Regarding Disney's "Digital Copy Plus"

I lost track of a news link I saw that reported this as something akin to Disney starting their own Mouse House digital locker service like UltraViolet.  It's not, and thank god, since we've got enough locker up there in the magical, mysterious "cloud".

Having redeemed the Oz the Great and Powerful  code, I can say that Digital Copy Plus is just a responsive design site that funnels you to your digital vault of choice, whether iTunes, Amazon, or Vudu.

Who actively uses Vudu, by the way? Other than Walmart employees?

Now, you can redeem those codes directly to your iTunes account from any web-accessible device via the responsive site. 

The biggest plus to Disney moving away from disc-tethered Digital Copy (aside from general convenience and stronger engagement) is that their Digital Copy files are now HD and carry iTunes Extras. Paramount, Universal, and Lionsgate/Summit releases have had this since last year. 

iTunes Extras still, inexplicably, only work in iTunes itself and not on iPhones, iPads, or the AppleTV. Maybe that's another no-brainer, long-neglected UI problem Apple will fix in this, the year of Apple adding missing features that they should have years ago.

Fox is now the only studio delivering Digital Copy in SD on physical discs. 

Frame 153: Kahn

I’ve been full of admiration for Madeline Kahn since I saw her in Young Frankenstein when I was a kid. If you love her work, you will likely fall for At Long Last Love in a big way.

 "He snores." "I know."

"He  snores." "I know."

This one choked me up. It was as if she were saying goodbye to me and fading into the mist.

Frame 152: Ralph El Demolero, Un Nuevo Clásico de Disney

For only the second time in my life, my half-sister is visiting from overseas. She grew up in Cuba, but now lives in Italy with her husband and daughter. A big highlight of both trips has been watching movies with my niece. A particular treat is getting to watch the Spanish version of Disney movies, which not only feature high-quality voice dubs, but in some instances, modified on-screen imagery.

This is the first one of these in which I've used SquareSpace's image gallery block. Expect to see more of them.

Frame 151: At Long Last

Musicals take a great deal of work in general, and even more so when it’s a brand new show. Even if some of the most talented people are working on it, a musical needs work, re-work, and a complete do-over at minimum. At Long Last Love is finally available in an edit and HD master that its writer/director Peter Bogdanovich doesn’t merely like, but loves.

Culture On Demand: Deep Focus UI

I'm not a "tech blogger", but as with any time Apple does much of anything now, their keynote yesterday has some direct implications on the world of content consumption and discovery.

 "Flat" design expectations are now out the window. The look of the new iOS UI is all about not just depth, but layers of focus. With this fundamentally shifted visual paradigm, we're seeing the next big step in how Apple handles UI on product categories, both current and those they've yet to introduce: some theoretical (a watch, a larger iPhone), and evolving hobbies (TV).

The most famous cinematic example of deep focus is Citizen Kane , a movie that was not shot in 3D, but which achieves a perception of multi-layered depth. Cinematographer Greg Toland achieved simultaneous focus across the fore-, mid-, and background through very precise placement of objects in the frame, staging, and lighting.

The same principles apply to iOS 7 and, to a lesser extent, what I've seen of OS X Mavericks. Like the most basic tenets of stage magic, the new "look" is just as much about the window dressing as it is the structure of where the audience's eyes are being directed.

My kneejerk feeling about the Human Interface overhaul is that it's an exciting and interesting change that opens up a lot of possibilities. There are features and design cues in Apple's HI that are found in both Android and Windows Phone, but they're among the best parts of both. Things like awful icons and visual details that need smoothing out will eventually get fixed. 

Most importantly, a shift this big makes me confident that when Apple overhauls the AppleTV interface, it will change things as fundamentally as their mobile and desktop UI experiences have. 

Let's not forget that the current AppleTV runs on a custom version of iOS.

Gone from iOS are faux-3D design choices that look as fake as styrofoam boulders on Star Trek sets. The new iOS and OS X feel and look as different from their predecessors as the newer JJ Abrams Trek looks as compared to the most refined version of the original canon. In general terms, the new stuff is the epitome of modern design: big (but simple), bold (but subtle), and sleek.

