Shogun

[Blumlein 88]

Anybody watching this? It is really good so far. Better than the 1980 mini-series. From the James Clavell book.

I do wonder about the out of focus images away from the center. I've seen this on several 4k productions. I have a 4k projector. I also see it on some youtube trailers. Often the bottom and bottom top and edges are out of focus. I see it on my projector, but also on youtube trailers in 1080 on LCD monitors. So not an artifact of my projector. Wonder if others see it and does anybody know why? I've seen about other projects this results from using cheaper cameras. In this case $10-20k cameras and lenses of about the same price vs what sota movies use with is 10-20 times more.

Never mind all of that, if you aren't watching it, I recommend it as a very good show so far.

 

[Bleib]

Gonna start today, but I expect at the very least miss Maurice Jarre's soundtrack (father of Jean Michel Jarre)

 

[CleanSound]

Freaking amazing show. Probably one of the best shows I've watched in a long long while.

 

[DonH56]

What is it on?

 

[Somafunk]

Disney ^

 

[goryu]

Production values are fantastic and it would appear that no expense was spared with costumes, etc. The dialogue, on the other hand, is a bit cheesy. Having lived in Japan for 14 years, it kind of sticks out though for your average Westerner, it wouldn't be noticeable I suppose.

 

[DonH56]

Disney ^

Aargh, thanks, don't have and not planning to get that. I do not stream video as a rule; I have Peacock (I think) through one of my subscriptions but only used it once to watch a football game. They sent an email with a movie I was interested in watching, but wanted me to pay on top of the subscription so I passed. For a little more I just bought the disc.

My sensei and a couple of Japanese friends told me the original Shogun was mixed as far as authenticity, and that the lead Englishman would never have gotten away with such short honorifics speaking to the Shogun.

 

[Somafunk]

You could wait till the entire series is released on disney then sign up for the monthly sub and cancel after you‘ve watched what you want

 

[Blumlein 88]

What is it on?

FX and Hulu.

Don't know if it's on Disney. Disney owns both other networks, but I think Shogun is only on Disney in some countries not the USA. But I don't have Disney so don't know for sure.

@DonH56

 

[CleanSound]

Aargh, thanks, don't have and not planning to get that. I do not stream video as a rule;

Streaming an utter mess right now.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Aargh, thanks, don't have and not planning to get that. I do not stream video as a rule; I have Peacock (I think) through one of my subscriptions but only used it once to watch a football game. They sent an email with a movie I was interested in watching, but wanted me to pay on top of the subscription so I passed. For a little more I just bought the disc.

My sensei and a couple of Japanese friends told me the original Shogun was mixed as far as authenticity, and that the lead Englishman would never have gotten away with such short honorifics speaking to the Shogun.

I think while it might be more or less in the ballpark historically, it is not great on authenticity. But that was the case with the book it was based upon. And while Blackthorn is sort of based on the idea of a real person, William Adams, my guess is they have no way of knowing specifics and it is mostly dramatization for western audiences.

It is still a well done entertaining show.

William Adams (pilot) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[EERecordist]

I do wonder about the out of focus images away from the center. I've seen this on several 4k productions. I have a 4k projector. I also see it on some youtube trailers. Often the bottom and bottom top and edges are out of focus.

It could be an artifact of anamorphic lenses which that production uses. It is a common cinematography look.

 

[Blumlein 88]

It could be an artifact of anamorphic lenses which that production uses. It is a common cinematography look.

So they are using anamorphic lenses. These Hawk, and Alex Arris lenses have become popular apparently for the way to provide this blur and bokeh on backgrounds. I think in some scenes they have gone too far in Shogun. The edges can be quite out of focus. The subtitles are sharp over the blur so it is in the way they shot it. I also don't see the point in some shots. Like a far overhead shot that zooms in, but never really gets close to the outside of the Osaka castle. I thought a set was shot with a drone or maybe it is all CGI, and the blur is to hide that, but it is obvious and a bit distracting.

