Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: How bout some 'retro-style' Dolby Digital trailers?

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Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 12-11-2000, 03:43 AM:

A really cool Dolby Digital trailer could be something late 60's/early 70's style with Moog synthesizer music (note: you've never truly lived til you've heard Enoch Light's "Permissive Polyphonics" album in quadraphonic sound!)
Something with 50's "lounge" music would be neat too, or something along the lines of those old 'jungle drums' records (the "Canyon" trailer comes close!) Then there could be a disco-themed one.
They should also make a special "Singalong" version of the "Aurora" trailer!

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 12-11-2000, 03:47 AM:

Singalong?

I'd be quite happy if Dolby would re-release the very first Train trailer mix again. It was incredible.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 12-11-2000, 10:37 AM:

Yes! TRAIN!! I'd be all for that. The train tha Dolby has now is "Okay" but I want more stereo panning.

Back when I was in high school it was the "fashion" for the sound techs at rock concerts to "run a train through the hall". Just about anybody who was anybody had a recording of a locomitive off in the distance that would pan through the channels as it got closer and then fade off into the distance on the other side.

That was kind of like the sound man's official "Okey Dokey" that the sound system is ready to go.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 12-11-2000, 12:07 PM:

I want a "glorious mono" trailer to show with older films. The Dolby Stereo, SR, SR-D, DTS, and SDDS trailers are great for prints which are available in those formats, but we really need something to run before films that have only mono tracks. (And, perhaps, Woody Allen films; although the SR "Temple" trailer would be legitimate to run with his more recent titles, it would be kind of anticlimactic to go from matrixed stereo to SR-mono....)

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 12-11-2000, 02:51 PM:

The Dolby City is the ideal trailer to run right before Woody Allen films, hands down as it has lots of surround activity!

One of the THX Tex trailers works nicely as well.

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 12-12-2000, 12:09 AM:

quote:
A really cool Dolby Digital trailer could be something late 60's/early 70's style with Moog synthesizer music

Isn't there an old Dolby test film with moog music by Walter (later Wendy) Carlos, & some piano stuff? Maybe this is a spurious memory, but I sure think I remember one, & it being generally blue in color with credits at the end.

------------------
William Hooper
Junk drawer: http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/theater/3622
Theatre Empire: http://members.xoom.com/saenger.1

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 12-12-2000, 04:26 AM:

"Jiffy Test", I believe it is called.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 12-12-2000, 05:54 AM:

It sounds like the 16mm "Jiffy Test" film. There might be a 35mm version, too. This is an SMPTE product, not a Dolby one. It's pretty cheesy, but can be useful, too. If anyone wants a print of this, I know someone who has a box of them who would sell them cheaply.

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 12-12-2000, 11:44 AM:

Scott you are mistaken it is not the SMPTE Jiffy test but the Dolby one

Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 12-13-2000, 12:20 AM:

>>Isn't there an old Dolby test film with moog music by Walter (later Wendy) Carlos, & some piano stuff? Maybe this is a spurious memory, but I sure think I remember one, & it being generally blue in color with credits at the end.<<

Thats the Cat 251(?) Dolby "Jiffy" test film, and the synth stuff is very near the end with the picture alignment tests where Carlos plays some synth tune ending with a cool variation on the Looney Tunes "Thats All Folks" theme... The only 'piano' in that film is a single bass note that is struck and held as an analog wow and flutter test.

Its about 7 minutes long, and contains a lot of 'technospeak'-not exactly the kind of thing to show for a 'logo' before a feature!
The DTS 'Buzz And Bill Show', on the other hand, is a much better thing that you could actually integrate into a feature program... (at least a PG13 or R rated one as the 'Born on the 4th of July' segment contains several utterances of "F**k")...

The SDDS test film save for the 'Hook' music selection makes Jiffy look like Star Wars in comparison, The SDDS film even makes ME sleepy!

Aaron

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 12-13-2000, 10:49 AM:

I had the pleasure of meeting Wendy Carlos at an SMPTE Technical Conference in New York City about eight years ago. A very technically astute artist, who is very interested in applying the latest in audio technology to her music. She did the soundtrack music for "A Clockwork Orange", "The Shining", "Tron", the Dolby "Jiffy Test" film, and other productions:
http://www.wendycarlos.com/

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 12-19-2000, 06:11 PM:

What I'd really like are some sound system advertising films from two or three generations ago so that when you showed a rep title with a variable density track you could put a title at the front advertising Western Electric "Mirrophonic" recording, or for an RCA duplex print, a tag promoting the RCA ultra-violet "noiseless" sound system. If tags like these were ever made it would be great to have reprints - for one thing it would help educate audiences away from the idea that anything mono has, by definition, to be crap.

