Ah, cinema. We laugh, we cry, we enter the worlds of the characters and become one with them. And yet, there are always things in the world of cinema that for years we have always turned a blind eye to. Why? Because we've become accustomed to doing so. We've been raised to believe that this is just 'how things are' in the world of cinema. Here's a list of five things that will make your head spin.
1) The British Accent
via GIPHY
The classic Doctor Zhivago is the first to come to mind, but why is it that if an English language film takes place in a European country where the language of the characters isn't English, the characters have a British accent? Are we to assume that British English is the universal European dialect? Surely if filmmakers don't want to shoot the film in one of those high-falootin' foreign languages, Hollywood could at least teach the actors to LEARN an accent, right? Be it the Russian Revolution, World War II or a sword and sandal epic about Jesus hanging with his people (sorry, bad pun), it's a little, oh, what's the word I'm looking for? Oh yeah...."racist".
via GIPHY
2) The VCR
via GIPHY
We've all grew up using the VCR, we've all taught our grandmothers how to use the VCR, we all watched things we weren't supposed to be watching using the VCR. When, oh when, did a VCR ever make a fast-paced sound when it fast forwarded or rewound a videotape during playback? But for 20 years every time a film had a character fast forwarding or rewinding a tape, we all heard the chipmunk screeching coming from the TV and no one questioned it. Was this a gimmick that became standardized in the industry, or is it safe to assume that directors in Hollywood have never used a commercial home video player before? This special effect really bugs because movies are supposed to provide a look to future generations about what our world was like at one time. Now, thanks to these buffoons in Hollywood, everyone 40 years from now watching films from the 80s and 90s is going to think that VCRs made this noise when they never did. Way to go.
via GIPHY
3) The Telephone
via GIPHY
It's 2018, and nearly every time we see a character putting a phone to their ear, all of a sudden we hear what their ear is hearing on the other end of the line....except not really because the 'telephone sound' filter being used is the same one from the 1960s which makes the phone sound like it's, well, from the 1960s. Phone signals are digital now Hollywood Moguls! Quit living in the past. And quit being tightwads as well. If you can afford to show one side of a phone conversation, you can probably afford to show the other side as well. Fail.
via GIPHY
4) Period Costumes
This is allegedly Cleopatra, with 1934 fashion.
via GIPHY
This is also allegedly Cleopatra, with 1963 fashion.
via GIPHY
Here is Michelle Pfeiffer sporting a very 1980s version of a 1960s look in GREASE 2.
via GIPHY
And here is Melinda Dillon sporting a very 1980s version of a 1940s look in A CHRISTMAS STORY.
via GIPHY
Now fashion in films is very hard to translate 100% to the decade in which a film was made, but honestly. How hard did the hair and makeup people of these four examples try to represent the era the character was supposed to represent? Could you even DO a perm like Melinda Dillon's in the 1940s?
Sunday, October 14, 2018
Thursday, July 19, 2018
"Tell me about the rain tree........" Raintree County, Rarity, and Homosexuality
I figured I could capture readers with a title like that. No, I am not suggesting there is homosexuality in the film RAINTREE COUNTY (although that is a paper for another day), but I do have a homosexual story about RAINTREE COUNTY that I must share. It goes a little something like this.
As a dweeb, I collect not only DVDs and VHS, but also laserdiscs-- a hybrid of the two formats that has sadly become defunct over the years. The SD quality transfers are very special to me because they come from a time when studios didn't "restore" their films to a point where their manipulations share little difference from a Ted Turner colorization (read my earlier post "Blue Bombs Everywhere" to see what I was talking about). I also love that many laserdiscs have many special features that did not make their way to DVD and Blu-ray for some reason or another.
Well, my laserdisc player started to go kaput, and a good friend of mine, for a cheap price, sold me two new players and a ton of discs. In this batch my wonderful friend, also gay, blessed me with RAINTREE COUNTY, seen here.
A 3+ hour GONE WITH THE WIND knockoff from 1957, this 70mm epic is one of those bizarre films from that era when it didn't matter how good it was, as long as it was long, lavish, and expensive. The film has also never been released on DVD in the United States.
The first time I attempted to rent this film, after hunting, I got a DVD copy of a VHS from an anonymous source. It was, of course, cropped to 1.33:1, and being an early widescreen movie that was meant to COMPETE with the small screen of television, it did not fare well to the pan and scan process. Also, most VHS tapes made after 1983 have two audio tracks on them: Hi-Fi and Mono. The DVD was made with the Hi-Fi track, and the track had worn out, so the entire time there was a buzzsaw like static on the tape. After about 20 minutes, I called it a day. So, my little heart went a-flutter when I found this disc in my bundle, as I could now enjoy the film as intended.
Now, where's the gay link in this, beyond the fact that its main male star, Montgomery Clift was gay, and Elizabeth Taylor, the female lead, was a gay icon? Well that goes back to my history of the 1982 gay classic MAKING LOVE, with Harry Hamlin, Michael Ontkean, and Kate Jackson.
In this film, Hamlin plays a gay Los Angeles writer who sleeps with a married man, but before doing so, breaks fourth wall to talk about how much he enjoys his life as a bachelor in LA. In that moment, we see him popping a Betamax tape into a tape player, flipping on a video projector and enjoying a scene of RAINTREE COUNTY with a bowl of popcorn.
I first saw MAKING LOVE when I was 17 and it would be years before I would see it, but this scene had always stuck with me from my initial viewing. I remember thinking how much I was like Bart in that moment-- having friends, but being an outcast, preferring to spend my Friday night watching an obscure film at home. I ran to my computer to find out what film Bart decided to watch on that evening. IMDB led me to the answer of my connection of cinema to this character: for me, it was MAKING LOVE, for Bart, RAINTREE COUNTY. Years later, I would obtain a video projector, like Bart, and spend my evenings in Los Angeles winding down with movies alone with a big bowl of white popcorn on a nightly basis...that is until I was domesticated.
