Moneyball

I should've been spending my off-time weekend preping my reels for future gigs, but I ended up reading Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game.

The baseball is a quinssential American past time, an institution with long history. But I thought, Hollywood is also a quinssential American past time, an institution with long history. The baseball players are much like Hollywood stars, paid in millions. (The baseball scouts in the book insist the future MLB stars must have the look and the body. Sound familiar?) Studio execs are like MLB General Managers. What if a Hollywood studio was to operate like Oakland A's with more analytical and scientifical approach? What if the studios made more movies at modest budgets with promising stars, instead of swing-for-the-fences blockbusters with bank-breaking stars? Wouldn't that be something? (Yeah, I know Disney tried that in mid-90s, but that didn't pan out under rising influence of indie scenes.)

The book proved me one thing, and one thing only: people hate to think, hate to change, hate to innovate, if they can coast by it without too much difficulty. The great opportuntities await for people challenging the conventions, milking their creative juice to find the opening where none dare to look. I strive to be one of those people.

This book proved itself by explaing the reason why American dream team lost in the first World Baseball Classic, and small ball Japanese team came out on top. (After losing two straight games to Korean team, by the way.)

Miranda July on Final Cut Studio

Be free.

Is it just me, but the editor seems totally perfect for Ms. July by his look alone? :-)

David Fincher on Final Cut Studio

Cut to the future, in this case, his upcoming movie Zodiac. (QuickTime required.)

I'm quite taken by new QuickTime movie player interface. Is this new thing to come? How can I use this interface for my own?

Final Draft Presentation at Apple SOHO

Final Draft Presenation
Originally uploaded by beatmania.

Joe Mefford from Final Draft came in to do a special presentation of Final Draft 7 and Final Draft AV. Although I've been using Final Draft 6 for quite some years, it was enlightening to find out some functionalities that the program offered.

The audience was quite attentive as I figured there were some serious writers presented, including yours truly. His presentation lasted 45 minutes and took some questions.

Final Draft is a good program with very specialized functions that caters to very specific group of writers. And the presentation was a good intro to how to use the program. Only in an Apple store you would get a presentation like this, even though the program runs both Mac & PC.

With newly renovated, spacious presentation area, I hope there will be more presentations like this for all computer users, not just Mac people.

On the related note, I've utterly failed to wake up early enough to attend 10 am presentations, but I'm very determined to make it to at least one of them next week. Stay tuned.

Going to the Movies

Syd Field may have a bad rep as a Hollywood script formula man, but I was encouraged by a source to pick up this book as it recounts his personal journey in Hollywood and cinematic movements of 60s and 70s. It was engrossing read how he developed into a famous script teacher we know him as a today before he found his true calling. He was a struggling script writer with a few ties to Hollywood, but working as a reader for a studio developed his insights and experience to judge a script based on the patterns he discovered. He exercised his formulas based on his discovery to pitch to his boss/execs, and later he began to teach/preach them at his screenplay classes. His work caught on as people found it to be helpful to write and develop scripts. Why wouldn't it when he was the gate that offered the passage to the execs' desktop?

The book offers interesting perspective on turbulent Hollywood transitional period and I found that current Hollywood's fascination with blockbuster movies were well-developed at that time before Jaws broke out as we know today. Current blockbuster movies are American myth-making combined with capitalistic bent of winner-take-all mentality. (Open big and wide! Many years of film production work is judged on single opening weekend!) Syd Field's analysis only helps to identify and develop those scripts into their "full" possibilities. I believe he became what he is today because he was one of few that developed the formal process of evaluating scripts to be pitched to execs and shared that mystical process with the rest of the world.

I'm not arrogant enough to simply dismiss his insights and analysis. Like many other people, I found his rules and formulas to be perceptive. If anything, they can be a guiding light to find a solution to a script/story problem. But like every creative endeavor, you cannot start with a formula to build your story. Your story starts within you, and his teachings help to refine it. This book is valuable enough to learn his story and his lessons, in order to become a better storyteller that he may write about someday.

Miyazaki Hayao's Workspace

Original Link.

I'm hoping to build my workspace like him when I'm at his age.

Apple SOHO & Tribeca Film Festival

I just received the email that Apple SOHO shop remodeling is done and they are doing something exciting along with this year's Tribeca Film Festival. You can check the schedule and find some exciting sessions, especially Sit Down with J.J. Abrams before MI:3 release. This shows the big inroad that Apple made within the film/video entertainment industry, and Avid should be afraid. Very afraid.

