Site created 12/15/97.	page created: 7/24/07 back to the EMA 2007 index back to Day One The Bits at EMA 2007: Day Two - Warner, Borgnine & Blu-ray Day Two at EMA began with several revelations. First, Jahnke snores like a buzzsaw. Second, I apparently need some kind of white noise in the background to get any sleep at all. And finally, Todd gets up WAY too early for his own good. With the three of us all crashed in a single room (two beds and a pullout sofa bed) and this slated to be the most time we'd ever spent together all in the same place, in spite of nearly a decade of working together online, things were bound to get interesting. We'd planned to get an early start on this particular day on purpose. We'd all arrived too late on Day One to pick up our badges at the show's registration counter, so we needed to get our ducks lined up before our group's schedule of events began on Day Two. Thus, after a quick and terribly overpriced breakfast at one of the hotel's cafés, which included large quantities of coffee, it was off to the convention area. Fortunately, picking up our passes was a quick and easy process, and we made it to the now packed Titian room with plenty of time to greet everyone and settle in. It was definitely a full house - virtually everyone from our group of seventy strong was on hand for the opening event. I should take a few minutes here to talk about our group - who we all are and what our reasons for attending EMA this year were. The whole idea goes back to the days when a great little store called Dave's Video was still THE place to go shopping for new and used laserdiscs and DVDs, as well as the latest in home theater gear, in the L.A. area. Dave and Linda Lukas were an industry institution here in Southern California. Their store was located up on Ventura in Studio City, a stone's throw from many of the Hollywood studio lots and production facilities. And it was frequented by just about everyone you can imagine. It wasn't at all uncommon to drop by looking for a particular new release and, as you'd start browsing the isles, literally bump into your favorite filmmakers doing the same. Dave's also had great DVD signing events with directors and other industry talent. Best of all, the staff knew and loved movies like nobody's business. You'd start describing a film you were looking for, and they'd know immediately what you were talking about. It was just a great place to spend a Saturday afternoon. The point of all this is that, every year, Dave's would hold something called Studio Day. The idea was to bring leading Hollywood studio executives into the store on a weekend to show off their upcoming DVD work and talk about the technology. The event was open to anyone - you could walk right off the street as a customer and talk with someone from Fox or Disney or Universal, and ask them in person when your favorite film from their studio would be released on DVD. Many of us who work here at The Bits, as well as other DVD, movie and entertainment sites (including our old friends at DVD File, DVD Review and others), would attend the event every year. Before long, Ron and the crew from Home Theater Forum began scheduling L.A.-area "meets" around Dave's Studio Day - HTF members would literally fly from around the world to attend. In addition to the Dave's event, there'd be dinners, private studio tours, backyard barbecues, group film screenings - it was a great chance for people who love movies and home theater to get together, make new friends and talk about... well, movies and home theater. But when Dave's finally closed its doors a few years back, the tradition of all of us getting together like that went with them. Since then, Ron and I have talked several times about the possibility of staging our own event, and inviting the studios to attend, but we were never quite able to put together something we thought would be really special. Then, early in 2007, the folks at EMA (particularly Martin Blythe, who we all knew from his days in PR at Paramount) decided that for this year's Home Entertainment Expo - which has primarily been a video retailer convention (EMA stands for Entertainment Merchants Association) - it might be a good idea to invite a group of home theater and movie enthusiasts too. As it happens, the studios and retailers are always trying to figure out where the industry is going in the years ahead. What better way to do that, than to ask the very consumer enthusiasts who help lead the way? So EMA contacted Ron Epstein and invited him to bring a group of Home Theater Forum members to the show. They'd get discounted room rates, be treated to a special program of private events, etc. Ron thought this was a great idea and, realizing that this was exactly the opportunity we'd been trying to arrange, called me on the phone one day to invite The Digital Bits to participate too. Soon thereafter, Gord Lacey at TV Shows on DVD was brought into the effort as well. The goal was to cast a wide net and invite as many of our members and readers as possible. In exchange, we'd all use our contacts in Hollywood to invite studios, manufacturers and other industry organizations to appear before our group. With the format war winding down its heated first year, we particularly thought that this would be a great chance to expose our readers - some of them for the very first time - to BOTH high-def formats in person, and to give each camp an equal opportunity to show off their best. Once the word went out on our combined sites, we very quickly amassed a group of willing attendees some seventy people strong. This included a few staffers from each site, but mostly these were dyed-in-the-wool enthusiasts. All of the major studios were invited to get involved, and Warner and Universal chose to come in person. When some of the Blu-ray Disc