Whatever happened to "Flyboys"?

June 4, 2006

I sort of expected that Flyboys was going to the first "Cab off the Rank" for the Genesis, (as in a commercially released film), but line honours went to "Scary Movie 4", followed by "Click".

That's a pity really, because Flyboys sounds like quite a good yarn, but what happened to it? All I can find with a Google search is stuff from last year. Looks like Superman Returns is set to beat it out the starting gate.

Ah well, we wait.

Ted Johanson · June 5, 2006

Hi Jim,

Are you sure "Click" was shot using the Genesis?

I downloaded the 1080p version of the trailer for "Click" from Apple's website.

The first thing I noticed (in a techincal sense) was that the resolution didn't at all

look like true 1080p; it looked more like 720p interpolated to 1080p. I also noticed

that some of the scenes appeared quite grainy with what looked like grain reduction.

Maybe Apple got their hands on a cheap copy for re-encoding, hence the relatively

poor resolution. Maybe that grain was introduced when the prints were made ---

perhaps the prints were scanned into a digital format which was used by Apple. And

perhaps that grain reduction look is just caused solely by H.264 compression artifacts.

Who knows? Can anyone shed more light on this subject? :-)

-Ted Johanson

David Mullen ASC · June 5, 2006

Yes, it was shot on the Genesis. You can't tell much from a Quicktime trailer anyway.

I've only see a trailer digitally projected in the "TV commercials" section at an AMC movie theater before the film projection began and it looked fine from what I could tell in that format. It didn't suffer from compression artifacts or any noise reduction as far as I could tell.

Jaan Shenberger · June 6, 2006

based off the 1080 h264 trailer from the apple site, there definitely seems to some noise reduction in some of the shots, though it's hard to judge it based on that trailer, since i'm sure that h264 would probably smooth out the tonality even more (how much though, i dunno). there also seemed to be some shots with significant noise, with no or little noise reduction though.

June 6, 2006

This is all very nice, but what happened to Flyboys?

I mean here's a Genesis-captured feature that I might, just might actually enjoy watching!

(Or at least not feel cheated out of two hours of my life and the ticket price :D )

David Mullen ASC · June 6, 2006

This is all very nice, but what happened to Flyboys?
I mean here's a Genesis-captured feature that I might, just might actually enjoy watching!

(Or at least not feel cheated out of two hours of my life and the ticket price :D )

I think the LA Times Calender had it listed as an early Fall release in their round-up of the summer releases.

Joseph White · June 6, 2006

My roommate does a lot of pr/writing assignments to pay the bills inbetween freelance editing, and he was hired to re-work the Flyboys press and recently saw the film at Panavision Woodland Hills. He really didn't have much good to say about it, he said it looked fine (better than the Click trailer and Scary Movie 4) but not stunning, and that it's a great story not met with great filmmaking. Can't speak for myself since I haven't seen it, but he has pretty damn good taste. He said it's theatrical release is slated for sometime in October.

June 7, 2006

He really didn't have much good to say about it, he said it looked fine (better than the Click trailer and Scary Movie 4) but not stunning, and that it's a great story not met with great filmmaking.

That's a shame; Flyboys sounded like it had a valid reason for using electronic cameras, although I can't really see what the Genesis could do that the CineAlta couldn't.

Jeff Allen · October 29, 2006

Well Jim "acid" Murdoch "Flyboys" is due for UK release on boxing day 2006. The pictures look fantastic and all concerned were more than happy with the results. King Kanute could not hold back the tide and nor can anyone when it comes to digital acquisition. The BBC stated on their recent HD day that by 2010 they will not accept 16mm film for origination and by then 4K cameras with 35mm sensors will be more commonplace and be gradually replacing 35mm for origination. Thats not to say film is dead or that its not got a future it has but for the first time in 100 years it will have valid competition.