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Courtesy of imdb.com...Levin: DVD's Change the Game
Former Time Warner Chairman Gerald Levin has predicted that the advent of the DVD will revolutionize the making of motion pictures. Speaking on the subject "The Future of Media" at a Minneapolis gathering hosted by the University of St. Thomas College of Business,
Levin noted that filmmakers are now free to include scenes on DVD discs that they may have left out of theatrical releases and that viewers can decide whether they want to watch them. As reported in Wednesday's Minneapolis Star Tribune, this ability to alter films and release new versions essentially means a film is never really finished, according to Levin. "Artistically, that's very important," he said.
http://us.imdb.com/StudioBrief/
Follow Ups:
Bandwagon
The Exterminating Angel
Battle Of Algiersall, according to the DVD clerk at Amoeba in LA, are not available on DVD right now with no announced release dates. No problem finding Bandwagon on VHS but anybody have any suggestions as to where I can pick up the other two titles on VHS?
Some interesting facts regarding the DVD. Long, but interesting:Hollywood is in the content business, as eager to sell discs as they are theater tickets. Moviemakers produce DVD extras while filming so they can appeal to a public hungrier than ever for outtakes and backstage banter. And home viewers don't just turn on the TV to watch the discs they have bought. They fire up the home theater.
This holiday season DVD will rule, thanks to a slew of summer blockbusters and favorites arriving on disc — from box-office champ Spider-Man (Nov. 1) and Star Wars, Episode II: Attack of the Clones (Nov. 12) to E.T. the Extra-terrestrial (Oct. 22) and the Back to the Future trilogy (Dec. 17).
Among DVD owners, 38% plan to buy five or more movies on DVD by the end of the year, according to a survey of 904 last week by the DVD Entertainment Group. And 19% of those who do not own a DVD player plan to join the movement.
The public's affection for the 5-inch disc has flourished more quickly than it did with CD or color TV. Those technologies took eight and 17 years, respectively, to sell 30 million, a mark the DVD surpassed in only four. Further evidence of the boom:
In nearly one-third of U.S. homes, a DVD player is the video component of choice, having pushed aside the VCR. By the end of this year, about 37 million DVD players will have been sold in the USA, Adams Media estimates. An additional 55 million PCs and video game systems also play DVDs.
Because DVD movies look twice as good as those on videocassette and have surround soundtracks, many living rooms are sporting new big-screen digital TVs and home theater sound systems.Nearly 2 million digital TVs have been shipped to dealers already this year, about twice the amount at this time last year, according to the Consumer Electronics Association. Average price: $1,635. And sales of sound equipment remain brisk, with sales of home theater systems expected to triple 2000's total.
"DVD is the biggest driver of it all," NPDTechworld senior analyst Tom Edwards says. Consumers "get the DVD home and they know its quality is there, but the chances are they have an old television set. They end up wanting to upgrade."
On average, DVD owners now buy 16 titles each year, compared with the six videocassette movies VCR owners bought at that format's peak in 1996.
By the time the last holiday sale is scanned into the register Dec. 31, home video sales will have set a record of $12.4 billion this year, about two-thirds of that from DVD sales, Adams Media Research estimates. This will be the second year that DVD movie sales surpass sales of videocassettes.
The DVD effect is so strong that even Hollywood, which typically changes at a glacial rate, is taking its cues from the growing format.
In VHS' heyday, movies released on video often were never meant for consumers to buy. Priced as high as $100, they were sold to video rental chains such as Blockbuster, which would turn around and recoup their investment through rentals. Only in special cases — Disney classics such as Pinocchio and blockbusters such as Star Wars— did they carry mass-market pricing of $20 or so.
"There was no product development," says Peter Staddon of Fox Home Entertainment. "The product got slapped onto tape, and (viewers) watched a diluted version of the theatrical experience on a smaller TV and no surround sound. Now it's presented in premium sound, and they have all the additional material."
These days, separate DVD production crews prepare an expansive home version of a movie even as directors create the movie itself. As a result, movies such as Steven Spielberg's Minority Report, in theaters June 23, arrive in stores on DVD chock-full of extras less than six months later. "It has become a huge business for studios very, very quickly," says Kelley Avery of DreamWorks.
