtle enhancements going on as well.

Originally Posted by reiella

First the rabid praise. Thanks for the hardwork on Chronos and Nature's Journey. They both rock and earn me many Brag Right points when I have guests over .

And now the question. With Nature's Journey, I was pretty sure that I read that the pictures were all live pictures, and not CG. I was just wanted to make sure that was accurate.

[RBFilms]

My associate released some Roller Coaters videos and di quote well with them .... so your idea has some merit...)

Originally Posted by dobyblue

Yes, I would love to see a disc with high definition Point Of View vids of North America's craziest coasters!!

Great news on going Blu, I look forward to the first 24/192 dts-ma track.

[RBFilms]

I am looking at numerous projects now....everything from a Doc on Japanese Drummers to some Nature / Ambient and possibly some motor / action sports content as well.

We are just wrapping up our year end accounting and will focus on starting production shortly ... I hope. It all depends on how much money we have left after releasing all those HD-DVD titles that are not selling anymore.

Originally Posted by Mericalis

Richard,

As a big fan of Nature's Journey and Chronos, I've been waiting on your studio's next hi-def project with much anticipation. Can you possibly give us an update on when we might expect something new?

M

[kjacobs03]

Originally Posted by RBFilms

My associate released some Roller Coaters videos and di quote well with them .... so your idea has some merit...)

I would straight up murder someone if it meant I got a blu-ray about Cedar Point roller coasters.

[RBFilms]

Yes, for sure....

Originally Posted by JBlacklow

In light of your enthusiasm for Blu-ray and Warner's decision, will you be Blu-ray exclusive?

[RBFilms]

Yes, it is at the top of my list...

Originally Posted by HDJK

Richard,

You once mentioned a test disc with all kinds of clips that allow comparing between codecs and test patterns (on 'that other forum' ).

Is something like this in the works?

Thank you very much.

[PaulGo]

Originally Posted by RBFilms

I 100% agree that NY gals have it all over the West Coast women. Seattle and San Francisco can give 'em a run for the money if you like that whole "Crystal Clutcher" / "Tree Hugger" / "Earth Mother" thing ... which I do actually and became very accustomed to from living in both of those cities for quite some time...

However, no women can match the neurotic, in your face, brutally honest, feisty, fiery, and fun nature of a NY gal. They can chew up and spit out most anyone who does not have a real spine and genuine clue. I love it..

Unfortunately the word that rings the biggest bell is neurotic!

[RBFilms]

HD has not sold as well for us as BD.

We are going to be releasing on BD only moving forward.

Originally Posted by Icemage

Richard,

You've commented in the past that you were inclined to settle on one format. Do circumstances now make that decision easier, or do you feel that there is still some money to be made in being neutral? I can certainly see a case for staying neutral, as it does reach the widest audience for the time being, but as I recall, one of the key points you've talked about at length in the past is that your company invests strategically and expects returns over time from continuing residual sales and other sources of revenue.

Given the recent shift from Time Warner (Warner Brothers Home Video, HBO, New Line Cinema) to Blu-ray exclusivity, and the subsequent announcement from two German distributors of Blu-ray exclusivity, has any of this changed your outlook regarding the current (and presumed) neutrality of R&B Films?

[RBFilms]

Yes, I am behind schedule on this. We suddenly had a VERY Busy 1st Quarter...which is good actually as it provides all that much more money I can lose on these projects...

I sent Amir my response...did you read it? It was my final statement to him and I am convinced he really does believe what he says. This is one of the many reasons why I have given up on that form .. it is hopeless.

Originally Posted by PaulGo

Any new info on the demo you were arranging in Virginia / Maryland?

Also, how is it coming with the response to Amir on AVS. I really hoped once he retired he would slow down with his BS, but all the new free time has made him even worse (if that's possible ). The scary thing is he actually believes what he is saying!

[jdc115]

Hi Rob,

any chance you will ever look into releasing any live music Blu-rays? As you are a specialty studio, it would be great if you teamed up with something like Chesky Records to make HD concert recordings of some of their artists since they specialize in audiophile type recordings.

I am not sure if that area has any financial potential but I love to see a lot more musical choices released.

[RBFilms]

CHRONOS was shot with a custom built Large Format 65mm Time Lapse film camera.

A good part of Nature's Journey was shot with a Sony 750 using a good piece of glass (lens).

We are not buying a Red but are looking in to shooting our next project with this camera.

See the Tech SPecs I posted below for NJ. This is the same info we included on the Printed Insert.

__________________________________________________ ________________________________________

NATURE’S JOURNEY TECHNICAL PRODUCTION & POST PRODUCTION INFORMATION

VIDEO PRODUCTION

Video Production Equipment

Sony 750 HDCAM 1920x1080 Camera
(A majority of the shooting was done with this camera)

Sony FX-1 HDV HD Camcorder
Canon Pro-1 8mp L series lens digicam

No exterior filtration on cameras.
FX-1 utilized cinegamma for deeper blacks.

Video Post Production Equipment

Apple Intel Dual 2 Core 2.66 Ghz
Four 500gb Western Digital Drives (3 HD’s Striped into raid configuration)
Dell 22” LCD

Apple G5 Quad Processor
Two 500gb Seagate drives
Dell 22” LCD Display

Dell 24” LCD Display shared between computers as 2nd display

Software

Adobe After Effects - Main software for effects & enhancement utilized many 3rd party plug in tools
Apple Final Cut Pro – Primary editor
Avid Media Composer – Utilized for some scenes
Vue 3D – Created opening 3d landscape populated with 2 billion objects
Cinema 4D – 3D Cloud & Sky replacements

Footage/File Process

HDCAM footage digitized via Blackmagic Design hardware at 8bit
HDV digitized native into Final Cut Pro
All Color Corrected files, Effects Renders and 3d scenes created at 10bit Uncompressed
Final Uncompressed renders sent to encoder as Uncompressed TIFF image sequences.

Originally Posted by edgebsl

Richard what cameras were used on Chronos and Nature's Journey? And also what are you using now?

Did you accuire a Red? And if not, did you get a chance to demo one or checkout the clips on their site? Would that be your camera of choice for content on hdm aside from the mega expensive rigs ?(F900,genesis etc)

Thanks!

[MerrickG]

Richard,
Im going to ask you a simple question. I hope its simple....

Whats a better codec AVC or VC1?

The general concensus seems to be that AVC is better at higher bitrates, while VC1 is a little better at lower bitrates.

I know you have answered this question before, but I wanted to ask it here without having to shift through all Amir's responses.

[PaulGo]

I removed the comment since the thread I was referring to is now at least temporarily locked. (AVS).

This was about Amir (AVS) making nasty comments about Richard's credentials for comments Richard made about VC-1. My question was not even addressed to him but to Max.