supporting studios learned of the event, and realized that 2007 marked the 10th anniversaries of both The Home Theater Forum and The Digital Bits, they chose to participate by holding a private birthday party for our combined sites, with our whole EMA group invited. And the HD-DVD camp decided to join in as well by providing several in-person demonstrations, as well as holding a panel discussion to talk about their format. Our group was also invited to attend all of the regular EMA events as well, including keynotes, banquets, awards ceremonies and the usual studio sponsored cocktail parties. In the end, as things fell into place, Ron, Gord and I felt sure that our group was going to be treated to a really great slate of events. The first event on the schedule for Tuesday was an hour-long session with the aforementioned staff of Warner Home Video, set for 11 AM. Steve Nickerson, Ronnee Sass and Janet Keller returned and, as expected, Nickerson (WHV's senior VP worldwide for high-definition) showed off some of the studio's latest HDi interactive features on the HD-DVD versions of 300 and Blood Diamond. On 300, we looked at the In-Movie Experience - a picture-in-picture option that lets you view both the final film, as well as the untouched raw footage shot on stage in front of a bluescreen, at the same time. By using the network capabilities of HD-DVD, you can go online and download cell phone ring tones, wallpapers from the film and other items. Nickerson also showed off the network features on Blood Diamond, which allow you to, for example, learn more about the history of the regions in Africa depicted in the film. All of this online information can be updated over time as the political situation changes, creating what Warner considers to be a valuable continuing resource for fans of the film. Our group was then treated by Warner to the very first sneak peek at BOTH the Blu-ray and HD-DVD versions of Victor Garcia's Return to House on Haunted Hill, produced by Joel Silver, which will mark Warner's first use of a new branching feature they're calling Navigational Cinema. We were shown an exclusive video clip in which Silver explained how the feature will work. Navigational Cinema will take advantage of the greater capabilities of players of both high-def formats to allow the viewer to interact with the film itself. You'll get to chose what happens next in the story, and as your choices pile up, they'll affect the scenes you'll see later in the film (and eventually its ending). In this particular case, while Garcia and the crew were shooting the traditional linear version of the film that will be seen in theaters (and will also be on the discs), they also shot an additional 60 minutes of material. Every critical decision the characters make was shot with both possible outcomes. Ultimately, the goal is to create 90-something possible versions of the film, all of which depend on the choices made by viewers using their player remotes, and all of which are included on a single disc via seamless branching. It's an interesting idea. Given that film has long been primarily a linear experience, I'll be curious to see how popular this option is with movie fans. When Nickerson's presentation was over, Ron presented the Warner staff with a special plaque recognizing the studio's work in bringing great classic films to DVD in recent years. It's certainly well deserved. Each year, The Home Theater Forum and The Digital Bits hold virtual awards ceremonies to honor the best DVD work of that year. Warner has consistently dominated both the HTF awards (chosen by their members) and our own Bitsy Awards (chosen by our staff). We'd like to thank everyone at Warner, especially Steve, Ronnee and Janet, for taking the time to address our group. Once Warner's hour was done, our group broke for lunch, and Todd, Adam and I went to meet my wife Sarah (the business and organizational brains behind The Bits), who had flown in earlier that morning from the O.C. to attend most of our group's two days of programming. We then all went to explore some of the participating EMA studios' private suites. At one point in the not-so-distant past, the show floor at this convention was packed with major studio booths and activities - celebrities doing signing events and the like. I can remember several years back, when Paramount had a massive replica of the Titanic on display on the show floor. We've posted pictures of past VSDA shows here at The Bits. These days, however, most of the actual business gets done in private suites set up by the studios. Most meetings are by appointment, pre-arranged prior to the show, but often you can walk in and talk to someone from the studio, or at the very least pick up fliers and sell sheets on upcoming titles. Usually, there are one or two floors of the hotel set aside for this purpose, so you can just walk from one room to the next and see everything you need to. We took the opportunity to visit some of the smaller and independent studios - BCI, Starz, Image/Criterion, Tartan, DTS, Tai Seng and others. Then we did a quick pass through the actual show hall... which was mostly booths for service related items: popcorn machines, tanning beds and other services that might be of interest to small retailers. 