TMP Director's Edition Coming To Blu-ray - Page 2

Gep Malakai · February 5 2013, 06:54 AM

trevanian wrote:

The TMP DE vfx company was Foundation Imagining. When I tried looking them up just now, I found a company with the same name, but their website can't even spell 'aerial' properly. Turns out FI went out of business early in the run of Paramount's Lil ENTERPRISE series, its assets sold off more than a decade back. So the equipment to re-render the DE animation is ... where? Do you need a render farm to re-output the animation and do so in HD, or can anybody with an old Macintosh handle it? (I'm not being sarcastic here, I'm actually asking does anybody know?)

Foundation used LightWave for their 3D, so all their stuff was off-the-shelf. It'll run on pretty much anything (a friend and I taught ourselves LightWave back in high school on a crappy 300mHz first-generation iMac). LightWave is a dying program in the VFX industry, but there are still companies here and there that use it. I have a few industry buddies who recently started up a LightWave house and have a small render farm for it. And seeing as the file format hasn't changed in a good couple decades, opening and rendering old scenes is doable; current editions of the software can still open files created umpteen versions ago. So it would "merely" be a matter of finding all the objects, scenes and textures and making sure they're up to snuff for HD rendering.

If Doug Drexler's blog is anything to go by, the artists seem to have made off with personal copies of almost all the Foundation Imaging/Eden FX models. It would be hard, but I suspect it's possible – the LightWave community is small and pretty much everyone knows everyone else, so if the files exist, I imagine they could be located and spruced up.

That assumes that Paramount would want to dredge the old work out of mothballs and not just toss it to CBS-D or something to do anew. Like I said, LightWave is becoming passé these days, and even though it can still turn out stellar hard-body work, there's a strong prejudice against it in most of the VFX community now. Everybody is Maya with Mental Ray/Vray/Renderman and the suits may want it done that way so they can rest easy knowing it's being handled "right."

Gep, grumpy former LightWaver.

Oso Blanco · February 5 2013, 06:56 AM

I hope this is an error and they will release the SLV instead.

Grant · February 5 2013, 08:17 PM

Oso Blanco wrote:

I hope this is an error and they will release the SLV instead.

Not a chance in a million.

They are just putting the already pressed dics from 2009 in separate packaging for the first time in the case of movies I, III and V.

This is just a quick cash grab to sell old discs and tie it to the new movies' opening.

MacLeod · February 5 2013, 09:44 PM

^Last I checked you can buy individual ST films on BR already. Unless it's because I'm in Region B and in Region A those films have not yet been released as single discs.

Mr. Laser Beam · February 5 2013, 10:13 PM

It's confirmed: the Director's Edition is NOT coming to BR.

Linky

trevanian wrote:

Pretty much everything originated on digital or stored on digital begins to degrade (like a decaying orbit) unless the data is migrated regularly.

Excuse me?

Digital is digital. 1 or 0. On or off. Unless the storage medium itself fails (i.e. a hard drive crash), digital media cannot, by definition, degrade.

Harvey · February 5 2013, 11:29 PM

Grant wrote:

They are just putting the already pressed dics from 2009 in separate packaging for the first time in the case of movies I, III and V.

This is just a quick cash grab to sell old discs and tie it to the new movies' opening.

I would be surprised if they didn't at least remaster the discs to include the trailer for the upcoming film rather than the 2009 release. As for the lack of effort otherwise on Paramount's part, it doesn't surprise me.

StalwartUK · February 5 2013, 11:48 PM

MacLeod wrote:

^Last I checked you can buy individual ST films on BR already. Unless it's because I'm in Region B and in Region A those films have not yet been released as single discs.

That's correct. Region B got all the films I-X individualy in 2009-10. In Region A only II, IV, VI and VIII (First Contact) got individual releases.

Gep Malakai · February 6 2013, 01:00 AM

Mr. Laser Beam wrote:

Excuse me?

Digital is digital. 1 or 0. On or off. Unless the storage medium itself fails (i.e. a hard drive crash), digital media cannot, by definition, degrade.

Untrue. It's called "bit rot" and it affects data stored on magnetic media like hard drives or flash memory if they go too long without being accessed. Storage media are imperfect, and bits can and do flip from one to the other due to a variety of factors. If you leave data alone too long, it'll eventually turn into a garbled mess. It's one of the challenges that makes long-term digital preservation difficult.

trevanian · February 6 2013, 01:15 AM

Mr. Laser Beam wrote:

It's confirmed: the Director's Edition is NOT coming to BR.

Linky

trevanian wrote:

Pretty much everything originated on digital or stored on digital begins to degrade (like a decaying orbit) unless the data is migrated regularly.

Excuse me?

Digital is digital. 1 or 0. On or off. Unless the storage medium itself fails (i.e. a hard drive crash), digital media cannot, by definition, degrade.

