A Look at the Planned Blu-ray Releases.

I just wanted to give a studio update and talk a bit about filmmaking since I've been in recovery and haven't had a chance to do anything yet. I will hopefully have two or three Blu-rays out in the near future. And I say "or" for a good reason. I might put the 720p masters I am doing for Exploitation in the Third-Dimension on Blu-ray. It's one I am on the fence about, considering that the films are pretty much remastered from standard definition material. But the Blu-rays I will be doing for my studio will be Orlando Eastwood Films Collection; Nosferatu: 90th Anniversary Edition; and possibly Exploitation in the Third-Dimension. I was originally contemplating putting Nosferatu on the disc with my films, but, considering it's not something I made and it's something that I am basically going to try to clean up and restore, it deserves it's own Blu-ray.

Nosferatu might be on a BD-25 depending on how it turns out. Considering that the frame rate varies and that there is scenes missing from my print, especially at the beginning, I'm thinking I could easily fill a BD-25. The release of Nosferatu: 90 might be delayed though due to my accident. I was hoping on getting it transferred over to HD over this summer but it's hard to tell. One thing I was actually planning on doing was re-doing the title cards and doing it on my Super8 camera and have them developed and spliced in digitally to make it all look like transferred film as opposed to nice clean digitally made title cards done in The Gimp.

Considering that there's no audio on my print for Nosferatu, the plan was to create several new soundtracks from the film as well as ripping the soundtrack from the Public Domain version. I am lucky to have friends and family members who are musically talented. And this is the perfect opportunity for them to shine. I am also toying with the possibility of doing an anaglyph 3D conversion as well, but I will not push it if the regular 2D version takes up most of the disc space. And for bonus material, we're planning on recording a commentary track and getting a few cast members from stuff I've done to talk about the film. Also, we might create some trailers for the film.

The Orlando Eastwood Films Collection Blu-ray will be a BD-50 and contain however many films I can cram on the disc. Now, I know that might sound bad, but hear me out. Traumatic Possession 3D and Into the Madness were shot on cheap 720p cameras. The file sizes are small as hell. But the main thing I am contemplating right now, is whether or not I want to blow the films up to 1080p from the original 720p resolution. Right now, I figure the disc will contain the following:

Traumatic Possession 3D (2.35:1)

Traumatic Possession 2D (2.35:1)

Traumatic Possession: Video Version (1.33:1)

Into the Madness (2.35:1)

I figure that is a good 35GB of material alone, with the "Video Version" of Traumatic Possession being standard definition because it's going to be transferred from a video taped source. A third feature will be put on the disc leaving 5GB left which will be left bonus material. When I say I want to fill the disc; I mean just that. I want to give you, the viewer, the bang for their buck. Plus, I also believe that if you want to be able to make it in this home video market, you have to resort to putting more than one film out there.

I want try to pack the disc full of subtitles. I want to be able to sell this to anyone in the world and make it easy for them to view. I might have found possible distribution lined up in Sweden, but it's not set in stone yet. I am planning on paying for translations in the next few months for French, German, and Spanish and if all goes well with Sweden; Swedish subtitles as well. I'm also planning on producing French and German dub tracks on Traumatic Possession 3D and do the dubbing for myself in those languages since those are my second and third languages. There won't be any dubbing, nor 3D for Into the Madness since it's a documentary.

As far as bonus features, there will be some trailers. Given that Into the Madness was originally going to be a short behind the scenes and that it's turned into a full blown feature length documentary, that kinda narrows down bonus features for Traumatic Possession 3D. However, the two trailers that I have posted will be present, even with the first trailer being presented in it's open matted, 1.78:1 form.

With Exploitation in the Third-Dimension, I would do a BD-25 and see how many volumes I can fit on the disc in 720p. I was almost completed with Volume One which was going to contain Night of the Living Dead and Horror Express but then with my accident, I'm halting production currently on them. I'll be resuming work in a few weeks. I'm just not sure if my brain can handle watching anything in 3D right now. The movies weren't coming out that big in size after the conversions, about 3GB each. I could probably three volumes of the series on one BD-25 disc. I won't be trying to market these outside the U.S. due to fact that these might not be Public Domain outside the country.

