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Author Topic: Universal Sending new Cats version with revised VFX Justin Hamaker Film God Posts: 2253 From: Lakeport, CA USA Registered: Jan 2004 posted 12-22-2019 02:23 PM                        In case you have not heard, Universal is sending theatres a new version of Cats, which has enhanced visual effects. The run time is supposed to be exactly the same, and the content is unchanged. The new version should be available to satellite locations today - 12/22/2019. Theatres that receive hard drives should receive it by Tuesday.  |  IP: Logged Frank Cox Film God Posts: 2234 From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada Registered: Apr 2011 posted 12-22-2019 04:45 PM                        I wonder if this affects the film classification. Even if the content is the same, this new version is not the same as the version that was classified and/or approved.  |  IP: Logged Jarod Reddig Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 513 From: Hays, Ks Registered: Jun 2011 posted 12-22-2019 06:54 PM                     I finally watched a preview for this and wow does it look weird lol.  |  IP: Logged Rusty Gordon Film Handler Posts: 33 From: Fairview, Tennessee USA Registered: Feb 2004 posted 12-24-2019 03:04 PM                        To get Cats reclassified you'd first have to convince the CARA members to sit through that drek again.  |  IP: Logged Jim Cassedy Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1661 From: San Francisco, CA Registered: Dec 2006 posted 12-24-2019 05:44 PM                     This morning I heard a "technology reporter" do a story on the radio about this. He's based in Los Angeles, and I happen to know the studio where he records his material is literally across the street from Warner Bros. In his report, he said that "according to the studio, this was nothing more than "a software update" they were sending out to all the theaters' servers, & that it would be done "by satellite or over the internet" This once again confirms what I've run into many times- - studios & studio reps usually have no friggin' idea of what goes on in the exhibition side of the business! Two weeks ago, I had a 10am Press Screening of "1917" that was scheduled with less than 24hrs notice. They were going to have to send a DCP by courier up from Los Angeles, it was going to arrive after 10pm the night before, & in an e-mail they said somebody was going to need to either work very late or start work at about 5am because it was going to take 4 HOURS ( ! ) to ingest, "because the movie is in 4K". I fired off an e-mail to the studio explaining that I had already done an industry screening of a TEMP version of "1917" about a week earlier and that while on some systems and under some circumstances it might take 4hrs to do an ingest, I could assure him that it wasn't going to take ME 4friggin' hours to do the ingest!! Less than 10min later the studio-guy called me on my cell phone and I managed to convince him I knew what I was doing, and I did not have to camp out in the projection room overnight. When the DCP arrived, I stuck it in the serverthingy (DSS-200) and went home. A bit later on, I logged in remotely from home and the ingest was done. I checked the server log, & the ingest (132GB) had taken just under an hour, which was EXACTLY what I told them it would take.  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-24-2019 06:03 PM                        But if you camped out overnight you probably could have charged them triple time;>  |  IP: Logged Adam Martin I'm not even gonna point out the irony. Posts: 3686 From: Dallas, TX Registered: Nov 2000 posted 12-24-2019 06:54 PM                     Universal has only done six 4K titles in the last 4 years. Perhaps this is exciting for them.  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 12-26-2019 03:33 PM                        Hell, I would have convinced him that it would take 6 hours, and as Martin suggests, let them know they are going to get a bill for platinum overtime. And from what everyone is saying, nothing they can do is going to save this dog...they day you can hear it barking before you even get into the theatre.  |  IP: Logged Mitchell Dvoskin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1869 From: West Milford, NJ, USA Registered: Jan 2001 posted 12-26-2019 04:07 PM                     > nothing they can do is going to save this dog...they day you can hear it barking before you even get into the theatre. To be technical about it, this film uses all nine of it's lives...The day you can hear it meowing before you even get into a theatre.  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-26-2019 04:50 PM                     Jim, I sometimes get the "You can't do that" vibe from people. I have learned to just let people talk themselves out until they are finished then just go back and do things the way I was going to do, anyway. It's not worth my time and energy to explain things to people who just don't have the ability to understand.  |  IP: Logged Kenneth Wuepper Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1026 From: Saginaw, MI, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 12-26-2019 06:08 PM                     Since the movie, picture and sound, are technically software, the comment that it was a software update might be correct. That the update changed the existing movie in some way was not addressed. Somehow digital cinema terminology and regular digital computer terms do not equate. One must think within the domain where the comments are being made. That's how we keep outsiders away from knowing our trade.  |  IP: Logged Stephan Shelley Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 854 From: castro valley, CA, usa Registered: Nov 2014 posted 12-27-2019 08:49 PM                     This film seems to be developing a cult following and we have been getting calls to see if we are still running the bad version. Which for the time being we are.  |  IP: Logged Harold Hallikainen Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 906 From: Denver, CO, USA Registered: Aug 2009 posted 12-27-2019 09:23 PM                        How are the versions different?  |  IP: Logged Stephan Shelley Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 854 From: castro valley, CA, usa Registered: Nov 2014 posted 12-27-2019 10:03 PM                     I have not seen yet but they finished the CGI. There are times the "cats" are more blobs than anything else. With the new version they have fur and details.  |  IP: Logged

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