I do miss the “making of” features that showed behind the scenes but as computers got better and movie execs got cheaper it wasn’t that interesting to just be like “well we did it with a green screen and then in post.” for fucking EVERYTHING…
It was much more fun watching pure artists at their craft making models and explosions and trick camera work for practical effects.
My theory is that practical effects takes a monumental amount of knowledge and skill and as those people got more and more expensive it was cheaper for the vultures to just hire college grad artists and grind them into the ground than pay the union salaries.
My theory is that practical effects takes a monumental amount of knowledge and skill and as those people got more and more expensive it was cheaper for the vultures to just hire college grad artists and grind them into the ground than pay the union salaries.
I think it takes the same amount of knowledge to do well.
But cheap CGI looks better than cheap practical effects. Or it can be made cheaper. Maybe both.
Anyway, even Empire Strikes Back involved using computers for some work. Yep, late 70s’ computers.
It’s not one or another with these.
I think the reason for the drop in quality is moviemaking becoming corporate. Not “owned by corporations” kind of corporate (obviously that too), but “no way to get in without acquaintances or patrons inside” corporate, nepotism.
CGI gives the producers the ability to re-do complex shots over and over again. With practical effects you don’t get to say “That fireball isn’t red enough, make it redder” without a ton of extra work.
You can sort of redden it frame by frame, like they do when colorizing movies. A lot of work, yes.
My point was that a qualified person will do good things with CGI too. It doesn’t have to look worse.
But again, about time spent - for a hobby I can spend hours on making a burning torch look realistic in my POV-Ray scene. For actual work - I suspect they just take available things from enormous libraries of ready meshes, normals, textures, shaders, which sort of fit all cases, but are not perfect. But I haven’t yet even learned to use Blender, so.
Totally agree that qualified people can do good or even great CGI. But the reason everything is CGI these days - and why end credits are getting longer and why budgets are going through the roof while VFX firms are going bankrupt - is because it allows executives to send shots back over and over to get “fixed.”
This is a real problem in the VFX field, and leads to a ton of burnout. They even have a term for it: “Pixel fucked.”
This seems a business problem. Something in the contract should make it impossible to just go on until such a person likes what they get. Maybe pay per time. I dunno.
It is definitely a business problem. I deal with similar sorts of contract work and we always put in clauses about rework and going over time and I’ve got strict restrictions on what work I’m supposed to do. (Actually dealing with this now, honestly. Customer wants extra work done and I need to get approval for it.)
The problem is the VFX firms are at a disadvantage when dealing with studios. The studios have the work and all the lawyers, so they have the power in negotiations. If they studio says do more work and the VFX firm doesn’t they’ll get blackballed and go out of business.
The problem is the VFX firms are at a disadvantage when dealing with studios. The studios have the work and all the lawyers, so they have the power in negotiations. If they studio says do more work and the VFX firm doesn’t they’ll get blackballed and go out of business.
So you’re saying there are greener pastures outside big cinematography?..
Maybe joking, maybe not.
The making of Fury Road is quite fascinating, the bulk of the vehicles and stunts are real. A lot of the Fast and the Furious stunts and vehicles are real as well.
I always loved the behind the scenes for Eternal Sunshine. Kate was so excited about the production, she’d be like “I had to crawl through this hole into a different set and do a quick costume change so we could do it all in one take.”
One thing I always appreciated about the Fast and Furious movies were their lean to practical effects, at least the earlier ones.
I want to live in the world where the F&F franchise never stopped doing practical effects, and actually launched a car into space.
In a way, Musk is part of that F&F franchise- and he could have made a good villain in there.
The first 3 pirates movies DVDs had amazing making of docs
I did say goodbye to almost all DVDs, but I haven’t said goodbye to 4K Blu Ray discs, nor will I.
I am disappointed it feels like physical media is slowly going away though. It’s not only nice to have a physical collection in my opinion, but it directly supports the stuff you like, and you don’t have to deal with the bs that comes with digital “ownership” or the ever changing mess that are streaming services.
