Babylon 5: season 2 news (1 Viewer)

[Rob T]

from the r.a.s.t.b.m. newsgroup
>Indications are that Warner Home Video is happy enough with the sales of
>S1 that beginning with S2 they won't be waiting for sales reports on
>each set before starting work on the next.
I don't know that they've committed to that extent, but they are very happy
with the sales, and are accellerating things.
Interviews for year 2's DVD have been set, or already conducted, with Stephen
Furst, Andrea Thompson, John Iacovelli, Anne Bruice-Ailing, Jerry, Claudia,
Bruce, me, John Copeland, Doug Netter and others.
In addition, I'll be doing commentaries on "The Coming of Shadows" and "The
Fall of Night," and there will be a bonus group commentary by Bruce, Claudia
and Jerry on "The Long, Twilight Struggle."
There's talk about a special musical sequence for the season 3 DVD, with Chris
re-scoring 2-3 episodes end to end with non-stop music, future segments on "The
Future According to Babylon 5" with NASA and JPL guys (btw, James over at a
certain House subcommittee, if you're reading this and could drop me a note,
that'd be great). I'd like to see the final bonus section on year 5 be about
the fans of the show.
Point being...they're putting a LOT of energy and work into this to make each
set better than the one before.
(And yes, still writing my brains out here this weekend, except for a brief
Bejeweled break where I finally broke 400,000 points.)
jms
This'll be a very nice set.

 

[Bjorn Olav Nyberg]

I take it jms from the signature of the post is series creator J. Michael Straczynski?

 

[CaptDS9E]

Yep its the creator of b5.

 

[oscar_merkx]

wow this is great news as I have just ordered season 1 and cannot wait to see this for the first time.
Oscar

 

[John Berggren]

I am being begged to get season 1 on DVD and watch the show, but the budget isn't ready for the expense on a maybe quite yet. Soon though, soon.

 

[Max Leung]

Any chance they'll reframe the CGI outer-space shots in 4:3 format, to minimize "upconversion" artifacts? That is, we watch the live-action in 16:9, but outerspace shots will be shown 4:3?
Ok, it's not likely, but one can hope.

 

[Ric Easton]

OK, I realize that some of the effects shots are rather cramped and the quality of the video is sometimes a little shaky... but the ultimate strength of B5 is the story and the characters. I am very glad to see that Warner Bros is continuing onward with the releases.

Ric

 

[Rob T]

The only thing that I don't like is a re-scoring by Christopher Franke news.
a commentary track by him on an episode or 2 would be nice, but a brand new score for some episodes?
I don't think so.
The rest sounds like good stuff though.

 

[Joe McKeown]

Great news from Warner! (Now, discontinue all the snappers, and I'll even show respect)

 

[Hakan Powers]

Excellent news! I just finished the S1 set and can barely wait for the next one. I had almost forgot how good this show is.
I said almost.

 

[Kai Zas]

I don't know why they have to tinker with the aspect ratio at all. Do they think the show won't sell if it's not widescreen anamorphic?

I've got the box here in front of me ($30 over at Amazon.de, still can't believe it), but I'm waiting for "The Gathering" to arrive. I've bought this show sight unseen, I've watched a little when it aired back in the days, so it's mostly new to me. Reading the review over at tvshowsondvd has me worried a tad about the quality.

 

[Andy_Bu]

Reading the review over at tvshowsondvd has me worried a tad about the quality.

As has been mentioned a few times, do not get bogged down on quality issues.

On the whole, the set looks better than any medium B5 has ever been on.

The coupled with the fact that the quality of the show will override any quality issues should make for an enjoyable watch for you I hope.

Andy

 

[Rob T]

I don't know why they have to tinker with the aspect ratio at all. Do they think the show won't sell if it's not widescreen anamorphic?

No.
JMS planned a widescreen release for home video from the start when production on season 1 began.
Sadly, WB messed up and lost the CGI files, but they most likely wouldn't have re-rendered them for 16x9 anyways due to the cost.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

I don't know why they have to tinker with the aspect ratio at all

Because JMS planned on a widescreen version for home video and HDTV syndication from the first season on. (The show was shot in Super35)

As far as I'm concerned the CGI compositions are improved in widescreen.

