Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment has announced the technical specs and special features for the upcoming Blu-ray release of 'Clerks', which is scheduled to hit store shelves on November 17th, day-and-date with the Blu-ray release of 'Chasing Amy'. Video will be presented in 1080p AVC accompanied by a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack.
Special features include:
“Oh, What A Lovely Tea Party: The Making Of Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back” (New)
Introduction By Kevin Smith (New)
Classic Commentary
Enhanced Playback Track
Intro To The First Cut 2004 Commentary
2004 Commentary (with New Authoring)
Clerks Lost Scene – Animated Short
The Flying Car
MTV Spots With Jay & Silent Bob
Theatrical Trailer
Soul Asylum's “Can't Even Tell” Music Video
Clerks Restoration
Original Auditions
Snowball Effect
Outtakes From Snowball Effect
Mae Day: The Crumbling Of A Documentary With Intro By Kevin
Smith And Scott Mosier
i'm really curious to see how this and chasing amy hold up considering they were shot on 16mm with really low budgets. grain is heavy in both, which i don't mind, but i have a feeling a lot of people will complain about this one.
The only major thing that is not mentioned from Clerks X is the the first cut that was on disk two of the set. The commentary is there though. I'm guessing the "New Authoring" is the re-cutting of it to fit the theatrical version of the movie. The only other things missing are little things like the script (which was a DVD-Rom feature), photo gallerys, articles and review, and Smith's journals. Those are the kinda of things that might fight under More! though.
I have the 10 years DVD edition... I wonder if the upgrade is really worth it. I don't know why but I use to LOVE Kevin Smith's movie. Lately... I don't know... the magic kinda faded for me. They are still amusing though.
Is the first cut profoundly different? I thought it was more or less the same, except it had the [terrible] full ending? So long as just the full ending is included as a special feature, I don't think I mind them dropping it.
@thekobrakais: Are you not aware that 16mm can look great in HD? Clerks is far from the first movie to be released in HD that was filmed on 16mm, and it surely won't be the last. People assume that 35mm is required for 1080p, but that would be a foolish analysis. They say 35mm resolution can reach up beyond 4K, and 1080p is "only" 2K. And even if the 16mm looks particularly bad (as this might), it'll still look better at a higher resolution than SD, even if the resolvedness of the film is under the digital scan at 1080p. In other words, at the very least, 16mm is DEFINITELY more resolved than 480p.
No, if Clerks looks "bad", it won't be due to the -size- of the film stock used. Unless you equate grain to being "bad". Because yes, it should probably be very very grainy..
Anyway, I'm glad to see a new introduction. Hopefully Smith will make direct comments about the look of the grain (and B&W) right there to dissuade people from complaining about it. Has there been any news on if this is a new transfer or is this the same one they made back in '04 for the 10th anniversary release?
The original cut of Clerks is pretty different, it runs about 10 minutes longer, has
different music and features the now famous original ending. There are a number of small scene
extensions and bits of dialog that are interesting to see in the original form.
It was a really neat bonus feature on the Clerks X DVD and I hope they port it over as an extra
on the blu-ray. Especially since the original cut featured an all new (well, new in 2004)
commentary track with Jeff and Brian.
The "making of" doc from J&SB is on there because Disney cheaped out on the J&SB Blu release and didn't include all of the extras from the previous DVD SE. Since they're putting Clerks, J&SB, and Amy together in a box set for release on the same day that Clerks streets, it makes a tiny bit of sense.
There was a time when I lived by Kevin Smith films, over time none of the movies wore well for me, including Clerks and Mallrats. I'll pass. Give me some good comedy from the likes of Frank Capra and Billy Wilder.
The problem being that, if the 16mm has too much grain, the 1080p scan will look truly dreadful.
Also, given that the spec for DVD allowed for a maximum of a little over 700 lines of information, calling it 480p is doing it a considerable dis-service - especially when you consider that the 480p resolution is also only relevant in the NTSC region (where it roughly equates to the maximum viewable lines on the 525 line TV system), in the PAL regions of the world 576i is closer to the broadcast level (around 576 viewable lines, of the 625 broadcast).
I would be very surprised if the first cut was not included. I think "new authoring" is kind of vague, and doesn't mean they will edit the commentary to fit the shorter theatrical cut (that would cut nearly 12 minutes from the commentary).
It may refer to a new encode for the video PIP track that was included on the original DVD.
But again, I'd be very surprised if they ditched the first cut altogether as a bonus feature. That would be incredibly lame.
I believe I read somewhere that the first cut was sourced from VHS. If this is true, it could be included in SD easily, since HD would be impossible. Think of it kind of like how Star Wars included the original trilogy in non-anamorphic sourced from LD masters as extras.
@EvilGav: The larger and more prominent grain isn't something to be mad about necessarily, as it is inherent to the film itself. The film will look better here than it ever has before. If you would describe a 1080p encode of this film as "truly dreadful" due to the grain, I shudder to think what words you'd use to describe the ALSO grainy SD version already available on DVD. Don't get mad at the Blu-ray if anything; get mad at the original film stock!
And no, using 480p to describe DVD is entirely accurate-- except for folks in PAL regions. If anything, it's generous, since PLENTY of DVDs are encoded in a way that don't de-interlace properly, wherein 480i would be more accurate.
For me, it's not enough to upgrade these two just for a better picture. I want some additional content before I upgrade from DVD. For a lot of these releases though, there is not anymore content available. I would speculate that they have exhausted all of their available content and would therefore have to produce new content (like a retrospective documentary) and the movie companies are probably not wanting to spend the money to produce something like that.
This a model example of discs worthy of an upgrade, in terms of extra content, is the Cerks and Chasing Amy discs.
There is plenty of new content. Chasing Amy has a new retrospective featuring the cast and a new commentary and introduction. Clerks comes with a new making-of documentary about Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. I'll admit there's nothing new of CLERKS, but the last release was intended to be definitive, so what do you expect? The only thing I can even think of that would be nice to include would be the 6 episodes of the animated series (and of course, the accompanying 6 intros and commentaries).
And actually, I think the retrospective for Chasing Amy was recorded a while back as an intended supplement for a 10th anniversary release that never got around to getting made. So they put it on this.
