Thunderbird Releasing (née Soda Pictures)

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Kris
Joined: Wed Nov 07, 2012 3:55 pm

Re: Soda Pictures

#126 Post by Kris » Mon Dec 15, 2014 8:12 am

swo17 wrote: Did you ever try to watch the DVDs? My Blu-ray plays fine, but the DVDs struggle through several of the films (and I can't play Casque bleu at all). I wouldn't mind so much about the DVDs if all the bonus films were included in SD on the Blu-ray (couldn't they all have fit?), which is more scratch-resistant. Hopefully my replacement from Amazon will fare better...
I had the exact same Casque bleu-problem with an absolutely scratch free DVD - my Oppo froze in the 2nd minute or so, I only could see it on my PC, which also had some problems. As a technical noob I'd figure that it's not a physical problem, but since Casque bleu is maybe the only film of the package that I can do without, I'll not take the trouble with amazon. However someone should tell Soda Films...

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JamesF
Joined: Thu Mar 04, 2010 1:36 pm

Re: Soda Pictures

#127 Post by JamesF » Mon Dec 15, 2014 8:16 am

Thanks for flagging this guys, I'll investigate. The only thing I can think of off the top of my head is that particular film features a pretty relentless barrage of subtitles (the interviewee speaks very quickly) which might be causing some issues with some players, though admittedly it's not an issue I've heard of before.

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swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: Soda Pictures

#128 Post by swo17 » Mon Dec 15, 2014 11:48 am

For what it's worth, on one of my players it got about 10 seconds into Casque bleu and then froze up (had to do a hard reboot of my player). On another player, it spent ages trying to load and then eventually started playing Chats perchés instead! I couldn't get this disc (DVD 2) to even load on my PC (though DVD 1 works there).

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swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: Soda Pictures

#129 Post by swo17 » Wed Dec 31, 2014 11:58 pm

I got my replacement Marker set from Amazon. Casque bleu still had issues playing, but after the first five minutes it was smooth sailing. Only now The Embassy and Grinning Cat are freezefests. Sigh.

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AlexHansen
Joined: Wed Mar 19, 2008 10:39 pm
Location: Idaho

Re: Soda Pictures

#130 Post by AlexHansen » Tue Feb 03, 2015 9:07 pm

The Russell/Rivers Blu finally arrived and the shorts look beautiful (haven't peeked at the feature yet). Much love and appreciation to Soda for this release!

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rapta
Joined: Sun Jun 29, 2014 5:04 pm
Location: Hants, UK

Re: Soda Pictures

#131 Post by rapta » Wed Mar 18, 2015 3:03 pm

Please tell me you're planning on releasing Lisandro Alonso's Jauja on Blu-ray (as well as the currently-listed DVD)?

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JamesF
Joined: Thu Mar 04, 2010 1:36 pm

Re: Soda Pictures

#132 Post by JamesF » Thu Mar 19, 2015 6:08 am

Unfortunately not - I'd hoped we would too, but it's not to be. However, we do have a somewhat related title coming out on dual format later this year that I'm hoping we can announce soon...

In the meantime, we're releasing Ron Mann's documentary Altman on DVD May 18th. The main bonus features are three previously unreleased short films that Robert Altman made in 1966: The Kathryn Reed Story, Pot au Feu and The Party. Pre-order link coming soon...

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JamesF
Joined: Thu Mar 04, 2010 1:36 pm

Re: Soda Pictures

#133 Post by JamesF » Thu Mar 19, 2015 6:12 am

Also, apologies to those who have had problems with the Chris Marker DVD - I'm hoping I'll be able to get in touch with a resolution for this soon.

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rapta
Joined: Sun Jun 29, 2014 5:04 pm
Location: Hants, UK

Re: Soda Pictures

#134 Post by rapta » Mon Mar 23, 2015 12:42 pm

JamesF wrote:Unfortunately not - I'd hoped we would too, but it's not to be. However, we do have a somewhat related title coming out on dual format later this year that I'm hoping we can announce soon...

In the meantime, we're releasing Ron Mann's documentary Altman on DVD May 18th. The main bonus features are three previously unreleased short films that Robert Altman made in 1966: The Kathryn Reed Story, Pot au Feu and The Party. Pre-order link coming soon...
That's a shame. I'll have to pick it up on DVD at some point then. I wonder if your 'somewhat related title' is Mortensen-related (Far From Men?) or part of your Film+Art range (seeing as it's Dual Format)? Another Alonso title perhaps?