20th Century Fox had set up a Simpsons Movie photo opportunity (similar to the one you might have seen at your local movie theater), so we all took advantage of that. And actor John Schneider (of Dukes of Hazzard and Smallville fame) was at the show to promote a new direct-to-DVD project of some kind, so a replica of the General Lee was parked in one corner of the hall as well. Soon it was time to head back to the Titian room for the next set of events for our group, and these were purely for fun. At 2:30 PM, comedian Katt Williams was slated to appear, presumably to do some stand-up and answer questions. Then, actor Ernest Borgnine was set to follow at 3 PM for an hour of stories and questions. Both celebrities were promoting new DVD releases (Williams had been named Rising Entertainer of the Year by EMA and was promoting his forthcoming Pimp Chronicles, Part 2, while Borgnine was awarded the Sustained Creative Achievement Award by EMA and was promoting the DVD release of McHale's Navy). Unfortunately, Williams was late due to transportation issues, but the folks at EMA were able to bring Borgnine in straight away. Let me tell you, Borgnine was a lot of fun to listen to. He's moving a little slower these days at age 90, but he hasn't lost an ounce of his trademark wit and charm. The hour seemed to fly by as the actor regaled us all with stories of his early days as an actor, his work on McHale's Navy, his more recent cartoon voice-over work (he's on SpongeBob kids!) and his days as a real gunnery sergeant in the U.S. Navy during World War II. There was a rather amusing moment (in between all the funny stories we heard), when Borgnine realized that he was being videotaped. Ron was taping his presentation to post on the HTF for other members to see. Borgnine said something like, "I appreciate it, but I don't want to be on the Internet." Then... "No, I'm serious, I don't want to be on the Internet. I'm trying to write a book!" So amid much laughing, Ron had to stop taping. Apparently, though, Ernie's eyesight isn't so sharp these days, because he completely missed Todd sitting right in front of him in the second row, also taping the whole thing with his Canon XL2! (Todd swears he won't post the video online) Borgnine eventually wrapped up his presentation with a funny story about how he decided upon what to call his book (coming next year!), the punchline of which was: "I don't want to set the world on fire, I just want to keep my nuts warm!" Apparently that's the title of his book. NICE. About halfway through Borgnine's presentation, I happened to look back and see Katt Williams standing in the hallway looking in, with a puzzled expression on his face like: "Hey, that's not me!" So once Borgnine was done, the EMA people brought Katt in to do his thing. Unfortunately, our next event was scheduled to start in just 15 minutes, so The Bits crew had to head out a bit early to make sure things were ready for our group. Our apologies to the Williams camp - we're sure he was funny and all. As I mentioned earlier, several of the Blu-ray Disc supporting studios, upon learning that both HTF and The Bits turn 10 this year, decided to hold a private party to honor our joint milestone. So that's where our group headed next. The event was held in a private floor of the TAO nightclub in the Venetian. The area was set up with demonstration stations on which plasma screens were showing off the latest Blu-ray software and features, each driven by its own player. There was music, an open bar and plenty of finger food (Todd, Adam and Sarah are still raving about the Kobe beef sliders), and executives from all of the studios involved were on hand to mingle with our group members and answer questions about the format. Eric Maehara from Buena Vista Home Entertainment was there, as were Steve Feldstein and Dorrit Ragosine from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, Jennifer Sandler from Lionsgate and others from Sony, MGM and the Panasonic Hollywood Labs. The event started at 4 PM and the place was quickly packed. A number of other industry insiders were also in attendance, as were members of the industry press. We even pulled Microsoft's Kevin Collins into the event with us and, despite the fact that he might occasionally have felt like he was behind enemy lines, Sarah and I had a great time talking with him about our days back in Minneapolis (our old stomping ground and his too back in the 90s) and our mutual interest in photography. Kevin reminds me a lot of Josh Dare, who I used to interact with a lot back in the DVD vs. Divx days, and I mean that in a good way. Josh's job was to promote Divx but, despite the fact that we found ourselves at odds about that format skirmish, I liked him quite a lot. Kevin's the same way - we might disagree about the whole HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray thing, but he's a heckuva great guy and I'm glad to have met him. For our part, Ron and I were kept very busy talking with group members, accepting words of congratulations, making sure everyone was having a good time, posing for pictures and chatting with the various studio reps and press. At one point, Variety's Scott Hettrick gave a brief address to the group. A short time later, a pair of Playboy bunnies rolled out an elaborate birthday cake for our two sites. More photos were taken, and Ron and I each said a few words to the group thanking everyone for the event and for being on hand to celebrate with us. It was all a bit overwhelming, but I know I speak for Ron and everyone at both HTF and The Bits when I say that we really appreciated it. All of our group members were there and had a great time chatting with the studio reps and each other. It was really the first chance that we'd all had as a group to catch up with one another, so lots of stories were told and plenty of pictures were taken. Most stayed until about 6 PM, at which point people needed to stop off at their rooms to freshen up, drop off stuff and get ready for the rest of the evening. The final surprise for our group at the TAO party was a nice one indeed: each of our attendees was given a gift bag upon departure that included a number of Blu-ray movies, as well as a coupon redeemable by mail for a free Panasonic BMP-BD10 Blu-ray Disc player (courtesy of the Panasonic Hollywood Labs). Given that one of our original goals