Shōgun (TV Mini Series 2024) - Technical specifications - IMDb

Shōgun (TV Mini Series 2024) - Movies, TV, Celebs, and more...

www.imdb.com

• Aspect ratio
  • 2.00 : 1
  
  
• Camera
  • Arri Alexa LF, Hawk class-X, V-Lite and Vantage One Lenses
  • Arri Alexa Mini LF, Hawk class-X, V-Lite and Vantage One Lenses
  • Panasonic AG-DVX100
  • Sony CineAlta Venice, Hawk class-X, V-Lite and Vantage One Lenses
  
  
• Negative Format
  • AXSM(4K)
  • Codex ARRIRAW(4.5K)
  
  
• Cinematographic Process
  • Digital Intermediate(4K, master format)
  • Hawk Scope(anamorphic, source format)
• Printed Film Format
  • Video(UHD)

 

[Guddu]

Episode 01 & 02 are a bit slow to begin with but gets interesting towards the end.
Surely worth a try.

 

[theREALdotnet]

Anybody watching this? It is really good so far. Better than the 1980 mini-series. From the James Clavell book.

I watched it back in the ’80s, and every so often since – always loved it. The book is far more extensive and meandering, the mini series is a good distillation.

 

[MRC01]

I enjoyed the novel immensely, not necessarily for the writing which was mediocre, but for the story, characters and history (I could say the same for Michener novels). Clavell was a POW in Japan during WW-II. The FX/Disney+ show is well produced and directed, so far seems to be much better than the miniseries (admittedly, a low bar). I'm glad to see this story finally get the high quality production it deserved.

Incidentally, the Hulu app on Roku has audio quality bugs:

• The voicing is midrange focused, as if they are trying to make dialog more clear on tiny TV speakers.
• Every minute or so there's a small "tic" as if the sound is not properly buffered.
• Once every hour or two, the sound suddenly JUMPS level about 20 DB louder or quieter. As if each little "tic" as a 1% chance to do this. When this happens, you must exit the app and come back in.

Has anyone else noticed these?

No other app on Roku has this problem, only Hulu. Strangely, the Disney+ app on Roku can play Hulu content, and when you play Hulu content on D+ the sound has the same bugs. But when you play D+ content it is just fine. That suggests it may be an issue with how the Hulu content is encoded for streaming.

 

[Jimbob54]

Yup, it's shaping up nicely. Well made.

It's on Disney in the UK.

Very different genre but I'm also enjoying Halo on paramount and the ww2 flying Band of Brothers sequel on Apple.

Netflix and Amazon Prime are now the 2 services I find the least quality original content on

 

[Berwhale]

I'm enjoying Shogun, also watching Masters of the Air and my son and I really enjoyed Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix.

 

[Trouble Maker]

FX and Hulu.

I'm watching it on Hulu in the US.

I'm only 1 episode in but it is fantastic so far.

Has anyone else noticed these?

Roku built into a TLC and I haven't noticed these so far. I wonder if the specific (software) build would be different depending on the device used and if this is a hardware/software build specific bug. Honestly I might not quickly pick-out the mid-range emphasis unless it's really bad. The tick I would probably notice. I don't know how someone couldn't notice a sudden +20db jump; that one definitely hasn't happened yet. I'll keep an ear open next watch.

 

[gags]

So they are using anamorphic lenses. These Hawk, and Alex Arris lenses have become popular apparently for the way to provide this blur and bokeh on backgrounds. I think in some scenes they have gone too far in Shogun. The edges can be quite out of focus. The subtitles are sharp over the blur so it is in the way they shot it. I also don't see the point in some shots. Like a far overhead shot that zooms in, but never really gets close to the outside of the Osaka castle. I thought a set was shot with a drone or maybe it is all CGI, and the blur is to hide that, but it is obvious and a bit distracting.

Shōgun (TV Mini Series 2024) - Technical specifications - IMDb

Shōgun (TV Mini Series 2024) - Movies, TV, Celebs, and more...

www.imdb.com

• Aspect ratio
  • 2.00 : 1
  
  
• Camera
  • Arri Alexa LF, Hawk class-X, V-Lite and Vantage One Lenses
  • Arri Alexa Mini LF, Hawk class-X, V-Lite and Vantage One Lenses
  • Panasonic AG-DVX100
  • Sony CineAlta Venice, Hawk class-X, V-Lite and Vantage One Lenses
  
  
• Negative Format
  • AXSM(4K)
  • Codex ARRIRAW(4.5K)
  
  
• Cinematographic Process
  • Digital Intermediate(4K, master format)
  • Hawk Scope(anamorphic, source format)
• Printed Film Format
  • Video(UHD)

Today I learned about anamorphic lenses.

I noticed the strange look of some of the scenes and to me it looked like they had corrected lens barrel leaving a kind of ghost of a circular feel to the bokeh. Whenever I’d pause to take a closer look, it wasn’t there.