The tough part would be getting up early enough to grab a cup of coffee and trekking down to SOHO before 10am and get a good seat. Yeah, I think I can do that.

Stealth & National Treasure

I think these two Hollywood blockbusters empitomize the problems that are plaguing the industry. First, I was excited to see the trailer for Stealth, a fighter pilot film that returns to the soaring sky, ala Top Gun, but the whole movie was out of whack like it's villaneous AI system that made no sense despite of whizs & bangs. The whole movie was painting ugly pictures of many Pentagon weapon programs these days because there's no real enemy that can match technical powess America possess, so the movie/Pentagon digs itself into a hole, trying to justify the movie plot/weapon programs. And why oh why fighter pilots suddenly become a Rambo and pulling a gun trigger instead of pulling a joystick? Oh yeah, the black man dies first, obviously.

National Treasure on the other hand, enjoys even direction and story, because the story/script is actually good, although it's ladden with cliches. It's an American version of Da Vinci Code, except it's with the Declaration of Independence. I think the movie could've went much further with its subjects, but in typical Hollywood fashion, they try to capture the FOUR QUADRANTS, so the film went in circles, like the treasure gathers-heroes. If you play it safe, the stake is lower. When the stake is lower, the emotional involvement is lower. But so what? By the grand law of investment preservation, the movie made enough money to justify a sequel, despite the filmmakers protest of inflicting another sequel in the DVD interviews.

The movie bridges art and money, and must delicately balance each other in order for a filmmaker to keep on making films. No filmmaker is set out to make a bad film, but it is our job as an audience to reject bad films that are overtly commericalized, in order to restore the balance to the Force that is movie magic.

The Cutting Edge - The Magic of Movie Editing

Editing is what makes film a film, and this documentary shows why and how. Although it's light on the actual techniques of editing, it spans almost 100 years of movie editing from the beginning of the motion pictures to latest movies like The Matrix. Many stars and directors contributed sound bites to the movie for easy consumption, but I especially liked the few and only segments where Walter Murch editing Cold Mountain. I think there's a good documentary there by watching him edit and learn from it, but this doc is more ambitious than that.

It's a good introductory piece to what film editing is, and what film editors do to make a movie what it is from yestedays to today, but some film buffs and industry professionals would be disappointed by the lack of technical substances. However, it is a lot better to watch than read about the subject of film editing, so grab some popcorns and enjoy in the name of vocational training.

Carpe Diem

digital sweeties: Dear Diaryblog... I gotta say it was a great comic that I had to link here. What did you do today?

Netflix vs Blockbuster Round 2

Time is right. After almost a month in trial (of Blockbuster service), I'm prepared to lay down my verdict. First, let's do some comparisons that influenced my conclusion.

Envelope: Not surprisingly, Netflix wins the design of DVD envelope. Why? Because they have been refining it for years. In contrast, Blockbuster envelope looks like one of those early Netflix envelopes that need refinements. I don't like top opening envelope and it is harder to rip open their envelopes clean. Moreover, Blockbuster envelope has DVD title/barcode sticker on its envelope that forces me to keep track of which envelope that holds which DVD title. Netflix doesn't have that problem. So Netflix wins this category with ease.

Delivery: Amazingly, Blockbuster wipes the floor in this category. I once returned my 3 DVDs on Monday, the next batch of DVDs arrived on Wednesday. Now, that's fast. I don't think I ever received my DVDs that fast even the early days of Netflix when they sent you DVDs as soon as you clicked the button claiming you dropped the DVDs in the mailbox. I guess the thousands of physical Blockbuster stores are good for something. However, this may pose a problem if you are traveling around, and dropping off your Blockbuster DVDs in different state compare to your home address, delaying the returns. Netflix usually takes 4 days turnaround for me, but my friend tells me I would get faster service if I have 3 DVDs out like my current Blockbuster deal. But I don't care and having different number of DVDs out should NOT hinder your delivery time. Or does it?

Website: Netflix, of course. Blockbuster website, like their envelope, is a generation behind Netflix's. Blockbuster site is functional, but no deep community values or interface that Netflix cultivated over the years. In contrast, Netflix site may well become overwhelm some people with too many options and little pop-ups. So Netflix site wins this round with its good design and deep functionality.

