How closely did Sony Pictures work with Sony Electronics when it comes to discussing Blu-ray conception and possibilities?
We are in close alignment with Sony Electronics and also with PlayStation as well, as far as bringing Blu-ray to the consumer. We want to make sure that we bring the best customer experience, so when we’re thinking about doing things with Blu-ray or Java [from the early days], we work closely with them to make sure [things] work properly, make sure it’s a seamless interface when the customer puts it in, so yeah we have weekly calls with the guys, we’re constantly on the phone with them. It’s important for us, under this Sony united banner, that we’re coming back and forth. It’s also in the future designs as well; we do work quite closely with them.
It’s always nice to hear that divisions can work with divisions within a large company like Sony.
Yeah, well, we also work with Viao as well. Blu-ray drives are taking off as well, which reinforces how Blu-rays are a really important component for Sony as a whole. It’s as if every division has touch points into Blu-ray, which is also good for the consumer because it’s intertwined throughout different product lines.
What is going to lead the consumer market to convert their DVD habits to Blu-ray? Rather, why should they?
The first and foremost is high-definition television, which has had its install base growing. What is happening the U.S. is that there is this expectation for certainly picture quality. [For people who have high-definition] when you’re jumping through channels you know when something is in standard definition [as opposed to] HD. When you’re watching something broadcast, the content that you buy needs to match a certain level for your high-definition television. On converting it, first and foremost it’s gonna be this expectation of what high-definition is, [not to mention] consumers are getting more accustomed to the high-definition picture that they’re seeing. The awareness factor [comes into play], Blu-ray is common knowledge that is out in the consumer base—people know what Blu-ray is now. Two years ago, it wasn’t at that level. When consumers start seeing all the extra things that come with Blu-ray, that’s when the conversion will also take place. When you have things like Digital Copy, High-Definition added value, you’ve got BD-Live, you’ve got like game demos, there’s so many different things that the platform delivers that DVD cannot. It reaches a point too, once it hits mainstream it really takes off. We were at the early adopter phase for the first two years and now we’re at that early mainstream phase, so when that goes it’s all about word-of-mouth, people will know it’s the best picture quality out there. If I have a high-definition television then it would really make sense to have a Blu-ray player as well. The other thing that we’re trying to message out there is don’t forget that the Blu-ray player does play your old DVDs as well.
I think we’ve hit a really good stride with the picture quality and what needs to be done. The first six months or so you learn a few things along the way, but we really [now] have stabilized and optimized on how to deliver this. We’ve got really good people who know how to deliver this and what to look for so we catch everything. That’s why we really deliver a good looking product on it. It’s exciting with BD-Live too, because you’re adding this whole new component that you could never really do with DVD. The way we want to position it this year is that the disc is really the key to additional content; things you can’t really get essentially on the web and want to make sure we have a lot of exclusive content for BD-Live to really engage people. We want to get it to a point where we want to personalize it. For instance, if consumers created a profile we could really know what consumers are interested in, so that we can push to you the stuff you would more than likely be engaged with. Add that to our Blu-ray club (Sony Pictures Blu-ray Club), which we put together, that offers discounts for new Sony Pictures releases and allows consumers to gather points from all the movies that you bought from Sony and offers consumers a chance to win a high-definition television, which they give away every month. This is all geared towards Sony Blu-ray Club members. And you can’t [do any of this] with DVD.
Movies such as Groundhog Day and La Femme Nikita are some of the older, more popular movies that Sony Pictures represents. How are older movies chosen for an HD upgrade and how is the amount of features/quality(of HD) determined?
Right, well, the overall strategy for us is to make sure that we have all the key ‘new release’ titles out there, but we also want to compliment it with a good base of catalog libraries to get all the consumers engaged to it as well. There’s such a huge range of what people love in movies, so for us there are some no brainers. There are action based films that people really grab onto that fit PlayStation 3 audiences right into it, but you want to round out a good catalog library for retailers and also for female audiences and stuff. So, you’ll blend in some comedies, dramas and romances, so that you can give it a well-blended format release.
For us, what we do is basically we look through the library; we look at the timing, because there may be things to draft upon – other similar titles that might be coming out theatrically. We then go through a rigorous process evaluating the picture and then figuring out what type of work needs to be done, what remastering needs to be done and what we would need for the right encode. For us, we’re really highly rated for the quality of films that we bring out; Sound and Vision ranked us as the number one studio for the best picture and audio and the reason why is because we know what the standard is for Blu-ray and we know what the expectation is, so when we go through it and do remastering it goes through a very rigorous process. It goes back several times for fixes and fine-tuning and so-forth. And then there’s the whole ‘special features’ part too, sometimes we know that we may have access to talent a certain point in the year and we may hold it for that so that we can do some additional special features and shoot those in high-def. It’s a whole blend of things for deciding what catalog releases should come out that is based on quality, talent availability, the right scheduling, the demographic, so that we can create a good rounded library.
You announced Ghostbusters at CES 2009, what can we expect from one of the best comedies to come out of the 80s?
First thing, it’s gonna be the first time you can see this franchise classic in high-definition. We’ve done a considerable amount of work on the master and on the audio to deliver it as it should be. Peppered in with that is going to be all these cool things like the ‘Picture-on-Picture track with Slimer mode’, all-new cast and crew interviews, resurrecting the Ecto One, fun facts, [and]new photo gallery images in high-definition. We’re also going to include stuff that was already available on the DVD, so consumers don’t miss out on that as well. We’ll also have a BD-Live component that adds additional content as we continue to develop things.
What’s Sony Pictures got waiting for the Blu-ray junkies in the near future (outside of Ghostbusters)?
We announced Ghostbusters early, it actually doesn’t street until June 16th, because it’s tied with the [upcoming] game. There’s buzz out now that the Da Vinci Code is coming, which is arriving April 28th. So we’ve been doing a lot of work with that. There’s going to be a lot of cool stuff. [It’s going to have] an extended cut, BD-Live features, I guess we’re really letting the cat out of the bag, aren’t we? That’s going to be cool. You’ll see all the key, ‘new release’ titles obviously that will come out as well. Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Angels and Demons will be coming later in the year. Dr. Strangelove, which is another one people have been looking for.
We’d like to thank Rich Marty for taking the time to answer some of our burning questions.