Switching aspect ratios in the middle of episodes would be incredibly ugly and annoying, a much worse idea than doing either 100% 4:3 or 100% widescreen. And given that the composite CGI/live action shots are also affected you'd be switching aspect ratios every few seconds in some scenes. This whole concept is a non-starter for many excellent reasons.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Paul McElligott]

Any chance they'll reframe the CGI outer-space shots in 4:3 format, to minimize "upconversion" artifacts? That is, we watch the live-action in 16:9, but outerspace shots will be shown 4:3?

No chance, because you would also have to go back to 4:3 for live/CGI composite shots. Some scenes have both composite and live shots, so you would constantly be switching between 16:9 and 4:3 during the scene.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

I guess great minds really do think alike.
Regards,
Joe

 

[Jeremy Conrad]

I've heard that S2 is possibly set for April 2003, with 3 set for November 2003. Dunno if that still stands, however.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

JMS mentioned the tentative April and November dates in a usenet post a couple of months before the S1 set went on sale. A purported 2003 Warner Home Video release list for the U.K. is currently circulating on the 'net. It gives release dates for the next two seasons as May 2003 and September 2003. (That's what I was referring to in the usenet posts that is quoted in the JMS reply above.) Since the U.K. release of the S1 set was about 10 days in advance of the R1 release, I'm guessing these dates would be approximately accurate for both sides of the Atlantic. However, as far as I know this list has not been confirmed as really being from Warner Bros. It may be, it may not. The Digital Bits go hold of a copy and all they said is that they are aware that some of the titles on it on the schedule for an R1 release next year.
Today's Bits Rumor Mill contains a number of TV releases for 2003, through June, but it doesn't show any B5 sets at all.
Regards,
Joe

 

[Nigel McN]

from the man himself from usenet via jmsnews.com

I don't think this got through the momentary message blockade, so I'm sending
this a second time....
There are a number of elements to this discussion that need to be addressed.
First, a lot of the flaws being seen on the film were there in the beginning;
the difference is that the DVD transfer shows those little flaws more clearly
than when the show is broadcast on tape over the air. Just as a CD will pick
up any glitches in the original analog master, so a DVD will show any
shortcomings in the film or the transfer.
On the CGI question, bear in mind that we were making this show at the very
beginning of CGI effects, and that they had never been done for TV on this
scale before. Many andvancements have been made in the intervening years, but
at the time, the hardware and software we had was pretty rudimentary.
We did not have the tech, at that time, to do our comps in widescreen super35
versions. The software that we used to dump the footage into couldn't handle
it. So we had no choice but to render the CGI and the comps in standard ratio.
We cannot intercut full-frame CGI with widescreen non-cgi stuff because
sometimes we intercut in two-second intervals or less, and the banging back and
forth between aspect ratios would be extremely hard on the eyes.
Nor can this footage be re-rendered because the separate elements do not exist
anymore, only the original un-comped film elements are there. The CGI files
are not around anymore, and to recreate every shot would be prohibitively
expensive. In a big way.
Because of the trend to HD, the widescreen versions, even with these small
glitches, will still have a longer shelf life than if we put them out in
regular aspect ratio. And that is the purpose of the story, to keep it around.
We were the prisoners to the tech that was available to us at the time (for the
first season we were using home Amigas, no less). It was all experimental and
by the seat of our pants kind of stuff. But it was the best anyone was doing
at the time, and we did the best we could with the tools we had.
jms
([email protected])
(all message content (c) 2002 by synthetic worlds, ltd.,
permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine
and don't send me story ideas)

covers a lot recently asked here

 

[Greg_S_H]

covers a lot recently asked here

It does, and I appreciate the repost. If I buy this set, I'll be buying it blind, and the negative reviews have been somewhat off-putting. Between this post and the other posts in this thread, I feel better about it. Now, it'll just be a question of how much DVD money I have to spend!
One other question, though, that hasn't been answered yet (unless I missed it): how long will the "lost elements/need to intercut 4x3 material" last? Into season 2? Through season 2? Into season 3?
Also, is it likely Blockbuster would have this? With all the box sets coming out, it might be in my best interest to rent first.