Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Universal Sending new Cats version with revised VFX

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Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 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.

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 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.

Posted by Jarod Reddig (Member # 6363) on 12-22-2019, 06:54 PM:

I finally watched a preview for this and wow does it look weird lol.

Posted by Rusty Gordon (Member # 2210) on 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.

Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 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.

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 12-24-2019, 06:03 PM:

But if you camped out overnight you probably could have charged them triple time;>

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 12-24-2019, 06:54 PM:

Universal has only done six 4K titles in the last 4 years. Perhaps this is exciting for them.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 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. [thumbsup]

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.

Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 751) on 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.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 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.

Posted by Kenneth Wuepper (Member # 1174) on 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.

Posted by Stephan Shelley (Member # 8587) on 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.

Posted by Harold Hallikainen (Member # 5405) on 12-27-2019, 09:23 PM:

How are the versions different?

Posted by Stephan Shelley (Member # 8587) on 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.