After receiving my laserdisc of RAINTREE COUNTY recently, I thought again about this scene in MAKING LOVE, and just how much a four shot sequence of Hamlin watching the film can add to his character. For starters, home video machines were very expensive at this time-- many over $1000, and that was 35 years ago. He's also not watching this on a TV but a video projector, another home entertainment rarity of the time! Bart clearly enjoys lavish things.
But it goes beyond the equipment. Did anyone else notice that the cover of the Betamax is solid brown and not with an official label? Thus adds another layer to the character. In doing an online search for RAINTREE COUNTY, I found that the film was not officially released on any home video formats until a 1986 release by MGM/UA (verified in this Tom Shales article from the Washington Post). And yet, the filmmakers chose to purposely illustrate that Bart is watching RAINTREE COUNTY, even if it wouldn't be released for another four years on home video.
Another point in fact: RAINTREE COUNTY is an MGM film, MAKING LOVE was a 20th Century Fox film. Why would the producers go through all of that trouble to secure a film not available on home video from another studio's library as Bart's film choice when Fox has a NUMBER of films in its library that gays idolize? The shot of the screen over Bart's shoulder specifically has Liz Taylor say to Monty Clift the most memorable quote of the film: "Tell me about the rain tree......." The filmmakers wanted the viewer to know that Bart was watching RAINTREE COUNTY for some reason. And yet, no reference to the film is made.
The questions just kept on rolling as I thought about this: Where did Bart get his copy of RAINTREE COUNTY from? Wealthy cinefiles in Los Angeles, such as actor Roddy McDowall (also gay), were known to have high quality, albeit bootleg, copies of films in their homes, going back to a time when home video wasn't an official market. In fact, according to this Mental Floss article, when McDowall was investigated in 1975, FBI agents found 1000+ video cassettes in his garage of movies-- none of which were officially released on home video. Sidenote: McDowall would also be the main source of contact with the restoration of CLEOPATRA, another Liz Taylor film.
Could the character Bart be in a clique of wealthy gay cinema nerds such as McDowall who pass around bootlegs of films? Was it possible that Bart was modeled after McDowall? Could RAINTREE COUNTY be a reference to CLEOPATRA? Was it possible that it was a cheap replacement for CLEOPATRA footage, even if CLEOPATRA was a Fox film and RAINTREE COUNTY was from MGM?
Another possibility: could Bart have taped the film off of TV? Listings show that the film was run on TV as far back as 1972. Betamax was released in 1975 but the film did run on TV several more times that decade, according to afternoon and late night movie listings in newspapers. Perhaps Bart or one of his friends acquired it this way? Could this potentially be one of the earliest examples of someone watching a film they taped off of TV?
I do not know the answer to any of these questions. Perhaps one day, when RAINTREE COUNTY finally makes its way to DVD and Blu-ray in the United States, answers will be given. Still, it stands to reason that using archival footage in a film can really add to the depth of it, and MAKING LOVE is a perfect example of this.
As a dweeb, I collect not only DVDs and VHS, but also laserdiscs-- a hybrid of the two formats that has sadly become defunct over the years. The SD quality transfers are very special to me because they come from a time when studios didn't "restore" their films to a point where their manipulations share little difference from a Ted Turner colorization (read my earlier post "Blue Bombs Everywhere" to see what I was talking about). I also love that many laserdiscs have many special features that did not make their way to DVD and Blu-ray for some reason or another.
Well, my laserdisc player started to go kaput, and a good friend of mine, for a cheap price, sold me two new players and a ton of discs. In this batch my wonderful friend, also gay, blessed me with RAINTREE COUNTY, seen here.
A 3+ hour GONE WITH THE WIND knockoff from 1957, this 70mm epic is one of those bizarre films from that era when it didn't matter how good it was, as long as it was long, lavish, and expensive. The film has also never been released on DVD in the United States.
The first time I attempted to rent this film, after hunting, I got a DVD copy of a VHS from an anonymous source. It was, of course, cropped to 1.33:1, and being an early widescreen movie that was meant to COMPETE with the small screen of television, it did not fare well to the pan and scan process. Also, most VHS tapes made after 1983 have two audio tracks on them: Hi-Fi and Mono. The DVD was made with the Hi-Fi track, and the track had worn out, so the entire time there was a buzzsaw like static on the tape. After about 20 minutes, I called it a day. So, my little heart went a-flutter when I found this disc in my bundle, as I could now enjoy the film as intended.
Now, where's the gay link in this, beyond the fact that its main male star, Montgomery Clift was gay, and Elizabeth Taylor, the female lead, was a gay icon? Well that goes back to my history of the 1982 gay classic MAKING LOVE, with Harry Hamlin, Michael Ontkean, and Kate Jackson.
In this film, Hamlin plays a gay Los Angeles writer who sleeps with a married man, but before doing so, breaks fourth wall to talk about how much he enjoys his life as a bachelor in LA. In that moment, we see him popping a Betamax tape into a tape player, flipping on a video projector and enjoying a scene of RAINTREE COUNTY with a bowl of popcorn.
I first saw MAKING LOVE when I was 17 and it would be years before I would see it, but this scene had always stuck with me from my initial viewing. I remember thinking how much I was like Bart in that moment-- having friends, but being an outcast, preferring to spend my Friday night watching an obscure film at home. I ran to my computer to find out what film Bart decided to watch on that evening. IMDB led me to the answer of my connection of cinema to this character: for me, it was MAKING LOVE, for Bart, RAINTREE COUNTY. Years later, I would obtain a video projector, like Bart, and spend my evenings in Los Angeles winding down with movies alone with a big bowl of white popcorn on a nightly basis...that is until I was domesticated.
