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TV on DVD:  Will 2006 Deliver More Of The Classics?

“Update Spring 2012!”

 

 

With TV on Blu-ray rolling out nicely for old and new series, mini-series and telefilms, it is still amazing so much TV on DVD has still not been issued, so we decided to check back on this essay from the beginning of 2006 to see what did and did not materialize on DVD by updating it again.  Out of our hoped-for selections, not as many as expected.  We have included italicized notes and links in the few cases it is applicable…

 

 

When DVD first arrived, it was enough the studios had not unanimously supported it.  As they eventually did, they seemed to think only motion pictures and some niche titles would be the only kinds of titles to sell.  After Music on DVD (concerts, Music Videos, et al) shocked them all and became a boom market, it was not long before TV followed, though that was a more recent development and the big growth sector in 2005.  2006 continued that trend, but the switch to HD has mixed up what is being released three years later.  Any analog low-definition, videotaped show really needs to be issued now.  In those particular cases, arrivals are now taking way too long…

 

 

For the latest, go to this link:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/essay/11577/TV+on+DVD:++Will+2006+Deliver+M

 

 

Should You Pay Top Dollar For Bad Digital Projection In A Theater?  Beware At Your Local Cineplex!!!

 

Well they may not all be equally bad, but if it was not bad enough too many places could not focus a film print correctly, the switchover from 35mm film prints to not-always-great digital projection should have made everything easier and pre-adjusted so there were no issues.  But one of the most untold stories of late has been how many places are doing a sloppy job of showing current films, whether they are shot in film (so many still are), any kind of HD or a combination of both.

 

Considering ticket prices are at record highs and even higher if you go for 3D, IMAX or a combination of both, everything should look and sound better than ever, right?  Wrong!  Not all digital projectors are created equal, many installations are not projecting the image properly due to a lack of calibration and some digital copies, through things like degradation, are not ready on opening night or even earlier for promo/press screenings.

 

The industry is not discussing this much, but it is a continuing situation and the complaints are growing.  Many assume customers will not complain, but if they do not do that, then they are staying away.  Why?  Because they had a bad time at the movies whether they admit it up front or not, which along with a record number of really bad films is why box office is at major lows for the first time in almost 20 years.  Who wants to get ripped off?  Who wants to pay high prices when they can stay home and watch pay/cable/satellite or look at a Blu-ray (now in 25%+ of U.S. homes and even bigger in other countries like Germany) or DVD (as prominent as ever)?

 

This result has Hollywood is losing its usually reliable demographics and it is amusing and sad when I hear executives who are behind a record number or remakes, reboots, reimaginings, formula, silly franchises and dumb ideas actually seem shocked that no one is showing up to pay big money to waste their time.

 

That now-major switch to digital from film is happening not because the digital is better, but because Hollywood can save hundreds of millions of dollars on film prints, yet charge you the same or more money.  Too bad the films are worse than ever save a few name titles.  In reality, the projectors (save 3D to some extent) are usually not great and the studios have switched too soon to digital, so they should expect a few more years of low ticket sales until the technology and films get better.  If not, they had better hang on and expect a long dry spell.  Overseas money, megahits and home video will only do so much to offset this.

 

Sure, not all 35mm film prints were created equal either.  For all the great dye-transfer Technicolor prints, 70mm prints, IMAX 70mm prints and other large frame and specialty prints that would be made of films, others were thinner copies, had lesser color and slasher films in particular would have such a limited run that one executive used to refer to the prints they were issued on as “tissue paper”.

 

Next time you are at the movies, double check to see if you are getting your moneys worth.  If not, complain and find another place to spend your money.  Even some IMAX theaters are moving from 70mm prints to digital and they look poor too.  Too many in the business hope you will not notice, but you deserve better than that.  We here at the site think you do too.

 

 

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Thank you for visiting (and in many cases, returning) to our ever-expanding independent coverage of film, music & TV on Blu-ray and DVD, plus older formats like CDs and newer ones like SA-CD and Blu-ray 3D; a site that is now over 8½ (couldn’t resist the Fellini reference) years old thanks to all of you.  Your input is always appreciated and we thank you for your support.  For 3D fans, here is the link to our ever-expanding list of Blu-ray 3D titles in the format and most of them so far have offered pleasant surprises:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11274/Blu-ray+3D+Reviews+List

 

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Core Media House re-releases Somerhill songs

 

‘Free Your Mind (Tara Na)’ and ‘Today or Tomorrow’ feature new artwork and are available at Amazon, CD Baby, iTunes, and other Internet retailers.

