Re: HTF Attendees Report: Walt Disney Studios 10/22
For the Wednesday milieu, it was a visit to Disney Studios, which was a lot of fun. Disney was nice enough to serve our large group breakfast (bagels,
muffins, yogurts, juice, etc.) which hit the spot quite nicely.
Disney reps ushered us into one of their theaters (which featured a nice NEC projector, and some really comfortable seats. For the bulk of the presentation, one of the main producers who's been with Disney for 13 years greeted us with much enthusiasm, and wanted to show us some of the features on the newly released "Sleeping Beauty" Blu-ray disc, and exploring some of the BD-Live features. First up was a check of the current weather conditions of Disney-related spots around the globe. Movie mail was another BD-Live feature that allows users to upload a quick movie that can be sent to another person who has an account on the Disney BD-Live system and a copy of the Sleeping Beauty BD in their own BD player. Other features included a fun little guessing game that involved the Orb guessing what object you were thinking about after answering truthfully a series of questions. Both times, the Orb guessed what we decided on for the object, which was pretty cool. First was a "shoe" and the Orb guessed "running shoe" and the second was a "pumpkin" and the Orb guessed "Jack-o-Lantern". Also, we were shown an interesting featurette on the "Sleeping Beauty" Castle ride from the past that is supposed to be rebuilt for their theme parks once again.
We ended up with 4 different producers/engineers of content on various Disney BD product in the presentation, and the discussion shifted to a feature called "Circle-Vision" that was exlcusive to the "Prince Caspian" BD title, and they were able to produce behind-the-scenes content by using a series of cameras to capture a 360 degree view inside the castle, and the footage was was later stitched together so the user could move around and see things from all sorts of angles, and be presented with pods of footage and popup factoids as the user moved around the castle. It was a nice use of tapping into the potential of BD-Live for Disney, as all the producers stressed that their number one priority was to keep up with the entertainment factor on their BD releases, and not let the technology dictate how the presentation of content on their releases would unfold for the user. Much applause was heard for this expressed attitude for Disney's concern with the user experience with their BD releases. Also, Disney was commited to providing menus of extra footage and segments which provided ease of access to specific featurettes without having to slog through various point in the film as other studios have been apt to do in order implement featurettes without a menu listing of them. But bear in mind, some content could only be context-driven within Circle-Vision to get to other bonus nuggets.
We also got to see a bit from the upcoming Wall-E BD, and how BD-Live was being used, such as providing additional details of the supporting cast of
characters in the film, and also offering some video games featuring scenes and characters from the film. The film itself it going to look and sound mighty fine for its BD release.
The producers took some questions from our groups:
On the topic of the eventual release of Fantasia on BD, they weren't quite sure whether it would be released as it was originally released at the theaters, or if we would be getting the Walt Disney amended version, but they understood that some of us were very interested in seeing the original theatrical release on BD. Of course, we got no comment when "Song of the South" was brought up, so don't think we'll ever ever see that title released by Disney, and that's their prerogative.
Disney DVDs typically default to 2.0 audio, and there was a suggestion to force the user to make a choice on 2.0 audio or 5.1 audio at the start of the feature, and this seemed like a suggestion that might get some traction, as the audio in 2.0 for those with 5.1 audio systems makes for a lesser listening experience and removing the 2.0 audio default selection would allow both segments of Disney fans (those with 2.0 audio or with 5.1 audio setups) to get the audio experience they wanted on the first play of their Disney DVDs.
While streaming and downloadable content features on BD titles are appreciated, there is a time limit on their availability, and some concern was raised as to the ability to download or off-load the download from the BD player's SD memory card and store them for future viewing. I doubt that Disney will allow for this to happen due to legalities that would prevent off-loading of content that was streamed or downloaded to the BD player while playing a Disney BD title. The moral of the story is to view the online content ASAP and be happy it was provided as a bonus during the BD title's initial roll-out. You just never know when it won't be available for viewing later, as the studios in general are still figuring out their BD-Live commitment levels.
After the Q&A session, we were taken on a short but interesting tour of the Disney studios, although the lot is over 40 acres in size (and has its own zip code), we might have walked through an acre of the lot, but we did get to see some interesting things, such as a building with the 7 dwarves holding up the roof of it on one side of it. We also saw this space which had the equivalent of Hollywood Stars, but for Disney contributors, which was a square with their names and handprints, which then hung on columns that lined the space. Then we walked over to the Disney Archive room, which was filled with all sorts of goodies from the decades of Disney-related memorabilia. I could have spent a long time in there if that was permitted. We also got to shop at the Disney store, where most of the group picked up a souvienir or two, and even got to take part of a nice 40% discount on some seasonal items (from "The Nightmare Before Christmas"), which I did with a couple of Jack Skellington t-shirt purchases. And then Disney was kind enough to serve lunch for our group to round out the tour.
All in all, a very pleasant tour by Disney, which provided for a nice bit of interplay between a major studio and their consumers. Thanks to all involved in setting up this trip to Disney Studios, we are mighty appreciative of the effort.
One of the greatest courtroom dramas ever made and one whose courtroom scenes still sizzle today more than fifty years later, Otto Preminger’s Anatomy of a Murder is a one-of-a-kind showcase for...
Rainer Werner Fassbinder had only been making feature films for four years when he tackled the enormous miniseries version of World on a Wire. Filmed in two parts totaling over three and a half...
A kind of low budget combination of Jules Dassin’s The Naked City and William Wyler’s Detective Story, Arnold Laven’s Vice Squad offers an entertaining West Coast twist to the police work shown...
The Phantom of the Opera gets a great showcase on Blu-ray with this performance at the Royal Albert Hall last October, in honor of its 25th anniversary. Like last year’s Blu-ray of Les...
After scoring as an international sensation and winning six 2011 Emmy Awards, Downton Abbey became last season’s most buzzed about new show (curiously, the first season won no major prizes in...
