Most (though definitely not all) home vide viewers are used to the limited resolution of VHS; quality alone might not be enough of an issue to convince them to add yet another box to their home entertainment system.

It's not always easy to explain why one new format is a hit with consumers while another never gets off the ground, but the presence of multiple selling points certainly doesn't hurt. The CD, for instance, won favor not simply for its superior audio fidelity, but also on the convenience of random access and the long-term durability of the design (no physical contact to wear out the disc). So, too, the DVD-Video format is unlikely to thrive solely on the basis of delivering better video and audio quality. Most (though definitely not all) home video viewers are used to the limited resolution of VHS; quality alone might not be enough of an issue to convince them to add yet another box to their home entertainment system. But enhancing the basic home viewing experience with new "added-value" features can help spark the kind of excitement needed to make the format an easier sell. Among the most extensive attempts at this kind of enhancement so far is the Lost in Space DVD from New Line Cinema.

Released in the United States and Canada on October 6--"day and date" with the VHS release--Lost in Space is a dual-layer disc (a "reverse spiral" DVD-9) retailing at $24.98. It contains not simply the 130-minute feature film, but also added content for both set-top and DVD-ROM playback (Windows 95/98 only). The film is presented "letterboxed" in its original widescreen theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1, with the main soundtrack in 5.1-channel Dolby Digital (AC-3). English is the only language option for the soundtrack and the single subtitle track, as well as for two commentary tracks, one of which features observations on the making of the film by director Steven Hopkins and writer Avika Goldsman; the other offers the more technically-oriented perspectives of visual effects supervisors, the director of photography, the editor, and the producer. The product does not use DVD-Video's multiple angle capability.

The user has three basic options for navigating the feature film itself. "In a set-top player or on a PC with a DVD-ROM drive, you can access the film either by simply playing it from the beginning or by using the scene index to access it chapter-by-chapter," says Mike Mulvihill, New Line's director of operations for post-production. (The scene index includes a preview function.) "But on the PC you can also access the film from the screenplay included on the ROM portion of the disc. Within any scene in the screenplay, you can jump to the corresponding chapter of the movie. So if you see something that the screenwriter wrote, and you want to see what that actually looks like within the film, you just click to launch that scene. And at any time you can exit back to the section of the screenplay you started from."

SET-TOP EXTRAS

The extras include three "featurettes," miniature movies related to the main film. One such film, Building the Special Effects, is along the lines of a "The Making of... " documentary, focusing on the creation of the feature film's record 767 visual effects shots. Hosted by visual effects supervisor Angus Bickerton, the film covers four main aspects of effects creation, including the relative merits of computer-generated and model-based approaches. Another featurette, The Future of Space Travel, is an educational piece intended to give the "science fact behind the science fiction." "We interviewed members of the Planetary Society about what in the movie could actually happen, and where are we going in the future in terms of space travel," says New Line marketing manager Donald Evans. Topics range from the long-term implications of environmental trends on Earth to the merits of pursuing space travel.

For the less educationally inclined, a section called "The Television Years" offers a three-part look at the TV series, including written synopses of every episode, TV cast biographies, and a third featurette, made up of video interviews with original cast members. Biographies and "filmographies" of cast and crew for the film, meanwhile, are found in the disc's Jupiter II Crew section. Other sections include a look at color production designs, a music video of the TV series theme song, the theatrical trailer, scenes from the cutting room floor, and a trivia game on the series and film, with a blooper clip as the winner's reward.

ENTERING THE HYPERGATE

Most of the Hypergate elements are based on features of the Lost in Space Web site (www.dangerwillrobinson. com), largely designed by Angry Monkey in San Francisco and Canned Interactive in Hollywood. New Line claims the site is "the largest and most in-depth Web effort ever associated with a feature film, and is considered the most technically advanced film promotional Web site to date." For the DVD, most of the content is stored locally, allowing a richer media experience and avoiding the necessity of maintaining a connection or waiting for slow downloads. But some Hypergate areas dial up the site to provide access to additional information or feedback on user input.

