Re: No digital Indy 4?

John... I strongly believe Paramount will indeed release the 'INDY' series on Blu-ray (and again on DVD) this year - they could use the profits! Remember, the last few years the studio has not had the kind of success with their film output as in past glory years, even openly chastising Tom Cruise, declaring that his personal behavior cost the box office of M:I:3 around another $100 to $150 million (less). That's a lot of money.

If they've got Spielberg and Lucas on board for a hi-def release this year, then expect major promo adv for the 3 films already on SD-DVD. Sure, they we'll remaster them for hi-def, and release a new SD-DVD box set as well - and unlike some films, the 'INDY' movies have appeared on DVD in just one edition (to my knowledge).

FACTOID: during the final year of the LaserDisc format here in the USA (1998-99), Paramount was preparing another widescreen release of each film, this time remastered in 5.1 sound [the first widescreen editions were Dolby Surround 2.0 stereo], but then CANCELLED them after already announcing a forthcoming release previously in the Image Entertainment monthly magazine. Was a real disappointment to us LD fans!

-JIMI (the Voodoo Child)

I would be surprised if they didn't release Indy 4 in hidef. I'm thinking the releases available will be like this...

DVD - Indy 4 1 Disc
DVD - Indy 4 2 Disc Collectors set
Bluray - Indy 4 Disc (maybe a 2 disc set)
Bluray - All four Indiana Jones in a box set

If I know George Lucas, he will take advantage of the Indy 4 release and make it an event. Historically when he released one of the Star Wars movies (or even one of the Trilogies) on DVD, his video game division (Lucasarts) would release a Star Wars game on the same day to coincide with the movie release to maximize sales and profits. This has worked very well for him.

[Post edited by Falcon01 on Feb 29, 2008]

The thing is, why not digital?

I mean, since I began going to the digital theatre close to me, everytime I go back to the 'regular' one, I can't keep out noticing all the little specs, lines and 'imperfections' of film...does that mean that I don't love filmmaking???

I understand how they want to continue giving them the 'sunday matinee' thing, but come on, we are in 2008, digital is more enjoyable. It doesn't make any sense why they would want 'film only' (again, except for the matinee thing).

Two weeks ago I went to an IMAX theatre and saw I Am Legend, WOW...specially the first minutes of Dark Knight...WOW...

Check out the_dvd_chef's post on page one of this thread....

Actually I've done plenty of composites for both, and without a doubt film is way easier to work with than any form of digital acquisition. Everybody thinks HD is grain-free but this is far from the truth. Digital acquisition produces 'noise' rather than grain which is ugly and a pain to deal with. Film grain is actually very uniform and easy to match between elements when compositing. Plus digital has less tonal and dynamic range, harsher black areas and is usually artificially sharpened. One of the reasons people see digital and think it is sharper is that the cameras usually add artificial edge sharpening during image processing. Most good DOPs with crank this down since it can cause problems for the compositors among others. All of this makes film (16mm too, but especially 35mm) was easier to deal with in VFX. Especially if they are captured with high quality 2k scans rather than a telecine.

I love movies, but I don't enjoy when a print is in bad shape, when it has all those artifacts, scratches, etc...and you avoid all of that with digital, just the same way all the pics you store on your PC won't fade in color over time.

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I love movies, but I don't enjoy when a print is in bad shape, when it has all those artifacts, scratches, etc...and you avoid all of that with digital, just the same way all the pics you store on your PC won't fade in color over time.

What kills me are the boneheads that film a movie in digital and purposly put in the artifacts, scratches, etc. All for the artistic effect -- oh brother!

I understand that it's their 'artistic' way of doing movies Tim, however, it's not something that I personally enjoy (BTW, was your comment sarcastic? I didn't get it as sarcastic). Why don't then film on film...because they might want to release a new 'version' of the movie??

Either ways, we'll enjoy Indy regardless of...

EDIT: I had the fortune of seeing No Country... in a new theatre...however, the print looked in bad shape (it looked fuzzy, with no detail), but I later realized that it was because of burned in Spanish subtitles (which looked very very sharp)...I know that it had nothing to do with the post, but my 2 cents...

[Post edited by mvckalel on Feb 29, 2008]

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What kills me are the boneheads that film a movie in digital and purposly put in the artifacts, scratches, etc. All for the artistic effect -- oh brother!

Yeah, and this kind of post-processing can be expensive. It's one of the many reasons digital acquisition usually costs more than film.

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I mean, since I began going to the digital theatre close to me, everytime I go back to the 'regular' one, I can't keep out noticing all the little specs, lines and 'imperfections' of film...does that mean that I don't love filmmaking???

No, but it does mean your looking for them. Your brain usually filters these things out but when you go in thinking 'this isn't digital so I'm going to see dirt and scratches' your brain becomes much more aware of them and they become distracting.

Here's some news on new Special Edition Indiana Jones DVDs:

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While the DVDs may not be in Blu-Ray or the late HD-DVD format, they do have some bonuses that will sure to please Indy fans.

http://www.theforce.net/latestnews/story/Indy_Special_Edition_DVD_Details_112913.asp

Looks like they are just going to be SDVDs and not hi def but who knows.

[Post edited by Jedi_Soljah on Mar 3, 2008]