Replacing the old are thin layers stacked in precise levels of depth. On Apple TV, I'm only starting to think about how this might specifically be employed, but overlaid layers of live content are interesting, including configurable, cross-platform notifications. Think of weather, stocks, and other apps as widgets that are as configurable in layers as you choose. The same actionable push notifications in Mavericks could be linked to your TV.

iCloud Keychain exists not just to solve having to enter the same fleet of passwords on your computer and phone, but certainly to also cover AppleTV at some point. Entering TV channel app passwords is one of the biggest problems for set-top boxes. Instead of re-entering them all, your AppleID will become your single sign-on for all of your content subscriptions.

I'm excited about modern, fresh, and near-futuristic design flourishes in TV apps, but I'm more interested in voice search tied to content. Think of what Siri already does on top of what was announced yesterday (improved function and quantity of indexed databases). Siri already knows who I mean when I ask about "John Malkovich" or "Jean-Pierre Jeunet". Wikipedia, Bing, and some version of IMDb that isn't owned by Amazon (which they're already using) are the tip of that iceberg.

I'm most enthused by the idea of Apple forcing a unified interface that pushes content vendors to index their content in a way that is user-friendly and leans toward driving discoverability.

As a Roku user, I'm never shy when complaining about how clunky and slow all of their apps are. The recently-introduced cross-"app", system-wide search is a fantastic improvement, but it does not go far enough. Individual app experiences are still awful. If Apple moves in the direction it looks like they're telegraphing, Roku is on the verge of being blown completely out of the water.

Note that they did not show iOS 7 for the iPad, nor is an iPad beta available yet. That may be indicative of the larger-screen interface working differently, due to the alternate usage pattern of a larger device as it relates to the expanding types of baked-in service logins (Facebook, LinkedIn, others). The larger-screen iPhone that many assume is in the works would be a part of this "bigger-screen" implementation of Apple's new Human Interface philosophy. 

The TV is a hell of a larger screen. 

More on all of this soon, after I play with both iOS 7 and Mavericks. I have more reading to do on all the game system stuff from yesterday too. 

Discs in a Box: Clint Eastwood 20-Film Collection Blu-ray

This past week's Clint Eastwood: 20-Film Collection on Blu-ray includes a very nice cross-section of the director's movies with WB that are on Blu-ray, but it isn't designed for the completionist. The style of packaging and timing of release makes it plain that it's aimed at Father's Day buyers here in the States. That aside, the relative per-movie cost almost makes this a bargain mega-set. 

The average $90 price tag breaks out to $4.50 per movie, which is a great deal if you own none or few of these and want them. If you're most interested in just a few of these, or want the entire Dirty Harry series specifically, other sets or individual discs are a better bet.

Packaging

It fits on a shelf just like any standard-height Blu-ray case would. The paper "pages" of the book-style slipcase allow you to pop the discs in and out easily, and I wish all studios would go with something like this for all future 20-ish disc sets. If they want to do a 40-disc thing, then fine, stick two of this in one slipcase. On the slipcase, I'll note that the super-thin plastic has never worked very well, and in my case, the review copy I was sent had a couple of the interior tabs snapped off just from the rigors of shipping and handling. Thicker, sturdier material is the simple solution.

Movies, Gaps, and Value

This set is not every single Warner Bros.-Eastwood movie that's on Blu-ray. Three out of the five Dirty Harry movies are in here (The Enforcer and The Dead Pool are missing), Letters from Iwo Jima is (Flags of Our Fathers is missing), and Eastwood's most iconic prestige pics are as well (Unforgiven, Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby). In the Line of Fire , Absolute Power , and various others are missing. All of his most recent directing jobs (except for Changeling , oddly) are included. Here's the list of the included movies:

A Perfect World, Dirty Harry, Every Which Way But Loose, Firefox, Gran Torino, Heartbreak Ridge, Hereafter, Invictus, J. Edgar, Letters from Iwo Jima, Magnum Force, Million Dollar Baby, Mystic River, Pale Rider, Space Cowboys, Sudden Impact, The Gauntlet, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Trouble with the Curve, Unforgiven

In addition to all previous extras being on those discs, the set includes both the previously-available Eastwood Factor doc by Richard Schickel and the brand-new Eastwood Directs: The Untold Story, which is now playing intermittently on TCM.