Conclusion: Since I am more conscious of value for my money than anything else, I've chosen to go with Blockbuster and drop Netflix all together. Blockbuster DVDs turnaround is faster, so I can watch more DVDs than Netflix can offer. Although I do not go to a physical Blockbuster store to rent DVDs, their two free rent coupons per month are also icing on the cake. In the long run, Netflix edges against Blockbuster and/or other competitors in this space may become minimal and lock into brutal price competition. It's great for consumers but not so great news for Netflix/Blockbuster and their shareholders.

Netflix may gain another edge as it adopts next-generation HD discs faster than others, courting early adopters like its inception with their evolutionary business model. Therefore, I foresee that Netflix must continually search for more venues to increase its customer base by offering more choices and values in order to stay ahead, or simply survive. (Games? Music? Digital Downloads? Books? Porn?) The media industry is brutal and has short attention span.

Silent Hill the Movie

If you enjoyed the game, you will enjoy the movie. There's no doubt about it. I knew the movie will turn out alright when I saw this image that perfectly captured the mood of the original game. There were a lot of fans in the theater with me and they howled and clapped whenever they saw the elements that were straight from the game. Yes, this movie is the best adaptation of a video game by far.

The movie has clunky start that sent me ominous chill in spine, but once the movie gets into Silent Hill, hell breaks loose. I don't understand why the movie didn't start in the road like the 1st game did and get with the nightmarish program! Now I understand that it was necessarily to set up a story that really distracts from the film enjoyment. Whenever we were in RL-real world, the game, I mean the movie faltered. The audience and I really didn't care the father and the cops trying to find missing mother and daughter, exposition scenes that explained what happened in Silent Hill, people, etc. Frankly my dear, we don't give shit! We want more cheap thrills of gory monsters chasing after helpless blonde mother looking for her daughter in the pitch darkness without a weapon. Fortunately, the movie delivered in that department in spades.

The movie gets better whenever the siren blasts to warn impending Darkness, or radio static implies that there are monsters near by, just like in the game! I read the interviews that the director and the writer were huge fans of the games that dedicated and faithful to the visions of original games, and they weren't lip-service like other video game movie adapters. Are you listening Mr. Boll? This is how you properly do a video game movie, darn it!

The movie is visually arresting because the original game, even in old PSOne graphic, had the most cinematic and original graphical depictions of hell in an old American town. The production design and the visuals are faithful to the game, but I bet its the French artistic sensibility that enhanced and presented within the screen, for the fans. I'm sure if this move was headed by Hollywood types, it would've been bastardized like countless other video game movie adaptations.

If you can stomach Saw, you can stomach this movie. There were many gores, a lot of blood spilled and sprayed on the screen, and I loved it! It's going to be one of those cult movies that the fans will adore, but for non-fans and general public will be lost. Fortunately, horror genre is in vogue, so the movie will become a moderate hit, make new fans out of this awesome game series.

In the end, the film does look like I'm watching someone playing the Silent Hill game, which is good or bad on your perspective. The filmmaker threw some gamer references that every gamer in the audience recognized instantly, like grabbing/losing key items, jumping platform tricks for starter. Now that gaming is mainstream, these little references will become more prominent in future for sure.

Casting Radha Mitchell as the female lead was brilliant, instead of male lead in the game, along with Jodelle Ferland who reminded too much of the poor girl from Ring series. I can't wait for the unrated DVD version release along with future Silent Hill game series for more Darkness to come. Konami is releasing the first two games in PSP, along with elements from the movie, so the model video game + movie conversion may finally come alive.

I can't wait for them to adapt no. 2, which had the best horror/love story in the game series, IMO.

Feeling Blues in Next-Gen HD Discs

Engadget: The part of Blue that has me seeing Red. "In each case, the concept is simple: it's nearly exactly the same content that's placed on the higher-capacity blue-laser-based discs but instead the content is put on the same DVD media that we've come to love and adore. The thought behind the inclusion of red lasers was two-fold: a) in order to maintain backwards compatibility with current DVDs it had to be there and b) there is a set of content that really doesn't need all the space of the fully-implemented Blu-ray or HD DVD standard. As a result, companies such as Warner Bros., in an effort to lower production costs on a certain subset of their content (e.g. TV Episode compilations), demanded its inclusion.