Do your homework and then get back to me, okay? You sound like my stepdad used to, thinking digital was a perfect, fire & forget situation ... and it is not. I'm not picking on you, my stepdad was an engineer for close to four decades and it took forever to demonstrate to him the limitations and flaws.

EDIT ADDON: sorry, should have scrolled down and seen Gep's reply.

Mr. Laser Beam · February 6 2013, 01:49 AM

Sorry. I didn't know about bit rot.

But surely a sufficiently robust backup system could include a method to instantly access the data (but not otherwise do anything with it) maybe once a year? A bit like physical therapy on an injured limb.

Harvey · February 6 2013, 02:01 AM

That solves one problem, but it doesn't address the problem of rapidly changing file formats. That's one of the reasons the Hollywood studios still make new negatives alongside digital masters when they do film restorations. (At least, when they can afford it.) Not only is film a stable medium (well preserved, it should last about a century), but at this point, the medium is not going to go out of date.

trevanian · February 6 2013, 04:51 AM

If anybody is really interested in this subject, I'd recommend they look up THE DIGITAL DILEMMA and THE DIGITAL DILEMMA 2 ... these should have lit fires under asses, but I think it was more akin to global warming, where nobody wanted to know. I did a piece on restoration and preservation for ICG last year, but I just checked and it isn't online, just in the print version of the mag, so I can't link to that.

Mr. Laser Beam · February 6 2013, 10:58 PM

Harvey wrote:

That solves one problem, but it doesn't address the problem of rapidly changing file formats. That's one of the reasons the Hollywood studios still make new negatives alongside digital masters when they do film restorations. (At least, when they can afford it.) Not only is film a stable medium (well preserved, it should last about a century), but at this point, the medium is not going to go out of date.

There can't be conversion utilities for such formats, like there are for computers?

Harvey · February 7 2013, 08:01 AM

This piece is an interesting primer on the film vs. digital debate. It is obviously tilted in one direction, but it makes its case well.

Nightowl1701 · February 7 2013, 11:47 AM

No director's cuts, no special editions, no sale.

February 5 2013, 06:56 AM	#17
Oso Blanco Fleet Captain Location: Berlin, Germany	Re: TMP Director's Edition Coming To Blu-ray I hope this is an error and they will release the SLV instead. __________________ Time is the fire in which we burn

February 5 2013, 09:44 PM	#19
MacLeod Vice Admiral Location: Great Britain	Re: TMP Director's Edition Coming To Blu-ray ^Last I checked you can buy individual ST films on BR already. Unless it's because I'm in Region B and in Region A those films have not yet been released as single discs. __________________ On the continent of wild endeavour in the mountains of solace and solitude there stood the citadel of the time lords, the oldest and most mighty race in the universe looking down on the galaxies below sworn never to interfere only to watch.

February 6 2013, 01:49 AM	#25
Mr. Laser Beam Fleet Admiral Location: The visitor's bullpen	Re: TMP Director's Edition Coming To Blu-ray Sorry. I didn't know about bit rot. But surely a sufficiently robust backup system could include a method to instantly access the data (but not otherwise do anything with it) maybe once a year? A bit like physical therapy on an injured limb. __________________ It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed, the hands acquire shakes, the shakes become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion.

February 6 2013, 02:01 AM	#26
Harvey Admiral	Re: TMP Director's Edition Coming To Blu-ray That solves one problem, but it doesn't address the problem of rapidly changing file formats. That's one of the reasons the Hollywood studios still make new negatives alongside digital masters when they do film restorations. (At least, when they can afford it.) Not only is film a stable medium (well preserved, it should last about a century), but at this point, the medium is not going to go out of date. __________________ "What do you hear, Starbuck?" "Nothing but the rain, sir." "Then grab your gun and bring in the cat."

February 6 2013, 04:51 AM	#27
trevanian Rear Admiral	Re: TMP Director's Edition Coming To Blu-ray If anybody is really interested in this subject, I'd recommend they look up THE DIGITAL DILEMMA and THE DIGITAL DILEMMA 2 ... these should have lit fires under asses, but I think it was more akin to global warming, where nobody wanted to know. I did a piece on restoration and preservation for ICG last year, but I just checked and it isn't online, just in the print version of the mag, so I can't link to that.

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February 7 2013, 08:01 AM	#29
Harvey Admiral	Re: TMP Director's Edition Coming To Blu-ray This piece is an interesting primer on the film vs. digital debate. It is obviously tilted in one direction, but it makes its case well. __________________ "What do you hear, Starbuck?" "Nothing but the rain, sir." "Then grab your gun and bring in the cat."

February 7 2013, 11:47 AM	#30
Nightowl1701 Lieutenant Commander Location: Orlando, FL	Re: TMP Director's Edition Coming To Blu-ray No director's cuts, no special editions, no sale.