For more information, visit the Web site: www.zoetrope.com.
American Zoetrope Creates ""Apocalypse Now"" DVD
Francis Coppola, American Zoetrope and Paramount Home Entertainment announce the release of ""Apocalypse Now"" on DVD. ""There is no better film to showcase our new in-house DVD Lab's capabilities than íApocalypse Now,ë"" according to Kim Aubry, Zoetrope's Vice President for Technology. ""The film is a recognized visual and sound masterpiece, and we have finally been able to bring a version of íApocalypse Nowë to the home theatre that is as true to the cinema experience as current technology allows."" American Zoetrope, Coppola's company, was an obvious choice to create the film's DVD master with Coppola himself having a very hands-on approach to the project. ""Francis' involvement was key to the process; his original vision was preserved via his creative input in the title's mastering."" Aubry, also the executive in charge of production for the DVD, took a strong role in the design of the ""look and feel"" of menus and buttons that engage the disc's interactivity. According to Coppola ""It was natural for us to add this new DVD authoring technology to our repertoire. We were able to create a unique DVD, with great picture quality that is very true to the original film. Vittorio Storaro, (the film's cinematographer) supervised the new film-to-tape transfer, and our compression people did a great job maintaining the picture and sound quality. I was able to preserve my vision of how the film should be presented. I even got to address the speculation that has been raging for years about the film's ending by including some extra footage."" Coppola's commentary, recently recorded at Zoetrope, reveals that when the film was originally released in 70mm (1979) there were no on-screen credits or main title. The film simply faded to black and audience members were given a written program with the credits. When the film's release widened, it became difficult to manage the written program distribution, so footage of the exploding Col. Kurtz compound was added to the end as a background for the newly added on-screen credits. This new footage sparked rumors about an alternative ending. For the DVD release, American Zoetrope reproduced excerpts of the printed program including a photographic log of the film's shoot on location in the Philippines. ""Apocalypse Now"" is presented in widescreen format enhanced for 16:9 anamorphic, along with the theatrical trailer, ""Destruction of the Kurtz Compound"" footage, excerpts from the theatrical program and interactive/motion menus and scene selection. Audio options are DolbyÆ Digital English 5.1 and French Dolby stereo, as well as English subtitles. American Zoetrope DVD Lab's first title, Fando & Lis, a surreal 1968 black-and-white cult classic directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky, was delivered earlier this year for emerging San Francisco based DVD label Fantoma. A long sought after negative was discovered, restored, and transferred at Zoetrope, then encoded and authored. Taking full advantage of the new medium's viewer options, the DVD also contains a French television documentary about Jodorowsky, as well as a newly recorded director's commentary track, edited and mixed at Zoetrope. According to Aubry, ""Transferring a film to DVD is not just a matter of pushing play and record on a deck - there is a creative landscape to be navigated. We provide an atmosphere where filmmakers can be directly involved in making choices. We have a staff of seasoned film professionals who guide and advise our clients through the process."" Coppola adds: ""I wanted our DVD Lab to be a place where a filmmaker can tell (or retell) their story by taking advantage of this new interactive medium. I want our facility to be a boutique that works with the client to design everything....the graphics, the sound and the navigation. Not only big studio pictures, but also independent films, international films, documentaries and experimental films."" Paramount Home Entertainment is a part of the operations of Paramount Pictures, a unit of ViacomInc. American Zoetrope offers a wide array of DVD services including overall concept and design, telecine mastering, sound restoration and 5.1 re-mastering, MPEG-2 picture encoding, AC-3 sound encoding and title authoring. A graphics workstation for menu design provides high quality video capture for motion menus and editing. A client QC room includes a variety of home DVD players with a 34-inch 16:9 digital TV and traditional 4:3 monitors so clients can view and emulate their projects before costly disc masters are made. For more information, visit the Web site: www.zoetrope.com.