Due for a DVD release on 7th November, Universal Pictures Australia and Dreamworks called all around Australia to invite DVD Websites & Magazines to Sydney on the 9th and 10th of October, for a Sneak Peak at their upcoming DVD for SHREK.

"Lotus Notes? Bloatus Goats!"
The week prior to the presentation I was sitting at my desk when I heard a rather Crusty Laugh, indicating I had new mail.
As I mutli-tasked my way to Lotus Notes (I know I know :) I saw a new message from Cathy Gallager of Tracy Mair Publicity (they Handle Universal's PR work) .  well actually I didn't see the e-mail at first, but that's the nature of Lotus Notes you see. First, It makes a NOISE letting you know you have a new message, and when you flickover to NOTES it then SAYS you have a message, but it won't DISPLAY the new message header until you hit F9 or click the blue circly arrow thingy in the top left of the window!!! (and sometimes, when it says you have mail..you click the blue circly arrow thingy, and you don't have any mail...Lotus Notes can be such a tease like that.....)

"For a Speedy Response, please put "DVD" in the e-mail header"
So anyway, it turned out to be a message from Cathy with a header of SHREK DVD.  (I'm very excited at this point, sadly any header containing "DVD" does this to me..pathetic I know, but it's true)
I opened the e-mail and read the first few lines and thought "oh yeah great it's in Sydney I'm in Bris-vegas just the sorta thing I luv to hear about!"  THEN it suddenly dawned on me what I had actually read right over!  "universal would like to fly you down to attend"  HUH?  NO!  that can't be right!  No, They're serious!   .................As I picked myself up off the floor I immediately ran to my boss and ask him if I could take the day off to attend.  "sure no problem' he says... WOO HOO I'm off to Sydney to suss out the SHREK DVD!!!

"The Big Little Sleep"
I called up Cass and gave her the details, and even though she wouldn't be finishing her night shift until 6am THAT morning, she's more than keep to come along, even on just a few hours sleep!

...

"A Grand Day Out"
In order to allow all participants the best looksee at SHREK on DVD, Universal held presentations on the hour for the two days, with each presentation running only about 45 minutes or so. 

Cass and I attended a Wednesday session with great expectations and enthusiasm for the DVD that lay ahead.

To Show-off the SHREK DVD (and I mean that in the boldest way possible) was Cheryl Glenn, an executive of Dreamworks USA.  Cheryl has been with Dreamworks for several years, having come from Disney the eight years prior, so found Animation of any kind in no way foreign when it came to SHREK.

"I'll Buy that for a Dollar"
Not being too familiar with the Sydney Landscape, Cass and I left with plenty of time to spare, and ended up arriving over half and hour early (thank god we parked on the street... how do you Sydney people put up with those exceedingly high parking prices!!)  

So we sat in the very funky looking waiting area and Cathy Gallager sat down with us for a bit of a chat (having been on her feet since the wee hours of the morning getting all this PR who-har organised) .   I'd never met Cathy before, having only communicated via e-mail and phone (being in Bris-Vegas), so it was nice to finally put a name to the face..and there were a few more faces to finally see on this rather special day

"First floor VHS, Second Floor SHREK DVD"
Come 11 O'clock, Cathy lead us me down into the depths of Universal's Office and into a pokey little room with a rather large Rear Projection Television.  BUT it wasn't the big TV that first caught my eyes, rather the several cases of SHREK DVDs strategically on the table!! SCORE!!!  Sadly not, for these cases were empty of any shiny gold discs :((  (I'm sure everyone at Universal is still laughing over that ever so cruel trick they played on us all!  :)

"It's the Muppet Show, with our very Special Guests.....'
in additional Cheryl, a couple of other Universal-ians were also in attendance for the SHREK DVD Presentation.
Michael Snow, DVD Manager  (who I bug on a regular basis to get all the skinny on upcoming Universal DVDs), made an appearance, as did Liz Nicholson, Marketing Manager, (and ex-Village Roadshow veteran)

"Waiting...waiting....waiting "
There were 4 people scheduled for our group, 2 were still MIA (something about a DVD Pub Crawl or something..I dunno :). 
While we waited to actually SEE the SHREK DVD, for what ended up being near half an hour, the floor was ours and so the questions began.  At first I though...do I ask about DTS?   HELL YES!!!!

