Baraka [Blu-ray]

Baraka [Blu-ray]
by Ron Fricke

Baraka [Blu-ray]

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Category: Blu-ray
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Blu-ray details

Director: Ron Fricke
Brand: MPI
Blu-ray: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.20:1
Running Time: 97 minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: 2008-10-28
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: MPI Home Video
Product features:

Shot in breathtaking 70mm in 24 countries on six continents, BARAKA is a transcendent global tour that explores the sights and sounds of the human condition like nothing you ve ever seen or felt before. These are the wonders of a world without words, viewed through man and nature s own prisms of symmetry, savagery, harmony and chaos. Format: BLU-RAY DISC Genre: MISCELLANEOUS Rating:&nb

Blu-ray Reviews of Baraka [Blu-ray]

Blu-ray Review: Absolutely gorgeous, but crummy packaging (please read for my fix)
Summary: 5 Stars

I won't belabor the comments/reviews left by others; this is an absolutely phenomenal film that deserves a place on the shelf of *any* Blu-ray player owner. Truly impressive, buttressed by the best high-def video/audio mastering I've seen yet - it looks and sounds fantastic played via my PS3 to a Panasonic plasma HDTV and decoded in 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. Buy it.

Unfortunately, the packaging is hippie-dippy crummy. Yes, it's biodegradable; so much so that it started to degrade during the shipping process! It's just flimsy cardboard that arrived looking a bit tattered even within the factory shrinkwrap - it'll fall apart with use.

Even worse, storing the disc in the case requires sliding it against the cardboard, which is a big no-no and encourages scratches to form. A very poor, politically-correct packaging decision for a treasured film that needs to be preserved in perfect condition.

I fixed the packaging today. I'd already purchased a couple dozen new, empty Blu-ray plastic cases to replace broken ones, so I used one of those to repackage this movie.

Instead of cutting up the original box, I first tried scanning it to make new covers, and that worked great. I used 600dpi, 24-bit color, with slight sharpening enhancement and a 133LPI descreening filter to smooth the image. (This was done with an inexpensive Epson 1670 scanner, by the way.) The result is gorgeous!

I saved it as a TIFF file to preserve the scan's full quality, then reduced the front cover 4% and cropped off the top blue "Blu-ray" line, unnecessary for a real Blu-ray case. What you should end up with is an image height of 5.875" with proportional cropping, making the width just about exactly right to fix the plastic case. Printed in highest quality setting on my HP 5550 inkjet (another inexpensive device) it worked perfectly - you have to look very closely to see that it's not an offset-printed factory cover and it fits the new case beautifully.

Similarly for the inside-right image; scanned it using the same specs, then reduced 10% this time to fit the case interior - again, great results.

So, problem solved, and I hope these guidelines might help others. I've added a couple of hastily-shot photos of my repackaging; they should illustrate the final result - I apologize for lack of time to create more-professional images.

P.S. Want more? The filmmaker, Ron Fricke, is working on another one! Entitled "Samsara", it's tentatively scheduled for 2009 - see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0770802/ for what little info is available so far.

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Description of Baraka [Blu-ray]

FULLY RESTORED - The only movie ever transferred with an 8K HD Scan

Shot in breathtaking 70mm in 24 countries on six continents, BARAKA is a transcendent global tour that explores the sights and sounds of the human condition like nothing you ve ever seen or felt before. These are the wonders of a world without words, viewed through man and nature s own prisms of symmetry, savagery, harmony and chaos.

BARAKA produced by Mark Magidson and directed and photographed by Ron Fricke, award-winning cinematographer of KOYAANISQATSI and creators of the IMAX® sensation CHRONOS has now been fully restored from its original camera negative via state-of-the-art 8K UltraDigital mastering to create the most visually stunning Blu-ray ever made.

INCLUDES OVER 80 MINUTES OF ALL NEW BONUS FEATURES:
Baraka: A Closer Look
Baraka: Restoration

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