After receiving my laserdisc of RAINTREE COUNTY recently, I thought again about this scene in MAKING LOVE, and just how much a four shot sequence of Hamlin watching the film can add to his character. For starters, home video machines were very expensive at this time-- many over $1000, and that was 35 years ago. He's also not watching this on a TV but a video projector, another home entertainment rarity of the time! Bart clearly enjoys lavish things.
But it goes beyond the equipment. Did anyone else notice that the cover of the Betamax is solid brown and not with an official label? Thus adds another layer to the character. In doing an online search for RAINTREE COUNTY, I found that the film was not officially released on any home video formats until a 1986 release by MGM/UA (verified in this Tom Shales article from the Washington Post). And yet, the filmmakers chose to purposely illustrate that Bart is watching RAINTREE COUNTY, even if it wouldn't be released for another four years on home video.
Another point in fact: RAINTREE COUNTY is an MGM film, MAKING LOVE was a 20th Century Fox film. Why would the producers go through all of that trouble to secure a film not available on home video from another studio's library as Bart's film choice when Fox has a NUMBER of films in its library that gays idolize? The shot of the screen over Bart's shoulder specifically has Liz Taylor say to Monty Clift the most memorable quote of the film: "Tell me about the rain tree......." The filmmakers wanted the viewer to know that Bart was watching RAINTREE COUNTY for some reason. And yet, no reference to the film is made.
The questions just kept on rolling as I thought about this: Where did Bart get his copy of RAINTREE COUNTY from? Wealthy cinefiles in Los Angeles, such as actor Roddy McDowall (also gay), were known to have high quality, albeit bootleg, copies of films in their homes, going back to a time when home video wasn't an official market. In fact, according to this Mental Floss article, when McDowall was investigated in 1975, FBI agents found 1000+ video cassettes in his garage of movies-- none of which were officially released on home video. Sidenote: McDowall would also be the main source of contact with the restoration of CLEOPATRA, another Liz Taylor film.
Could the character Bart be in a clique of wealthy gay cinema nerds such as McDowall who pass around bootlegs of films? Was it possible that Bart was modeled after McDowall? Could RAINTREE COUNTY be a reference to CLEOPATRA? Was it possible that it was a cheap replacement for CLEOPATRA footage, even if CLEOPATRA was a Fox film and RAINTREE COUNTY was from MGM?
Another possibility: could Bart have taped the film off of TV? Listings show that the film was run on TV as far back as 1972. Betamax was released in 1975 but the film did run on TV several more times that decade, according to afternoon and late night movie listings in newspapers. Perhaps Bart or one of his friends acquired it this way? Could this potentially be one of the earliest examples of someone watching a film they taped off of TV?
I do not know the answer to any of these questions. Perhaps one day, when RAINTREE COUNTY finally makes its way to DVD and Blu-ray in the United States, answers will be given. Still, it stands to reason that using archival footage in a film can really add to the depth of it, and MAKING LOVE is a perfect example of this.
Sunday, June 24, 2018
John Wayne's Southwestern Casserole
After a long hiatus, celebrity recipes are back! Here is me making John Wayne's Southwestern Casserole.
Saturday, June 2, 2018
Barbed Wire, DVD Matting, and Lying
My partner and I decided to snuggle on the couch with a hot dish (we're Midwestern bred), some sodas, and a classic movie last night to have a cozy Friday evening at home (we're also past the age of going out). The film we chose was the cinema verte neo noir gem, BARB WIRE, starring the very serious method actress Pamela Anderson. This 1996 erotic thriller was.....not good. In fact, we made it about 40 minutes in before I couldn't take any more and we threw in the towel.
As I was watching though, something struck me as very odd. This DVD was put out by Polygram USA Video in 1999, clearly before the company went through a series of mergers and became obsolete. That being said, me picking on them is the equivalent of picking on the fence outside my window, but I did want to point out why this DVD became a bee in my bonnet last night.
So in the menu, one gets a choice as many DVDs at the time offered-- standard or widescreen? Meaning, do you want to watch this 1.85:1 or 1.33:1?
Let's look at this picture for a second. The DVD menu is suggesting that if you watch the Widescreen version of the film, there is more image to the left and right than if you watch the Standard version of the film, which looks like it is pan and scanned here.
So we choose Widescreen and the titles start. During this wonderfully executed title sequence of boobs flying all over the place, I notice that in a few shots, the top of the frame seems like heads are missing.
My initial thought is "Hrm, a DP probably wouldn't have framed it like that when he was shooting....perhaps this was shot 1.37 and matted? But that doesn't make sense because the DVD said the fullscreen version was pan and scanned...." So, later that evening in a bout of indigestion I took a look at the fullscreen/standard version of the movie and look at what I found:
Aha! It was shot 1.37 and matted for widescreen!!! But this was just the title sequence, so maybe the rest of the DVD was pan and scanned from the 1.85 version. It's a possibility, right? I did a little more digging. Well.....
And....
So here's the deal. Clearly this isn't a pan and scan version of the movie, so why is the DVD menu saying that it is? AND the disclaimer before the film is warning the viewer on the fullscreen/standard version that it's been modified from its original version in that it's been formatted to fit their square TV screen? What bull dropped that on the barnyard floor? It hasn't been reformatted-- it's just been transferred without the mattes on the top and bottom of the frame. This is so misleading and gives people the wrong idea about how fullscreen and widescreen works. So, Polygram Home Video, RIP and thanks for playing, but you totally took your viewers for a ride with this one didn't you?