 

Core Media House L.L.C. has re-released Free Your Mind (Tara Na) and Today or Tomorrow, both performed by Somerhill.  The re-released songs feature new artwork consisting of photography by Charles Constantino.  Free Your Mind (Tara Na) features a photograph of a sketch by Melinda Patterson.  Free Your Mind (Tara Na) and Today or Tomorrow are available at Amazon, CD Baby, iTunes, and other Internet retailers.

 

Click here to listen to a clip of Free Your Mind (Tara Na).

 

Click here to listen to a clip of Today or Tomorrow.

 

Somerhill is Chad Gontkovic, Greg Kehl, and Bill Rose.  Winner of the 2006 Rockin’ in the Valley original-music contest held by Our Town, Somerhill was the closing act for American Idol finalist Chris Daughtry in March 2007 in PittsburghThe Recording Academy selected Free Your Mind (Tara Na) and Today or Tomorrow for inclusion on the 52nd Grammy Entry List in the categories of Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals and Best Rock Song.   

 

Charles Constantino and Chad Gontkovic wrote the lyrics for Free Your Mind (Tara Na).  Constantino enlisted singer Isabel Granada to translate “Let’s go” to “Tara na” in the Tagalog language of the Philippines for the song.  Granada received the 1998 FAMAS Award for Best Supporting Actress and joined the cast of Survivor Philippines: Celebrity Doubles Showdown, which premiered in November 2011.  William Rose and Charles Constantino wrote the music for Free Your Mind (Tara Na) and the lyrics and music for Today or Tomorrow.

 

Core Media House cofounder Charles Constantino mixed and produced Free Your Mind (Tara Na) and Today or Tomorrow, both of which were digitally tracked, mixed and mastered at 24 bits/96 kilohertz.  Charles Constantino Publishing—a member of ASCAP, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers—is the exclusive publisher of Free Your Mind (Tara Na) and Today or TomorrowCharles Constantino Publishing is also the exclusive publisher of the catalog of original songs released on Core808, the California-based record label and multimedia-production company.

 

Click here to request additional information.

 

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Click here for a PDF version of the preceding press release,

“Core Media House re-releases Somerhill songs.”

 

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Besides our constantly changing sidebar highlighting the best new discs available, we have a master list of key Blu-ray titles we originally updated often, but will now use as a guide to the best early releases so fans and collectors can catch up.  The link to these highlights can be found at this link:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4249/Highlights+of+software

 

 

You can also put “Blu-ray” in our search engine for the latest coverage of software releases, at over 1,700 titles alone (including many single texts with more than one Blu-ray release and the new Blu-ray 3D format as noted above) and counting including import titles you will not hear about or read about anywhere else and likely would want to add to your collection.  Keep checking in (and on our sidebar) for exclusive analysis of all the latest releases, including many that most other sites and magazines have not covered!

 

 

As we always say, we offer a rich, alternative website for Blu-ray, DVD, book and film coverage that extends to music and television; we are in our seventh year and invite you to search for anything you are interested in.  Based in the United States, we search for the bets material anywhere in the world we can find it, so you can find it.  At this point, you are likely to find something on just about anything you can think up.………….

 

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We would like to thank all those who have been ordering products from AMAZON.COM because of the work on this site.  We appreciate it, glad we are encouraging you to do it and want you to know it supports the site.  All purchases are appreciated.

 

Thank you!

 

 

 

The Best Film Magazine On The Market!

 

 

Though it is hard to argue the importance of film publications like American Cinematographer, Indie Slate, Cineaste or Moviemaker and what they deliver, but so much of film history and production is not being covered properly or of key films that deserve whole new audiences.  If you love film, you’ll love the new hit magazine Cinema Retro, which is getting bigger and bigger.  You may want to see about subscribing now while supplies last on the latest issue.   You can visit their site at:

 

www.CinemaRetro.com

 

 

“CINEMA RETRO" IS THE NEW MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO CLASSIC & CULT FILMS OF THE '60S & '70S. WRITTEN ABOUT AND BY THE ACTORS & FILMMAKERS OF THE ERA. EVERY ISSUE A LIMITED EDITION COLLECTOR'S ITEM!