Check out bandcamp. It’s for music, but you can stream tracks to give them a listen, and then buying them nets you a straight up file download in an audio format of your choice.
A world where you can both support the creator online, and receive something you get to keep in return, is possible.
I hope we’ll get there for movies one day.
I just want to legally buy a DRM-free movie file containing multiple audio tracks and subtitles that I can slap in my Plex server and call it a day.
For the moment I’m doing it myself using my own Blu-Ray discs ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Good news! You can pirate high quality blueray rips from the internet and since you already own a license to the content it’s not even a crime ;-)
Finding a MKV with the audio tracks (english and french) as well as embedded subtitles for the languages I want is often more work than just ripping it myself.
It’s definitely nice to have exactly the copy you want. Plus (and decidedly more on topic) you can rip any extras you want… although the naming scheme is a bit of a headache, that’s the part that really delights me.
That’s all well and good, but physical media is selling less and less as the average person moves to streaming.
Sooner or later, there will be a tipping point where media industry execs just stop selling physical media altogether to deny pirates a source, as the profits no longer outweigh the “downsides”.
Webripping is unlikely to stop for as long as streaming options exist, but then we’ll be stuck with low quality bitrates as enshittification ensures every penny is pinched when it comes to bandwidth.
High quality drm-free file downloads, available online, officially, would be ideal.
Considering the movie industry is currently at a point where it’s even punishing paying customers with low-quality 720p for daring to use the “wrong” browser, I don’t think the industry will figure out that there’s a market out there for high quality drm-free media anytime soon.
There’s something like Plex, but for rich people and with DRM.
You buy some kind of stupid expensive home theater appliance that’s basically just a NAS, and it downloads movie releases that the company licenses. I think it was a subscription service that includes basically all theatrical releases you might want to watch, even before blu-ray releases are out.
But you have to use their box, and it costs “fuck you” money.
So the general idea for high quality media that gets downloaded onto local hardware is out there, but not exactly peddled to middle class consumers or with open DRM.
I’m not even sure how long MQA took, but the audio world came around and developed a
losslessformat that runs oncommodityhardware and features awideselection of popular… sound.Yeah, we’re boned.
The return of the Disney vaults… I admit I’m concerned, but I’ve watched so much soulless bullshit at quality levels that do nothing but make the flaws easier to see… it’s not as much of a concern as it used to be. We’re whitnessing a spasm, it’ll pass. Good content comes from people that give actual fucks about what they are creating. They will always want you to experience the best version you can.
i feel like my 24TB of movies and tv is a physical copy. i can watch over 2500 movies or 30,000 episodes perfectly curated with extras, commercial free and can hand a copy to my kids on a single drive.
I don’t mind having downloaded digital copies. I have a Plex server of stuff too. But sometimes it’s just easier to just buy a disk rather than find a safe/working torrent just to get it digitally
i spose. theres lots of automation tools available now…
adding a title to sonarr and having it automatically downloaded, processed and added to my library seems a lot easier than driving to some store or ordering online where i would now i have to deal with ‘disks’
There’s automation for doing it the legal way, too.
You can have a disk drive you just put a disk in and the media will automatically get imported all the way to whatever media server you prefer.
Combine that with disks being small enough to just show up through your mail-slot, and it can be pretty painless, as well.
ha, but you skipped the part where you attempt to obtain a disk! the ‘disk level’ automation has existed for decades and is much more work than typing a name in a list.
not to mention, shit just isnt all on disk anymore.
And?
Don’t pretend like there are no parallels between trying to figure out a source for something that has long since stopped being seeded, and where to order a disk.
Or that putting in an online order is any more complex that making a request on ombi.
Or that there are no disks out there with content no one has ever ripped.
Haha! Physical media has been “slowly going away” since before UHD existed as a format. Just keep buying whatever format you like and distributors will keep it going. Look at all the catalog titles and niche (often limited special run) titles still being added to UHD.
You don’t have to deal with digital ownership bullshit with existing physical media because some people broke the DRM.