As I was watching though, something struck me as very odd. This DVD was put out by Polygram USA Video in 1999, clearly before the company went through a series of mergers and became obsolete. That being said, me picking on them is the equivalent of picking on the fence outside my window, but I did want to point out why this DVD became a bee in my bonnet last night.
So in the menu, one gets a choice as many DVDs at the time offered-- standard or widescreen? Meaning, do you want to watch this 1.85:1 or 1.33:1?
Let's look at this picture for a second. The DVD menu is suggesting that if you watch the Widescreen version of the film, there is more image to the left and right than if you watch the Standard version of the film, which looks like it is pan and scanned here.
So we choose Widescreen and the titles start. During this wonderfully executed title sequence of boobs flying all over the place, I notice that in a few shots, the top of the frame seems like heads are missing.
My initial thought is "Hrm, a DP probably wouldn't have framed it like that when he was shooting....perhaps this was shot 1.37 and matted? But that doesn't make sense because the DVD said the fullscreen version was pan and scanned...." So, later that evening in a bout of indigestion I took a look at the fullscreen/standard version of the movie and look at what I found:
Aha! It was shot 1.37 and matted for widescreen!!! But this was just the title sequence, so maybe the rest of the DVD was pan and scanned from the 1.85 version. It's a possibility, right? I did a little more digging. Well.....
And....
So here's the deal. Clearly this isn't a pan and scan version of the movie, so why is the DVD menu saying that it is? AND the disclaimer before the film is warning the viewer on the fullscreen/standard version that it's been modified from its original version in that it's been formatted to fit their square TV screen? What bull dropped that on the barnyard floor? It hasn't been reformatted-- it's just been transferred without the mattes on the top and bottom of the frame. This is so misleading and gives people the wrong idea about how fullscreen and widescreen works. So, Polygram Home Video, RIP and thanks for playing, but you totally took your viewers for a ride with this one didn't you?
Saturday, February 3, 2018
DVD Popularity, or Lack Thereof, in 1997
21 years ago, the technological life of consumers was changed forever: the birth of the DVD-Video.
via GIPHY
Different sources list different titles as the first to be released on DVD. A Google search listed TWISTER in 1997 as the first commercial release, yet on this site the first releases are listed as on December 20, 1996: POINT OF NO RETURN, BLADE RUNNER, ERASER, and THE FUGITIVE. Over the years, we have seen the format grow to include our favorite films, heard controversies by critics on review sites like www.dvdbeaver.com, seen it grow into formats such as Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, and now, of course, seen it start to dwindle and fade away as streaming becomes more mainstream.
People were instantly attracted to the number of special features that were once limited to laserdiscs, its compact nature which made it much cheaper than laserdisc, the clarity of image and sound compared to VHS, and as time went on these other formats were left behind. And yet, as hard as it is to believe, not everyone got on board the DVD Popularity Train when the format started making its way into stores and eventually consumer living rooms. Here were some early arguments people had with the format.
via GIPHY
1) "I DON'T WANT TO SEE BLACK!"
The plus side to DVD was that it was beginning to standardize presenting films in their intended aspect ratios as they would have been seen in theaters. Few people owned a 16x9 television set when DVD came out, so most would see these films in their letterbox formats on their square 4x3 tv sets. While today, a 2.35:1 aspect ratio film presents a thin black line on the top and bottom of a16x9 TV, when DVD first came out, two thirds of the screen (above and below the image of the film) would be black. While it is nice that DVD allowed for the entire film frame to be seen, on the average TV at the time the image would now appear quite small. Also, many people still hadn't grasped the concept of seeing a rectangle in a movie theater vs. a square when they were in their homes and thought that there was more magical image above the frame line that didn't exist. They didn't understand that the image was getting cropped to the left and right of what would fit on their TV.
Of course, if you read this blog's PORKY'S article, you would have learned about the open matte 1.85 films, which did have a 4x3 image that was now being matted for DVD. Here's another example-- the fullscreen vs. widescreen versions of GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER, available on Sony Home Entertainment:
Years later, people are still arguing about how their DVDs for CARRIE and PORKY'S are censored because their is less nudity than on their old VHS tapes, not understanding that the nudity was always cropped from the widescreen image. Thankfully, by the turn of the century, 16x9 TVs were becoming more commonplace, people were understanding how aspect ratios worked, and things calmed down.
2) "I CAN'T TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THIS AND VHS"
via GIPHY
I get it, the first reaction I would have too is "Are you vision impaired?", but believe it or not, this was a legitimate argument for many consumers at that time. The average TV still operated with tube technology-- the image it produced was soft, yet bright, so that whether you were watching network TV, HBO, a laserdisc, or a VHS tape, the image was similar. Of course, with a VHS recorded in SLP mode or that was a dub of another tape, one would see anomalies, but if one was looking at a consumer VHS vs. a consumer DVD on the average 1990s TV, the difference in quality was only slightly different due to the technological limitations of the TV....and most certainly not worth repurchasing one's entire home video collection. A good sounding Hi-Fi track could suit the needs of the small speaker on a 1990s TV the same way that a DVD could. In fact, because the VHS tapes were mixed specifically for those TVs and DVDs tended to be mixed more for 5.1 surround systems, chances are the average consumer would have a better audio experience with the VHS than the DVD.