Right now, with all this work, I'm taking it easy. I'm looking to start shooting the next movie in a few months once I can finally get my rhythm back. I love making movies and I honestly don't know where I'd be without it. And I look forward to entertaining as many as I can, in this life, and after with my films. A life might not last forever, but these sure movies can.

- Eastwood.

Made in Germany.

Ok, I am back after being hit by a car. I'm keeping it a private affair for now. So, I want to talk a bit about my favorite music group, Rammstein! Since I am recovering, I am taking the time to listen to a lot of music. I sat down and played Made in Germany. I remember when I bought when it came out last December and not really feeling that impressed with it. I think my biggest gripe with it was the lack of older songs and for the fact that only one song from their first album made the cut. I would have been more happy if something like Herzeleid, Weißes Fleisch, Asche Zu Asche, or Seemann had been included on the compilation as well. Don't get me wrong, Du Riechst So Gut is a great song, but I had expected more.

After browsing over and seeing only two songs had made it from Sehnsucht; Du Hast was a given because everyone loves it. I feel it is a bit overrated, but I still find myself singing out loud from time to time. I found myself questioning why Stripped was not present at all considering it still pretty much gets played at concerts. Engel is a good song, but overall, it should have been Stripped or something as hard. I feel Alter Mann does not get much praise at all; I love the rhythm to that song and how Till sings it and Bobolina on the "Special Version" which can be found on the Das Modell single.

With songs from the Mutter album being present, I knew there was going to be a lot of them. Mutter probably is their most popular album and it contains my all time favorite song, Sonne. I knew back when this compilation album was announced, it had to be on there without a doubt. There was another song that I figured would have been on there as well, but, surprisingly wasn't; Feuer Frei! I was left scratching my head as this one had been a hit like Du Hast, yet was nowhere to be found. Made in Germany contains Links 2-3-4, Ich Will, Mein Herz Brennt, Mutter, and Sonne. In my humble opinion, Feuer Frei! would have easily been a better choice over Ich Will.

We have four songs present off their fourth album; Reise, Reise. I can agree with these songs but I feel like the title song from the album should have been present. Reise, Reise made for a great intro for their concerts when it was performed; especially on the live Volkerball album that came out in 2006. I also wished that Rammstein would have used the version of Mein Teil that was used on the single when it came out in 2004. That version gave the song, as well as the meaning, more dread with that opening as opposed to just starting it with the instruments booming. I feel like the other songs were a given on the compilation, I do enjoy them, but I wish Morgenstern was present too...

The Rosenrot album surprisingly only has Rosenrot present on it. I was questioning why something like Benzin or Mann Gegen Mann was not present because those two alone were better. And then with their sixth album, Liebe Ist Fur Alle Da, we have two songs present. And those two are my favorite off that album, so I am not complaining about that. Their sixth album is a real hit and miss for me. At times I love it and times I think; "It could have been better."

I think if I had to pick my own, meaning it's biased as hell, fifteen favorite songs and then throw in Mein Land at the end as a bonus. This list would also include songs which were B-sides and put on singles. I would have, in order from greatest to least:

1. Sonne (Mutter)
2. Halleluja (B-Side)
3. Alter Mann [Special Version] (B-Side / Sehnsucht)
4. Reise, Reise (Reise, Reise)
5. Mein Teil (Reise, Reise)
6. Mann Gegen Mann (Rosenrot)
7. Morgenstern (Reise, Reise)
8. Stirb Nicht Vor Mir // Don't Die Before I Do (Rosenrot)
9. Seemann (Herzeleid)
10. Herzeleid (Herzeleid) 
11. Schwarzes Glas (B-Side)
12. Pussy (Liebe Ist Fur Alle Da)
13. Feuer Frei! (Mutter) 
14. Stripped (Sehnsucht)
15. Du Hast (Sehnsucht) 
16. Mein Land 

So, to total that, we'd have two from Herzeleid. Three from Sehnsucht. Two from Mutter. Three from Reise, Reise. Two from Rosenrot. One from Liebe Ist Fur Alle Da. And then two, technically three with Alter Mann as B-side songs. I don't think the B-side songs should have been neglected as well from their compilation; Halleluja seemed to get a lot of audiences going whenever they performed back in the early 2000s and especially 5/4 as their opening song. That song had a great, yet, dark opening to the concerts back then.

