Comment on Home theater fans are being starved of the new 4K Blu-ray releases they want and it's not okay
xyguy@startrek.website 9 months ago
This is interesting and a lot of commentary says that the reason smaller films aren’t released physically is that there is too much work involved to do so at is mastering the movie for bluray would be impossible for a group of talented editors, color correctionists and sound engineers.
Personally, if anyone has any insight into the bluray mastering process I would love to learn more about it.
I mean if an outfit like Vinegar Syndrome can do multiple 4k restorations of crappy B movies every year, what’s stopping other production companies?
Emperor@feddit.uk 8 months ago
I don’t have any great insight into the process but the higher bar for releasing a 4k isn’t just getting a good enough master (which, if you made the film recently enough should be easy) its adding on all the bells and whistles, like fancy audio and premium HDR. That takes time and money. The boutique Blu-ray releasers presumably have all this pretty much streamlined, film studios, especially small ones, may not.
Also, the releasers often put out a fancy limited editions with all sorts of extras and I assume it’s these that help push them into profit, often in the preorder stage. Again, they’ll know all the right people to produce new art or bang out a booklet on the film or genre. So it’s easier for them to do.
Someone like Focus Features may be looking at The Holdovers and they’ve figured that any improvement in image or audio quality will only add marginally to viewing experience and that it isn’t worth the investment. I really liked the film and it was well worth seeing in the cinema but you are watching it for the quality of the performances and the skill of the writer and director, not for any visual spectacle.
xyguy@startrek.website 8 months ago
Well if the quality doesn’t matter maybe we could at least get a VHS release. Or maybe laserdisc.
But seriously I do understand that angle. And I assume that there’s a certain threshold of sales that make it worth doing especially when a lot of stores are reducing or eliminating physical media sections (except records of course).
Speaking of records I think that that is where you could pivot the bluray industry. Make a bigger package with specially tinted discs and lots of behind the scenes photos or interviews on a fold out cover. Maybe even make people get up in the middle of the movie to flip the disc over? (Ok maybe not that last one.)
Emperor@feddit.uk 8 months ago
That’s what these boutique Blu-Ray houses do - you can get boxes, slipcovers, steelbooks, posters, lobby cards, pins, fabric badges, stickers, movie replicas and all sorts of other junk you wouldn’t give house-room to if bought separately. I have a zombie movie that includes a novelty condom - I suppose it might come in handy in an emergency but a novelty zombie condom may be a passion-killer.
The John Wick 4 Limited Collector’s Edition 4k includes:
Reviews suggest it’s a bit cheap looking and everything is low quality compared to the JW3 fancy release which is a thing of beauty.