3) "TOO FRAGILE"
VHS was an incredibly durable format-- beyond the Hi-Fi track going, which we discussed earlier. If there was a section that was damaged by a machine, there would be a few seconds of bad video (still viewable in most cases), and the tape would chug through and get a better signal. Usually, it does not take more than a minute for VHS to clear itself from audiovisual issues, which tend to be no more than some green and white dropout lines scrolling over the screen and the audio fading in and out.
via GIPHY
Hence, people were a little rougher with VHS tapes. They didn't need to obsess keeping them in their sleeves, worry about dropping them, etc. DVDs on the other hand were much more fragile due to not just the technology, but the size. A smudge of a fingerprint could make a DVD freeze. A 1/2" scratch, if it is deep enough, could ruin an entire 20 minutes of program for the viewer permanently. And one couldn't simply sit through and still make out what was going on during this bad portion like they could with VHS dropout lines. Now, the entire disc would stop working and the consumer had to hope that turning the machine off and on again would resolve the problem, which would then result in them needing to start the program over and skip to where the problem existed and hopefully to where it resolved itself...which leads into our next problem people had with the format.
4) "I CAN'T START WHERE I LEFT OFF"
via GIPHY
Today, most DVD players can resume where one leaves off on a disc when they turn their players back on after powering it off, but this was a feature that was only on more expensive DVD players when the format was first introduced. This means that if someone watched half of a movie and wanted to return to it at a later time, they would have to find where this moment was, either by skipping through the chapters in the film or by using the menus, which were hard to navigate. This leads us to our last complaint.......
5) "HOW DO I WORK THIS DARN THING?"
via GIPHY
Today, we live in an age where technology is much more a part of our lives than it was back in 1997. At that time, only 36% of Americans had a computer in their home according to the US Census. VHS tapes were pretty self-explanatory in how they worked. By putting a commercial tape in a machine, it would start automatically. There were a handful of buttons one needed to operate a commercial tape-- Play, Fast Forward, Rewind, Stop, Pause, and Eject. Then came DVD with its FBI warnings that one couldn't skip, its menus that required a little bit of a technological background to get around, and the many different features of a disc (sound, subtitles, different versions) that required navigation-- all a bit much for a population that hadn't necessarily all been exposed to a home computer on a regular basis. For people who didn't want to "see black" and wanted to watch the film full screen (a 1.33 aspect ratio for 4x3 TVs), many times two sided discs were available, one with the full screen version, one with the widescreen. Whether side A or B had a specific version was never standardized, meaning the customer was obligated to squint and look at the tiny writing on the disc to determine which side they wanted to see. This being said, if a film was longer, in the early days of DVD both sides of a disc were used to fit the entire program on it (i.e. ROBIN HOOD PRINCE OF THIEVES).
via GIPHY
It may seem puzzling for people today that there was a time when people thumbed their noses at the DVD format. After it took off it very quickly wiped out the VHS market and forced studios to go through a restoration and remastering process of their libraries to get the films ready for the new format. It standardized how the consumer watched movies until Bluray and streaming began taking over. As the days of DVDs wane and we begin to look at this format nostalgically, let us not forget to tip our hats to those who noticed the flaws and suffered through the early days...and hope that they have now embraced DVD as we all have.
via GIPHY
Different sources list different titles as the first to be released on DVD. A Google search listed TWISTER in 1997 as the first commercial release, yet on this site the first releases are listed as on December 20, 1996: POINT OF NO RETURN, BLADE RUNNER, ERASER, and THE FUGITIVE. Over the years, we have seen the format grow to include our favorite films, heard controversies by critics on review sites like www.dvdbeaver.com, seen it grow into formats such as Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, and now, of course, seen it start to dwindle and fade away as streaming becomes more mainstream.
People were instantly attracted to the number of special features that were once limited to laserdiscs, its compact nature which made it much cheaper than laserdisc, the clarity of image and sound compared to VHS, and as time went on these other formats were left behind. And yet, as hard as it is to believe, not everyone got on board the DVD Popularity Train when the format started making its way into stores and eventually consumer living rooms. Here were some early arguments people had with the format.
via GIPHY
1) "I DON'T WANT TO SEE BLACK!"
The plus side to DVD was that it was beginning to standardize presenting films in their intended aspect ratios as they would have been seen in theaters. Few people owned a 16x9 television set when DVD came out, so most would see these films in their letterbox formats on their square 4x3 tv sets. While today, a 2.35:1 aspect ratio film presents a thin black line on the top and bottom of a16x9 TV, when DVD first came out, two thirds of the screen (above and below the image of the film) would be black. While it is nice that DVD allowed for the entire film frame to be seen, on the average TV at the time the image would now appear quite small. Also, many people still hadn't grasped the concept of seeing a rectangle in a movie theater vs. a square when they were in their homes and thought that there was more magical image above the frame line that didn't exist. They didn't understand that the image was getting cropped to the left and right of what would fit on their TV.
Of course, if you read this blog's PORKY'S article, you would have learned about the open matte 1.85 films, which did have a 4x3 image that was now being matted for DVD. Here's another example-- the fullscreen vs. widescreen versions of GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER, available on Sony Home Entertainment:
Years later, people are still arguing about how their DVDs for CARRIE and PORKY'S are censored because their is less nudity than on their old VHS tapes, not understanding that the nudity was always cropped from the widescreen image. Thankfully, by the turn of the century, 16x9 TVs were becoming more commonplace, people were understanding how aspect ratios worked, and things calmed down.
2) "I CAN'T TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THIS AND VHS"
via GIPHY
I get it, the first reaction I would have too is "Are you vision impaired?", but believe it or not, this was a legitimate argument for many consumers at that time. The average TV still operated with tube technology-- the image it produced was soft, yet bright, so that whether you were watching network TV, HBO, a laserdisc, or a VHS tape, the image was similar. Of course, with a VHS recorded in SLP mode or that was a dub of another tape, one would see anomalies, but if one was looking at a consumer VHS vs. a consumer DVD on the average 1990s TV, the difference in quality was only slightly different due to the technological limitations of the TV....and most certainly not worth repurchasing one's entire home video collection. A good sounding Hi-Fi track could suit the needs of the small speaker on a 1990s TV the same way that a DVD could. In fact, because the VHS tapes were mixed specifically for those TVs and DVDs tended to be mixed more for 5.1 surround systems, chances are the average consumer would have a better audio experience with the VHS than the DVD.
