A LOOK BEHIND THE SCENES AT NEW LINE AND MI CASA STUDIOS by Shane Buettner

DVD fans have been aware for some time that when they see New Line's logo on a DVD release that they are getting a disc of the highest quality that will exploit the potential of the format to it's fullest. In addition to high quality anamorphic widescreen transfers and Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks, New Line consistently offers DVDs that push the medium to new heights with respect to supplementary material and menus that are exciting and increasingly interactive. And with prices for special edition discs from some studios rising to $34.95 and above, New Line consistently offers discs with supplements on par with anything else out there in terms of quality and quantity of content, and does so at $24.95. As many of you have surely noticed in our reviews, New Line releases blow the lid off our price/value ratings!

I recently had a chance to spend some time with Jesse Torres, Manager of Video/DVD Technical Operations at New Line Home Video, and find out a bit about how and why New Line has become such a paragon of quality and value among the DVD studios. In addition to finding out a bit more about New line's philosophy toward DVD, I was able to get a behind the scenes look at some very exciting things New Line is doing with their soundtracks to make them sound as good as they possibly can when they arrive in your home theater.

Video

On the video side of things, Columbia doesn't have the market cornered when it comes to archiving their film library with high definition masters and anamorphic widescreen transfers on the current DVD format. New Line has also committed to this standard. Virtually everything New Line has done after their first few DVD releases has been a high definition master downconverted to anamorphic widescreen for DVD. While New line obviously deserves kudos for this commitment, Torres is quick to pass the credit along to the people he considers the unsung heroes of high quality video on DVD, the telecine colorists themselves and Evan Edelist, VP of Post Production Video and Technical Operations.

"We have amazing (telecine) colorists that work at FotoKem in Burbank, and at Laser Pacific in Hollywood," Torres said. "The combination of both gives us the discs that get us the great reviews."

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of this is that New Line's commitment to the highest quality doesn't manifest itself only with the day and date blockbuster titles. New Line has been giving their catalog titles the royal treatment as well. Recently, we've been knocked out seeing this kind of commitment extended to all seven of the Nightmare On Elm Street films as well as the Poison Ivy trilogy.

The result of all of this is that New Line is building a library of their films that offers the very best quality of today with anamorphic widescreen DVD, and yet is fully compatible with the high definition future. And the real winner with that philosophy is the consumer. At the most reasonable price point in the market New Line is spending the money on new hi-def transfers and offering the highest quality presentations. You're not going to see lousy transfers of your favorite New Line movies created from laserdisc masters that are several years old. Whether the title is a smash hit like Austin Powers The Spy Who Shagged Me, or a reissue of cult titles like the House Party movies, New Line gives you the best.

Audio

On the audio side of things New Line is also committed to raising the bar, committing not only to 5.1 re-masters whenever possible, but also to creating 24 bit/48khz digital masters of their soundtracks. Another thing that's good to see is that New line is also providing separate 2.0 Dolby Surround soundtracks to insure that their Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks are not compromised by being conformed for down-mixing to 2. 0 channel.

"I listened to some tests and I didn't like what I heard from the adjusted 5.1," says Torres. "Why should we sacrifice the 5.1 to compensate for the 2.0 when we can provide both?"

But the commitment to quality hardly ends there. The movie theater and the home theater are two very different acoustic spaces. Acknowledging this, New Line wanted to create their archive library with movie soundtracks that are re-purposed and optimized for home theater.

"We were doing some reassessment of our mastering process, and we were trying to figure out what we could do with the audio," said Torres. "For the video we have the IP (Interpositive) and the hi-def mastering. Movie soundtracks are mixed for a huge room. We wanted to find out what's out there for the audio that can re-purpose it for home theater that also stays true to the artists' original intent and at the same time optimize the experience for the DVD platform. Evan Edelist introduced me to Robert Margouleff of Mi Casa Studio."

MI Casa Studio: Tu Casa?

MI Casa Studio's team of Robert Margouleff and Brant Biles brings decades of recording engineering experience to the table. Robert is a Grammy winning recording engineer who has worked in the past with Stevie Wonder, Jeff Beck, and Devo, to name a few.