Posted by Florian Pausch (Member # 708) on 12-22-2000, 03:39 PM:

Dolby produced a really fine demonstration film in 1976, called "Listen...", duration ca. 8 min. After some demonstrations of the stage channels, starting a saturn rocket, hearing a string quartet and so on, Wendy Carlos plays "The Ride Of The Walkuries" on her synthesizer, accompanied by pictures of a woman riding through the landscape. At the end of the film there are some fine "technical" features, the displays of an oscilloscope, an RTA, vectorscope etc. mounted parallel on the big screen (of course in CinemaScope).
The film is in Dolby A (remember the year), but still a big eye- (and ear-)catcher for an interested auditorium. I own one print and use it regularly before special shows.
I was just wondering, that no one seems to know this little feature.

best wishes from Vienna,
Flo

Posted by System Notices (Member # 2357) on 11-17-2009, 06:56 PM:

It has been 3252 days since the last post.

Posted by Aaron Garman (Member # 1653) on 11-17-2009, 06:56 PM:

Random question, but does anyone have a list of when some of the 90s Dolby Digital trailers were released? I'm doing some custom DVD building and trying to get appropriate trailers with films released in the same time frame, specifically 1999. A list of the THX ones would be great too.

AJG

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 11-17-2009, 08:45 PM:

quote: Aaron Garman
Random question, but does anyone have a list of when some of the 90s Dolby Digital trailers were released? I'm doing some custom DVD building and trying to get appropriate trailers with films released in the same time frame, specifically 1999. A list of the THX ones would be great too.

I'm not sure if the original Train trailer was released in 1992 (at the time "Dolby Stereo Digital" was introduced). That longer pan flute tinged Train came out in 1995. City was also introduced in 1995 -which updated the Dolby Digital logo to, ahem, "Dolby Digital." Another Train trailer with the updated Dolby Digital logo followed (without the pan flute thing, but not as aggressively mixed either).

Canyon and Egypt were released in either 1997 or 1998. I'm not sure. I'm fairly certain Rain and Aurora came out in 1999. Weren't those two created for the introduction Dolby•EX? Since then Dolby hasn't released any Dolby Digital trailers that I've liked much at all.

There is a list of THX trailers, information about them and little .WMV files located here. Unfortunately, the THX site has nothing about the Cimarron trailer (1988). That's my favorite THX trailer.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 11-17-2009, 09:35 PM:

The whistle train came out before 1995. It was out for over a year before the City came out. I thought the City was kind of lame because it showed everyone going to the Dolby theater which is clearly a single screen place built in 1931.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 11-17-2009, 09:48 PM:

I didn't see that flute type DD Train trailer until May of 1995 when the Casa Linda 4 theater in Dallas put in a couple Dolby Digital systems. The few Dolby Digital shows I saw at in 1994 were at GCC Northpark 1-2 in Dallas (the DFW area had hardly any DD equipped theaters at the time). Obviously they were playing the more kick-ass version of Train. It made children who were going to watch The Lion King cry in fear. Pretty damned cool.
[thumbsup]

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 11-17-2009, 10:01 PM:

I just remember having played the whistle version for more than a year when we got the City version when it first came out. Then it was at least another year or two when the crappy Temple/Canyon/Egypt things came out. Those trailers had next to no animation at all and were rendered at less than HD resolution and sounded boring at best.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 11-17-2009, 10:10 PM:

I think it's pretty strange that both Dolby and DTS have their best quality audio formats ever now playing on Blu-ray, yet none of the Blu-ray movies I've bought up to this point have any Dolby or DTS trailers on them.

Has either company created any promotional trailers at all for Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio? Those formats would seem more trailer-worthy than their data lossy predecessors.

None of the Blu-ray discs I own have any THX trailers on them either. Not even the Pixar ones.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 11-17-2009, 11:04 PM:

They should release a Blu-ray with nothing BUT that stuff on it, in each format: Dolby TrueHD, DTSHDMA and Linear PCM. Also 192Hz 128-bit audio as well. No more of this 16-bit 48khz crap. That audio resolution is for homeless people.

Posted by Tom Mundell (Member # 4555) on 11-18-2009, 10:34 AM:

quote: Bobby Henderson

Has either company created any promotional trailers at all for Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio? Those formats would seem more trailer-worthy than their data lossy predecessors.

There is a DTS-HD Master Audio trailer. I've only seen it only once though, it's on something I just bought recently (I think it was either Up or season 2 of Star Trek maybe? I'll have to double check later...) I haven't seen any Dolby trailers yet...

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 11-18-2009, 12:29 PM:

quote: Bobby Henderson
Obviously they were playing the more kick-ass version of Train. It made children who were going to watch The Lion King cry in fear. Pretty damned cool.

