[Patrick_S]

I’ve been fortunate in the past to have attended the 01 and 04 HTF Hollywood Meets and was intrigued when the news was announced that HTF would be, along with The Digital Bits and TVShowsonDVD.com hosting an event at this year’s EMA show.

Admittedly the first thing that I wondered about was how could this event possibly complete with the past events since the Hollywood Meets feature true VIP treatment from studios like Fox, Dreamworks, Paramount, Columbia and Universal. Along with that companies like DTS, Dolby, various production houses and Widescreen Review also hosted VIP events making the Hollywood Meets the kind of events that foster memories for a lifetime.

Knowing how hard the HFT people had worked in the past to make the Hollywood events special I figured that EMA 2007 would be no different so I submitted my name and was fortunate to get a spot.

I was very fortunate to get a spot because this event was a wonderful way to spend my summer vacation.

So without anymore of a delay here is my review of the event.

Tuesday July 17, 2007

Warner Brothers

The Warner Brothers gave us an advanced look two upcoming releases, 300 and Return To House On Haunted Hill.

300: I liked the movie in the theater and was impressed with the HD disk’s presentation and the special features. I purchased the HD DVD version when it was released.

Return To House On Haunted Hill is very interesting in that you can choose different paths creating different out comes. Of course this is unique in that this film was created specifically for this purpose and regular theatrical release most likely could never be adapted to this kind of interaction but I could see this happening more and more in direct to video releases.

Steve Nickerson of Warner also held a Q and A session with the group which was an interesting insight into some of Warner’s decisions. I know that the Blu-ray fans in the group probably didn’t like the answer that was given as to why movies like the Matrix and Batman Begins have not been released on Blu-ray but they did make sense to me. They will be released eventually but only after IME can be included. That makes good sense to me, after we all know it takes significant money to produce a title and you don’t want to have to keep re-authoring titles especially when the ROI takes longer to achieve since HD is currently a niche product.

Ernest Borgnine

I grew up watching McHale’s Navy in afternoon syndication and was really looking forward to Mr. Borgnine’s appearance. Of course after long time HTF friend Martin Blythe introduced him I never expected him to come over and shake hands while he was walking up the isle to the front.

He was gracious, humorous and had some interesting comments concerning the lack of chemistry often found in today’s movies because the principles lack any mature life experiences. It was just a real treat to have the opportunity to meet Mr. Borgnine.

Kat Williams

I had no idea who Kat Williams was before this event. We screened some scenes from his upcoming DVD The Pimp Chronicles Pt. 2 and we had a Q and A session with him. Since EMA I have watched The Pimp Chronicles Pt. 1 and found it to be very funny. I’ll certainly be looking to watching Pt. 2 in the future.

The Parties

We attended a lot of parties while at EMA. The Blu-ray party at TOA was an Anniversary party for HTF and The Digital Bits. I know almost everyone knows about the generosity of our gracious hosts, Buena Vista, Twentieth Century Fox, Sony, Lions Gate and Panasonic so I won’t bore you with the repeating the details.

The only thing I will add is that being a long time subscriber to Playboy I knew that I had seen one of the Blu-ray girls before but I just couldn’t place where. I should have gone up to her and mentioned that she looked familiar but I figure she probably gets that come on a lot so I decided not to bother her. When I found out after the event that is was Karen McDougal I of course knew where I had seen her before.

The other parties on Tuesday and Wednesday were also very nice.

Wednesday July 18th

THX

I guess it is the geek in me but I found John Dahl’s presentation to be very interesting.
It would be cool to be able to create a THX home theater but that is something that will have to wait for now. The only thing that could have made the presentation better would have been handouts that covered some of the specification that he mentioned. (Oh yes I am a geek.) I suspect that kind of information is reserved for individuals who actually go through the certification training but overall the session was very good.

The HD group presentation

Kevin Collins of Microsoft gave an interesting presentation that covered various interactive features of HD DVDs. I know a lot of people don’t care about special features and often dismiss them by saying that the only thing that matters is the movie presentation but I have a different take. I agree that the best presentation of the movie is the most important thing but since HD DVD can provide that along with some interesting special features why not have the features? I know I have enjoyed the IME of Batman Begins and other HD DVDs so I say keep them coming.

The Diffusion Group

All I’ll add is the Michael Greeson of The Diffusion Group is correct in that the consumer will determine the out come of format war.

The HD Panel

This was a highly charged session as the Blu-ray supporters were ready to pounce. I have to give special recognition to Ken Graffeo of Universal Home Entertainment HD-DVD for being a member of the panel. He had to have known that he was going to face some real Blu evangelists and nothing he said would be accepted.

Adam Gregorich deserves a special thank you for keeping the discussion going forward in a positive direction.

As for the discussion, I’m all for expressing your opinions and asking questions but it appeared to me that some members in the audience thought that they would somehow win the format war then and there and because of that they ignored some key points that were made by the panel. The most significant being that the studios are global enterprises and you just can’t look at the US when looking at the market place.

Overall it was an interesting discussion and I would like to thank the panel fro their insights.

The Vendor Suites

I visited many of the suites on Wednesday and Thursday and found the vendors to be very hospitable. I always made a point to mention to them that I was not a purchaser and if they didn’t have the time to chat it was understandable. I really wanted to learn about their product offers and everyone seemed to want to talk about their offers.

DTS had a great presentation and I have to give a special thanks to the BCI people for giving me the opportunity to discuss their products in depth.

In the End

The EMA event was a blast. Thank you to Ron, Adam, Greg and all the rest for your work in putting together this VIP event.

As I mention before I have been to past events and it was great to reunite with various HFT vets like RAF, Craig-S, Pat W and all the others I have met in the past.

Thanks for a memorable event.