Over the last three years Robert and Brant have been committed to 5.1 surround, working extensively with mixing and mastering music for release on DTS 5.1 Digital Surround CDs. Among the releases they've mastered are the Eagles Hell Freezes Over, Marvin Gaye: Forever Yours , Boyz II Men II, in addition to the restoration and re-purposing of 30 quad titles into the 5.1 format for DTS. In 1998 the two formed MI Casa Studio, an all-digital facility dedicated to 5.1 mastering and post-production. And now, MI Casa Studio and New Line Home Video are bringing this expertise to DVD.

The Dubbing Stage

Movie soundtracks are equalized and mixed in and for large auditoriums, not the near field environment of home theater. A lot of work goes into providing uniform coverage of the audience to make the soundtrack as good an experience for the guy sitting far off in the left hand corner of the theater as it is for the folks who are dead center 2/3 of the way back in the theater. The dubbing stages in which movie soundtracks are created are essentially movie theaters, and the loudspeaker systems used are equalized to the X-Curve, which provides flat high frequency response at the mixing console. But this equalization does not provide flat high frequency response in the smaller home theater environment. When soundtracks are played in the home, high frequency response is increased in the near field environment making some soundtracks sound bright, and even harsh, requiring re-equalizing (Re-Eq) during playback. While this may not seem intuitive, it breaks down like this: In the large auditorium environment, increased high frequency response can be in the soundtrack and still not be bothersome as the listener is farther away from the speakers. Additionally, the speakers used in theatrical presentation do not resolve high frequencies as well as consumer speaker products. When these soundtracks come home that increased amount of high frequency content is still there. In an environment in which the speakers are so much closer to the listener and generally offer higher resolution, this results in a preponderance of high frequency content that is compensated for electronically during playback with Re-Eq and other measures.

MI Casa's vision brings the techniques and experience of record mastering to the re-purposing and optimizing of movie soundtracks for home theater. Their goal is to eliminate the need for applying "band-aids" to the material during playback in the form of RE-EQ, DSP modes and other electronic methods of improving movie soundtracks' quality during playback. By going back to the source material, the 5.1 channel 24/48 DA-88 digital printmaster, MI Casa creates soundtracks that are equalized and mastered specifically for home theater and do not require any re-equalizing or electronic fixes during playback. In the same fashion that soundtracks are mixed and equalized for movie theaters in a dubbing stage environment that recreates the theatrical environment, MI Casa is mastering and re-purposing these soundtracks in an intimate environment typical of a home theater one would find in a viewer's home (MI Casa's home theater situated in the living room of a primary residence just as my own home theater is.)

"Home theater and theatrical presentation are two different things, and they have different requirements," says Robert. "Surround in the home theater will soon determine how people write, perform, and record music and film soundtracks in the future."

Robert and Brant go through the entire soundtrack chapter by chapter conforming the soundtrack to the picture of the film, resulting in soundtracks that Robert and Brant like to refer to as "hand-made." During this process they also make certain that dialog and other soundtrack elements are precisely in synch with the video. Looping problems and the small clicks and pops that aren't audible on the dubbing stage are definitely evident in MI Casa's home theater environment, and are fixed as well.

In a large movie theater even sound from the front channels can create ambient sounds that seem to come from around the listener. But for home theater some of these sounds from the front channel are pulled into the surrounds to provide this kind of ambiance. Robert is big on surround recordings that image as much rear as they do on the front of the soundstage.

Another aspect that gets special attention is the soundtrack's representation of the music score, which shouldn't be surprising considering Robert and Brant's heavy background in 5.1 music mastering. One of the things they focus on is the LFE channel's ability to augment the music.

"We are talking about many new artistic production decisions, films are no longer reality reports," according to Robert. "Surround greatly intensifies the emotional energy of the music, dialog, and effects- that's the bottom line."

Some of you may be wondering if these re-purposed soundtracks stray from the intent of the artists involved, the director and sound designers. Robert and Brant assure that it is not their prerogative to alter the intent of the filmmakers.

"Movie audio must occupy the same space as the listener," says Robert. "Surround allows us to communicate in a whole new way, with a much larger canvas, and with many new colors of paint for our creative palette."

