Home Theater Forum http://www.hometheaterforum.com Subject: WINSTAR HOME VIDEO chat Date: August 15, 2000 Good Evening everyone and thanks for joining us tonight Tonight we are proud to present Maryann Manelski from WINSTAR HOME VIDEO. Welcome, Maryann! Thanks, Ron. I guess I should probably start by thanking everyone for their passion and interest about our films, and also tell you something about where Winstar came from and where we would like to take DVD. Please do.... Since there has been some confusion about Winstar/Fox Lorber.... Winstar was only put together a bit over a year ago from a few different labels - Fox Lorber Films, Fox Lorber CentreStage, Wellspring Media and Winstar Home Entertainment. So while Fox Lorber still exists as a label that we put our films out under, all the work is done by Winstar. I have read a lot of the chats on the forum and I know some of the concerns of the people who participate. I'm here to really open the door and get your feedback and to listen to what is important to you. We've already got some changes and improvements in the pipeline - although you might not be able to take advantage of them for another few months. Our DVD production is absolutely on everyone's priority list now more than before. Maryann, what is your position with Winstar? What do you do? Well, I'm Director of Operations as listed on your banner and as such, I'm in charge of DVD production, VHS production, deliveries to television as well as participating in the acquistions proccess in terms of what master materials we get in. I've been with Winstar just a year. Alright, we are going to open the floor to questions from the membership..... Are you making new 16x9 transfers of The Killer and Hard Boiled? The Killer in the future will down the road be coming out in a 16:9 version. The releases this fall are in the same aspect ratio as the previously released DVDs. We've added new commentary tracks and they will be available in both Cantonese and English and English subtitles. Also, we've got some 3D menus. So they're basically the same as the Criterion ones? I know there has been a lot of questions on the Forum about the program quality. We shared the master material with Criterion so in terms of picture and audio quality, they will be the same. Thanks for coming Maryanne....Will THE KILLER contain the deleted scenes that were on the Criterion disc and any info on the Godard and Ingrid Bergman films you own coming to DVD in the future? Hi Jeff. We do not have the deleted scene. We do have the trailers. In terms of Godard and Bergman, right now they are on a list of candidates for re-vamped rereleases in the coming year. We are at the moment going through our catalogue to pick the films that we feel should be redone on DVD. This has a lot to do with your input and some of the new technologies available to us. For example, it's really only become accessible to turn a mono mix into a true 5.1 mix in the past year. There were some technologies on demo at the trade shows this summer that really blew me away. They also solve a lot of problems for companies like us who distribute films that are 20 or 30 years old. So we plan on creating a premium quality line which will be the up to the standard of a Hollywood studio release of a recently made film. Our first release that has been picked will be Ran. Firstly, I love your disc of BREAKER MORANT (great film, great letterboxed transfer). A film in your catalogue which I have been anxiously awaiting is Chen Kaige's debut YELLOW EARTH, a magnificent film deserving a beautiful transfer on DVD. Any chance of a disc soon (widescreen of course!) and since Kaige did a wonderful director's commentary for Columbia's EMPEROR AND THE ASSASSIN DVD, would a commentary be possible? Steven A, I will add your Yellow Earth request to our list. I should let you all know that we have a new on-line newsletter you can subscribe to. Just go to www.winstarvideo.com/dvdform.asp. Our first newsletter will be going out in September. Hi. When will the Hou Hsiao-hsien films be released and what titles will be available? Will there be a re-release of PIERROT LE FOU in the future. Thanks. Pierrot Le Fou is definitely a candidate for a new DVD release! I loved that film when I was school! Hou Hsaio Hsien is still in the hands of our theatrical division. They will be out on DVD at some point but are not on our schedule yet. Hence, the newsletter will keep you posted. Good evening! Dave took my Hou question. But I have a back-up: Any news on upcoming DVDs of Tarkovsky's films? No plans on Solaris and Stalker at the moment. Thanks for coming tonight. Any Truffaut or Rohmer films coming up in the near future? Traffaut is on the re-release list. We did just put out a couple of Rohmer films, La Collectionneuse and Girl at Monceau's Bakery. Our September street date will have Marquise of O and Perceval. You actually have led into something I would like to let everyone know about. A lot of Rohmer films are shot on 16mm as are many of our other films. Often when you buy one of DVDs and it's full frame or 1.66, it's because the director created it that way. In regard to your mention of re-mixing mono tracks into 5.1, if you do that please also include the original mono track as well, which is preferred by many purists who want the ability to appreciate the film in its original state. Also, re your Eric Rohmer discs (A SUMMER'S TALE etc): they all seem to be full-frame. Is that their original aspect ratio, or have they been "altered to fit our televisions"? Actually, A Summer's Tale is