The second piece of information that you need to understand is that, in many cases, an entire HD movie will actually fit on a standard DVD. Yes, it's true that at 8-9 MBit/second you won't see transparency to the source. However, for an average length film with no "extras" most people would be hard-pressed to tell the difference; they have neither the equipment nor the eyes to do so. In fact, nearly three years ago (a lifetime in terms of development) Terminator 2 was released on a standard DVD using a very similar encoding scheme to those used in both Blu-ray and HD DVD . Since then, both the VC-1 encoding process and H.264 encoding have made tremendous improvements and continue to get more efficient with each passing month.

The answer, as stupid as it seems, is the navigation system. While nearly every aspect of the disc is the same, HD DVD uses the Microsoft-developed iHD while Blu-ray uses a Java-based system. By using two different navigation systems, both parties have excluded the possibility of dual-system HD discs.

Where major studios have the clout, the finances, and the time to release two different versions of the same content using the latest disks, independent producers don't. Doing so means twice as much inventory, twice as many production hassles, etc. Furthermore, it is the independent producers (be they filmmakers or even home enthusiasts) who would have been more likely to utilize the red laser feature. In the case of small production houses, they might already have invested in DVD-burners. In the case of enthusiasts, they might choose to create a disc they know will be compatible with their friend's HD player." I'm sure new codec will allow HD content within current DVD/red laser system. But I'm betting on blu-ray to come out on top, for the very reason of PS3.

The Fog of War

Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara is a luminous personal details of perlious 20th century landscape ridden with conflicts that continue to till this day. His best lesson in this movie was this: "What makes us omniscient? Have we a record of omniscience? We are the strongest nation in the world today. I do not believe we should ever apply that economic, political, or military power unilaterally. If we had followed that rule in Vietnam, we wouldn't have been there! None of our allies supported us; not Japan, not Germany, not Britain or France. If we can't persuade nations with comparable values of the merit of our cause, we'd better reexamine our reasoning." Sounds too much like Gulf War 2? At least Bush Sr. was wise enough to know his limit. But Bush Jr. is not wise and alraedy flaunting another war with Iran, which openly flaunts its nuclear capability these days.

To all people who still supports Iraq War and America rushing into another war, watch this documentary and contemplate, as Mr. McNamara noted, "I think the human race needs to think about killing. How much evil must we do in order to do good."

Korean Film Directors series

Korean Film Council presents Korean Film Directors series "to increase the international standing of Korean film directors and to promote the international circulation of Korean films." Old Boy Park Chan-Wook, Fighter Ryoo Seung-Wan, and The Host Bong Joon-Ho are avaiable now. Too bad I can't read take them on my PSP.

Blogs 'essential' to a good career

YRB
Originally uploaded by beatmania.

The Boston Globe: A well-executed blog sets you apart as an expert in your field. "The most interesting blogs are focused and have a certain attitude." This blog started as a record/journal for chronicle my experience in this interesting field, and I am trying to bring more professional attitude and direction in this space now that I'm more experienced with something to share and problem-solve, instead of "Awesome; I Fuckin' Shot That!"

And of course, I will continue to harbor the same enthusiasm that echoes the above sentence without becoming a jaded professional. (Let my flow be fresh!)

View From the Bottom

RPG Vault: What happens when an indie developer tries to innovate? "Innovation enables me to keep looking at myself in the mirror in the morning. But when you're designing games in a big company and one of them flops, you usually share a bit of blame with a bunch of others and go on to the next thing. If you are an indie and your game flops... well, small companies have a real hard time surviving the blow. And I don't want to lose my house.

Remember that the next time you look to the independent developer to be the source of innovation in this industry. There is nothing scarier that aiming at a market that doesn't exist yet. It might not exist at all." This applies to all entertainment/media industries out there. Swing for the fence, but don't get struck out, is the name of this game.

Steven Siegal will flip Chuck Norris like Rice on Nori

If you don't get this meme, try this link. Seriously, this begs to be a comedy movie, like right now! Although the Internet meme comes and goes fast, a film production should also adopt and move fast with new digital technology.

Or this could be a really funny SNL skit. Somebody page Mr. Norris, like right now before this sushi gets stale!

Me and You and Everyone We Know

The movie starts with asured sense of direction, pace, and perspectives that are rare for a first time feature director like Miranda July. She bring such unique perspectives to her work that you develop more keen relationship to her direction than her unique characters in the movie. Little by little, we are invited to immerse in her feelings than the story, which I found to be the weakest part of this wonderful experience.