The worst development for end users would be a normalization of physical media and new or (“updated”) physical formats and players.
With brand new DRM and more tightly controlled playback devices.
Discs mean too much hassle. I’d have to rip them all prior to storing the movies on my harddrives. Streaming subscriptions are convenient, but too limited and they don’t offer the best quality. IMHO, a download option is the best of both worlds.
Bandcamp but for movies and TV would be amazing.
With the role physical storage plays today, maybe consumer tape drives are a niche to be filled. Hard drives and optical discs die.
I haven’t given up on DVDs. Don’t assume we’ve all abandoned the disc format, because I’m certain many of us still use them.
There’s literally dozens of us
Making toxic trash and wasting resources just to be a hipster, we’re all proud of you
….he smugly typed on his slave labor made iPhone.
Ha no I’m not an iPhone user but regardless a phone is useful as it allows me to live more efficiently - not traveling to have every important conversation saves resources on its own and there’s thousands of other practical uses – wasting resources needlessly just to be a hipster is totally different.
I just find it funny that lemmy on one hand clmaours to cheer on terrorism in the name of the climate and all that stuff but simultaneous gets super mad any time anyone suggests the slightest lifestyle change for the sake of the environment - even if it’s objectively better.
DVD is a digital format so if you want to watch it in that lowered quality then you can download it in that codec and get literally exactly the same experience - but no, you need an entire wastful industry making short lived plastic disks just to make you feel superior to everyone using the objectively better technology.
Let the DVD factories close, stop making chemical coated plastic needlessly and grow up.
No, DVDs/Blurays are the only way the average consumer can get perpetual access to content. If companies stop making DVDs/Blurays, they’re not going to suddenly offer DRM-free downloads, they’ll just force people to use their streaming service.
If you pirate, you’re not helping to solve the problem for the average person. Buy physical media to show companies that permanent access to content is still wanted.
Also, even if you’re okay with streaming services, the only way to reliably get 4k content is to buy 4k Blurays. Streaming services frequently downgrade you to 1080p or worse, and you’ll need consistent internet for it to work reliably.
The economic impact of DVDs/Blurays is minimal and IMO well worth the value it provides to consumers.
Dvd is 480p so let’s not cry about only getting over twice the pixels through a stream, dvd also has jank compression compared to most streaming codex.
And I don’t pirate, I just watch higher quality content that isn’t proprietary by focusing on small creators especially those making under copy left licensing or cc0 like Jago Hazard
Why would I care what a billion or trillion dollar corporation wants to brainwash me with? You’re never going to see honest opinions in a Marvel movie or accurate social commentary, how many times do I need a film with the moral message ‘rich people are good actually’
Yes, DVD quality does suck, which is why I also included Bluray, which is 1080p for standard, or 4k for the Ultra HD. I get DVDs of animated kids shows (e.g. Bluey), and Blurays of feature-length movies.
And I don’t get movies for the moral, I get them for the cinematography, acting, storytelling, and special effects, all of which are way higher quality than what smaller creators can manage. I also watch content from smaller creators, and perhaps more from them vs the big studios, but I do like watching a full-length film from a major studio.
The key, IMO, is to not fall into the trap of thinking you own content you “bought” digitally. Digital licenses can be and have been revoked (see RedBox closure, and Sony’s attempted revocation of content). It doesn’t really matter what you choose to watch, just understand when you actually own content, and when you’re just renting it.
You know there are still a lot of people in North America alone that don’t have good enough internet to stream movies, right?
Are they just supposed to sit and stare at the wall? Railing about DVD trash in a landfill seems… pointless, compared to all the other ways we’re poisoning the planet. Weird battle to fight and especially cast stones at someone else for.
You’re a drip. I buy DVDs used from pawn shops and garage sales. I’m leaving a mouse-sized carbon footprint; there’s no “toxic trash” that didn’t already exist.
OK well in that case I commend you, though to be really good maybe you should download them to a drive after purchase and then you can donate the dvds for someone else or a community center.
