Which Camp Describes You?

Which Camp Describes Your Approach?

  • Purist -- Enjoy film with grain, hate DNR and EE

    Votes: 7 24.1%
  • "Eye Candy" hedonist -- Give me more Pixar!

    Votes: 1 3.4%
  • Average Joe -- Give me an improvement over DVD!

    Votes: 6 20.7%
  • Combo Pack -- some combo of the above

    Votes: 15 51.7%

  • Total voters
    29

rsbeck

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
848
11
0
In general, blu-ray entusiasts fall into a few different camps with regard to desired video quality.

Understanding that these are generalizations, which of these most describes your approach to blu-ray video?

1) Purists. These guys will refuse to buy a blu-ray if they can spot any evidence of digital tampering. Might even start a letter writing campaign to the studio that produced what they consider an "abomination." They tend to like classic films, hate DNR and EE and enjoy seeing natural looking film grain reproduced on blu-ray.

2) The "Eye Candy" hedonists. These guys would love it if they never had to watch another blu-ray with film grain moving around on their screen. Heaven for them would be if every film was made by Pixar or was shot on digital like the HD Discovery Channel. They just want detail, pores, bumped up contrast, over-saturated colors and who cares if it is appropriate to the story.

3) Average Joe. These guys are happy that just about any blu-ray is an improvement over DVD and will look better on a larger screen. They're not trained to look for artifacts, don't tend to see them and would rather not learn how to spot them mostly because they've run across a few purists in their day and noticed how miserable they seem to be most of the time.

4) Combo Pack. This would be someone who is either some combination of the above or doesn't feel like any of the above describes his or her unique self. Especially if you vote 4, please explain below.
 

JackD201

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
12,303
1,420
1,820
Manila, Philippines
I was trained and certified to be a audio post production engineer for TV and Film. Sidetracked into another vocation, I left that life some time ago. To be frank when I was at it, I found it hard to just enjoy a darned film. It took years for me to finally turn that analytical switch off. What does that make me? Back to Average Joe and much happier for it. I still get bothered by botched jobs but find that I'm harder to distract from the story. If ever I really and I mean REALLY get bothered by too much cheese, it's with movies that were made with very distinct thematics as far as cinematography is concerned. As such I am crossing my fingers for BD releases of Schindler's List, Hero, Last Emperor and a few others that I vividly remember being impressed with at the cinema.
 

rsbeck

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
848
11
0
I was trained and certified to be a audio post production engineer for TV and Film. Sidetracked into another vocation, I left that life some time ago. To be frank when I was at it, I found it hard to just enjoy a darned film. It took years for me to finally turn that analytical switch off. What does that make me? Back to Average Joe and much happier for it. I still get bothered by botched jobs but find that I'm harder to distract from the story. If ever I really and I mean REALLY get bothered by too much cheese, it's with movies that were made with very distinct thematics as far as cinematography is concerned. As such I am crossing my fingers for BD releases of Schindler's List, Hero, Last Emperor and a few others that I vividly remember being impressed with at the cinema.

I'm sort of in the same camp, sort of a combo of one and three. I can also turn it off and on and enjoy movies a lot more when in Average Joe mode.

Last Emperor is out on Blu-Ray. Release by Criterion. I'll post a technical review shortly.
 

FrantzM

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
6,455
29
405
Hi

I was in Photography in High School and until 1990 was a semi-Pro. I am extremely critical of picture quality and image composition but force myself to get to the story. I am however bothered by the wrong aspect ratio or really botched trnasfers or bad editing .. I must tell you though I can't understand people watching anything in those artifical stretch moode ... where they fill up the screen with a 4:3 image on 16:9 display

Frantz
 

Mark (Basspig) Weiss

Well-Known Member
Aug 3, 2010
678
31
940
New Milford, CT
www.basspig.com
As a cinematographer and video producer, shooting digitally, I'm often accused of being a 'pixel poker', as I am constantly observing and commenting on the change of film grain structure from one scene to another, or there the focus puller blew the focus on a particular shot, or the chromatic aberration on the lenses in some films (Kubrick's come to mind in that regard), or geometric distortions of lenses in other shots through a doorway, etc.

I'm a stickler for getting the whole feature, not a cropped, chopped version, on Blu-ray. I have quite an anime collection, and am starting to acquire Blu-ray versions of some of the films and we anime fans have been sticklers over eveything from subtitle fonts, to letterboxing vs. anamorphic, to encoding quality.

When I watch a film, I'm constantly comparing what I see to what I shoot with my CineAlta cameras (part of the same line of cameras used to shoot the live action sequences in Avatar). So much of what I see on Blu-ray is soft, grainy and lacking in nice, warm, rich colors that it annoys me in extreme cases. I have grown to love that "Fuji Velvia" kind of color and have developed picture profiles for my cameras that reproduce this look in my own work. I'm acutely-sensitive to lense distortions like chromatic aberration. It annoys me to see the red and blue fringe around a window frame with light coming through it, or against a tree line to the sky. In Stanley Kubrick's 2001, the lack of lens coatings produced some weird effects in the lunar excavation scene.