Altman was a great doc, cool to hear there are some of his own films on the DVD!
JamesF wrote:Also, apologies to those who have had problems with the Chris Marker DVD - I'm hoping I'll be able to get in touch with a resolution for this soon.
I haven't watched all of the films on my copy yet...which are the films with issues so I can check?

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swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: Soda Pictures

#135 Post by swo17 » Mon Mar 23, 2015 1:00 pm

See the start of this page.

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JamesF
Joined: Thu Mar 04, 2010 1:36 pm

Re: Soda Pictures

#136 Post by JamesF » Thu Mar 26, 2015 10:21 am

PMs sent to swo17 and Kris about the Chris Marker discs.

Out on Monday for steelbook fans - an ultra-limited steelbook of Dead Man, featuring the Region B Blu-Ray that was also included in our Jim Jarmusch boxset last year. Copies still available to pre-order here.

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JamesF
Joined: Thu Mar 04, 2010 1:36 pm

Re: Soda Pictures

#137 Post by JamesF » Thu Jul 02, 2015 11:41 am

Will be back tomorrow with a big new announcement I'm very excited about. In the meantime...

Earlier this week we released Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter on DVD and Blu-Ray - you can read a review of the BD at DVD Compare here.

Michael Winterbottom's The Face Of An Angel is out on DVD/BD on July 20th, featuring deleted scenes and cast/crew interviews. We're also releasing the same master in Canada via Mongrel.

Christian Petzold's Phoenix is out on DVD/BD on August 31st, and features a 20-minute making-of featurette as well as English SDH subs.

Also coming soon, we have Jonathan Nossiter's Natural Resistance (out on DVD July 27th); an extras-stuffed DVD of Damon Gameau's That Sugar Film (also out July 27th); Naomi Kawase's award-winning Still The Water (out on DVD on August 17th); Alice Rohrwacher's The Wonders (out on DVD on September 14th); Guy Myhill's Norfolk-set British indie The Goob, starring Sienna Guillory and Sean Harris (out on DVD and Blu-Ray on September 21st). More details on these last two coming soon.

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RossyG
Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 5:50 pm

Re: Soda Pictures

#138 Post by RossyG » Thu Jul 02, 2015 12:34 pm

And a few of the above are up for pre-order in HD on iTunes, which is great for us download cheekies.

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TMDaines
Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:01 pm
Location: Stretford, Manchester

Re: Soda Pictures

#139 Post by TMDaines » Fri Jul 03, 2015 2:19 am

JamesF wrote:Christian Petzold's Phoenix is out on DVD/BD on August 31st, and features a 20-minute making-of featurette as well as English SDH subs.
It's great that you are including SDH subs with a foreign film, but please don't tell me that the only English subs are SDH ones? If so, I'll be importing the German release in all honesty.

I've often wondered why no company routinely offers SDH and standard English subs, as it only takes seconds to strip SDH content from a set of subs with open source software.

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RossyG
Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 5:50 pm

Re: Soda Pictures

#140 Post by RossyG » Fri Jul 03, 2015 4:14 am

JamesF wrote:an extras-stuffed DVD of Damon Gameau's That Sugar Film
I forgot to ask, how come you never put the extras on iTunes?

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JamesF
Joined: Thu Mar 04, 2010 1:36 pm

Re: Soda Pictures

#141 Post by JamesF » Fri Jul 03, 2015 8:14 am

Going through both points...

- The Phoenix DVD/Blu-Ray contain both regular subtitles for German dialogue (which are the default) as well as SDH subs that cover the German and the few bits of English dialogue. We always aim to include SDH subtitles wherever possible or available, and pretty much all of our Blu-Rays over the last year have had them.

- We're been putting all our films on iTunes in HD for the last three years or so :) However, we have no plans to put bonus features on iTunes for the moment.

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JamesF
Joined: Thu Mar 04, 2010 1:36 pm

Re: Soda Pictures

#142 Post by JamesF » Fri Jul 03, 2015 8:15 am


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TMDaines
Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:01 pm
Location: Stretford, Manchester

Re: Soda Pictures

#143 Post by TMDaines » Fri Jul 03, 2015 9:03 am

Thanks for the response, JamesF. Will definitely pick up your Blu.