Welcome to another new recurring feature. Discs in a Box takes its name from the title of The Lonely Island's best song.

Discs in a Box will provide commentary on opulent Blu-ray/DVD box sets that go the extra mile, packing in loads of extra physical goodies in boxes well larger than what is required to just house the discs.

Sometimes they're the shelf-unfriendly chocolate box size (Singin' in the Rain), whereas sometimes they actually fit alongside standard discs albeit taking up a great deal of horizontal real estate (Ultimate Collector's Editions of The Town, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest).

As with other features, I'll be covering recent and upcoming releases in addition to things that have been collecting dust on store shelves for months (or years, in some cases).

ATX Festival

I've been completely absent today, swallowed whole by the first day of the ATX Television Festival here in Austin. Selected bits gleaned from the panels I attended today:

Writer/producer Michael Jacobs talked about the super-grim ending of ABC's Dinosaurs , corporate meddling with good ideas, and the reason behind the heart he puts into his shows.

Dan Harmon believes Socialism is the key to the future of TV, and that Heat Vision and Jack  should eventually become a movie.

Rob Schrab never gets asked about SCUD: The Disposable Assassin as much as he would like. 

I'm interviewing the team of Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab tomorrow, as well as (time-permitting) Scott Aukerman, Ben Blacker, and my buddy Kevin Biegel.

13-year-old BBC2 Coens Doc

 Indiewire's The Playlist  unearthed this reasonably good piece on Joel and Ethan Coen. I agree that the BBC folks go a bit far in describing the brothers as being "intensely reclusive". It makes them sound not unlike the Beales of Grey Gardens.

I've been working on a Coen Brothers retrospective series that may start late this year. I'm soft-starting two more this week.

Bogdanovich on the Definitive AT LONG LAST LOVE

In 1975, Bogdanovich opened a live-sung feature-length movie musical. It came out on Blu-ray this week, and Bogdanovich wrote a piece about it. It didn't go so well:

We were killed. At Long Last Love was deplored by the majority of critics: the Village Voice headline summed it up: "At Long Last Lousy". The glee implicit in this phrase was part of the climate of that time regarding Cybill Shepherd (one of the stars) and me---we were living together then---and the press was fed up with our much publicized romance. One TV critic said it was "written, produced, directed and ruined by Peter Bogdanovich." A small minority saw the good qualities: Roger Ebert enjoyed it quite a bit, the Newsweek critic was kind, and the picture did very well in its Radio City run, but that was it. Woody Allen told me (many years after) that he'd gone to see it three or four times at the Music Hall and later did a musical inspired by it. But the studio pulled the film out of release. Cybill and I came to refer to our movie as "the debacle." Kidding around, I always called it "At Long Last Turkey."

I'm to speak with him this weekend about ALLL.  Should be fun.

Stephen Fry and Mark Rylance in TWELFTH NIGHT

Rylance is Olivia, and Fry is Malvolio. I wish this were already booked for American screenings. All they have on the website are UK/Ireland, Australia/New Zealand, and a few dates in Asia.

Here's the trailer. 

Kiefer Sutherland as Solid Snake →

Polygon reports on the controversy of the day in gaming and voice casting. As I noted a little over a month ago, a Metal Gear  game without David Hayter as the voice of Snake is a tough pill to swallow for fans who've followed him in the role for 15 years. I've yet to see anyone thrilled about Solid Snake suddenly sounding like Jack Bauer.

"The themes are a little different from previous games in the series," Metal Gear series creator Hideo Kojima said of Sutherland's casting. "We're taking on some heavy subjects, like race and revenge. As a result, I wanted Snake to have a more subdued performance expressed through subtle facial movements and tone of voice, rather than words."

The Phantom Pain takes place in 1984, Kojima said, and the developer wanted an actor who could "genuinely convey" Snake as he would look and sound in his late 40s.

"It's different from anything we've done before," Kojima said, explaining that he turned to producer Avi Arad for assistance, who referred him to Sutherland. "I felt that he was the perfect fit, in terms of age and performance," Kojima added.

