HTF Attendees Report: Sony Studios 10/21

Re: HTF Attendees Report: Sony Studios 10/21

Thanks to Sony for a fantastic lunch (catered by Wolfgang Puck's catering company, if I'm not mistaken) and a cool presentation of the edit-your-own-music-video feature in the Step Brothers Blu-ray.

First, the lunch. Great short ribs, chicken, pasta and delectable little chocolate cakes filled with a smooth chocolate cream.

Then, the presentation. This was a hilarious look at editing a music video that stars Will Ferrell and John Reilly called "Boats n Hoes" (imagine away...). You can upload your finished video to the BD-Live site and have it rated. Fun stuff.

Then we were shown the new Resident Evil: Degeneration movie, an all-CGI production based on the video games. While it's nice to be shown something that was just released in Japan, the fact that it's direct-to-Blu-ray here indicates that's it's not considered theatrical quality in terms of story, etc. Technically, it's very pretty, but the human characters are still a little stiff and do not engender any sort of emotional attachment.

I think it would be fair to say that many of us would probably have preferred to be shown Step Brothers!

To sum up, a fun visit to Sony, including a delicious lunch, but a disappointment in terms of the movie presented.

Joe

Re: HTF Attendees Report: Sony Studios 10/21

The afternoon was spent on the Sony studio lot, and we were treated to a nice lunch from Wolfgang Puck Catering, and it was simply delicious. I cursed myself for not having enough self-control at our previous event, as I would have enjoyed the catering more if I could have wolfed down more of the food at lunch.

We were allowed to shop at the Sony store, and many participants snapped up a number of Blu-ray titles, and other Sony-related merchandise at employee pricing levels. We were introduced to a nifty BD-Live feature that allows for cutting together a music video from the upcoming "Stepbrothers" Blu-ray Disc. They took 9 different video takes shot for the "Boats-n-Ho's" music video, and provided an interface that would allow the user to cut to different streams to produce their own version of the music video, and it would be possible to share the user's cut of the video with other BD-Live users for this particular title. It's Sony way of producing exclusive content for their Blu-ray titles and giving the Blu-ray enthusiast more content and features than the conventional DVD counterpart. Our outing with Sony concluded with a theatrical viewing of their upcoming Blu-ray release in December: Resident Evil: Degeneration, which was a fully CGI-rendered film (very much like another Sony release "Final Fantasy: The Spirit Within").

Thanks to Sony for treating us to a wonderful lunch, and their presentation on providing exclusive features on their Blu-ray releases, and a full sneak peak for one of their upcoming Blu-ray titles for December release.

Re: HTF Attendees Report: Sony Studios 10/21

Thanks for the fun afternoon Sony! Step Brothers is definitely a Day ONE purchase for me! I was among the group that is already a Resident Evil fan so I was happy with that films selection! More later on that!

Re: HTF Attendees Report: Sony Studios 10/21

I was initially happy with the film choice as well, since I saw the trailer on the Resident Evil: Extinction Blu-ray, but somehow the CGI never engaged me. And I liked the first RE movie and even Extinction somewhat...oh, well...

Re: HTF Attendees Report: Sony Studios 10/21

This film, like Final Fantasy, has eerie 'uncanny valley' effect on it, the emotion does not work well especially for us Americans, I'm told the japanese audiences are much more forgiving. I disliked the Polar Express trailer for exactly this reason and still have not seen that film!

Re: HTF Attendees Report: Sony Studios 10/21

Our thanks to Sony for providing everyone in our car with a catchphrase for the rest of the trip. It came from the flick "Resident Evil: Degeneration" (or as we called it "Resident Evil: Degenerate"): "Kiss you later". You have to see the flick to fully appreciate it.

Rob

Re: HTF Attendees Report: Sony Studios 10/21

Kiss you later, Rob.

Re: HTF Attendees Report: Sony Studios 10/21

Thank you Sony for taking care of us. It was a great lunch and I enjoyed the BD demo and the opportunity to see the film!

Re: HTF Attendees Report: Sony Studios 10/21

Joe W. & Patrick S. did excellent write ups of the experience.
Excellent food, great DB-Live demo. As for the film we previewed, it’s not one that I would purchase, but did appreciate the opportunity to view it.
Not much more I can add other than my thanks for the hospitality and the opportunity to visit the Sony employee store.

Re: HTF Attendees Report: Sony Studios 10/21

Great lunch!

Thanks for the demos. Loved the "poor man's video editor". Glad to see Sony pushing the technology forward. Gotta start somewhere.

As I walked away from it, I thought it would be a cool feature to advance forward. I'd like this to be applied for scenes in the film and then being able to play your own edit back when watching the film.

Imagine being able to select from 3 or 4 cameras on an action scene in the video editor. You can edit the movie's scene yourself, save it to the player's memory. Then the next time you view the film, you can choose to play it back with your edit of the scene rather than the director's. Ha! It's allowing you to be the visionary of your favourite movie! The disc should come with a director's chair and hat!

Mike

Re: HTF Attendees Report: Sony Studios 10/21

One of the many ways to this HTF member's heart is good food, and good beer, and Sony definitely had this aspect of the tour down. This was one of the nicest receptions we received all week. From the outdoor dining, to cold, refreshing Heineken beer, and the awesome welcome sign on the theater marquee, we were made to feel right at home. Of course, the gracious employee discounts on Blu-ray discs didn't hurt.

However, not everything was quite how I imagined it. Yes, it's true, I had ridiculously high expectations of seeing a sneak peek of the latest Bond flick, "Quantum of Solace." But can you blame me? The press had already previewed the film, and while we're not theatrical critics, the film will be coming to Blu-ray before we know it, and it will be yet another heavy hitter -- no question.

So why not show us that, or anything beside subjecting us to a film we care very little about.

I'm sorry, but forcing a screening of a direct-to-BD animated film (CG or otherwise) is NOT the proper way to entertain guests.

Many of us were thrilled to see "Step Brothers" on the screen when we were shuffling into our seats. And in retrospect, it probably would have been better to demo both films, but offer the viewing option to the group, as a vote. That way everyone wins.

Really though, should it have ever been a question? Isn't there an unwritten rule somewhere in the etiquette guide for entertaining home theater guests that raucous comedy always trumps animated-zombie-action flick?

Lastly, the biggest party foul was leaving our group to fend for ourselves in a dark theater. We're pretty sharp individuals, so we didn't stick around for too long, but a bit of tail-end guidance would have been much appreciated.

All in all, it was a good visit, but things only went downhill after "Step Brothers" was pulled off the screen.

Thanks for the incredibly warm reception, and perhaps next time we'll see some Heineken flowing on tap?