BVHE February 2004 Presentation
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BVHE Presentation - February 3, 2004

I had the privilege to attend a presentation by Buena Vista Home Entertainment highlighting some of their upcoming DVD releases at the Hollywood & Highland center, across the street from Disney’s El Capitan Theater where the premiere of Miracle was being held. BVHE’s current message about DVDs is “Look Behind What You See�?. The idea is that DVDs give you an experience that goes beyond just the film. The three titles BVHE decided to highlight really showcase their point. There is so much to these DVDs that the movie is not the main reason to pick them up.

Gordon Ho, the head of publicity for BVHE, gave us some impressive statistics about DVDs. 57 million Americans have set-top DVD players, which mean 60% of American households. 34 million players were sold last year, 14 million in the fourth quarter alone. This makes DVD players the fastest growing consumer electronic in history. Disney distributed 1 billion DVDs last year. Looking at why people choose to buy DVDs, Gordon said 2/3s of purchasers say that bonus features impact their decision to purchase. Keeping this in mind, BVHE continued their theme of “Look Behind What You See�? by modifying it for each of their three titles. “Look Beyond the Classic�? with the Lion King ½. “Look Beyond the Adventure�? with Spy-Kids 3-D: Game Over. “Look Beyond the Experience�? with the Haunted Mansion.

The first title featured was Spy-Kids 3-D: Game Over. Robert Rodriguez, the film’s writer and director, was present to discuss the film and the DVD. Did you know Spy Kids 3-D was originally not intended to be part of the Spy Kids franchise and was originally just going to be called Game Over? Spy Kids was pitched as a two part story, but they decided to incorporate Game Over in to the Spy Kids universe. James Cameron helped Robert with the 3-D technology by sharing the technology developed for Cameron’s Ghosts of the Abyss. He was so impressed with the technology that he increased the 3-D element of the movie and is currently developing another 3-D family film that he developed with his five-year-old son. The turnaround on the film was so fast that they did not have time to fully complete the 3-D effects. The movie began filming in January and was released in July. There simply was not enough time. Robert Rodriguez said that he really makes movies for the home video market because that is where most people would see it. He was able to overcome the technological difficulties of putting a 3-D movie on DVD and finished the effects. They had a home theater system set up showing the film and it looked amazing. I saw the movie in theaters and would have to agree with Rodriguez’s comments that it looks better on DVD.

The DVD comes with two discs and four glasses. The first disc is in 3-D and the second disc has the film in 2-D where it is simply called Spy Kids 3. The first disc even includes 3-D menus and both a 3-D and 2-D version of the Mega Race Set Top Game. It also includes a commentary with Robert Rodriguez for the 3-D version. The second disc has a commentary for the 2-D version, a making of featurette, Alexa Vega in concert, and more. A neat featurette on disc two is Robert Rodriguez’s Ten Minute Film School. This edition showcases how he uses a green screen including all the innovations necessary to get all the shots needed. He also shows how to make great home movies. For example, it is amazing how much of a difference sound effects make when creating home movies. He proves this by sharing some of his own home movies. Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over comes to DVD February 24, 2004. A VHS version will also be available, but will only feature the 2-D version of the film.

Next up Don Hahn was introduced to talk about The Haunted Mansion DVD. After disclosing that Justin Timberlake was going to tear off part of his costume, Don began to discuss how much the attraction at Disneyland meant to him and the rest of the team behind the movie and how special it was to bring that to the screen. Because the attraction meant so much to him, it was important to him that the DVD include a featurette about the making of the attraction. The featurette includes Tony Baxter, Blaine Gibson, Bruce Gordon, Rolly Crump, X. Atencio, Harriett Burns and others. Another bonus feature that Don was proud of was the Haunted Mansion Virtual Tour hosted by Wallace Shawn and Dina Walters which is a 20 minute interactive tour of Gracey Manor. Another neat feature is a DVD-ROM feature (which Don made of point of saying will work on PCs and Macs) where you can take a picture of someone and turn them into a ghost. There are all sorts of looks available including a zombie, a hitchhiking ghost, and a signing bust. After you have created the image you can save it, email it, turn it in to a screensaver, and print it out in cool ways like as a door hanger. The Haunted Mansion will be available on video and DVD March 9, 2004.