Maybe this is a fake out, which Kojima has done before. Maybe the "primary" Snake Sutherland plays is yet another clone or something.

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New Site, Same Site (but Different and Better Than the Old Site)

I've migrated the site to Squarespace Version 6, which offers a ton of under-the-hood improvements. New features in the platform make it possible for me to do a great deal more with the same sort of clean, minimal design template I had previously, and in less time.

To be honest, I absolutely hated SS6 for the first few hours that I played around with the new interface. I'd gotten so used to the SS5 backend that I'm convinced I had a form of UI Stockholm Syndrome. Now I'm kicking myself for not doing this sooner. I'll waste less time doing some redundant things that will free up time to do more in general. As minimalist as the site design already was, I think this is a great deal more handsome.

I'll be noodling with a lot over the next week: trying new widgets and whoosits, tinkering with line spacing and maybe typefaces. Anticipate things breaking in ways you will likely never see. Eventually, that "logo" banner will get redone properly.

A few notes:

Blu-ray screen grabs are now 1000 pixels wide (25% larger). The source images from DVDs max out at 853 pixels wide in their most raw form.

I may eventually end up making the 1000px grabs thumbnails that click through to lightboxed and watermarked full-res PNGs. I need to automate that process as much as possible, or it isn't worth the time I put in to it. I also have more plans for the renamed "Frame" posts beyond playing with their frequency. Galleries and video are both on the table.

Drill-down menus in the sidebar nestle away all of the category links that were there before and then some. If you want to go looking and clicking, you can. To those who want as uncluttered an experience as possible, you've got it. I need to go back and tag/categorize eight years of content with some of the new (and currently empty) categories.

I might be adding another contributor soon. This is not an open call for more writers. We were talking about something else, and he mentioned wanting to write something specific on a regular/semi-regular basis, but still maintain certain freedoms that he hadn't been offered elsewhere. He wasn't even fishing. I held out a net and said, "jump in if you want". We'll see what happens.

Full disclosure: Squarespace has sponsored episodes of podcasts that I host. I've also been a paying customer since well before then. They didn't pay for this post, directly or indirectly.

Frame 150: The Last One

My wife and I met Peter Beagle a few years ago when he came to town for a screening of The Last Unicorn . The 1982 movie is based on the book of the same name, which Peter wrote. The 2011 Blu-ray looks much better than the remastered DVD that preceded it, which, in turn, beat the pants off the pan & scan DVD that was around for so long. The DCP they're screening for their regional tours is yet another step up, but I can't estimate how big an improvement, having not sat through the whole thing.

Whenever they do one of these shows, the house is packed with both kids and adults. Hidemi Kubo's fingerprints are all over the still-stunning animation design.

Frame 149: Around Every Corner

In an alternate universe, Baldwin starred in a series of four Shadow  movies.

This week's new Blu-ray doesn't look as dark in contrast as I would want...but this is how it looked in 1994. The color timing is too cool at times for my taste, but again...this is how it looked. The disc has zero extras, and will probably be $5 before end of year.

When I was a kid, I think I watched this a few dozen times over a series of summers. It got me into the original radio dramas and pulps.

Frame 148: Go and Do Likewise

Alec Baldwin's part in Glengarry Glen Ross  does not appear in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, even though his "come to Jesus"-style speech has become one of the most (if not the most ) looming presences in the film.

A-B-C. A-I-D-A.

Frame 147: Phone Work

One of the best parts of Mamet plays and movies is the phone work.

Glengarry Glen Ross has grown in popularity most during the last decade, during which our Always Be Closing culture has come to grips with the fact that Attention, Interest, Decision, and Action alone cannot save us.

The lack of a Blu-ray edition has cost them bargain bin money. Many other movies of the time with less-recognizeable actors have been very popular $8 bin sellers. I suggest whoever has these rights now (Lionsgate?) go and do likewise.

On occasion, I tell the story of how I once directed an all-female cast in the Alec Baldwin/"Blake"-free play if we go to lunch. Go to lunch. Will you go to lunch? Will you go to lunch?