Certain Patterns May Trigger Seizures With No Prior History.

My tax return finally came today and surprisingly, I did not go batshit crazy at all. I picked up Aliens Vs Predator for the PS3 and put a $10 pre-order down for Silent Hill: Downpour at Gamestop. I did not realize that it's finally coming out on Tuesday, after waiting since October, it's finally here. And it shows that I am losing long tracks of time, it's startling me. I've had my PS3 since Christmas and I haven't had any problems, until now. I popped the game in and started playing as the "Alien" and within two minutes, I find myself sweating bullets. I felt like I was spazzing out because the character I was playing can walk all over the place and it was driving me nuts and really driving my senses over the edge. The back of the PS3 boxes states:

WARNING: IF YOU HAVE A HISTORY OF EPILEPSY OR SEIZURES, CONSULT A DOCTOR BEFORE USE. CERTAIN PATTERNS MAY TRIGGER SEIZURES WITH NO PRIOR HISTORY. BEFORE USING AND FOR MORE DETAILS SEE INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE PRODUCT.

So, that second sentence is what made me realize it was the game. So, I have placed the game aside and I cancelled my plans on going out to see Red Tails. I decided to lay down and chill out for a while and now I have decided to start my blog for today. I was liking the game play but I don't really know why it was triggering an effect on me.

Misleading, but sweet artwork.

Going back to earlier in the day, I found my rebate check in between two VHS tapes that were sent from two different ends of the U.S. I opened the first package which was a nice box containing Lady Terminator which I bought off Bill Knight who runs Midnight Legacy; he released Alien 2: On Earth on Blu-ray. The other package was one of those yellow-orange bubble-padded envelope containing Warriors of the Wind. And to those who do not know, Warriors of the Wind is the 80's American cut of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. I had heard a lot of bad things about this cut of the film and even that Hayao Miyazaki detests this cut of the film. I can see why, but, I didn't find it that bad after watching it.

Sure, the name changes were not needed, but I was surprised when they first said Princess Zandra instead of Nausicaa. Given that the film is edited and about twenty minutes are cut, I can see why they ditched it all together since it's not Miyazaki's true version. It happens all the time that movies get cut and it's a shame. With Warriors of the Wind, I feel the hatred is all hype because I'm sure not a lot of people have seen it. More or less like people like to bitch about Star Wars being re-edited countless times by George Lucas.

I have finally narrowed my choices down on an external Blu-ray burner; Lite-On eHBU212-08 or Samsung's SE506AB/TSBD. Prices are similar with an extra three year warranty for about $27; places this to be about $175 and shipping is free. Both average a 4/5 in user ratings on NewEgg.com and what draws me to both is that they claim to handle BD-R DL discs which is what I need for making masters. From my perspective, I am cautious towards the Samsung BD burner because it's main power source is from the USB input; you plug it and you're good to go. With my old Lite-On, it had a power source and you had to plug it in; and that's what makes me lean towards that Lite-On BD burner. Then with the Lite-On BD burner, I am cautious because my old Lite-On BD-Rom did have problems reading certain Blu-ray discs, for example; Destroy All Monsters, Dracula 2000 (Canadian Release), Silent Hill (German Release), and various others I cannot think of off the top of my head.