in helping to set up this EMA trip was to give our group members hands-on, up-close experience with both high-def formats, this was a welcome offer indeed (and, for the record, the offer was matched by the HD-DVD group the following day - we'll have more on that in our Day Three report). On behalf of Ron and myself, the staff of both sites and our entire group, I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone at Fox, Disney, MGM, Lionsgate, Sony, the Panasonic Hollywood Labs, TAO and elsewhere, who either sponsored this event or helped to make it really special for our group. I think it's fair to say that a good time was had by all. Immediately after the Blu-ray event, EMA held a cocktail part of their own in conjunction with their annual EMA Awards Show, honoring the best studios, releases and retailers of the past year. Many of our group were on hand to enjoy the experience and to see who took home each award. You can find a complete list of all the nominees and winners here at the official EMA website. The final event on the schedule for the day was a cocktail party at the infamous Moon Club at the Palms Hotel, sponsored by Starz Entertainment (which recently purchased Anchor Bay). The club sits high atop the hotel tower, some 50 stories above the city, affording club goers with an amazing view of the nighttime Vegas skyline. Several celebrities were on hand to mingle with the EMA crowd and to promote video releases, including actors Jeff Goldblum and Dennis Farina. Once again, there was music, finger food, sushi and an open bar (these things seem to be staples of the Vegas convention party scene). Todd, Sarah, Adam and I managed to find a secluded booth with a nice window view. Then I suddenly realized that I'd been so busy at the TAO party that I hadn't really eaten all that much, so Todd and I took the opportunity to load up on sushi (MAN, was that good stuff). Once in a while, we'd bump into Ron and some of the others in our group, but the place quickly grew too noisy to think and too packed to really move around much, so we decided to head out. Somewhere around this time, Todd learned to his dismay that the sparkly, highly-prized wristbands we'd all been given (to admit us into the Moon Club) were also a Golden Ticket to entering the alluring world that is the Palms' nearby Playboy Club. I use the word dismay, because moments after learning that choice bit of news, Todd was crushed to discover that the club's dress code would deny him entrance just as one of his personal dreams seemed about to come true: Among our Bits crew, Todd was the only one in shorts. I'm confident that despite the pounding dance music, more than one person in the Moon Club heard Todd's sudden and impassioned cry: "Ah hell... I should have worn pants!!" To help him recover from such a crushing blow, however, we all hopped back into the trusty Magnum and set course for Todd's second favorite place in Las Vegas... the Circus Circus Hotel and Casino. Now... the Circus Circus may just be the cheesiest place on Earth. It is certainly the cheesiest place in Vegas, and that's saying something. Once there, we immediately headed for the Carnival Midway area, made our way into the revolving bar and sat down to enjoy the High-Flying Somebody-or-Others trapeze show ("Hey! HO!!"). Soon, however, we'd all had our fill of daredevil entertainment, so after having purchased Jahnke a Boston Red Sox Mardi-Gras necklace (for reasons which shall again remain nameless but are related to the boy's tragic, recent aversion to Ben Affleck and the Boston area in general), Todd suddenly decided that he was going to see if the guy manning the Knock the Milk Bottles Over with a Beanbag Game would let him just buy a plush red Clown pillow (featuring the decidedly scary embroidered Circus Circus logo), for an easy fiver. Why exactly Todd wanted such a thing none of the rest of us could quite fathom, but that's just the way he rolls. Naturally, the game guy, a salty old character named Larry, was unwilling to circumvent the house rules in this way. However, he was MORE than willing to offer us tips on how to beat the game. He then proceeded to tell us the secret to seemingly EVERY Midway game in the joint. Some examples: The bean bag/milk bottle game ("The secret is to flatten out the bean bag and throw it just so..."), the ring-toss game ("You want hold it straight, and just flip it up like this..."), the dart/balloon game ("The secret is to hold it like a pencil. You wanna keep it level, you see? Don't be afraid to use your other hand if you need to..."). The guy was a riot. Needless to say, Larry's bean bag tip worked like a charm. I took up the challenge and, using his advice, proceeded to knock the bottles off four times in five tries, thus scoring Todd his scary Clown pillow. To top it all off, as we were leaving (or at least trying to - Larry was quite the Chatty Cathy), Larry asked if we were going to be back the NEXT night too, because he wanted to teach us all how to surefire win at Blackjack. All things considered, it was an odd, but strangely appropriate (and highly entertaining) way to polish off the night. I'll tell you this much: The Bits crew has been working hard to "keep it level" ever since. It was something like 2 AM when we all finally rolled back into our room at the Venetian, exhausted but happy. Todd made sure Jahnke borrowed one of my handy-dandy Breathe Right strips to dull the nasal roar and, after a few awkward Waltons moments, sleep came to us at last. Okay... only about four hours again, but it was something. A handy Bits travel tip: When in Vegas, be sure to visit the Midway at Circus Circus. Ask for Larry. Stay tuned for Day Three of our report with HD-DVD... on to Day Three back to the EMA 2007 index
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