One example of this is "Create Your Own Planet," developed by Red Ant Mediagroup of Los Angeles, which allows you to create a home for the wandering Robinsons (the family that is "Lost in Space" on the Jupiter II spacecraft) by choosing from a variety of options relating to parameters such as planet structure and atmosphere. The program dials up the Web site and submits your choice of parameters for evaluation. "You will get an e-mail that lets you know if you have created an idyllic environment," says Gordon Paddison, director of interactive marketing, "or if there is something that you may want to change. For instance, if you have put lava on the outside of your planet, you are going to get an email that says, 'We've landed on the surface and Dr. Smith just stepped outside and his legs have burned off. Could you come back and help us out?' There is a database of 600 possible combinations, and we have written a response for every one."

Other Web-related aspects of the Hypergate are two threaded discussion groups, one each built around the characters Penny Robinson and Dr. Smith, the film's villain. Dr. Smith's section of the disc also includes non-Web material, such as "Destroy a Planet," which Paddison says was created "for all the gamers," and "Galaxy of Evil," a vision of how the galaxy might look if Dr. Smith ruled the Universe. Other Hypergate sections include a "Data Bank" with information on the movie, the cast, and the filmmakers, a 3D VRML "shoot 'em up" Lost in Space game--developed by Hollyworlds in conjunction with Cosmo Software (a former Silicon Graphics division now owned by Platinum Technologies)-- and a feature called "Get the Robot," which is a series of executable files that pop up an animated version of the film's robot character onto the user's desktop. Perhaps more edifying are the two science-oriented components of the Hypergate, "Harmonic Planet" and "Science Planet," both created by M|B Interactive of New York City. "Harmonic Planet," says Paddison, "gives you locations and information on quasars, solar systems, star systems, and galaxies, and then gives you the actual emissions of sound that each of those bodies makes on a radiotelescope. You can take all those sounds and pull them into the Galactic Mixer, and play DJ. We looped the sounds so they are just a couple of seconds long, and they naturally create a rhythm. So you can play these rhythms off against each other, and it gets pretty funky."

As for "Science Planet," Paddison says, "That was a joint venture that we did with Intel, and it once again explores all of the science fact behind the science fiction. Each major plot point in the film that has to do with science fiction is broken down in a factual way. For instance, the entire crew of the Jupiter II is put into suspended animation for their flight, so we go into what the current status is of cryonics."

To make it more convenient for users to access the various ROM elements, New Line turned to Interactual Technologies of Mountain View, California. Interactual's PCFriendly software is a framework, launched when the disc is inserted into the drive, that offers a coherent navigational metaphor--in this case, a TV with a remote--for accessing disparate DVD-ROM content. It also evaluates the user's system, looking for DirectShow or other proprietary DVD Navigator modules. The program is not currently available for Macintosh DVD delivery, though according to Interactual's Todd Collart, plans for Mac support are "in the works." Collart says the program ensures proper playback of DVD-Video components in a DVD-ROM drive by providing "a layer that essentially interfaces directly with each of the different navigators that users may have on their PCs." The company offers DVD publishers a software development kit and support services for bringing content into the PCFriendly framework. And in the case of Lost in Space, Interactual is handling all customer support related to the ROM portion of the disc.

PRODUCTION PROCESS

High-level support within New Line was a key boost for the DVD team, because it ensured the cooperation throughout of those in the feature film production chain. According to Mulvihill, "everybody involved in the production, both corporately and creatively, understood from very early on that Lost in Space was more than a theatrical asset, it was an asset that was going to be used in various forms."

The challenges in creating the additional features turned out to be less technical than logistical, particularly because of the day-and-date release requirement. "Lost in Space is one of the most ambitious DVDs ever done," says Evans. "Because of that we had to start real early in the process. We were committed to a theatrical release date of April 3, more than a year in advance, so we knew pretty much when the video release date would be, and we had to start working on the DVD as the movie was getting ready to come out in theaters. On the set-top side, we worked with an independent producer, Mark Rance, who is real good at figuring out what he has to work with in terms of timeline, budget, talent, and cooperation. So the production process went pretty smoothly."

