Digital Playground dives into the newly developing Hi-Def DVD market with Island Fever 3, its first HD release, shipping September 14. It will be innovatively packaged as a two-disc set: a DVD plus an HD disc at no extra charge.
The movie, shot in Tahiti and Bora Bora, stars DP contract girls Jesse Jane and Devon, and includes one scene with former DP exclusive Tera Patrick.
“We filmed, edited and mastered in HD,” director and DP co-owner Joone told AVN.com. “For the second disc, we took the footage, encoded it in HD, in Windows Media 9, and it’s going to be able to play back on your PCs. It’s actually the full HD resolution, it’s not an NTSC signal sized up into HD.
“Anybody that has a PC that is 2.5 giga-hertz, which is pretty much a low end PC now, can play it back full screen.”
He said the HD process will make a difference for those who watch only the DVD. “You’ll see two things that you wouldn’t normally see. One is that the color is going to be much richer, closer to film. We also shot 24 frames per second, which is what movies are shot at. So the motion itself is also more like film.”
For Digital Playground, Joone said, Island Fever 3 is only the beginning. Aside from the Jack’s Playground series, all their productions from now on will be shot in HD. They have two more HD movies in the can already. “We’re really not looking back,” he said.
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Joone said he didn’t think Hi Def would be that impressive until he got an HD receiver a year ago, started watching the Discovery Channel and saw how “amazing it was, looking at the most boring programs.” Because they had planned to shoot Island Fever 3 in Tahiti and Bora Bora—“such an amazing place”—he felt he had to shoot in HD.
The switch brought with it a new set of challenges. “It’s a heavier camera,” Joone said, “the tape stock is bigger and you run through it much faster. DV has 60 minutes, but here you’re putting 30 minutes on and the cassettes are bigger. So, especially when you’re traveling, it makes everything that much more difficult.”
But he is convinced that shooting in HD is what he and other adult manufacturers must do. “The thing is,” he said, “that Hollywood shoots on film, so their stuff is ready to go, they just have to transfer it. But if you shoot on video, up-resing it to HD just falls apart. It’s not the same thing.”
He believes that within five years, as new playback systems are developed, the market will be all HD. “And I think the market’s out there,” he said. “Right now, it’s anybody with a PC. Because we’re finding that 40% of the people who buy DVDs watch it on their PCs anyway.”
Island Fever 3 has eight scenes in 90 minutes, including the first girl-girl action between contract stars Jesse and Devon. The scene with Patrick, Joone said, “was one of the last scenes I shot with her. It was not shot in Tahiti, but the way I shot it, it doesn’t look like it doesn’t fit in.”
The DVD extras include a Behind the Scenes that Joone calls “probably the best we’ve ever done,” and audio commentary by Jesse and Devon.
Street date for Island Fever 3 is September 19. For pre-orders, call Sue or Steve at Digital Playground, (818) 376-8488, fax (818) 376-8489.