3) "TOO FRAGILE"
VHS was an incredibly durable format-- beyond the Hi-Fi track going, which we discussed earlier. If there was a section that was damaged by a machine, there would be a few seconds of bad video (still viewable in most cases), and the tape would chug through and get a better signal. Usually, it does not take more than a minute for VHS to clear itself from audiovisual issues, which tend to be no more than some green and white dropout lines scrolling over the screen and the audio fading in and out.
via GIPHY
Hence, people were a little rougher with VHS tapes. They didn't need to obsess keeping them in their sleeves, worry about dropping them, etc. DVDs on the other hand were much more fragile due to not just the technology, but the size. A smudge of a fingerprint could make a DVD freeze. A 1/2" scratch, if it is deep enough, could ruin an entire 20 minutes of program for the viewer permanently. And one couldn't simply sit through and still make out what was going on during this bad portion like they could with VHS dropout lines. Now, the entire disc would stop working and the consumer had to hope that turning the machine off and on again would resolve the problem, which would then result in them needing to start the program over and skip to where the problem existed and hopefully to where it resolved itself...which leads into our next problem people had with the format.
4) "I CAN'T START WHERE I LEFT OFF"
via GIPHY
Today, most DVD players can resume where one leaves off on a disc when they turn their players back on after powering it off, but this was a feature that was only on more expensive DVD players when the format was first introduced. This means that if someone watched half of a movie and wanted to return to it at a later time, they would have to find where this moment was, either by skipping through the chapters in the film or by using the menus, which were hard to navigate. This leads us to our last complaint.......
5) "HOW DO I WORK THIS DARN THING?"
via GIPHY
Today, we live in an age where technology is much more a part of our lives than it was back in 1997. At that time, only 36% of Americans had a computer in their home according to the US Census. VHS tapes were pretty self-explanatory in how they worked. By putting a commercial tape in a machine, it would start automatically. There were a handful of buttons one needed to operate a commercial tape-- Play, Fast Forward, Rewind, Stop, Pause, and Eject. Then came DVD with its FBI warnings that one couldn't skip, its menus that required a little bit of a technological background to get around, and the many different features of a disc (sound, subtitles, different versions) that required navigation-- all a bit much for a population that hadn't necessarily all been exposed to a home computer on a regular basis. For people who didn't want to "see black" and wanted to watch the film full screen (a 1.33 aspect ratio for 4x3 TVs), many times two sided discs were available, one with the full screen version, one with the widescreen. Whether side A or B had a specific version was never standardized, meaning the customer was obligated to squint and look at the tiny writing on the disc to determine which side they wanted to see. This being said, if a film was longer, in the early days of DVD both sides of a disc were used to fit the entire program on it (i.e. ROBIN HOOD PRINCE OF THIEVES).
via GIPHY
It may seem puzzling for people today that there was a time when people thumbed their noses at the DVD format. After it took off it very quickly wiped out the VHS market and forced studios to go through a restoration and remastering process of their libraries to get the films ready for the new format. It standardized how the consumer watched movies until Bluray and streaming began taking over. As the days of DVDs wane and we begin to look at this format nostalgically, let us not forget to tip our hats to those who noticed the flaws and suffered through the early days...and hope that they have now embraced DVD as we all have.
Sunday, October 29, 2017
2017 Annual Dusk Til Dawn Horrorthon
Fall is such an interesting time to be in Los Angeles. We don't get the autumnal changing of leaves, different varieties of corn andapples don't blossom into our supermarkets like they do in the midwest, and flannel shirts don't run rampant due to the lack of weather changing. We do however, take our Halloween season very seriously. The repertory film circuit is the perfect example. Screenings of horror classics run regularly throughout the month of October, and two theaters, the New Beverly Cinema and the Aero Theater (part of the American Cinematheque) do their own all night horror film marathons! The Aero's Dusk Til Dawn Horrorthon, now celebrating its 12th year, has become a staple in the rep film circuit, and how could anyone resist?
Seven films are run, this year's lineup being An American Werewolf in London, Popcorn, The Tingler, Hack-O-Lantern, Shocker, Brainscan, and Death Bed: The Bed that Eats. All films were presented on beautiful 35mm prints, with the exception of Death Bed, where only a DCP was available. When I say beautiful, I mean every print had minor scratches, rich color, and rich sound to ensure audience members would be popping out of their seat at just the right moments as the filmmakers had intended. American Werewolf in London, the print that showed the most wear, was a Polydor print from its European release and there are better prints available from Universal Studios (such as the one shown at UCLA in 2013 as a double feature with the 30th anniversary of Thriller) but it would still fall in the Good condition as the scratches were limited to the first few minutes of the reels. The Tingler had some splices during dialogue in it, but it was still as enjoyable as the others with very few vertical lines and a sharp black and white contrast from when it was printed. The print of Shocker was so great that it could have been used as a DVD transfer-- not a single scratch on it and comparable to what one would see on a DCP of a new film.
This year, to avoid tickets selling out in less than 10 minutes as they have in the past, the theater did NOT announce when tickets were going on sale, giving more people time to purchase. As the theater filled around 7:15 (festivities begin promptly at 7:30 to ensure people are let out at a reasonable hour), people pulled out their blankets, pillows, libations, and candy, getting ready to snuggle with some horror classics. Each film began with Grant, the master of ceremonies, energizing his audience, throwing candy and DVDs into the crowds, and bringing out classic characters that were created especially for the event. Candy Randy runs throughout the audience throwing fun size packs of candy, and Corn Gorn is a man in a Gorn Star Trek costume who runs around with a giant corn on the cobb.
