{"id":13611,"date":"2011-11-29T04:38:54","date_gmt":"2011-11-29T04:38:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/?p=13611"},"modified":"2011-11-29T11:37:14","modified_gmt":"2011-11-29T11:37:14","slug":"martin-scorsese-and-grover-crisp-on-blu-ray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/2011\/11\/29\/martin-scorsese-and-grover-crisp-on-blu-ray\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin Scorsese and Grover Crisp on Blu-ray"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Martin-Scorsese-at-Blu-con.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13613\" title=\"Martin Scorsese at Blu-con\" src=\"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Martin-Scorsese-at-Blu-con.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"560\" height=\"280\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>How far has Blu-ray come as a format since the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Martin_Scorsese\">Martin Scorsese<\/a> keynote address at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.avrev.com\/home-theater-feature-articles\/other\/blu-con-2.0-conference-coverage.html\">Blu-Con 2.0 conference<\/a> in 2009?<\/p>\n<p>Two years ago Scorsese joined the event live via satellite from New York City and his 20-minute address was moderated by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm1582103\/\">Grover Crisp<\/a>, the man in charge of film restoration and digital mastering for Sony Pictures Entertainment.<\/p>\n<p>In the run up to Christmas sales of the home video format will be under renewed scrutiny, but it is worth looking at what was said via video of the event which someone has posted online in three parts:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Part 1<\/strong><\/span>: The history of home video, proper aspect ratios, why the Blu-ray format is superior, Bernard Herrman&#8217;s score for Taxi Driver (for which <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thedigitalbits.com\/articles\/taxidriver\/interview.html\">Crisp oversaw the recent Blu-ray restoration<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/X9d1ZeTPLjk\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Part 2<\/strong><\/span>: They discuss the uncompressed sound of the format, how the rise of DVD drove the restoration of prints and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thedigitalbits.com\/articles\/robertharris\/harris110804.html\">the 4k restoration of Stanley Kubrick&#8217;s Dr. Strangelove<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zuFynGxIiqY\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Part 3<\/strong><\/span>: More on the Dr. Strangelove restoration and the dilemmas involved in doing it, Scorsese&#8217;s favourite film on Blu-ray, whether he considers the Blu-ray release before shooting a film and the benefits to future generations of filmmakers.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/B6gRosXwRsI\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>All this is interesting, not just because Scorsese is such a passionate authority on film, but because there is still is some confusion over the Blu-ray format.<\/p>\n<p>The main problems have been: the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/High_definition_optical_disc_format_war\">needless format war<\/a> which delayed the adoption of the format; mainstream confusion over how it differs from DVD; the costs of upgrading to a player and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/business\/recession\">the recession<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I remember being sceptical about both high-definition disc formats (<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/HD_DVD\">HD-DVD<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Blu-ray_Disc\">Blu-ray<\/a>) when they were given their first major marketing push in the run up to Christmas of 2007.<\/p>\n<p>Was its introduction too soon after DVD?<\/p>\n<p>I was invited to a screening of The Bourne Ultimatum on HD-DVD (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/Bourne-Ultimatum-DVD-Matt-Damon\/dp\/B000WIML3O\">still available on Amazon for some reason<\/a>), projected in a cinema and the three guys there (publicity people mainly, but also a someone from Microsoft, who were involved in the format) were very bullish about why it would succeed and Blu-ray wouldn&#8217;t.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Home-Entertainment-Spending-2009-111.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13618\" title=\"Home Entertainment Spending 2009-11\" src=\"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Home-Entertainment-Spending-2009-111.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"560\" height=\"507\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Two months later in February 2008 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.toshiba.co.jp\/about\/press\/2008_02\/pr1903.htm\">the HD-DVD format was dead<\/a>, as Toshiba (the main electrical company behind the format) couldn&#8217;t sustain the costs after studios and retailers sided with Blu-ray.<\/p>\n<p>During 2008 the cost of Blu-ray discs and systems was still relatively high, even though television was shifting to the HD era and it became hard to actually buy old-style analogue television sets.<\/p>\n<p>The Dark Knight in late 2008 was perhaps the first truly blockbuster disc in the format, even though &#8211; compared to DVD &#8211; overall sales were still sluggish and anecdotally even people in the media I spoke to were confused, sceptical or didn&#8217;t care.<\/p>\n<p>The main misunderstanding I encountered was the worry that DVDs couldn&#8217;t play on a Blu-ray player (they can) and just scepticism about upgrading their equipment.<\/p>\n<p>Even in 2010 The Guardian were <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/film\/filmblog\/2010\/aug\/31\/blu-ray-psycho\">publishing articles<\/a> by writers who didn&#8217;t seem to know what they were talking about, which <a href=\"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/2010\/09\/01\/in-defence-of-blu-ray-the-godfather-psycho\/\">prompted me to write this response<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>At the moment, the adoption of the format is still being hobbled by the resilience of the DVD format (a lot of great titles are still really cheap) and a lingering sense of confusion about Blu-ray outside the home video\/cinephile realm.<\/p>\n<p>There is a three-way split between DVD, Blu-ray and digital downloads (if you include Netflix, iTunes etc) but optical discs might be more resilient than people think.<\/p>\n<p>Although there are analogies with where the music industry was ten years ago, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/2011\/09\/22\/discs-streams-and-dilemmas-netflix-streaming-dvd-blu-ray\/\">recent problems at Netflix<\/a> suggest that the adoption of digital downloads and streaming might be slower than you think.<\/p>\n<p>Which brings us back to Scorsese.<\/p>\n<p>His point that Blu-ray offers the best quality and drives the restoration of classic films (a subject very close to his heart) are good ones and in a year of sequels and remakes at the cinema, releases like Apocalypse Now, Taxi Driver, Ben Hur and The Three Colours Trilogy have been most welcome.<\/p>\n<p>Seeing classic films that have been restored with care and attention is a real joy that reminds you of the craft that originally made them so great.<\/p>\n<p>> <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Blu-ray_Disc\">More on the Blu-ray format at Wikipedia<\/a><br \/>\n> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/category\/dvd-blu-ray\/\">Recent DVD &#038; Blu-ray posts<\/a><br \/>\n> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/2011\/06\/06\/blu-ray-taxi-driver-scorsese-de-niro\/\">Taxi Driver on Blu-ray<\/a><br \/>\n> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/tag\/martin-scorsese\/\">Recent Martin Scorsese posts<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How far has Blu-ray come as a format since the Martin Scorsese keynote address at the Blu-Con 2.0 conference in 2009?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13613,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,11],"tags":[2821,1861],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13611"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}