Contact coming in October! (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

CONTACT is still $19.99 at Amazon. My preorder went in this morning.

I am looking forward to seeing this again. Not the most memorable
movie I have ever seen, but the opening sequence is incredible (and
should be moreso on BD) as well as the fact that this film is pure
Zemeckis. I love his style, including (if I remember correctly) a
wonderful camera tracking shot in the first 30 minutes of the film.
I think it involves a mirror. Anyhow, I am so happy WB is getting
this one out.

 

[JediFonger]

here are some screencaps from the Sky UK HDTV Broadcast in 1080p:

http://achumpatoxford.com/u/files/1/vlcsnap-299428.png
http://achumpatoxford.com/u/files/1/vlcsnap-300306.png
http://achumpatoxford.com/u/files/1/vlcsnap-300036.png
http://achumpatoxford.com/u/files/1/vlcsnap-300082.png
http://achumpatoxford.com/u/files/1/vlcsnap-300243.png

imho, WB won't spend $ to make it a true Lowry Digital remaster. it'll probably have some dirt/scratch removal. minor color timing balances and a then a straight dump into VC-1 encoding machine. if they do offer lossless, it'll also be a minor tweak of levels, quality checking and then a dump into TrueHD 5.1.

i really wanted this to be a 'Oz' treament or even Gone With the Wind, etc. =).

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Why on earth would Lowry Digital need to be involved in an HD transfer for a 12 year-old film? It's not like the elements are beyond repair or even in bad condition. As for the audio, it should be just fine as well. Not everything needs a digital restoration.

 

[Carlo_M]

I remember Contact as not just a good film which I enjoyed, but also as the first RSDL disc (and unfortunately on my old Toshiba 2006 I could tell where the layer change was every time, here's a hint: it involved a phone cord). Despite that, this was one of my earliest "demo" discs I used to wow friends (especially the space travel scene).

I look forward to revisiting this film in HD on Blu.

 

[cafink]

I remember all the fuss that was made about it at the time, but I never had any problems with "DVD rot." I got the Contact DVD in 1997, and watched it just last week--it played flawlessly. Did I just get lucky?

 

[PattyFraser]

Ron, I see it has gone back to $19.99 today, although I do assure that it had gone to $23 and change. Why it would go back and forth I don't know, but that is, I guess an alert that one must be mindful that that site does sometimes do that pricing "thing."

Glad you slipped in there and were able to get it at the lower price!

 

[Chris S]

Just a note/reminder about Amazon pre-orders... If you initially pre-order at a higher price and they then lower that price at any point before they ship you the item you will automatically be credited the difference. In other words if you pre-ordered at $23 and they lowered it to $19 (even if only for a day) you will only be charged $19.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

They also have free shipping for orders >=$30 right now, so if you want something else to go w/ Contact, eg. John Adams, Watchmen or maybe The New World, then Contact would only cost ~$16.50 or so plus tax, which is quite good.

_Man_

 

[Josh Dial]

I know the exact shot you are referring to, Ron, and I agree it's great. In fact, I consider it one of the best "shots" of the last few decades.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

There is also a pull in shot that goes 'through' a house window that I really like too.

 

[Doug Otte]

I like the shot that starts by seeing young Ellie in the bathroom mirror, then pulls back to see her running through the house and downstairs to find her father...

Doug

 

[Chuck Mayer]

That is the mirror shot Ron is referring to.

I recall that this was Zemeckis' first film after Forrest Gump made a ton of money and won a ton of awards in 1994. Bob Zemeckis used to be (and probably still SHOULD be) big-time A-list, and this was an interesting choice. He also basically discovered Peter Jackson for Universal (exec producing 1996's The Frighteners and throwing WETA some effects work).

I'm pleased to see so many enthusiastic fans for the film. It's a good adaptation of a great book by a brilliant man. And made with great skill and outstanding visual EFX.

 

[Brandon Conway]

I've always loved the film. I'm looking forward to the BD upgrade.

 

[Jason Charlton]

The shot in question is actually the reverse of this, and it IS quite amazing. Ellie starts downstairs and the camera leads her up the stairs (i.e. the camera is moving backwards), across a hallway (turning a corner) and into the bathroom. When we get there, the camera pulls back to reveal that we're watching Ellie's reflection in the bathroom mirror (a practical impossibility, due to corners and stairs). The commentary track mentions how the VFX guys even added a distortion effect that mimics the bevel on the edge of the mirror and how such a minor detail really helps "sell" the shot at the end.

Zemeckis (IMO) is unfairly left out of the discussion many times when people talk about visual effects innovators. His films (much like David Fincher's films) are exceptionally good at the "invisible" special effect. Cast Away is another excellent example of this.

 

[Heinz W]

Contact is a release day purchase for me. Certainly one of the better SF films of the past 15 years or so. I've also read the book. Like a lot of other folks here my it's one of my earliest DVDs (darn snappers!), bought way back in '98. I still remember all the hoopla about it being the first dual-layer DVD. Can't wait to see it in HD!

I love the camera work too. Besides the other shots mentioned I also like the one that follows Ellie as she runs from her car to the control room when the signal is first detected.

 

[JediFonger]

every classic deserves to be fully preserved for keepsake and posterity. while it's "fine" it isn't perfect.

Originally Posted by Stephen_J_H

Why on earth would Lowry Digital need to be involved in an HD transfer for a 12 year-old film? It's not like the elements are beyond repair or even in bad condition. As for the audio, it should be just fine as well. Not everything needs a digital restoration.

 

[Todd H]

One of the few 1997 DVD's still in my collection.

I remember buying a good number of DVD's back in the summer/fall of 1997 before I even owned a DVD player. In fact, the first time I finally got to watch these was when I bought a Creative Labs DVD drive and decoder kit for my computer. I would run the video out to my old 25" television and watch them that way. I didn't finally buy a standalone DVD player until around 2000-2001. Good times

I tried playing it not too long ago and it still worked flawlessly. Plus, for a transfer over ten years old, it looked surprisingly good. And being that this is one of my favorite movies of all time, I'll definitely be picking this up. Let's hope Warner doesn't screw it up.

 

[Brandon Conway]

Originally Posted by JediFonger

every classic deserves to be fully preserved for keepsake and posterity. while it's "fine" it isn't perfect.

How do you know the film elements need any work? The DVD is nearly ten years old. I highly doubt a restoration is needed. A new HD master should look great.

 

[JediFonger]

because:
http://img170.imageshack.us/i/23378148.png/">[/url][url=http://img170.imageshack.us/i/23378148.png/]
[/url][url=http://img188.imageshack.us/i/99359198.png/]
[/url][url=http://img188.imageshack.us/i/89860037.png/]
[/url][url=http://img43.imageshack.us/i/48080617.png/]
[/url][url=http://img233.imageshack.us/i/20399911.png/]
[/url][url=http://img30.imageshack.us/i/19872113.png/]
[/url]

 

[Brandon Conway]

The DVD is no barometer of how the film looks and sounds. An HD master is not gonna be derived from the master the old DVD uses. Those screen grabs only prove that the old DVD is not up to current standards.