"This DVD Doesn't Present Digital Theatre Sound"
"Um Cheryl, Why don't we have a DTS track on our SHREK DVD?"
Cheryl's response was "curiously" most similar to the response I had received a few weeks earlier and posted on 27th September Editorial
After the somewhat expected response I said something along the lines of "quite a few people I have spoken to are very disappointed at a lack of DTS on our region 4 release and have decided to go for the region 1 version". 
Cass then piped in with "yes I am too!!!"...... and at the exact moment as Cass is about to stare right down the barrel of a loaded gun from Cheryl, Mike and Liz, she continues her slowly projected sentence with "just so I can compare the region 1 to region 4" ....phew.......she was lucky the safety catch was on that one!. ..... and the response back is "that's be great as we'd we'd to know what you find"
(ed. please realise that I am flowering the tone of this up to make it seem a little more interesting folks..all goings-on was of the constructive nature from all parties..there was absolutely no nastiness from anyone at the presentation...seriously..all good peoples :)

So while on the topic of DTS, I ask if ANY Dreamworks DVDs will come with DTS, given so many USA Dreamworks DVDs get a DTS tracks, and if I remember correctly it was something along the lines of "it's being looked at" or some other "political line" :((

We then go onto stats about DTS, how many people are interested in it, how many HAVE it, etc, etc.  I pointed out that lots of a people are willing to import certain DVDs that aren't available with DTS in OZ and that there IS in fact a market, one that seems to be growing rather rapidly. It's one feature that is constantly requested on Amps and Receivers, even though there is considerably less DTS software in OZ than Dolby.   And Roadshow who are an independent distributor with NO "studio muscle" as such as willing to release DTS DVDS to OZ AND ONLY for the OZ marketplace. 

"CEL...CEL...CEL"
Slowly but surely the topic of DTS is dropped in favour of Animation.  We all get to talking about the difference between your "disney" style animation, and the Pixar Style Animation. [ed Dreamworks use their own company called PDI for CGI style animation].   With Cheryl's background in Disney animation of now CGI with Dreamworks, she's ever so knowledgeable in this area and the conversation goes on for quite a bit.

"I would have called to say I was running late but......"
Once we'd dried up THAT topic, waiting for the Tardy 2-some, Cheryl clicks on her laptop screen and FINALLY :) activates the SHREK DVD..  At THAT very moment the door opens up and the Tardy 2-some enter.  (they shall remain nameless to protect the innocence....but they know who they are!  :)

"How, Now, Brown, Cow"
To date I haven't found a single DVD-Rom feature on a DVD movie disc that is worth more than a single passover, and I'm sure many have found the same thing.  

WELL BE PREPARED TO EAT THOSE WORDS for the SHREK REVOICE STUDIO is the single most impressive DVD-ROM Feature I've ever seen!!!!!

What's on Offer here is actually quite revolutionary.  The SHREK REVOICE Studio contains 12 SHREK Movie Segments and YOU get to REVOICE EVERY character within those segments!!!! 
All you need is a DVD-ROM with PC microphone capabilities to say the words said by the characters onscreen.  Once you've recorded your lines the passage is voice analysed using an ADR utility to Sync up YOUR VOICE to the characters lip movements!!  For the purpose of our WAY too brief demo :( we all sampled the passage where Donkey has followed SHREK back to his swamp (a little after the "tic-tac" line).
All Seven of us in the room got to speak a line from the movie, and ALL of us were nothing short of embarrassed as hell at the thought of doing this....initially :)  Cheryl went first and upon instant replay (with HER voice over Donkey's), EVERYONE's jaws dropped in amazement!   However this ADR utility works it should be introduced to some of those cheap-ass studios who do sloppy ADR sync on REAL movies!!  this is one VERY impressive tool. 

One by one we all recorded a line from the movie.  As luck would have it, I got the LONGEST frick'n passage to speak and it took several goes to get it right.  I mean it was reeeeelly long.
Everyone took their turn, Cheryl then pressed the "Go" button and the magic began..... After we all pick ourselves up off the floor we came to the consensus that the SHREK REVOICE STUDIO kicks ass and DVD Owners will probably want to play with this feature more than watching the actual movie (and I bet anything that DVD-ROM sales will SORE with the release of SHREK on DVD)

As disappointed as I am that Universal/Dreamworks have taken the DTS-less path with our DVD, I can assure you that this region 4 DVD (coming from a digital to digital transfer for the picture) is reference quality from Start to finish. 

Phantom Menace watch out 'cause here comes SHREK!!!

A very big thanks to Universal/Dreamworks for the most impressive presentation and for the treatment they bestowed upon this lowly DVD website editor to get me down to Sydney for this one [special] event...Oh and Cass says a special thanks to Cathy for swiping a few of those SHREK mouse mats for us :) 

Matt.G
DVDown Under.