Explaining New Line's approach to DVD production, Mulvihill says, "We divided things into a few different areas. A set-top menu designer took care of the set-top functions for the conventional DVD players. Mark Rance, the added-value producer, handled not only the audio commentaries and the featurettes, but also delved into the electronic press kit material--things like the clips that will be shown on "Entertainment Tonight"--and repurposed as much as possible of that already-produced material for the DVD.

"On the ROM side, which was coordinated by Gordon Paddison, much of the content was repurposed from the theatrical Web site. Because the content of the film itself had to be kept secret until theatrical release, Gordon had to create an environment on the site that wasn't dependent on theatrical elements, which is how he got into building the edutainment aspects. Then the ROM content was channeled to Interactual to be plugged into their interface and formatted for DVD.

"As far as getting the feature film from 35mm to video," Mulvihill continues, "the telecine was done on the Spirit DataCine at Laser Pacific in Hollywood, from which an NTSC Digital Betacam submaster was created for MPEG-2 encoding. The most important aspect of getting good compression is starting with a good master. The compression was also done at Laser Pacific, and they also did the DVD authoring on a Daikin system and created the DLT master. The Dolby Digital audio encoding was done at POP Sound in Santa Monica."

Given the length of Lost in Space and the variety of other materials on the DVD, effective "bit budgeting" was important to ensuring that there was room enough on the disc to encode the video at high quality. "When we are dealing with a DVD-9," Mulvihill says, "we figure that 230 minutes of content is a comfortable amount. So while we didn't really know early on exactly what extra content we were going to end up with, we knew that with a 130-minute feature we needed to spend no more than about 100 minutes on extra content." The ROM content was negligible in size, and did not really affect the overall bit budget.

New Line has created nine previous Platinum Series DVDs, and 29 previous DVDs in all. But the scale of Lost in Space brought home to Mulvihill a few lessons for future projects. "On the set-top side, there is really nothing technically ground-breaking about getting commentaries recorded and featurettes made," he says, "and on the ROM side, there is a lot to be gained from the synergy of home video and the Web. But the key things are to start early and to get all the parties to communicate about the parameters of the medium--things like being aware of the NTSC safe area in menu design--and the way that terminology is used differently in television compared to computers. In the future, we think the design for set-top and ROM functions will be handled by the same designer, so there is greater continuity from one to the other.

"For most home video companies, ROM content will be something new and unique to their existing production process. Things can come up at the last minute, for instance, that maybe worked on the Web, but have to be altered to work correctly on DVD-ROM. You may also run into some hurdles as far as the best ways to hand off deliverable assets from one production step to the next. So you need to go into it with the understanding that the processes you have planned for may need to be revised in production, and you have to budget enough time for that. You have to plan for the unexpected."

Angry Monkey
685 Tennessee Street, Suite D, San Francisco, CA 94107; 415/487-9143; Fax 415/975-2998; http://www.angrymonkey.com/

Canned Interactive
6444 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90038; 213/957-4275; Fax 213/957-4279; http://www.cannery.com/

InterActual Technologies, Inc.
2017 Landings Drive, Mountain View, CA 94043; 800/500-6042, 650/943-1440; Fax 650/943-1430; http://www.interactual.com/

LaserPacific Media Corporation
809 North Cahuenga Boulevard, Hollywood, CA 90038; 323/462-6266; Fax 323/464-3233

M|B Interactive
460Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016; 212/340-3800; Fax 212/684-0939; http://www.mbinter.com/

New Line Cinema
116 North Robertson Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90048; 310/854-5811; Fax 310/659-1566; http://www.newline.com/

POPSound
625 Arizona Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90401; 310/458-9192; Fax 310/587-1222; http://www.popstudios.com/

RedAnt Media Group, Inc.
5514 Wilshire Boulevard, 8th Floor, Los Angeles. CA 90036; 213/938-1211; Fax 213/938-0110; http://www.redant.net/

Philip De Lancie (pdel@compuserve.com) is a freelance writer covering media production and distribution technology based in Berkeley, California.

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