Friday, September 25, 2009

Why is it...

11:01 PM / Blu-ray / Comments9 Comments

Blu-ray
Blu-ray

...that a twenty-year-old student film can basically look perfect on Blu-ray while a nine-year-old multi million dollar co-production between two Hollywood majors and winner of five Academy Awards looks like trash?

The latter is, of course, Gladiator, while the former is A Grand Day Out, the debut of plasticine duo Wallace & Gromit and Nick Park's graduation project for the National Film and Television School. It, along with the three other Wallace & Gromit short films, was released on BD in North American on September 22 by Lions Gate, and I'm gobsmacked by how good they look. Seriously, this is what BD is all about for me: fine grain particles, stellar compression and the ability to see every single thumbprint in the plasticine models.

Seriously, I am elated by how good those screen captures look. I was slightly wary about picking up this set because I wasn't sure how much care would be put into the release. It looks as if BBC (who I'm assuming were responsible for creating the new masters) went back to the original negatives or at the very least something very close (interpositive? internegative?) and treated the material with the respect it deserved. Kudos to them (or whoever did it, if not them) - my copy is now ordered and I can't wait to give it a spin for myself.

 
9 Comments

1. Christopher D. Jacobson said:

Cool. I was hoping to hear your words on the release. Now I'll have to pick it up soon.

(Posted on Friday, September 25, 2009 at 11:39 PM)

2. Steini said:

Does The Wrong Trousers have the original music soundtrack or the altered one? (or both?)

(Posted on Friday, September 25, 2009 at 11:54 PM)

3. David Mackenzie said:

Altered according to Amazon reviews.

(Posted on Saturday, September 26, 2009 at 3:07 AM)

4. Daniel Sardella said:

Incidentally, I just watched Grand Day Out with my g/f and was also amazed at how great it looks!
I rented it, but I'll get around to purchasing it eventually.

(Posted on Saturday, September 26, 2009 at 3:27 AM)

5. Daniel Sardella said:

Btw (unrelated) - are you going to pick up the BU New York Ripper BD?

(Posted on Saturday, September 26, 2009 at 3:42 AM)

6. Author Profile Page Michael said:

Daniel:

Yeah, The New York Ripper is on its way and should hopefully be with me by the middle of next week.

(Posted on Saturday, September 26, 2009 at 9:23 AM)

7. FoxyMulder said:

I thought these were made for television ?

So i guess these were made as short cinema films and shown before some movies ?

What format and camera's did they use to shoot these ?

(Posted on Saturday, September 26, 2009 at 3:38 PM)

8. Author Profile Page Michael said:

They were made for television... although as I mentioned, A Grand Day Out started out as Nick Park's graduation project.

The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave were both shot on 16mm. I couldn't find any technical information for A Grand Day Out, but I presume it was the same. The most recent film, A Matter of Loaf and Death, was shot using high definition digital cameras.

(Posted on Saturday, September 26, 2009 at 3:43 PM)

9. Bleddyn Williams said:

Good to hear your positive comments. I'm thinking of waiting for the UK one so I can compare content before buying.

(Posted on Sunday, September 27, 2009 at 4:28 AM)

 
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