DVD's Critical Mass

This year, when VSDA came back to LA, the atmosphere was decidedly different. No big studio bashes, few celebrity appearances on the convention floor, and a notable diminution of excitement all around, even on the adult side.

Conventional wisdom holds that the more serious, subdued tone is due to the "maturation" of the video business-the emergence of the big chains, led by Blockbuster, as the dominant force, at the expense of individual independent stores, not to mention Internet sites such as this one. True or not, the official attendance figure was 11,200+ (some questioned the number), and in general, the traffic seemed about as busy as it has been in recent years at Las Vegas. No, the show didn't have the electricity of the late-1980s and early-90s but it was active. The inescapable truth is that home video is changing and the speed of that change is increasing.

The central theme of the convention was the emergence of DVD as the preferred medium for the translation of feature films from the theater screen to video. DVD was everywhere, from the smallest distributors who are slapping recent low-budget movies onto disc as quickly and cheaply as they can to much more ambitious projects like New Line's upcoming Nightmare on Elm St. collection, loaded with extra features. And everyone agreed that the most interesting and enjoyable panel discussion of the convention was "DVD and the Filmmaker."

Critic Leonard Maltin was the moderator with directors Robert Altman, Werner Herzog, Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters), Eric Darnell (co-director of Antz), and Brett Ratner (Rush Hour) talking about their views on DVD as a chance to add to or change the cinematic version of their work. It was heartening to see how the younger men deferred to Altman and Herzog. Though Altman seemed in some ways the most resistant to the medium, he admitted, "I don't know how long we'll be showing films in auditoriums." Everyone on the panel (and in the audience) knew that most people see films on video now, and, to one degree or another, embraced DVD as a step up from VHS tape.

Ratner talked about how he obsessed over the DVD version of Rush Hour, digitally tweaking each shot until it looked perfect to him, and so delayed its scheduled release date. Herzog, on the other hand, said that when he was finished with a film, he did not want to revisit it. "A carpenter doesn't sit on his shavings," he said, though he did admit that the remixed sound on the DVD version of Fitzcarraldo was better than the original. He also regretted not having saved any of the footage he had of Jason Robards Jr. and Mick Jagger when they worked with him on the same film. (Health problems forced Robards to withdraw and the scenes had to be scrapped.)