It's such a shame that BD drives are still not that common in desktop computers. With the desktops that I am looking at; if you want an internal BD drive, it's going to cost you an arm and a leg. I know about nine years ago when my parents got the desktop that had our first DVD burner, it was a good $1.5k for it and for that time, it was a strong desktop from Dell. Now, if you compare the strength of that desktop with ones made from today, it's a joke. That desktop only had 60GB of HDD, 512 MB of Ram, and I am not sure about the GHz because it's dead now. What I am looking at now for my planned new desktop is something stronger than my three year old Toshiba laptop; 230 GB of HDD, 4 GB of Ram, and a Dual Core 2GHz processor.

I am about to kick back for a bit before sleeping; I might give AVP another try or pop in Lady Terminator and call it a night. Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace 3D starts tomorrow at the dollar theater and I am going to go see it. And to give a quick update on my DVD-R series Exploitation in the Third-Dimension, we're going to be assembling volume one soon.

2012: Out with the Old. In with the New.

The year has been a rough start, due to technology not lasting, I'm pretty much having to go out and get new stuff. And last night was another development in terms of having to get new stuff to work with. I was cleaning the house when my little Maltese was wanting to play. He brought out his toy and I had told him to go lay down. He dropped the toy in front of me as I was wiping down the side coffee table that I put my laptop and various external pieces on. I had picked up my external Blu-ray drive and held it in my hand while I used my other hand to wipe the area down. Without looking, I took a step and my foot landed right on his toy.

I lost balance and the only reason that I lost my balance was for the fact that the toy has a squeaker that was what did it. Now, one of two things could have happened; I could have fallen and hit my head as I came crashing down. Or, brace for impact throw the Blu-ray drive out of my hand and have my hand push down on the seat to the chair that I leave beside the door and the coffee table. Needless to say, the last thing is what happened; and the Blu-ray drive went flying into the kitchen. In my horror, I got back up and screamed out the "F" word like thirty times as I went to get the drive. Something broke off inside as I could hear it when I shook it. I plugged it back in and popped in a DVD and loud noise is being made from the drive. As soon as the noise started, I pushed down on the eject button to have the disc come out without any major scratches, to my relief.

My two dogs were not harmed as they were both in the bedroom. But, I am now without an external Blu-ray drive. Which means, on top of shopping for a new desktop to do my video editing and 3D converting; I now have to shop for a new external drive. This time, I am planning on going for an external Blu-ray burner. I feel a Blu-ray burner is now needed as the desktops I am looking at that have a good amount of Ram and HDD space are lacking Blu-ray burners built into them. It seems with each day passing, this Toshiba laptop is seeing it's final days. I do not plan on retiring it completely as I plan on using it to write my screenplays on whenever I am out with family members. I have had both the laptop and the Blu-ray drive for a good three years.

I did not have much time to freak out over the loss of the drive as I was cleaning the house and doing the laundry. I was going to be heading out in a few minutes to get a late dinner and head off to the movies to see the remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The film was ok, but I honestly preferred the original Swedish film. The remake felt more sleazy whereas the original was more tasteful and you really felt the intensity. I didn't honestly feel that at all whenever those types of scenes played out.

Nothing much on the agenda for today; currently converting another film to 3D and hoping that my tax refund makes it in today. One thing I really enjoy about the 3D conversion process is all I have to do is just push a button and sit back and relax for a few hours while it does all the work for me. I might watch a few movies to pass the time. That would be great.

Dragon-Wars aka Gamera Vs Barugon aka War of the Monsters aka Barugon Vs Godzilla aka Oh, My God!

Germany, my alternate home. I moved there in the summer of 2003 and learned a lot about a totally different, yet similar, culture. In the first few months, I was in a hotel, before moving into a nice German house out in a small village/town. My family and I would venture out into the German shops and I would go check out the entertainment sections and browse DVDs and what was left of the faded out VHS tapes. One thing I always kept my eyes peeled for was Godzilla DVDs.

On my first venture out to Media Markt, I found Godzilla Vs King Ghidorah, Godzilla Vs Mothra; and another film called Godzillas Todespranke. Now, this film was clearly showed a monster that was not at all from the Toho universe; it was actually the film Yongary. I never picked any of these titles up because at the time, I did not own a Region Free or Region 2 DVD player. And pretty much after that, those DVDs had disappeared from the market in my area. I found a few DVD copies of Gamera: Guardian of the Universe at a local Wal-Mart, and yes, they did have Wal-Mart in Germany.