For an idea of how important DVD can be to Hollywood, look at the first-week sales scared up by Disney's Monsters, Inc. The 7 million DVDs sold in the week after its Sept. 17 release is the largest DVD opening so far, amounting to retail sales of about $175 million. That's more than the $122 million the film made in its first 10 days at the box office. To date, Monsters has sold 9.2 million copies, and its DVD gross is approaching the film's box office total ($256 million).
The seeds for DVD's success were sown in a 1996 agreement on technical standards by competing consumer electronics giants such as Panasonic, Philips, Sony and Toshiba, as well as the home video arm of Warner Bros., avoiding a repeat of the VHS-Beta battle at the beginning of the video era.
Yet that wasn't the end of the fledgling format's hurdles. When the first DVD movies arrived in March 1998, they were stocked only in seven cities. And major studios Disney, Paramount and Fox were sitting on the sidelines at the start. Players started at $500 and ran up to $1,000 or more. Some observers wondered whether DVD could even surpass the niche-market sales of laserdisc, the film fan's format of choice in those days.
DVD is just now hitting a pocketbook sweet spot. The price of players keeps falling; the average is about $163 now, compared with $222 last year. Within seven years, DVD is expected to be in more than 90% of homes, something it took the VCR 25 years to do.
"People are used to buying little shiny discs in the CD world, and I think it naturally tapers to the DVD world," says NPD's Edwards. "And it's not that expensive."
Goodbye, VHS
DVD is now sounding the death knell for VHS. Circuit City in June became the first major retailer to announce the phase-out of pre-recorded videotapes in stores. "We started noticing that people coming into our stores were buying DVD movies, not VHS, so it made sense," spokesman Jim Babb says.
Blockbuster Video is in the process of reducing one-fourth of its VHS library to devote more space to DVD. The chain also is testing a monthly rental program that lets subscribers watch all the DVDs they can watch for a flat fee.
In rentals, too, movie fans increasingly opt for discs over tapes. That is reflected in the drop in VHS rental revenue from 1999's $10 billion to $7.1 billion this year. In contrast, DVD rental revenue is expected to almost double this year, to $3.2 billion from 2001's $1.7 billion.
Other retailers and rental outlets also have given increasing space to DVD movies and players. Today you can even buy players at grocery stores, sometimes for less than $70. And discs have become impulse buys; some are priced at $8 or less. More than 18,000 movies and music videos have been released on DVD. (Some notable holdouts include the original Star Wars trilogy and the Indiana Jones movies.)
'Completely loaded'
Studios continue to release ever-more-elaborate DVD packages.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, in theaters last December, arrived on DVD in August. But a "special extended" four-disc edition, with 30 additional minutes of footage added to the film and two discs of extras, is due Nov. 12 ($40). A premium collector's edition ($80) also comes with a pair of Lord of the Rings bookends.
The Spider-Man DVD, a two-disc set that is perhaps the most hotly anticipated upcoming release, could net the top spot from Monsters, Inc. Columbia TriStar is shipping 25 million DVDs and VHS copies to retailers for the release, says Benjamin Feingold, president of Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment. "We hope it is the biggest seller of all time."
The DVD has two documentaries, one on the making of the movie and another on the history of the Spider-Man character, plus an exclusive art gallery and comic book archive. "It's completely loaded," Feingold says. "We want to make the DVD even more exciting than the movie."
For many movie fans, the extras make the sale. Los Angeles attorney Richard Simmons, 50, has recently bought MGM's collections of James Bond films.
"You get segments on the directors and histories of each of the movies — so much more than was ever made available on VHS," he says. "You get a much higher level of enjoyment both from an audio and a video perspective."
nt
Goodbye, VHSI wouldn't stick the fork in just yet. There's the newer higher definition (double to triple resolution of DVD) D-VHS/D-Theater format that many big studios love because of the copy guard. D-VHS/D-Theater players can still play regular VHS tapes. If the D-Theater releases and players becomes more prominent, regular VHS may still have a place in the market. Then again, it could tank like divx.
Tom §.
