Post by tracy1101 on Jan 9, 2008 15:54:45 GMT -5
www.moviecitynews.com/columnists/pratt/2008/08_decade_best.html
(note-just putting the part about Firefly, it's a long article)
DVDs: The First Decade
2007 marked the end of the first decade of DVDs and represented a profound change in the motion picture business. Where previously, home video was an ancillary market, with the full penetration of the inexpensively manufactured 5-inch (actually, 12cm) format (and while artists and film executives-and television producers-are not entirely willing to admit it yet), DVDs are now the final product. Theatrical or broadcast distribution has become an occasionally profitable marketing step to that end. No theatrical film and virtually no non-reality network television program today is budgeted without the knowledge that it will also be released on DVD. Additionally, DVDs have altered the artistic designs of the films themselves, providing an emotional steam valve for writers, directors and so on, allowing them to compromise the theatrical version of a production with the knowledge that their personal vision will eventually be disseminated to perhaps an even larger audience. This has disadvantages-the creators do not fight as hard, initially, to preserve their artistic integrity; and their alternate versions can lack the necessary discipline that boxoffice responsiveness would require-as well as the more obvious advantages-not only do DVDs foster greater artistic freedom, but they expand the audience's consciousness by revealing the alternative dramatic and artistic dimensions in which a film exists (in the most general terms, that characters can both live and die simultaneously; that there is drama and comedy in the creative process itself; and so on). Regardless of the pluses and minuses, it is unquestionable that DVDs have, in effect, altered the playing field of making movies, forever.
The following ten titles are an ordered representation of the most significant DVDs to reach the marketplace during that first decade:
8. Firefly The Complete Series (Fox). Fox has demonstrated an uncanny ability to utilize DVDs in the resuscitation of supposedly dead television programs. The popularity of its Family Guy sets was the primary inspiration for the animated series' belated renewal. While Futurama has not been quite that lucky, its success on DVD has facilitated new direct-to-DVD episodes. For Joss Whedon's short-lived sci-fi action series, Firefly, the DVD set was a revelation, presenting the episodes for the first time in their proper order and unveiling several that did not achieve a broadcast before the series was misguidedly cancelled. Seen coherently, the show was both exciting and stimulating in the best tradition of science-fiction programs, and the popularity of its definitive DVD release inspired the production of the feature film, Serenity, which was itself issued as a reasonably enjoyable Collector's Edition by Universal. By way of comparison, the normally resourceful Warner completely dropped the ball with the potentially awesome Birds of Prey, which will probably never make it to DVD.
(note-just putting the part about Firefly, it's a long article)
DVDs: The First Decade
2007 marked the end of the first decade of DVDs and represented a profound change in the motion picture business. Where previously, home video was an ancillary market, with the full penetration of the inexpensively manufactured 5-inch (actually, 12cm) format (and while artists and film executives-and television producers-are not entirely willing to admit it yet), DVDs are now the final product. Theatrical or broadcast distribution has become an occasionally profitable marketing step to that end. No theatrical film and virtually no non-reality network television program today is budgeted without the knowledge that it will also be released on DVD. Additionally, DVDs have altered the artistic designs of the films themselves, providing an emotional steam valve for writers, directors and so on, allowing them to compromise the theatrical version of a production with the knowledge that their personal vision will eventually be disseminated to perhaps an even larger audience. This has disadvantages-the creators do not fight as hard, initially, to preserve their artistic integrity; and their alternate versions can lack the necessary discipline that boxoffice responsiveness would require-as well as the more obvious advantages-not only do DVDs foster greater artistic freedom, but they expand the audience's consciousness by revealing the alternative dramatic and artistic dimensions in which a film exists (in the most general terms, that characters can both live and die simultaneously; that there is drama and comedy in the creative process itself; and so on). Regardless of the pluses and minuses, it is unquestionable that DVDs have, in effect, altered the playing field of making movies, forever.
The following ten titles are an ordered representation of the most significant DVDs to reach the marketplace during that first decade:
8. Firefly The Complete Series (Fox). Fox has demonstrated an uncanny ability to utilize DVDs in the resuscitation of supposedly dead television programs. The popularity of its Family Guy sets was the primary inspiration for the animated series' belated renewal. While Futurama has not been quite that lucky, its success on DVD has facilitated new direct-to-DVD episodes. For Joss Whedon's short-lived sci-fi action series, Firefly, the DVD set was a revelation, presenting the episodes for the first time in their proper order and unveiling several that did not achieve a broadcast before the series was misguidedly cancelled. Seen coherently, the show was both exciting and stimulating in the best tradition of science-fiction programs, and the popularity of its definitive DVD release inspired the production of the feature film, Serenity, which was itself issued as a reasonably enjoyable Collector's Edition by Universal. By way of comparison, the normally resourceful Warner completely dropped the ball with the potentially awesome Birds of Prey, which will probably never make it to DVD.