Then begins the filler entertainment, which can be silly and a bit repetitive but was well reigned in this year. Silly commercials, videos of Star Trek and TJ Hooker, and a bizarre music video by porn star turned disco star Dennis Parker, for example, will run for about 20 minutes to get the viewer engaged with the screen for the next horror film. As the films run, the audience might scream, cheer, boo, or even heckle the screen during silly parts of films, such as Hack-O-Lantern, which was so terrible it was entertainingly humorous, or Popcorn, an over-the-top film that was about a horror-thon that goes awry when people start getting murdered. In this film, for example, when an ugly college kid tries to disgustingly flirt with the protagonist, a guy near the front of the theater yelled "Swipe Left!", a reference to the dating app Tinder, which sent the audience into hysterics. Instead of chiding the audience for this when it could potentially get out of hand, by the time Shocker started, a head volunteer yelled "No heckling this one guys, this is Wes Craven," which was prompted by applause by the same audience as they agreed the mood was about to change.
The staff at the Aero were so generous to open their home to audience members at a price that they could afford but by no means gave the theater a profit: a mere $25 not only paid for my admission for seven films in a row, but also ample amounts of pizza, candy, coffee, and other snacks. During slower parts of the films, volunteers came through the aisles offering "Soylent Pizza", which was really just Little Caeser's pizza, to patrons. When an unfortunate flood hit the concession stand a few hours into the marathon, the staff managed to call a company to fix the problem, and reopened concessions within a reasonable time. Leaving the theater it looked like a war zone, with wrappers, popcorn, cups, and lids tossed all along the seats and aisles, but everyone seemed to have a wonderful time. Thank you again to the American Cinematheque for giving its community of Angelenos an evening that they will always remember.
You can check out more events by the Aero and its sister theater the Egyptian at www.americancinematheque.com.
Seven films are run, this year's lineup being An American Werewolf in London, Popcorn, The Tingler, Hack-O-Lantern, Shocker, Brainscan, and Death Bed: The Bed that Eats. All films were presented on beautiful 35mm prints, with the exception of Death Bed, where only a DCP was available. When I say beautiful, I mean every print had minor scratches, rich color, and rich sound to ensure audience members would be popping out of their seat at just the right moments as the filmmakers had intended. American Werewolf in London, the print that showed the most wear, was a Polydor print from its European release and there are better prints available from Universal Studios (such as the one shown at UCLA in 2013 as a double feature with the 30th anniversary of Thriller) but it would still fall in the Good condition as the scratches were limited to the first few minutes of the reels. The Tingler had some splices during dialogue in it, but it was still as enjoyable as the others with very few vertical lines and a sharp black and white contrast from when it was printed. The print of Shocker was so great that it could have been used as a DVD transfer-- not a single scratch on it and comparable to what one would see on a DCP of a new film.
This year, to avoid tickets selling out in less than 10 minutes as they have in the past, the theater did NOT announce when tickets were going on sale, giving more people time to purchase. As the theater filled around 7:15 (festivities begin promptly at 7:30 to ensure people are let out at a reasonable hour), people pulled out their blankets, pillows, libations, and candy, getting ready to snuggle with some horror classics. Each film began with Grant, the master of ceremonies, energizing his audience, throwing candy and DVDs into the crowds, and bringing out classic characters that were created especially for the event. Candy Randy runs throughout the audience throwing fun size packs of candy, and Corn Gorn is a man in a Gorn Star Trek costume who runs around with a giant corn on the cobb.
Then begins the filler entertainment, which can be silly and a bit repetitive but was well reigned in this year. Silly commercials, videos of Star Trek and TJ Hooker, and a bizarre music video by porn star turned disco star Dennis Parker, for example, will run for about 20 minutes to get the viewer engaged with the screen for the next horror film. As the films run, the audience might scream, cheer, boo, or even heckle the screen during silly parts of films, such as Hack-O-Lantern, which was so terrible it was entertainingly humorous, or Popcorn, an over-the-top film that was about a horror-thon that goes awry when people start getting murdered. In this film, for example, when an ugly college kid tries to disgustingly flirt with the protagonist, a guy near the front of the theater yelled "Swipe Left!", a reference to the dating app Tinder, which sent the audience into hysterics. Instead of chiding the audience for this when it could potentially get out of hand, by the time Shocker started, a head volunteer yelled "No heckling this one guys, this is Wes Craven," which was prompted by applause by the same audience as they agreed the mood was about to change.
The staff at the Aero were so generous to open their home to audience members at a price that they could afford but by no means gave the theater a profit: a mere $25 not only paid for my admission for seven films in a row, but also ample amounts of pizza, candy, coffee, and other snacks. During slower parts of the films, volunteers came through the aisles offering "Soylent Pizza", which was really just Little Caeser's pizza, to patrons. When an unfortunate flood hit the concession stand a few hours into the marathon, the staff managed to call a company to fix the problem, and reopened concessions within a reasonable time. Leaving the theater it looked like a war zone, with wrappers, popcorn, cups, and lids tossed all along the seats and aisles, but everyone seemed to have a wonderful time. Thank you again to the American Cinematheque for giving its community of Angelenos an evening that they will always remember.
You can check out more events by the Aero and its sister theater the Egyptian at www.americancinematheque.com.
