Duality

Camp is a great independent film about a fine arts summer camp. The story is memorable, touching and unique - don't think Fame! I bought it last weekend and watched it last night.

Wow! MGM has provided an anamorphic widescreen presentation with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. We also get a featurette, a video from the L.A. Film Festival, deleted scenes and an INSERT! If this can be done for a wonderful independent film, why can't all discs get this respectful treatment?

msbailey

Huh. I thought the movie was pretty terrible and the disc suffers from some transfer issues (weird zig-zaggy lines appear on screen during scenes with a lot of motion or during cuts). Oh well, one man's nut loaf is another man's baked nosepickings.

Matthew Chmiel

I loved the film, but the transfer sucks. Then again, when I saw the film in theater (four times), the film looked pretty bad then. It looks like a mixture of 16mm and video, and I wouldn't be surprised about that since the film was made for under one million dollars. The transfer (while anamorphic), looks like the film was made for television and not for theaters. Oh well. The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is good and the extras seem interesting (30 minute featurette, 10 minutes of deleted scenes, cast preformance, and trailer).

After I saw the film in theaters, I was expecting MGM to release a bare bones DVD. At least we got something here.

Duality

OK guys, this is an "independent film." Of course I'm only watching it on a Sony Trinitron, but I saw *zero* transfer issues. Compared to Born on the Fourth of July (transfer Hell), this film is visually stunning.

msbailey,

I'm sorry you didn't appreciate the movie. You probably don't like disco either - your loss.

Matthew Chmiel

I was watching this on a Sony HDTV and the transfer isn't that great. As I said before, it looks like it was shot on 16mm and video and makes the film have a "made-for-television" feel. Hell, when I saw the film in theaters, there were a few scenes (where Vlad is talking to Michael in the theater) that made it look like the film was shot off video (maybe digital video?). I have no problems with it, but I've seen some better transfers for low budget films before.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 is nice through, especially for the musical numbers.

Duality

excuse me and the other 95% of DVD households that don't own an HDTV or even a regular widescreen plasma set! I'm sure when HDTV and HD-DVD are the standard this film and most others will be remastered and you'll be happy. In the meantime I'm happy with my square nearly-flat Trinitron and black bars.

BTW, most "Independent Film" is supposed to have that video, on the edge, not-so-slick look. It's about reality.

Matthew Chmiel

I call bullshit.

Clerks. ($25,000 budget)
Reservoir Dogs. ($3,000,000 budget)
Chasing Amy. ($250,000 budget)
Cabin Fever. ($3,000,000 budget)
Hedwig and the Angry Inch ($8,000,000 budget and one of the same production companies as Camp).

The list goes on and on. Most "Indepedent Films" do have a film like look to them, unless one is making a Blair Witch ($50,000 budget) or 28 Days Later ($9,000,000 budget) type film.

Camp was made on about a one million budget with unknown actors and the film went through pre-production, production, and post-production within a matter of months before it's premiere at Sundance in January 2003. The film did look crappy in theaters as I mentioned earlier (I was one of the five people to see it during it's theatrical release), so I'm not shocked the transfer isn't that great. Sure, it could've been a lot better, but oh well.

msbailey

FYI - I watched this on a 9-year-old RCA 32" set and I like disco.

Seantn

That time of the month?

Seriously, don't get bent out of shape by another person's opinion.

Danstheday1

How can such a cool film, with the dvd being done by laser pacific have such HORRIBLE picure quality in parts of the film. Watch the begining, and chapter 27, which looks like it was transfered from a 10th generation vhs copy. It's weird, part of this dvd looks like a A++ TRANSFER, where the colors shine and detail is pristine, then it jumps to horrible grainy quality. I saw this film in the theater and trust me chapter 27 did not even look that bad when it was on the big screen, man what happen? anyone know for sure????

Matthew Chmiel

Chapter 27 is the scene where


If you notice during all the night scenes, the picture is extremely grainy (especially during the "How Shall I See You Through My Tears" opening). I bet $5 that they didn't have proper lighting on the set and during editing had to put up the brightness and contrast up.

Duality

I've seen artifacts, edge enhancement, grain, pixelation and other miscellaneous annoying "stuff" that could have been eliminated if the studios had taken a bit more care. Universal is the worst offender IMHO. However, this film looks great on my set. I'm not sure what you guys are expecting, but let me assure you that this DVD, with regard to quality, isn't anywhere near the atrocities that have been pawned off over the years as "Special Editions."