The day I was at MI Casa is certainly corroborative of Robert's sentiments. When I was there we listened to A/B comparisons of sequences from New Line's upcoming release of The Bachelor starring Chris O'Donnell. Going back between the printmaster and MI Casa's re-purposed soundtrack the differences heard were simply the result of a refined rendering of the original. Dialog took on a much more natural timbre, with the theatrically equalized version sounding shrill and lean in comparison. The score and the pop music on the soundtrack were also improved immensely. The David Byrne song in the beginning of the movie was punchier and more dynamic. The strings of the score, the violin in particular, were a more palpable presence on the MI Casa optimized track. The LFE was also put to use clearly punching up the low end of the soundtrack in the opening stampede sequence. The experience was not unlike switching to a better surround processor with superior D/A conversion. You're listening to the same material, but it's simply more transparent with greater clarity. Overall, the MI Casa optimized track was also much more open sounding, with improved lateral imaging as well as improved inner detail and a greater sense ambiance and surround envelopment. It was a more consistent 360° experience.

What New Line is doing with these soundtracks is something I've been waiting on for quite some time. I've been waiting for a studio to try and exploit the advantages of the home theater environment instead of focusing entirely on trying to recreate the large auditorium theater experience. They're different spaces with different advantages and disadvantages. New Line and MI Casa Studio are clearly at the forefront of a trend I hope to see become much more popular.

Supplements

Another area in which New Line has long been an industry leader is supplemental material. Their Platinum Series discs continually garner rave reviews in this corner as well as virtually every other forum in which DVD quality is discussed. Much of the reason for this is due to New Line's vision for their home video product, which dictates that the presentation of the product is integral to the quality of the product. From interactive games like those on Dark City, to an unwavering commitment to DVD-ROM features, to the voice prompted navigation of Detroit Rock City, New Line is out in front, consistently providing things we haven't seen on DVD before. New Line is aware of their status as DVD's front-runner in this capacity, and that acknowledgment is part of what keeps them moving forward, according to Jesse Torres:

"We try and outdo ourselves with each disc," says Torres. "We're out to make our value-added features better and better."

New Line's success in this area has, in turn, inspired the filmmakers themselves to become more involved in the DVD productions of their films, starting during production and post production. The Austin Powers team of director Jay Roach and co-writer/star Mike Myers were so enamored with the results of the first Austin film's DVD, that they became much more heavily involved in the production of Austin Powers the Spy Who Shagged Me, approving virtually every aspect of the disc. Additionally, Austin himself actually interacts with the user via the disc's menus, presenting the menu items to the audience.

"Our directors are being informed when the movie is green-lit that they're going to get hit up by the DVD department, and that they should keep any ideas they might have in the back of their mind" Torres explains. "Some of these directors have lists of ideas for the DVD. We ask them, ‘what do you want to put on there?' Maybe they've already seen what another director has done. Most of the time they have an idea of what they want way in advance, way before we start talking to them."

The final element of New Line's presentation quality vision is the packaging of the DVDs themselves. The Nightmare on Elm Street series box set was beautiful and ornate, in spite of the fact that it was Freddy Krueger's image all around. Another nice touch was having picture formed along the spines of the individual movie cases when they're stored in the box in order. Additionally, many of their discs feature foldouts on the inside of the packaging, which is similar to the lavish gatefold jackets we used to see on many laserdisc presentations.

"We've always tried to keep everything looking classy and up to date," says Torres. "We try to make sure that the whole thing is perfect, from the sticker on the outside of the package to what's on the disc itself."

Parting Thoughts

In writing this article and speaking to the people involved in DVD production at New Line, and MI Casa Studio, one thing was blatantly obvious: these people are movie fans. They're passionate about movies, they're excited by what they're doing, and they love the creativity that DVD technology has brought to film presentation at home. As we've seen here, the technology is starting to have a positive impact on the filmmakers and the creative talent of the film world. The possibilities of presentation are seemingly endless, and New Line is constantly stepping up with the new realizations of those possibilities with every Platinum Series release.

Very special thanks are in order to Jesse Torres, Robert Margouleff and Brant Biles, all of whom were very generous with their time in helping me put this article together!

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