Aside from technical picture quality, I am also watching for lighting that's unique or interesting in some way, as well as unique use of camera angles and editing. Editing can make or break a time-travel / flashback sequence. As a cinematographer, I am always fascinated by breaking down a scene to find out how the 'magic' is generated. Very few films look that lovely. Sissi, a German post-war film, is one of my favorites for a kind of richness of color tone and brilliantly-designed lighting. In the modern era, Changeling was nicely photographed, giving it a well worn feel of an earlier day.

I think I do fall into the fourth category though, because I do like some eye candy, but I still need substance and a good story and I'll buy a Blu-ray disc, even if it's not quite the format of the original film, so long as it looks stunning and is free of digital artifacts.
 

rsbeck

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
848
11
0
Mark -- great post. Nice to have someone with your perspective posting. I hope you'll post some technical blu-ray reviews if the mood strikes you. Be great to get your take.
 

NorthStar

Member
Feb 8, 2011
24,305
1,323
435
Vancouver Island, B.C. Canada
I took Arts at school, and I studied Photograpy and Cinema History. Plus I worked when I was younger as a projectionist and also in Theater (plays), and I also worked in a Concert Hall as a technical Sound & Light assistant.
I am also a musician (non-pro; guitars, flutes, harmonicas, clarinette, piano...).

I am a Music & Cinema lover. And I appreciate What's Best they have to give to my eyes, ears, emotions, and intellect.
Each note in an ensemble of notes and each picture frame that is stable and moving, moves me like the waves of the ocean.

I'm all about the true ARTS of life. :) ...Category #1.
 

Phelonious Ponk

New Member
Jun 30, 2010
8,677
23
0
None of the above. I love beautiful cinematography when it's there, but I'm in it for the story.

Tim
 

Phelonious Ponk

New Member
Jun 30, 2010
8,677
23
0
Well of course the story has to be first priority. It is well assumed that for all of us it goes without saying.

You think? Seems to me there are a whole lot of American movie fans that love the action, the effects, the entertainment value in standard Hollywood stories that have been told, with minor variations, a hundred times. Nothing wrong with that, by the way, but it's not my thing.

Tim
 

NorthStar

Member
Feb 8, 2011
24,305
1,323
435
Vancouver Island, B.C. Canada
You think? Seems to me there are a whole lot of American movie fans that love the action, the effects, the entertainment value in standard Hollywood stories that have been told, with minor variations, a hundred times. Nothing wrong with that, by the way, but it's not my thing.

Tim

Tim, Canadians are different; they need a good storyline first! :)

* If you want special effects you can also join the army. Or play games. ;)
 

Phelonious Ponk

New Member
Jun 30, 2010
8,677
23
0
So you guys don't watch action movies in which the scruffy, despondent hero who has lost his child/love/family exacts revenge utilizing incredible combat skills gained in some mysterious former special forces life? And your wives don't watch romantic comedies in which the clueless, boyish, misogynistic male offends the bejeezus out of the brilliant, beautiful, sensitive, quasi-feminist female who is WAY out of his league, only to eventually win her heart with his boyish charm, then head down to road to becoming the perfect loving, sensitive partner?

Good for you. I've seen them both under several titles.

Tim
 

NorthStar

Member
Feb 8, 2011
24,305
1,323
435
Vancouver Island, B.C. Canada
So you guys don't watch action movies in which the scruffy, despondent hero who has lost his child/love/family exacts revenge utilizing incredible combat skills gained in some mysterious former special forces life? And your wives don't watch romantic comedies in which the clueless, boyish, misogynistic male offends the bejeezus out of the brilliant, beautiful, sensitive, quasi-feminist female who is WAY out of his league, only to eventually win her heart with his boyish charm, then head down to road to becoming the perfect loving, sensitive partner?

Good for you. I've seen them both under several titles.

Tim

Nava! :D
 

claytonJ2

Well-Known Member
May 25, 2011
43
4
395
Bothell, WA
Four words: Michele Bay presents: Explosions! (Just kidding - Ref: Robot Chicken)

I want better sound, better picture. I want the ideal copy of the original film: that is to say, no pan and scan, no fuzz, no noise, nothing cut, nothing added that wasn't shot during filming, and every step taken to clean things up that makes the experience more true to the original vision, and not less*. And for pete's sake, don't edit a movie to make it more politically correct. People will chose to watch what they wish and take from it what they will. Censorship is wrong!

Also, I want more Blu-Ray Audio. What's up with all those home burned discs on Amazon masquerading as Blu-Ray Audios? Anyone have a link to a good online store for multi-channel music?

Footnote: * - Unless there were mistakes: It's OK to edit Jar Jar Bink's out of Star Wars Episode 1 for the Blu-Ray collection due out this fall and that last Indiana Jones film could use a new ending that doesn't involve an alien. Lucas and Spielberg should be tested for early onset dementia or drugs. Seriously!
 

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