So again, I say thank you to MGM for a DVD that, in my opinion, looks fine, sounds great and is loaded with everything I've been demanding - including an INSERT!

Danstheday1

Duality


Can you watch chapter 27 and tell me if your copy is really really grainy and...well crappy looking. Mgm imported some of the copies of camp from A canadian manufacture with the rest being made in the U.S., maybe they used diffrent transfers in canada than they did in the U.S.

Duality

I'm happy to do it. Since I have class after work today, I'll post what I think of chapter 27 tomorrow. Your hypothesis sounds like what probably happened. BTW, I live close to Mexico - if that matters distribution wise.

Peep

I thought this movie was cute at times, but mostly kind of lame.

Duality

Peep,

"Independent Film" is similar to Hollywood product in that it is sometimes extremely successful and sometimes it bombs. Whatever you thought of the movie is fine for you. I'm curious what you think about *the DVD* and how it reflects on MGM.

Peep

I didn't pay that close attention to the transfer, but I thought the features were impressive. I didn't notice a commentary track, however, which I kind of expect these days from an indie film like this. Commentaries are pretty cheap to produce and I'm disappointed that one wasn't include. The movie obviously seemed to be a labor of love.

Duality

I hadn't thought about the lack of a commentary. I was just so impressed with the package overall. Now a Sondheim interview/commentary would have been perfect!

ThatGuamGuy

Some directors actually prefer not to do them. Lately, I've been listening to some and thinking, "Man, if I ever make a movie, I don't think I want to do a commentary; if I do, it certainly won't be one like that!"

For instance, Eli Roth's solo commentary on 'Cabin Fever' should've been doc stuff; if you're not going to be screen specific, why not make it a doc? Why have a whole audio track running over pictures that aren't related to the audio track? [That's a great track, don't get me wrong, it's just a good example of non-specific commentaries.]

Another was the 'Ed Wood' commentary; they should've made a fifteen or twenty minute doc discussing why they all love Ed Wood, the person; I wanted to hear more about the production on the commentary track, and there was almost nothing.

Anyway, didn't mean to make this a list of lesser commentaries; I love listening to 'em, but I'm starting to suspect that Spielberg, Kubrick, and Woody Allen (among scores of others) are onto something on that front. At the very least, I dig people like Altman or Scorsese for choosing which ones they want to commentary over (although Altman's are so full of dead spaces that they, too, should be made into something more user-friendly; at least they're specific, though), rather than just talking about everything.

Matthew Chmiel

I live in Las Vegas, Nevada; so I'm pretty sure I didn't get a copy from Canada. Hell, the back of the box only lists the MPAA rating and no Canadian ratings. Hell, according to CNL, Alliance is releasing the DVD in Canada (and not MGM, probably since MGM only has the rights to release IFC Films in the US only) and the DVD isn't released in Canada till next week.

If the Canadian transfer for Camp is better than the MGM transfer, hell, I'll import that DVD. If it's the same, then oh well.

And let me say this, the transfer ****ing sucks.

So far I tried the DVD on the following:
- Brand new Sony HDTV (36" in living room) using Cyberhome CH-500 Progressive Scan Player.
- Brand new RCA TruFlat (20" in Bedroom #1) using Pioneer DV-340.
- 5 year old Philips/Magnavox (19" in Bedroom #2) using an X-Box.
- Gateway using a Pioneer DVD-ROM player with PowerDVD on custom settings.
- iBook using whatever the **** Apple's DVD-ROM player is with Apple's DVD Player.

Chapter 27 (and any other scene that take place at night) looks like crap on all of those five players.

If you guys want, I can go to my aunt and uncle's house and watch it on their Panasonic 65" HDTV with their Panasonic Progressive Scan DVD Player and I can bet you it'll look like shit on there too.

And P.S., look at the scene selections menus. Chapter 27 looks like crap also in that little tiny window.

Danstheday1

MY copy of camp says made in canada, on the top sticker outside the box(security tag), it was bought at curcit city, it is from mgm, they just had some of the dvd pressed in Canada and some in the U.S., Which is weird, but i also wonder if canada will have a better transfer when it gets released up there, hmm i wonder!!!

Matthew Chmiel

Dans, did your copy come with a free sample CD?

Danstheday1

no sample cd came with it

Duality

I compared Chapter 27 with the Drag Queen birthday party scene and I did notice minor differences. Chapter 27 does have some grain, but it doesn't distract on a regular TV. Other than that, Chapter 27 is filmed at night.

Duality

What?