Yeah it was. We ran the train with The Lion King. We *HAD* to turn it up to accommodate The Lion King's mix, which made the Train incredibly powerful. This was also our public's first exposure to digital sound. The high pitched screeches and thunderous thumps coming from all of the speakers at the same time was pretty overwhelming to them. We heard quite a few "Holy Shit!"s back in those days. I'd love to see that trailer come back.

Back to the topic - I have something labeled "Dolby Mancini", but have no idea as to its age.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 11-18-2009, 01:37 PM:

quote: Bobby Henderson
none of the Blu-ray movies I've bought up to this point have any Dolby or DTS trailers on them.

Because people don't give a shit?

I wish all movie disks would just get right to the stupid movie when inserted. Once you've seen the Universal or Fox logo 10,000 times on TV it starts to lose its cool, but for some reason it's always cool to see them on the big screen.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 11-18-2009, 02:53 PM:

Tom, it isn't on UP because I have that and Star Trek is in Dolby TrueHD so there is a 55+% chance that it won't be on that one either.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 11-18-2009, 05:54 PM:

quote: Mike Blakesley
I wish all movie disks would just get right to the stupid movie when inserted.

I agree, but I'm far less annoyed by a THX & Dolby snipe, followed by the film distributor logo at the front of the movie than the parade of forced trailers and even TV commercials on so many DVDs and even Blu-ray discs these days.

I liked seeing the THX trailers and sound format trailers right before the beginning of the movie. Most members of the audience saw it as a cue that they need to bring their conversations to a quick end because the movie was finally about to start. And if they wanted to keep talking the bone-jarring dynamics of a good sound format trailer would shut em up anyway!
[Razz]

The various sound and THX format thingies might be good extras to have on a Blu-ray disc in a audio/video optimizer extra. Some of the old Pixar DVDs had those things (the "optimizer" things). The Abyss DVD had the Dolby "Rain" trailer hidden as an easter egg and the 2nd disc.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 11-18-2009, 06:03 PM:

The optimizer included on the Pixar Blu-rays is very odd. It shows what to look for and then the next screen what they show is completely different, with crap blinking on and off and spinning around and whatnot. WTF?

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 11-18-2009, 09:17 PM:

quote: Bobby Henderson
Most members of the audience saw it as a cue that they need to bring their conversations to a quick end because the movie was finally about to start.

Funny you mention that. We used to run the Broadway 2000 trailer (with the fader set at "7" of course) and that thing shook the hell out of the theater (and the managers office upstairs too). You could hear all kinds of mumbling going on until that deep note hit - then - dead silence. Talk about a way to shut everyone up.

Posted by Tom Mundell (Member # 4555) on 11-18-2009, 09:24 PM:

Ah, found it! You're right Joe, it's not Up but it is on Star Trek TOS season 2.

I'm a big fan of having something to separate trailers from the feature; I prefer the THX (or Dolby, DTS or whatever snipes) but even the AMC feature presentation works well. Regal doesn't have anything (around here at least) and it always seems like a good portion of the audience doesn't even notice the movie is beginning, especially after so many trailers...

Posted by Aaron Garman (Member # 1653) on 11-18-2009, 09:28 PM:

Thanks for the info fellas.

If you're interested in seeing a bunch of these, and like .vob files, run a google search for THX trailers.

Look for the second link...

They have two versions of Train, and I'm guessing neither is the fabled original one with all the thump. I'd love to get my hands on one of those.

AJG

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 11-19-2009, 04:46 AM:

I forgot I ever posted this- the way theaters are run nowadays, you'd be more likely to see a Dolby Digital trailer with a paid ad worked into it than the retro-style ones I hoped for. (Dolby Digital- brought to you by Volkswagen!)

That "Mancini" trailer was orchestral music with a flyover shot of a canyon or something, with the Dolby SR logo at the end- not completely clear since I only heard it from the booth while turning the volume up just for that trailer then a little lower for the feature as directed by management. (It was at a crappy tri-plexed theater where the other screens had mono sound, so nobody going there cares about sound anyways.)

I'm pretty sure I have the original "Dolby Stereo Digital" trailer on DVD or laserdisc somewhere, now I'm gonna have to go look for it- it's either from something I downloaded a long time ago or on a demo disc. I bought a demo DVD from Dolby around 1999 that has all their trailers up til then (but not the ORIGINAL train) and I got ahold of a copy of the THX demo DVD that has all their trailers on it. That disc was REALLY hard to find when it came out, but it's been set free to the masses through the miracle of burning.

Posted by Aaron Garman (Member # 1653) on 11-19-2009, 11:14 PM:

Do we know if any LaserDiscs had the original train?

I know the THX Broadway even varied on some of the AC3/DTS titles. The best mix I've heard on it was on the Jurassic Park DTS LaserDiscs.

AJG