also coming out in September. I will be beaten and flogged by our sales and marketing people for forgetting that! Thanks for reminding me. You might have been booted from the room but I was just saying that the Rohmer films were shot in 16mm as are many of our films which is why you're seeing them in full frame. Ahh, that explains it!! Sorry you had to repeat yourself! On the 5.1 issue, I agree. I actually have some mixed feelings about it in certain cases for the reason you mention. I didn't appreciate it when Ted Turner started colorizing directors' works. I'm not sure that there won't be some filmmakers or fans who won't be equally displeased if we alter their audio. Thank you very much for this opportunity. Fox Lorber is a major source for many of my favorite movies that would be otherwise unavailable. I am another Godard fan, I have a question for yet unrelreased movies. Will Godard's Passion or Detective be released in the near future? Gosh, I hate to keep saying it,but it is on the list with the other Godard films for potential rerelease. As far as I know, these have not been released on DVD. right? Right. Will you be releasing ANDREI RUBLEV once Criterion's rights expire (I believe you licensed this film to them)? Of the 20 or so Fox Lorber discs I own, only A WOMAN IS A WOMAN and SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER are what I consider "poor quality". I would love to see these remastered! Well, thank you for the compliment. To be honest, I will have to look into Andrei Rublev. Since I've been with Winstar just for a year now, if it's supposed to come back to us, I wouldn't yet know. I'll check and post something to you on the Forum. You have also said something that leads me to something else... Our priorities have grown and shifted. Since the incarnation of Winstar is just but a couple of years old - the first priority was get it out on DVD. I know someone in the Forum - Derek Faber? - made a posting that echoed that sentiment - first thing is to get it out on DVD, then comes the quality and bells and whistles. While I still feel strongly that we give a home to films that would not be released elsewhere - believe me, we do put out films that otherwise no one would distribute, we have now made room for upgrading the quality and bells and whistles. Like I said when I signed on, I thank you for your feedback and information and passion. We appreciate that you have come here to address these issues Any more Alain Resnais? That I will have to check into. Nothing scheduled at the moment I believe. Any Iranian, Taiwanese, or Japanese (aside from Ran, of course) films on the DVD horizon? No Iranian on the horizon. Japanese is possible. We do have a lot of European happenings in the near future. Sounds almost like a horoscope... I'd like to follow up on your comment that RAN was one of the first titles you are redoing. Can you tell us about your plans for this release? Hopefully a new transfer from better elements and the subtitles on the picture instead of below for those of us with 16x9 screens? 16:9 I promise! We will also definitely have a commentary track - possibly more than one. The film was redone for our theatrical release. See: www.ran2000.com or www. winstarcinema.com Any chance of getting Godard's CONTEMPT? Nobody seems to be putting this out on disc which amazes me (beautiful widescreen, starring Brigitte Bardot and Fritz Lang , what more could you want?!) Also, same goes for Truffaut's DAY FOR NIGHT (i.e. I can't belive it's not on DVD yet). Finally, what was the story you were going to tell us re: audio (you have me curious)? I have to say, I'm not sure who owns the rights on Contempt and Day For Night... Unfortunately, we can't put out what we can't license. The story.... Well, Warren Beatty had made Bonnie and Clyde and he made sure the audio was mixed so the gunshots really blasted out of the audio track so it startled people. He wanted to emphasize the violence. It was something he had seen in the movie Shane and had admired. Well, he goes to a screening in London and the gunshots are all EQ-ed out and he goes and asks the projectionist what is wrong with the print or the projector. The projectionist says the print sounded terrible, all the gunshots were really loud so he timed the film and learned exactly where to turn the volume down. He said he'd never heard a print as bad as it - not since Shane. I just think it shows the dangers of re-mixing someone's work. There's a lot of things that can be done with films on DVD now. But there's that old issue of just because you can, doesn't mean you should. It's a balance. We want to please everyone that buys our DVDs but you don't want to muck with the director's vision - or in this case - ear too much. It's a problem we could have with the Killer down the road. All those Hong Kong films were shot with mono audio. Thank God John Woo is still alive to help us out but still... Heard that story before - so true. Please forgive me if this was already asked or implied, but I joined the chat late. How do you respond to the criticism leveled at you by your competition, like Criterion, who claim to be in the business for the "sake of the art," but like any other company, the driving force is to make money. Good question... Long answer required... First of all, we were disappointed by the public criticism - more because the video and DVD is really a small community of people. Many of us have worked together at other companies in the past and I'm sure that down the road I'll work with someone who at one point was at