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Adam X
Joined: Thu Apr 16, 2009 5:04 am

Re: Soda Pictures

#144 Post by Adam X » Fri Jul 03, 2015 11:45 pm

Great, great news JamesF. Thanks for making my day. Haven't seen The Reflecting Skin since the first time somewhere in the '90's on VHS. It'll be great to see this nicely restored, with some actual effort put in to its release.

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neilist
Joined: Wed Nov 30, 2011 5:09 am
Location: Cambridge, UK

Re: Soda Pictures

#145 Post by neilist » Thu Jul 16, 2015 5:31 pm

A few months back I was part of Scope 50, a group reviewing and rating films for Soda Pictures to release in the UK. The winning film was Anna Odell's 'Återträffen' ('The Reunion') and it's just been released in UK cinemas. There's more information here. Enjoy!

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zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: Soda Pictures

#146 Post by zedz » Thu Jul 16, 2015 5:35 pm

neilist wrote:A few months back I was part of Scope 50, a group reviewing and rating films for Soda Pictures to release in the UK. The winning film was Anna Odell's 'Återträffen' ('The Reunion') and it's just been released in UK cinemas. There's more information here. Enjoy!
That's a great film (I think it made my ten-best list of last year) and it's good to hear it's in safe hands in the UK.

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RossyG
Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 5:50 pm

Re: Soda Pictures

#147 Post by RossyG » Tue Aug 04, 2015 11:25 am

That Sugar Film is well-worth watching. It's essentially Supersize Me, only with sugar replacing McDonalds in the challenge. But sugar is much more pervasive in our food, so this makes the warning even more important.

Looks great in HD on (UK) iTunes, too.

Oh, and Americans who always go on about lousy British teeth should kindly regard the section involving the the Mountain Dew imbibers of Kentucky. One unfortunate youth of seventeen has what looks like a derelict cemetery in his mouth.

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domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: Soda Pictures

#148 Post by domino harvey » Tue Aug 04, 2015 3:32 pm

I see Phoenix is embracing its noir roots by being packaged in a black Blu-ray case! I've preordered and can't wait, lot of people are calling this Petzold's best film yet

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RossyG
Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 5:50 pm

Re: Soda Pictures

#149 Post by RossyG » Sun Sep 20, 2015 4:47 am

JamesF wrote:Well, I started working for Soda earlier in the year producing their DVDs/BDs...
How about you drop the forced trailers whenever a disc is loaded? I had to flick through three of them last night when I watched Phoenix. It's just tacky and annoying. The BFI, Arrow and Masters of Cinema don't resort to these cheap sales tricks and nor should you.

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JamesF
Joined: Thu Mar 04, 2010 1:36 pm

Re: Soda Pictures

#150 Post by JamesF » Mon Sep 28, 2015 7:57 am

RossyG wrote:How about you drop the forced trailers whenever a disc is loaded? I had to flick through three of them last night when I watched Phoenix. It's just tacky and annoying. The BFI, Arrow and Masters of Cinema don't resort to these cheap sales tricks and nor should you.
Very late replying to this as I was away all last week, sorry about that.

The subject of trailers at the start of DVDs/BDs is one that's come up a few times before, as we've had a few complaints in the past about it. What we've found is that opinion is split right down the middle - some people are deeply irritated by them, some enjoy them as part of a home video ritual that stretches all the way back to VHS (and even then has its roots in the cinema).

Our response has been to not have opening trailers on more specialist releases (e.g. our Soda Film + Art range or catalogue titles like the Jarmusch/Reichardt boxsets and The Reflecting Skin), and when the trailers (never more than three of them) do come up on the discs that have them, each trailer has a chapter point so they can easily be skipped past in seconds using your remote. So they're there for those who want to watch them, and those who wish to opt out of them can do so in a flash.

The comparison to BFI, MoC and Arrow isn't the most accurate one as those companies tend to attract a specific audience that loyally follows each company's line-up and is more inclined to collect multiple releases by them. As Soda's slate is generally very eclectic and doesn't have the same kind of dedicated fans (as much as we'd wish we did!), opening trailers can be truly beneficial to letting more casual viewers know about what else we have coming out. With companies like ours that don't have big marketing budgets (or much in the way of budget at all) for home ent releases, any trick we can use (even if it seems cheap to some) is worth trying.

Hope all that (copious and largely unnecessary) info helps.

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