Fantastic news re: Vol 2.Matt wrote:Volume 2 and Blu-ray set of both volumes announced.
So.....um.....am I the only one here who questions what Blu will do (enhancementwise) for MOST Brakhage films? (Of course I am!)
Fantastic news re: Vol 2.Matt wrote:Volume 2 and Blu-ray set of both volumes announced.
If the BFI's Jeff Keen set is any guide, the difference will be very noticeable indeed.Noiretirc wrote:So.....um.....am I the only one here who questions what Blu will do (enhancementwise) for MOST Brakhage films? (Of course I am!)
I think it's just you. The difference in resolution is going to be far more crucial for these films than just about anything else Criterion's done on Blu to date. You can read a novel just fine in paperback, but a Jackson Pollock postcard just isn't going to cut it.Noiretirc wrote:So.....um.....am I the only one here who questions what Blu will do (enhancementwise) for MOST Brakhage films? (Of course I am!)
Yeah, definitely. This is probably the most "important" Blu-ray Criterion will release as it (hopefully) will open a door to several other avant-garde filmmakers (like Phil Solomon) to allow their movies to be seen in our home theaters. I know when the by Brakhage Volume 1 DVD set was released, there was much trepidation from avant-garde cinema purists who didn't believe that the lightplay of Brakhage's movies would translate to DVD (in fact, most claimed "video" was the most viable option) but many were pleased with the results. I can't wait to see what the Blu-ray collection looks like, and now I know why I waited to see the Dog Star Man movies.zedz wrote:I think it's just you. The difference in resolution is going to be far more crucial for these films than just about anything else Criterion's done on Blu to date. You can read a novel just fine in paperback, but a Jackson Pollock postcard just isn't going to cut it.Noiretirc wrote:So.....um.....am I the only one here who questions what Blu will do (enhancementwise) for MOST Brakhage films? (Of course I am!)
So Blu can even make Pollock Pollock?zedz wrote:I think it's just you. The difference in resolution is going to be far more crucial for these films than just about anything else Criterion's done on Blu to date. You can read a novel just fine in paperback, but a Jackson Pollock postcard just isn't going to cut it.Noiretirc wrote:So.....um.....am I the only one here who questions what Blu will do (enhancementwise) for MOST Brakhage films? (Of course I am!)
I doubt it, but it'd be closer. So we might end up getting 50% Brakhage rather than 20% with the new release, and that's enough to get me very excited.Noiretirc wrote:So Blu can even make Pollock Pollock?
Based on what I've read about transferring 35mm to high definition video, I'd say that uncompressed 1080p video should provide a fairly close approximation to actual 16mm "resolution," keeping in mind that photographic grain and pixels aren't the same thing. However, Blu-ray necessarily uses compression so you have to factor that in as well.zedz wrote:I doubt it, but it'd be closer. So we might end up getting 50% Brakhage rather than 20% with the new release, and that's enough to get me very excited.Noiretirc wrote:So Blu can even make Pollock Pollock?
Think about what you’re holding in your hand. […] It contains all the sound and images from these films, and the sound and images are all in the correct order, but something is different… and the difference is in the material. These works are originally films, and the medium of film is exactly what dictated the way they are. Some of these elements are inevitably and irretrievably lost in the translation to video and the encoding to DVD. If you look at this disc, you will be seeing a representation of the films but not the films themselves. Your television screen or video projector cannot hope to recreate the quality of light of projected film or the experience of sitting in a darkened room with other spectators. Think of it as a splendid art book with excellent reproductions. Looking at this book we can absorb some of the information contained in the original. We can see the shape and form, sometimes even get a sense of the brushwork, the surface and its depth, but the photographic representations can never replace the experience of standing in front of the original paintings. This DVD is a reference tool, not a replacement for seeing and understanding the films as they are intended to be seen: illuminated by the light of a projector and reflected from a light white screen.
The experience will not be very closely approximated, but at the point of Blu-ray it becomes less a matter of following the diminishing returns of higher resolution and increasing quality and more a matter of a fundamental difference between watching a film on a projector, with all of the flaws of the print, the mechanical oddities of a physical projector, and then for me the atmosphere of a small student movie theater, a handful of pretentious college students around me, and the knowledge that I'm going to have to sit through a boring lecture on the film the next morning. I always liked the essays and notes that accompanied the films, though.Zot! wrote:The experience should be very closely approximated, to a point where the difference is truly negligable. I actually think the blu will be closer to an ideal presentation than a film. The purists will cry murder, but like I said earlier, a film projected on film projector is also is compromised by the environment and equipment. As you say, the stars need to align.
Kids say the darndest things.Nothing wrote: I hear the first Brakhage set sold much better than expected. People like to think of the American 'avant-garde' as, well, avant-garde, but something like Brakhage's oeuvre is actually pretty undemanding in terms of intellectual engagement and patience. Indeed, he fits right in in the You Tube era.
I'm pessimistic - the original By Brakhage was released in 2003, when Criterion's policy was to produce region-free discs unless compelled to do otherwise by the rightsholder. But at some point since then, they've started region-coding absolutely everything, and every single Blu-ray they've ever released has been Region A.Aaron G wrote:Will this Brakhage collection on Blu-Ray be REGION FREE? I noticed my 1st Brakhage DVD is region free, so hopefully the Blu-Ray is. If 'YES' this will signify my first Criterion Blu-Ray purchase.