It will be hard to beat the DVD tide, even with something that is backwards compatible at this point.I think that anything that comes out within the next few years will be an uphill battle, because so many people have jumped on the DVD wagon.
...I really don't care one way or another.There is no question the DVD is already predominant, but to me this is like discussing the book covers.
Most of my viewing is still on tape, and I suspect it will continue be so for many more years. I can perfectly accept the quality imperfections when watching a good film. Most importantly, with films I watch usually it is the quality of source that limits the overal level, not the carrier.
Given the choice I would buy the DVD, but I am still buying many tapes, because there is no alternative.
But for the mass entertainment, sure, there is only one alternative.
Many of my favorite classic and foreign films are still available only of VHS - if at all.Darnit! Where is the DVD new release of Renoir's Rules of the Game?
Alas, I've been disappointed in several re-releases from Criterion Collection - they've apparently mastered from mediocre source material. I'm hopeful from reviews that ROTG will be a good transfer. (This is one of my all-time favorite films.)
VHS is a lesser quality source, but the film's the thing. Better to have it on VHS than not to have it all.
Another reason to own a multiregion dvd player.Rules of the Game has been available on a Region 2 dvd for quite some time, as have several other great(and not so great) films.
JohnN
http://www.dvdprofiler.com/mc.asp?alias=J0hnN&acceptadult=true
...to get a multi-region player. I know many R2 discs are superior to their R1 counterparts, or get released in UK/Europe first i.e. All That Jazz, plus some material just never gets released in North America.I'm a big foreign/classic film buff, so I view a multi-region player as a necessity. I'm currently looking at the Malata and JVC players at various websites - I need one that converts PAL to NTSC since my 34" direct view is not PAL capable. It would be lovely to find a player that scales, as well. What are you using?
Rules of the Game has been announced for release by Criterion either this month or next. It's been on the release list now for months. PQ will determine which version I buy. I fell in love with this film the first time I saw it (age 18?). I have it on VHS.
Some Apex players for in the $70 range can do this. I have one. You have to reprogram it to be free of all protections, takes about 5 minutes at most. Reversible too. Surprisingly decent video quality, much better than many of the DVD's from SOME regions deserve.
I agree that a Criterion release of Rules of the Game would be great, but it has been on Criterion's coming list for over a year and is not included in their firm release schedule through Q1 2003.I decided to buy the Malata 996 last year and have had no regrets. I planned to use it only for non region 1 discs only but it performed better on all discs than did the Pioneer I had been using. The Pioneer remains disconnected on the bottom shelf.
This Malata has been replaced by a newer model.
Having the multiregion player allows me the choice if I don't want to wait.
Rules of the Game, Truffault box set -- Region 2 France; Angel at My Table, Four Feathers(1933) -- Region 4 Australia, To be or not to be, Dunga Din, The Holy Innocents -- Region 2 Spain.
JohnN
.
I know many critics consider Renoir's wonderful Grand Illusion the superior masterpiece, but I love Rules of the Game more.If I had to pick a favorite decade for movies, on many days I would say the 1930's. Truly a world-wide golden age.
I was reading an article not too long ago, maybe in the NY Times, that stated that some of the big studios were moving away from the 'extra packed' DVDs because they're getting quite costly to produce and but for the 'deleted scenes' and maybe the hardcore enthusiasts, most people don't spend the time going through all of the extraneous filler.I would say that on the big films, I don't see a slow down, but it was interesting, nevertheless.
Chris
PS: I got my first taste of DVD in December of '97 when I bought my Gateway Destination entertainment computer/surround system and I've seen it progress from the niche, through the DIVX wars and like you write, into the mainstream and I love them. I never did get into prerecorded LDs or VHS films and I'm glad.
because the quality declines too rapidly. But we have to buy them sometimes. Often the "off the beaten track" films are just not available in dvd--and don't see them in that format any time soon.Recent vhs purchases:
Wrestling Ernest Hemingway
High Art
Eddie Izzard glorious
Historia del son (History of the son)One tape I have my eye on is Bugsy Malone--the kid musical--what a creative and well done kid's movie, and the director/producers didn't dumb it down for the children.
....that when I first read this I thought: "Why do I feel like I'm reading 4 year old news?"Tom §.
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