Oh, wow. This must be the German DVD
for Godzilla Vs Biollante.

However, one DVD I ran across several times was called Dragonwars: Krieg Der Monster. The DVD cover, disc, and menus all have images of the King himself, Godzilla; which is all taken from the film Godzilla Vs Biollante. However, this is not Godzilla Vs Biollante nor is it a Godzilla film at all. This is actually Gamera Vs Barugon. Now if you know German, Krieg Der Monster translates to War of the Monsters which is what the American version of Gamera Vs Barugon is called.

Upon watching the film, which contains only German dubbing, something threw me off. Gamera has been re-named in this dubbing; Gamera is now called Barugon. The "Giant-Flying Turtle" is now Barugon. My initial response was; "Ok. Now what is Barugon called?" When Barugon first graces the screen; he is called Godzilla. I wish I was making this up.

Nope, the King has still
left the building

It seems that in Germany, monster films, especially Japanese monster films were severely butchered in translations. Some examples include Mechagodzilla being called King Kong; Titanosaurus is called Konga in Terror of Mechagodzilla. The original 1974 Godzilla Vs Mechagodzilla is called King Kong Gegen Godzilla; Godzilla Vs Megalon is called King Kong: Demons from Outer Space; in which Jet Jaguar is called King Kong.

I had came across the actual King Kong Vs Godzilla film on German television in 2004 and it was called The Return of King Kong. This cut of King Kong Vs Godzilla was the American version that Universal owns. As far as I know, Toho only owns rights to it in Asia because of the deal they made to get the film made because of the usage of King Kong.

Going back to the film at hand, Gamera Vs Barugon, I was interested in seeing what the German print looked like. And to break it down, this is the same cut as the A.I.P. version which is known as War of the Monsters. The film is in widescreen, but is not presented in it's original scope, but in 1.78:1. There is print damage here and there, but this presentation is miles above the Public Domain print here in the States. One problem is that the video presentation is 4:3 and not 16:9. And that's due to the fact that the video generated title scrolls around the image, even the black bars.

A better "Dragon Wars" than that 2007 South Korean film.

The audio presentation of the German dub is pretty good for a 2.0 track. There is no English or Japanese audio tracks present on this disc; which is a shame because they could have synced the English audio right up. I also believe this film is Public Domain in Germany too, but don't hold me to that. I have seen several different DVD versions of this film that have milked Godzilla's image.

I mentioned in another blog post that I managed to score this DVD from eBay Germany for about $8 U.S. Dollars. I am pleased with it as German is my second language. I also find it quite humorous that the German translators renamed all the monsters. Other than that, this will serve no purpose to those who do not speak the language. So, move along. Nothing to see here.

Tonight's Plans Have Possibly Been Cancelled.

The weather outside is frightful. And now I might cancel my plans to go watch the remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo at 10:15 pm. The snow has been coming and going nonstop for the past several hours; within the last two hours, it has been sticking. I am contemplating whether or not I want to go out and brave this storm to get some groceries as I just saw that I only have three burritos left in my freezer.

If I do not get to go watch the movie tonight; I will possibly go on Monday after work or Tuesday. Alternate plans for tonight include watching episodes of Celebrity Ghost Stories or playing GTA IV. In these past few years, I have lost complete interest in television except Celebrity Ghost Stories; sure, I'll watch some TV Shows I have on DVD from time to time, but it's not new stuff at all.

Today is a lazy Sunday. There's not much news to report at all today. I am heading out, but before I go, I have an image to show you from Exploitation in the Third-Dimension. Here's a screen capture I took from the film Horror Express; starring Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, and Telly Savalas. The 3D DVD-R series will be rolling out by summer.

Exploitation in the Third-Dimension, coming Summer 2012.

A Strange Text From Thursday.

