[B5JMS] JMS: Any thoughts on High Definition television and B5?

[b5jms at mail.fsl.cs.sunysb.edu]

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From: shabaz.x at gmail.com
Date: 1 Sep 2006 16:51:50 -0700
Lines: 39

JMS,

With the original Babylon 5 television series, you had the foresight to
take into account a future trend, namely widescreen television. Today,
we see High Definition television slowly gaining more and more market
penetration, maybe more so than widescreen television had when the
first season of B5 was being shot. You have talked about doing new
Babylon 5 episodes this year, to be released next year. I was wondering
if you again have taken into account future trends for television
formats, and if so, in what way?

In a related matter, Star Trek: The Original Series is getting a
makeover for the HD era (more info can be found on their website here:
http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/news/article/23775.html ). The
show is being remastered for High Definition video, and the effects
scenes are getting a CGI makeover. I had a twofold question about such
an HD makeover, if I may. A deal with the Sci-Fi Channel got us a
widescreen version of the show. How realistic is it to expect a similar
HD treatment for original B5, maybe when HD has become as common as
colour television now, after another network or syndication deal?
Possibly with the CGI re-rendering we never got because WB lost the
computer files?

Second, is it _technically_ possible to do an HD version of original
B5? Does the Super 35 film that I believe the live action was shot on
offer the option of re-scanning for HD? For the live action / CGI
composited shots, are the live action parts of those still stored in a
format that would allow rescanning into a higher resolution and
different aspect ratio? And last, with new CGI assets being created for
The Lost Tales, would that make it in any way easier for the CGI to
finally be re-rendered at some future point in time, even with the
original files missing?

Thank you for your time.

-Shabaz




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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com
Date: 5 Sep 2006 01:58:30 -0700
Lines: 40


shabaz.x at gmail.com wrote:
> JMS,
>

> Star Trek: The Original Series is getting a
> makeover for the HD era (more info can be found on their website here:
> http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/news/article/23775.html ). The
> show is being remastered for High Definition video, and the effects
> scenes are getting a CGI makeover. I had a twofold question about such
> an HD makeover, if I may. A deal with the Sci-Fi Channel got us a
> widescreen version of the show. How realistic is it to expect a similar
> HD treatment for original B5, maybe when HD has become as common as
> colour television now, after another network or syndication deal?
> Possibly with the CGI re-rendering we never got because WB lost the
> computer files?
>

That's a studio question, far outside my expertise.  I suppose it's as
possible as anything else.

> Second, is it _technically_ possible to do an HD version of original
> B5? Does the Super 35 film that I believe the live action was shot on
> offer the option of re-scanning for HD? For the live action / CGI
> composited shots, are the live action parts of those still stored in a
> format that would allow rescanning into a higher resolution and
> different aspect ratio? And last, with new CGI assets being created for
> The Lost Tales, would that make it in any way easier for the CGI to
> finally be re-rendered at some future point in time, even with the
> original files missing?
>

Yes, you can up-rez 35mm to HD fairly easily, especially since we had
to deliver film negative masters to WB...but again you'd have to crop
the CGI if you wanted it in wide.  We tried experimenting with
up-rezzing Jeremiah to HD and it looked fine.

jms