Sunday, October 15, 2017
The Magic of Home Movie Day
There are many things I love about being a media archivist, but one of my absolute favorite annual events is Home Movie Day. What is Home Movie Day might you ask? Well, it is just that-- an event where people all around the world can bring their home movies on an array of formats (depending on what type the venue supports) and have them run before an audience, almost like a show-and-tell. Local archivists generally host it and can give patrons information on how to store their films properly, have them digitized affordably to a format they support, and also help them with repairing the movies depending on the kind of format they come on.
Historically, Home Movie Day was annually hosted on 8/16 because before VHS, home movies were generally shot on 8mm, Super 8mm, and 16mm film. As time has gone on, VHS has become more and more rare in people's homes and harder to play back, so institutions have started to include this and other supporting formats such as VHS-C (a VHS cartridge that held a mini VHS inside of it and fit into a standard VCR) and Hi-8. The date has also become flexible so that cities that want to participate don't feel restrained to participating on a specific day and can allow people all over their communities to join in on the fun.
Los Angeles Home Movie Day is hosted in different locations every year. This year (2017) it will be held twice. Once was last Saturday (10/7/17) at the Linwood Dunn Theater inside of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Vine Street location. The other will be this coming Saturday (10/21/17) at the University of Southern California Archives Bazaar. While the event last week was limited to film formats due to the venue, the Archives Bazaar will include video formats.
Still not convinced that this upcoming event is for you? Let me give you a rundown of how Home Movie Day worked last week and has historically in Los Angeles. When a patron enters the venue, he or she is given a piece of paper to fill out with general information, including their name, what their home movie contains, and what format it is. Their home movie is placed in a queue based on when they arrived and taken to a team of volunteer archivists. If the home movie is a film, the team winds through it, checking for any rips, tears, deterioration, etc., that may prevent the film from being run, and then has it passed off to projectionists inside the theater who are then in charge of running it.
When it becomes the patron's turn to have their film or video run, they are given a microphone to narrate over the film and share what is being seen. This can be an array from Christmases to weddings, to trips to Vegas, to barbecues in the backyard. Some people remember what they are seeing, some people found the film in their Nana's attic. Some even bring films that they've gotten on Ebay or at thrift stores! As long as it's someone's home movie, it is welcome. There are tears from time to time, some in sorrow at seeing a loved one that has passed, others laughing when there is footage of Grandpa Weissberger doing the chicken dance at a party. Historically, this event provides something for the community as well, however.
The images captured in a home movie capture a natural moment in time. There are no sets, no props, no staged performers (unless you count the amateur ballet recitals of your mother when she was 5). The moments are a historic portrayal of life at a certain time in our history, whenever it may be. And while people get a kick out of seeing footage of the 1964 World's Fair or Knott's Berry Farm before it was a big tourist trap and beehive haircuts next to jello mold salads loaded with carrot, the main thing people seem to love is watching the interactions of family members and realizing that while the moving image has been around for over a century, the love of family remains universal in all the images shared.
Please check out your local home movie day. You can find your local one here: http://www.centerforhomemovies.org/hmd/ and it goes without saying that even if you don't have a home movie to bring, you are in for a treat of an afternoon.
Historically, Home Movie Day was annually hosted on 8/16 because before VHS, home movies were generally shot on 8mm, Super 8mm, and 16mm film. As time has gone on, VHS has become more and more rare in people's homes and harder to play back, so institutions have started to include this and other supporting formats such as VHS-C (a VHS cartridge that held a mini VHS inside of it and fit into a standard VCR) and Hi-8. The date has also become flexible so that cities that want to participate don't feel restrained to participating on a specific day and can allow people all over their communities to join in on the fun.
Los Angeles Home Movie Day is hosted in different locations every year. This year (2017) it will be held twice. Once was last Saturday (10/7/17) at the Linwood Dunn Theater inside of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Vine Street location. The other will be this coming Saturday (10/21/17) at the University of Southern California Archives Bazaar. While the event last week was limited to film formats due to the venue, the Archives Bazaar will include video formats.
Still not convinced that this upcoming event is for you? Let me give you a rundown of how Home Movie Day worked last week and has historically in Los Angeles. When a patron enters the venue, he or she is given a piece of paper to fill out with general information, including their name, what their home movie contains, and what format it is. Their home movie is placed in a queue based on when they arrived and taken to a team of volunteer archivists. If the home movie is a film, the team winds through it, checking for any rips, tears, deterioration, etc., that may prevent the film from being run, and then has it passed off to projectionists inside the theater who are then in charge of running it.
When it becomes the patron's turn to have their film or video run, they are given a microphone to narrate over the film and share what is being seen. This can be an array from Christmases to weddings, to trips to Vegas, to barbecues in the backyard. Some people remember what they are seeing, some people found the film in their Nana's attic. Some even bring films that they've gotten on Ebay or at thrift stores! As long as it's someone's home movie, it is welcome. There are tears from time to time, some in sorrow at seeing a loved one that has passed, others laughing when there is footage of Grandpa Weissberger doing the chicken dance at a party. Historically, this event provides something for the community as well, however.
The images captured in a home movie capture a natural moment in time. There are no sets, no props, no staged performers (unless you count the amateur ballet recitals of your mother when she was 5). The moments are a historic portrayal of life at a certain time in our history, whenever it may be. And while people get a kick out of seeing footage of the 1964 World's Fair or Knott's Berry Farm before it was a big tourist trap and beehive haircuts next to jello mold salads loaded with carrot, the main thing people seem to love is watching the interactions of family members and realizing that while the moving image has been around for over a century, the love of family remains universal in all the images shared.
Please check out your local home movie day. You can find your local one here: http://www.centerforhomemovies.org/hmd/ and it goes without saying that even if you don't have a home movie to bring, you are in for a treat of an afternoon.
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