On Thursday morning, I had woken up to my cellphone getting several texts. One of them puzzled me. It came from my number; had no call back number; and even though I got it on March 1st, it was "claimed" to be received on July 3rd at 10:50 pm. This is that text:

"Just depressed. I been for a week after what my x did. I ve been rembering some of it and that's why I snapped on him today. Because I confronted him last week. So I ve been withdrawn a little bet. I have told anybody but my foster mom and mikes girlfriend. I just told kate"

The main thing that popped into my head was; "What the hell?" I could not respond back and tell this person that you have sent this to the wrong number. It felt like someone was confessing to me about something; what it is, I do not know. And I will never know...

To change the topics, I have gotten my German DVD of Gamera Vs Barugon in the mail today from the eBay seller in Germany. Turn around time was pretty good too; just about six days from shipping and receiving. The funny thing is that the cover is full of images from Godzilla Vs Biollante, but when you pop the DVD in and press play on the menu, it's goes straight to the film and the first thing you see is Barugon and the German title on the screen Dragon-Wars.

I am going to take a nap before I go to work in about two hours. I just started the re-conversion process for Horror Express 3D. We finished Manos: The Hands of the Fate 3D the other day. I might re-do the 3D conversion for it since I was not that pleased with it. I am happy I can finally get Horror Express 3D finished and have it ready to go.

And for the updates on Traumatic Possession 3D, we are about to sign our actress to finish the film. We've talked back and forth and it's almost a done deal. This film has been in hell for the past two years and it's almost finished. What sucks is that I am reverting back to the original 1.78:1 open matte to edit the film. As I am working with Sony Vegas, I'm learning tricks and stuff, and I am going to be adding various effects to the  cropped full frame VHS cut of the film.

I'm Going to Bed.

It is currently a little after four-thirty in the morning. I am going to be going to sleep in a few minutes. I have started yet another blog after doing several and letting them fall to the wayside. I plan on keeping up with this blog from now on as I get things ready to go with my studio. I will be posting some reviews I have written from the Blu-ray website over here. I plan on slowly copying and pasting them for you to read here; as well as share news from the studio front.

I am finally deciding to make the jump and getting a new computer for editing and studio work. My piece of shit Toshiba laptop that I have been stuck with for almost three years is giving up the ghost. It took it fifteen minutes to boot up tonight after I clicked "Restart". I am looking for a desktop and basically just getting a tower. I have decided on passing on getting a monitor and having the tower hooked up to my Vizio via VGA. My television's HDMI ports are both occupied by my Insignia "Region Free" Blu-ray player and my PS3. I could get an HDMI switcher, but I am too strapped for cash right now.

Today is payday and after I get my checks in the bank and have them go on my credit card, I am going to be ordering some stuff off eBay. I am going to be getting an ethernet CAT-V cable to connect my PS3 to the internet and getting 100 feet of speaker wire to have my ancient sound system completely hooked up. Five of the seven speakers are currently connected, but I need to get wire to have my two big speakers connected in the back of the living room. I am also keeping my eyes peeled on a Multi-System VCR.

In the next week or two, I will be listing my DVDs up on Craigslist and other places. I am selling them off to pay for equipment and put some of that money towards getting film and shooting on my Super 8mm camera. I will also be putting some of the money towards getting my film print of Nosferatu transferred over to HD. Even though shooting in HD is more simplistic, I would love to shoot on film and to go through the whole process of having the film negative transferred over and edit it digitally on my computer.

Going back to Nosferatu, I am excited towards getting it out on Blu-ray when the time comes. It has been a favorite of mine for years and since it is Public Domain, I am happy to add it to my legacy. It is the granddaddy of all Vampire films; it's the first film! I stumbled across the copy of the film when I lost out on a chance to get Night of the Living Dead. As soon as I saw it listed from the seller, I notified him and paid up A.S.A.P.

Well, it's getting late. I got to get some sleep and then pay for some video tapes I got on hold for me; one being the Indonesian rip-off Lady Terminator. I will be giving some updates on Saturday about the horrific process and a great update on my first feature Traumatic Possession 3D. Stay tuned...