But like life itself, every day is just like yesterday, except we make the effort to break out from the past, search for new experience and make new connections. The film, like any other good films, awaken us to find new experience in our daily lives because our mere existence is simply magical.

This movie may be the starting point of unique female directorial career that the world will come to treasure.

Visions of Light

In the beginning, God created light. Since then, humans strived to capture this light/power in many forms, and cinematographer is one of them, in the purest sense of manipulating light to recreate another world, flirting dangerously close of becoming the ultimate being.

Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography is an excellent introductory film to cinematography that enables you to witness from its development to its current state. There are excellent tutorial as well as references that pick best shots and scenes of cinematography you can literally steal for your next movie. I know I was inspired several times watching old masters' works and talking about their craft and their inspirations.

I wish there will be a sequel to this movie considering the advances in computer graphics as well as digital cameras. This will be an excellent documentary subject for all documentary filmmakers out there, who love films and cinematography.

Inside Deep Throat

Wow. I thought this documentary would be just a sensational documentary about a sensational porn film that ushered the porn business & industry that exist in the US. And I thought I had seen Deep Throat when I clearly didn't. (I admit that I've seen share of my own porn films.) So I watched this documentary with great interest and found convincing case of historical turning point for the US culture when the film was made and afterwards.

Porn gets no respect, but it sure gets money. The problem in these days that porn is no longer rebel, artistic, or any 'redeeming' value except for quick sexual relief, just like our consumer society that's deluged with quick, eager satisfactions.

"Every wants to censor something." It was especially funny to find that Nixon, the most unpopular president in the US history, right after George Bush 2nd by recent CNN pool, claimed moral high standard to clean up smut when he and his commission failed to prove, scientifically, the porn was negatively affecting adult's minds. Whenever someone claims moral standard to crusade against anything, that's politically motivated move that benefits none except politicians to grab more power from the people. Yeah, Adolf Hitler name came up few times in the film. The conclusion is unsurprisingly, the censorship only degrades the people and the censor into darker path that none of the involved wants. If there's no open discussion, the matter becomes repressed taboo that binds people. There was no sexual revolution or liberation, so Americans continue their hidden, secret agenda with sex. Yeah, so this documentary gets two thumbs up for any rebel artists everywhere, asking people to think beyond sex when it's clearly part of being a human.

p.s. With so many 'sex' in this post, I'm sure this post will get so many hits.

p.s.s. Agenda: find a copy of Deep Throat at watch it.

p.s.s.s. Sex sells period

Greedy Apple

OK, first of all, the title and the content of this post was supposedly about my current working relationship with my director. However I can't help it. They want grab as much as money possible to prove their high-flying stock price. (Hell, I would buy Apple stocks before they go off with rumored new Video iPod and iPhone in coming months.) But for Apple/Mac users, that means coughing up more money as if Apple hasn't charged enough for their 'premium' products. Yeah, so average Apple users are wealthier and more educated and more professionals than PC users, yadiyadiyada. But that doesn't mean they should take advantage of their loyal users who supported them last few years of OS X and Intel transitions.

So, I'm editing this short film with a NYU grad director. It's the first time I'm actually working with a director over fine points of edits to enhance narrative potentials of the film. I used to work with editors, as an assitant editor, or producers who were also editors/shooters. So it's new, learning experience for me to actually interface with the director on personal and creative level while I edit on FCP.

My director just got new shiny MacBook--They are undoubtly fast, almost comparable to my G5, with new Universal version of FCP. Yes, that means I have to upgrade my FCP programs regardless of the fact that I actually own Intel based Mac or not. It doesn't give me any benefit except I can exchange project files with my director, regardless I plan to get Intel Mac in future. I am NOT getting Intel Mac until they release Desktop version and new FCP version. I doubt the programs overall are stable regardless of what Steve and Apple people claim because even Apple doesn't get 1.0 right. However, I got no option but spend money so I can work with my director.

The thing is, I have to submit an online form to crossgrade-Apple marketing is innovative, my foot! There's no simple option to just buy and download instantly, like many upgrade options are delivered in these Internet days. I'm on tight deadline. It's 2am in the morning, and I have to work with my old project file that doesn't pertain the latest edit from my director. Great. I'm just hoping I can go to an Apple store tomorrow and pick up a box after giving up my FCP DVDs. If not, this project is officially delayed.

