Blu-Ray Best Of The Best - for discussing releases only

[Matt]

Hold on, if Mike's gone, who is going to post videos of opening film cases??

Have I missed something, have posts been edited or something? Because Mike just seemed to fly off on one there and I can't see why. Anyone?

[JP]

I really have no idea what the hell happened to be honest.

Hold on, if Mike's gone, who is going to post videos of opening film cases??

John McTiernan maybe?

[Lyris]

If a director wants to mess around with their film 30 years on, that's really their (and the copyright holders') decision. I don't agree with it either, in fact for fans of the material it's usually just frustrating (and another damn version to keep track of).

A film is the work of everyone involved at one moment in time, so I agree that someone else going in afterwards and ****ing around with it on a whim is pretty crap.

All that said, I wouldn't take it so personally. I didn't see anyone being condescending to anyone else.

[JP]

Don't really disagree with you in any way to be honest.

As much as I'd absolutely love all films to be made/published after lengthy consultation with me to get my preferences on how that film should be, it's got absolutely nothing to do with what I want unless I was somehow involved in the production of the film in some way.

I know that people are saying that they don't feel I've been patronising in any way and I do agree with that but I am going to say again it again and it will be the last time I say it but I am sorry if that feeling was somehow caused by what I posted.

Anyway, hopefully this will end this whole thing now.

When it comes to blu-rays though, how much input would most director's have over the transfer that's actually cut to the disc? I don't know but I imagine that most wouldn't have much say in what happens.

Also, I would have thought that mastering a film to disc, the same as directing a film, involves very specific skill sets which not everybody involved in producing the film has.

[Lyris]

When it comes to blu-rays though, how much input would most director's have over the transfer that's actually cut to the disc?

Only a few are given preferential treatment, the Schpielbergs, Coppolas, etc.

There was the recent story of the director of "The Neverending Story" mentioning that Warner Home Video hadn't even told him his film was being released. Also, on the DVDs I've worked on, the director was (pleasantly) shocked that I actually contacted him to have him OK colour correction that I did on the incoming material. The trend is very much for corners to be cut.

[Matt]

You know, I'm against re-writing history, and "tweaking" a film after release is, on most levels, wrong.

However, given the choice of the old Godfather transfers or a remastered version, supervised by director and DP, I know which one I'd want. If a condition of the remastering was they get involved and if they were never 100% happy in the first place, why shouldn't they change it. Opening night 30 years back, what is Coppola sat there thinking, "**** I've lost too much detail in the shadows there, and the colour is off!"

It's a tough call and it's something you have to consider case by case. Given these films and the director, I think it's worthwhile.

You can argue that changes in the lighting affect the mood, but the differences aren't that great, and let's be honest how many people have perfectly setup home displays anyway. I bet 90% of people watching BluRays haven't even got decent skin tone setup.

It's not like he fundamentally altered the edit by making Michael shoot first. No, wait....

[Lyris]

Doesn't stop it being one of the most tedious, overrated films ever...

[Bydo]

You know, I'm against re-writing history, and "tweaking" a film after release is, on most levels, wrong.

Wonder if they would do this on the Blu-ray release of 1984? Now that would be irony!

[cutmymilk]

That Mike thing is weird. He is a good guy with some interesting posts so shame to see him go in the strangest of manner. Arguing with John, one of the forum's true gents too. tut...

[Lyris]

I can see both sides, it's nothing to do with John (who is as usual totally polite), but the whole "cinematic integrity" thing can be a very touchy subject... so I guess all it takes is a bad day. There are times where I've been told (not on this forum) "What are u whining about m8! It's better than dvd!!" where I've wanted to give someone a piece of my mind.

[teddymeow]

Finally managed to get hold of Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles Season 2. It's been a nightmare to track down. Everytime I've checked places like Amazon, Play etc they've always been out of stock. My local HMV have tripled their Blu-ray section over the weekend and I saw it there on my lunch. Figured I'd better snap it up sharpish just to be safe.

I thoroughly expect the previously mentioned websites to have it in stock for ?20 now!

[Jebus]

I think this could all be settled if you guys all sat round and watched some nice good old fashioned hardcore porn on VHS.

I'm dangerously close to ordering those Potter flicks, I love the books and playing the LEGO game has rekindled the flame and it's been ages since I saw the films! Trouble is, I tend to buy these blu-rays and put them in the cupboard! Still not watched Toy Story 1, 2 or even Iron Man 1 yet!

[Lyris]

It better be original aspect ratio porn. Last thing I want to see is boobies chopped off the side of the screen.

[teddymeow]

It better be original aspect ratio porn. Last thing I want to see is boobies chopped off the side of the screen.

"Boobies chopped off" - that'd make it a video nasty surely?!

[JP]

I have very mixed feelings on the way that films are restored and/or changed.

This isn't something that I like to do normally as it's very difficult to compare different types of media but I'm going to be clumsy and use a game as a point of reference.

Take something like The God of War Collection on the PS3 which is fantastic in what it does but I also have the feeling with things like this that it's actually better to play the games in their original format because I do feel it loses something when you remove it from it's original context.

If they do announce the heavily rumoured Team Ico Collection I know without a doubt that I'll be all over it in an instant but I also know that I'll feel it's somehow lost something, a piece of it's soul because of the "improvements".

I think there's been some really amazing work done on restoring films and presenting them on blu-ray and at times I've really been taken aback by seeing some of those films in a way I've not been able to before.

I think partly because my background is in fine art and also because film is something that has always been very close and very special to me that I can also see it from the other side.

Over time film rots, that's a natural process and we can very clearly see how that process affects films that are older. There is a part of me that says we should really go with that, we should let the film slowly decay over the years as that's as much a part of film as every other part of the process of producing it.

I happily flow between the two extremes and everywhere in-between them constantly and I really don't think that there is a right way to deal with these things, I think there are two wrong ways and you just have to find somewhere between them.

I do also think it's important as well to understand that film restoration is a very different thing to film revisionism.

Back onto topic as I seem to have pretty much killed this thread...

I ordered the Dumbo blu-ray earlier, does anybody have this yet? On the Disney blu-rays they have trailers showing the next couple of blu-ray releases and I'm wondering if anybody knows what they are?