I really miss video rental stores.
walking in to the smell of fresh popcorn, getting an enormous bag of it for like 99 cents, walking up and down the aisles browsing the latest releases for something that non-algorythmically catches your eye to watch over the weekend.
Maybe even swinging through the game aisle to pick up the new game that just came out.
It was an experience that is lost and will never be replicated by streaming/rental boxes/etc/etc.
Worse, the loss of physical ownership. You do not own anything you buy on a streaming service. Sony as proven that on more than one occasion. You are also stuck to the whims of your internet connection.
But physical media? You can play that anywhere, any when, any how. WIth no worry for stable internet connections and other bullshit.
my local video store had the perfect setup. they were next to a pizza place and actually installed a window connected to it so you can order a pizza and look for a movie to watch while waiting for it to be ready. it was perfect. now its a stupid ass dollar store
Do you live where I live? Exact same scenario, including the fate of the building.
holy shit its possible. family video connected to a marcos pizza?
YES!
holy shit i never thought id find anybody from my hometown on lemmy LOL this is amazing
Me either! Is it now a dollar general?
yep it sure is
Physical media isn’t dead, you can still buy DVD/Bluray disks for popular content, unless it’s a platform exclusive.
So if you really value physical media, buy it and refuse to use streaming services. I rip mine to Jellyfin so I get the same streaming platform experience, while owning physical media. If my kids want to watch something, I order it and rip it. If my internet connection dies, I still have access to it because it’s on my local network. If someone wants to borrow it, I just give them a copy (or I can point them to my Jellyfin service, which is also available outside my house).
Yeah, it’s definitely a vibe. I took a wormhole (time travel) to 1991, walked into a blockbuster and keeled over from nostalgia.
Nostalgia is such a complex/convoluted feeling – you can’t have it if you didn’t have a past to draw the experience from, but when you do have it, it’s almost like a religious or philosophical experience both acknowledging and becrying (or grieving) the passage of time.
Unfortunately, even with a “time machine”, we the people who walk through the portals are ever changed. We won’t ever live in the past again. We can see those places and experience them in our present states, but…
Just like a glass shattering on the ground and the pieces scattering: Entropy cannot be undone.
It seems like the extras were for a specific limited demographic. When the costs of producing the extra content, and sales of the physical media are taken into account… I would guess that when a no-extras vs extras version of the same movie was available, the one that was cheaper with less content sold more.
I enjoyed the extra features on a handful of shows, but I think this is a smaller sales-base than the author realizes.
Yeah, I honestly don’t care about those extra features. What I do care about is being able to have perpetual, legal access to content. I can’t get that w/ streaming services, so my only other option is to buy physical media.
Back when the remake of Battlestar Galactica was on the air the showrunner Ronald D. Moore had a podcast where he’d sip some scotch and smoke a couple cigarettes and provide commentary for the episode. It worked really well, and got me to watch the show twice because I wanted to follow along. Eventually they made it onto the DVD/Bluray releases as commentary audio tracks.
With the growth of podcasting I’m amazed other shows haven’t done something similar.
Now it’s possible to browse hundreds of movies you don’t watch to watch from the comfort of your sofa.
Have all these features still in my plex library
Ditto
I mean those things can exist outside of DVD
My wife and I just streamed a movie a few days ago. It had a ton of bloopers intermixed with the end credits.
Who’s said bye to DVDs?
the simpsons dvd and the commentaries on them were amazing.
ownership
I do not miss 480p. Just go on YouTube and watch a video on the lowest resolution if you miss the experience lol
The 480p streams on Youtube are significantly worse than 480i/p video on Laserdisc or DVD, that’s not a fair comparison. Youtube’s compression algorithm is utter shit for picture quality.
480i blown up on a 4k 50 inch display is going to look terrible compared to native 4k content, but on a 30 inch CRT it looked just fine
Some streamers do. We play the behind the scenes of The Hunger Games for our dogs when we plan on going out for a while.