I'm beginning to think Apple is no different from Microsoft in their quest to profit. Sure, they make nice products, but ultimately, they are a capitalistic enterprise in quest to control our computing environment to make money. Microsoft gets the bad rep because of their size and monopoly over the market. It's no secret that every computer software company wants to reign like Microsoft. Think what Apple would be like if it had Microsoft share of industry control while they are like this with only less than 5% of market share.

I'm venting obviously, but I come to expect Apple to "think different" and try to service their loyal customers, making different kind of softwares and hardwares to ease life, instead of thinking us as a revenue stream. I don't think I can tolerate another Microsoft in this industry before I become disgust and throw myself to 100% open source. There's a reason, one of many reasons, why Google is getting higher valuation than Apple with their infamous "Don't be Evil" motto and innovative softwares that make people's life easier. Yeah, so I think there's should be more of this before Apple begins to gain bad reps with small tipping points like this.

Filmmakers flock to the Net

CNet: Why not try the Web? "Schwarze is among a growing number of filmmakers and animators who once concentrated on feature-length films but are now telling much shorter stories on the Web. Insiders say that a mass migration of storytelling talent could someday put the Internet in a position to compete with television and theaters for the public's entertainment dollars.

hough the technology is far superior now, and more people are watching, Reitman has his doubts about whether individual filmmakers can generate big revenue online.

He said the problem is that even short films cost money. He also noted that Hollywood has an established revenue model for one simple reason: That model works. What the rise of Internet video actually does present, he said, is an unprecedented opportunity for talented people to display that talent.

Now we know the next Spielberg is going to upload his movie to the Web, and it's going to be e-mailed around the world, and all of a sudden this kid will have a household name. It's very exciting." If there's a will, there's a way, I say. The Internet basically expanded our lines of communications and offers more creative freedom and experiments without too many hassles. The only missing part is the business model to sustain that freedom and experiements into people's careers. However, entertainment industry in general is very fickle and when you have abundant free content on the web as it is today, it will be hard to ask for money unless you're a part of Hollywood or established entertainment industry, enforcing business pratices to cough up money from distributors, and ultimately the audience.

Free Digital Download of "Coming Down the Mountain"

I found out that the first short movie I worked on right after my film school is downloadable free here. You have to download their program and register, but it should be well worth the trouble. I'm downloading it as I write this and it will be interesting to compare the qualities between this digital DVD and my personal DV copy.

As Biggie said in 1977, no I mean when I graduated the film school, I was high in hopes and full of dreams as I left Orlando and entered high mountains on Kentucky. I thought I would be somewhere, directing my own films hopefully, after 3 years of graduation. Well, I'm still here, searching for my place in this industry. I should be thankful that I have a foot in the door.

I've been stomping NYU Film school ground lately to finish this short film I'm editing for a NYU grad. (NYU gals are hot, hot!) Yes, I don't normally do a student film, but this one is different and a personal favor for a producer friend of mine. And it already looks great for my reel, too. (Yeah, my reel...) That's all for tonight, folks!

Netflix vs. Blockbuster

Now that I'm preparing myself for the imminient launch of HD-era, I stopped buying DVDs. (I think I'm not the only one thinking I would have to restock my collection with next-gen discs with blu-ray capable Playstation 3 in near horizon.) So, I rejoined Netflix to supplement my DVD fix every month. I never liked tracking to local Blockbuster because they were all so corporate and had bad experience with their late fees. I loved Rentertainment when I was in college and I rarely went to Blockbuster if I can help it. Anyhow, now that Blockbuster is in DVD mail rental business, with Netflix growth getting slumping with increasing competitions, Netflix sues Blockbuster to shut online service.

Thanks to this post, I signed up for free Blockbuster trial, and the DVDs came in today, fast. The Blockbuster envelopes open on top, instead of sideways of Netflix envelopes. Blockbuster envelopes are smaller and their constructions are more sturdy. And they throw in 2 free e-coupons for in-store rentals on top of mail-order rentals. Competition is good. With deals like this, the DVDs and the movies themselves have to reach high and prove their worth to own them. That's why I still buy Criterion DVDs time to time.

I guess this will be all irrelevant when digital distribution hits full stride.