 

 

Their site offers film news you cannot even find on IMDb, Variety, Deadline Hollywood, The Wrap or The Hollywood Reporter websites.  Then there is their amazing magazine, one of the best of its kind on the entire market and a must for any serious film fan, so good that many issues are selling out.  One of the best issues yet, ISSUE #23 includes:

  • Coverage of the Bond in Motion exhibition in England – the largest single collection of original 007 vehicles ever displayed. We take you inside the gala press event that opened the exhibit.
  • Dean Brierly analyzes the criminally underrated crime thriller The Night of the Following Day starring Marlon Brando and Richard Boone
  • Roland Schaefli pays tribute to the John Wayne-Howard Hawks adventure Hatari! and takes us on a visit to the African locations as they are today
  • Tim Graves celebrates the excellent, but little-remembered psychic thriller Games starring James Caan and Katharine Ross.
  • Adrian Smith examines the British sex films of the 60s and 70s- and how film companies battled the censors to sneak in as many "tits and bums" as possible
  • Elvis on the Back Lot: Dean Sills looks back on The King's Hollywood hits- and how infrequently the exotic locations were actually filmed on location
  • Raymond Benson looks at the best films of 1982
  • Lee Pfeiffer takes a second look at the Italian Western A Minute To Pray, A Second to Die starring Alex Cord and Robert Ryan
  • Gareth Owen revisits the filming of The Slipper and the Rose at Pinewood Studios
  • Dave Worrall looks at the films that depicted the legendary raid on Entebbe and takes us back in time to the filming of Disney's Candleshoe through unseen on-set photos

Plus the usual extensive news about film-related books and hard-to-find DVDs. And that is just a single issue!!!

 

Contact the producers and get any issue to see for yourself.  By the way, back issues are running out as the magazine expands and does so worldwide.

 

They also have an amazing one-shot limited edition issue on the underrated thriller Kelly’s Heroes is available while supplies last (their amazing issue on Where Eagles Dare already sold out) and an equally terrific second edition on the Sergio Leone/Clint Eastwood “Man With No Name” Trilogy (A Fistful Of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More, The Good The Bad & The Ugly) with all kinds of rare stills, text and other items that make them serious collector’s items, so be sure to check things out over there if you love movies.

 

 

In the meantime, FulvueDrive-in.com continues to be about providing the most direct, expert, detailed (without ruining anything for first time viewers and listeners, as we are not into spoilers), informative, fun, bold, vital information we can come up with.  That fun, yet College-level and all accessible way in which we cover material here benefit all our readers.  Some of them are getting the hang of our technical section, but others are starting to catch on.  We are doing our best to stay on top of the latest releases and what is happening or being released that you may not have heard about.  If it is something you know about, we will likely have information and observations you will get nowhere else.

 

 

Now for some other sites worth checking out…

 

High Def Disc News is a Blu-ray-only website with reviews and more run by Justin Sluss running for over 5 years now loaded with a surprisingly large number of reviews and news items.  They are one of the best and most uncompromising independent sources and they are not just recommending anything like a bunch of “fanboys”, which extends to their staff.  See more at http://www.highdefdiscnews.com/

 

 

Our writer Dante Ciampaglia’s Crazy From The Heat blog is always worth checking out for comments on film, media and the world at large.  You can read him up at:

 

http://ciampaglia.typepad.com/crazedheat/

 

 

Daniel Johnson also has a solid movie blog.  He is a fine writer and implores “For amazing movie articles, crazy cinematic lists, and riveting reviews go to Film Babble Blog!"  The link is:

 

http://filmbabble.blogspot.com/

 

 

If you are interested in wild, wacky productions or something more ambitious and serious, you can check out the new website for Stone Phoenix Productions.  We figured it was worth including instead of the usual review and theory coverage:

 

http://www.stone-phoenix.com/

 

 

Continuing their winning ways is DVDBeaver, a site that covers Blu-rays, DVDs and films from all over the world like no other, and is one of the only other sites besides ours to do so.  Their link is:

 

www.DVDBeaver.com

 

We believe that we are one of the few sites that manage to cover both the technical parts of filmmaking, as well as the content and form of the films themselves more thoroughly than you would usually find on other sites or in print.  They have reviews as well, but our favorite section is their ever-growing Blu-ray/DVD Comparisons section, which features very technical details on several versions of a given film.  Often, they are even from different DVD Regions and Blu-ray regions, but they are always accompanied by still images from each DVD covered.  Gary W. Tooze’s site is everything the net is supposed to deliver and we will be adding anything we can to contribute to their efforts as they do ours.

 

www.cinegeek.com is run by Stephen Lackey and has its own love of anything Sci-Fi, Horror, Fantasy or Cult.  The web needs more alternative sites like this, so be sure to visit them.

 

 

-- The Management


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