Criterion. It's like baseball. You get traded sometimes. In terms of business vs. sake of art... Well, Criterion is a business too. Neither Winstar or Criterion put out DVDs as a form of charity or gratitude. Our business models are very different in many ways. I understand the frustration by everyone regarding some of the films you put out on DVD but having been in the industy in the early 80s when video became the rage and I heard the same charges leveled at my company for putting out "inferior" product - but the bottom line was these other companies were bitter that they didn't get the rights that we did and took any swipe at us that they could. I don't think people understand the "whole" picture. True. Very true! Besides foreign art films Winstar also puts out lines of performance programming and a huge line of wellness programming. First and foremost, we are concerned with the quality of the content. This October we're releasing Andrew Weil, Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer and a large group of other wellness programs on DVD for the first time. Now while I wouldn't expect that this Forum is concerned with wellness programming, it's part of our working belief system about the type of company we are. We won't be releasing any Jerry Bruckheimer films for example. Those films can create a lot of buzz among other things that can give a lot of juice and attention to a company's DVD works. Winstar is not about pure commercialism in that sense. Sorry if this was asked already, huge problems with my PC. Are the "Cartoon Crazys" Comic Book Heros, Spooky Toons, and Emperor and the Nightingale going to be released? Emperor and the Nightingale had to be cancelled. Comic Book Heroes and Spookytoons are set for October. Got to have Spookytoons in time for Halloween! One director that's underrepresented on DVD is Dusan Makavejev. You released MONTENEGRO, but I'd love to see W.R.: MYSTERIES OF THE ORGANISM, THE SWITCHBOARD OPERATOR, and (dare I say it) SWEET MOVIE on DVD. Do you have any plans to release more of his films? Again, we have the problem of we can't release films we don't have the rights to. Pesky legalities! I'm not sure who has the rights on those. Thanks for doing this, Maryann. I just wanted to express how much I would like to see an improvement in the quality of the Fox Lorber films on dvd. I'm heartened by some of the comments you have made tonight in this chat, because I want to buy SO many films that you have in your library. But the inconsistent quality has stopped me. For instance, I would buy anything that Godard or truffaut directed....but my experience in the past with Fox Lorber product makes me hesitate to impulse buy. I basically wanted to express that if you make good on improving the quality, I'll buy nearly every film title you have got. We'll try. The only thing I think we ask is for a little patience. We can't re-do our entire catalogue overnight. Subscribe to our newsletter, keep posting here and we'll get there. Also, sometime in the fourth quarter we are going to add a DVD tech support page to our general website at winstarvideo.com. To bad about "Emperor and the Nightingale" as it was narrated by Boris Karloff. I've collected all the "Cartoon Crazys" so far, why did they go out of print? Emperor and the Nightingale was cancelled for legal issues out of Winstar's control. A lot of cartoon material is public domain. Then sometimes someone steps forward and claims it. Classic cartoons usually have a long elaborate back story. My animation teacher at NYU used to tell us how so many revered animators wound up dead and poor. Cartoons - joyful on the surface, complicated in the depths. You did a great job on The Emperor's Shadow. It looks amazing. Add my vote for Solaris. Looking forward to more from you! That's three votes for Solaris. I think he can nominated for the reform party presidential spot now. Are you thinking of releasing any more Chilean films besides Johnny 100 Pesos? You should look into films released this year and you may find a few surprises Any films in particular that you are thinking of? Coronacion and a few more. Hmmm. I'll ask around back in the home office. And two, a month or so ago, Al Cattabiani, who is president of WInstar TV and Video and also a Yankees fan, posted a message somewhere on the Forum here. He wanted to let you know on behalf of all of us that we hear you and that if you would like to return any single DVD you have and exchange it for another one, we will honor any request through 12/31/2000. Your old DVD and the replacement request should be sent to: Mr. David Samra Director, Internet Marketing Services Winstar TV and Video 419 Park Ave South, NY,NY 10016 I appreciate everyone coming out tonight and all you keep me and Winstar in touch with. I want especially to thank Ron for being a gracious host. And Ned too, you silent accomplice. I want to Thank Maryann Manelski for taking the time to join us tonight in this live chat, and for caring enough about her customers to address their many concerns about WINSTAR. Thanks! Thanks MM! thanks! thanks MAM Thanks ! 8-^) Thanks for taking the time to talk with us. It's much appreciated! THANK YOU ! GO YANKEES Thank you! Go Yankees Thank you guys! Goodnight! I will be back. Session Close: Tue Aug 15 23:13:51 2000 Copyright 2000 Home Theater Forum. Reader may not modify, publish, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale or in any way exploit any of the content of transcript, in whole or in part, without the express prior written permission of the copyright holder.