This whole post will confuse people who don't know the movie or David Mamet. C'est la vie. 

These posts are now categorized as "The Frame", with the frequency of posts appearing not daily, but as often as need be.

The "daily" thing was mostly to force myself to consistently post something new as close to daily as possible. Some days, you may get as many as seven of these, interspersed throughout other posts or in sequence for a reason.

WIZARD OF OZ 75th Anniversary Blu-grade on 1 October

Warner Bros. has just announced not only a big IMAX-sized 3D post-conversion of The Wizard of Oz, but a press release in my inbox provides details for a spread of new 75th Anniversary Blu-rays. The best news: the new transfer of the movie and newly-added extras are available on lower-cost, single-disc editions the same day that the enormous chocolate box-sized set arrives.

The new documentary is described thus:

The Making of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz —This candid overview of how a troubled production overcame the odds to become an integral part of American culture features contributions from historians John Fricke and Sam Wasson, composers Stephen Schwartz and Marc Shaiman, critics Leonard Maltin and Michael Sragow, Bert Lahr’s son John as well as revealing interview clips with Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Buddy Ebsen, Margaret Hamilton and Mervyn LeRoy, among others.

The release notes that the doc and all previously-available extras will be included on all 75th Anniversary editions of the movie:

The Wizard of Oz 75^th Anniversary Collector’s Edition will debut as a five-disc set that will include Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD and UltraViolet versions of the film; a new documentary, The Making of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz; bonus features and premium collectibles ($105.43 SRP). Three more editions will be available separately: a two-disc 3D/Blu-ray ($35.99 SRP), a one-disc Blu-ray ($19.98 SRP) and a two-disc DVD ($16.95 SRP). All four will contain the new documentary and extra content.

As always, SRPs are higher than these end up selling for.

The only lingering question I have is how that'll all fit on one disc.

The original 2009 Blu-ray takes up about 41 GB of space on the 50 GB platter, and there was a second Blu-ray disc of extras. That second disc of stuff is mostly alternate filmed adaptations of Oz, alongside Victor Fleming and L Frank Baum mini-docs. The way the above is worded, my guess is the five-disc mega-set is where you get everything, so the discs you get break down to one 3D Blu, two 2D Blu, two DVD discs. That mega-set has the now-expected pile of tchotchkes:

NEW! Exclusive Collectible Memorabilia —A collectible 75^th Anniversary journal; Sparkle RUBY SLIPPERS™ Globe; Noble Collection 3-piece enamel pin set, a Map of Oz and a 48-page hardcover book. Collection is limited and numbered.

I have a line out to WB for clarification both as to whether the 2D version is the same transfer as 2009, and how the content shakes out across discs. They sound quite confident of how great the conversion looks:

The 3D conversion was a long and complex project which Warner Bros. initiated with a very high resolution (8k) scanning of the original Technicolor camera negative. The restored 2D image was then transformed by creating a depth-map of each frame to construct 3D imagery and determine distances from the viewer’s vantage point. This was followed by the long process (with the use of a rotoscope) to further refine viewer distances and fully layer shapes and objects.

“People have asked for years about The Wizard of Oz 3D conversion. My answer was always, ‘We’re not doing it until it’s perfect.’ And now it is,” said Ned Price, Warner Technical Operations’ Vice President of Mastering. “As a kid, I was so enthralled by this film. Watching it, you just want to enter the frame, enter the Land of Oz. This new version will allow you to do just that.”

They did an 8K scan for the 2009 Blu-ray, so I'm not convinced they just did another one. Again, note for clarification is in, and they should get back soon. Check back or watch for an update. UPDATE 2:02pm CT: WB has confirmed to me directly that the 2D Blu-ray features the exact same transfer as the 2009 disc. This is not a bad thing, since that has long been one of the best reference discs on the market.

Daily Grab 146: Upward

July sees the release of the entire UP series of documentaries by Michael Apted. I'm trying to re-watch them all with my wife before then.

Daily Grab 145: Sentinel of Liberty

I watched this movie over and over as a kid, renting it out from Blockbuster as often as they had their one copy in. Re-watching it now, there are entire sequences and plot points I don't remember at all.