Favourites of the Oscars 2015

The awards night Hollywood waits for is over for another year and the Oscar winners have been announced. At Video2Dvd Transfers, we love film, and so we are going to take you through the favourites of this year’s Academy Awards.

The Theory of Everything (2014)

This dramatic interpretation of the life of Stephen Hawking (played by Eddie Redmayne) was well received by critics, and was rewarded at the Oscars. Directed by James Marsh, the film portrays the relationship between Hawking and Jane Wilde, as well as Hawking’s struggle with motor neurone disease throughout his life.

The film received a total of five nominations on top of its award, including Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (Felicity Jones as Jane Wilde), Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay and Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score.

Oscars Won:

  • Best Actor – Eddie Redmayne

Birdman (2014)

Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s comedy did very well at the Oscars, taking away four awards. The all-star cast portrayed the story of a washed-up actor who battles his demons in order to recover his family, his career and himself before the opening of a Broadway show. The film gets its name from the superhero the actor once played, who overtook his personal and artistic identity and compromised his career by middle age.

The film won four Oscars on top of five other nominations, including Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (Michael Keaton), Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (Edward Norton), Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role (Emma Stone), Best Achievement in Sound Mixing and Best Achievement in Sound Editing.

Oscars Won:

  • Best Motion Picture of the Year
  • Best Achievement in Directing
  • Best Writing, Original Screenplay
  • Best Achievement in Cinematography

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

The heavily artistic and quirky adventure film, directed by Wes Anderson, also did very well at the Academy Awards, securing four Oscars out of nine nominations. The film depicts the story of Gustave H, the concierge at the Grand Budapest Hotel in the Republic of Zubrowka, and lobby boy and friend Zero. The film is set in the period between the First and Second World Wars, and offers the perfect balance of humour, whimsy and drama.

The film received a total of nine nominations, including Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Achievement for Directing, Best Achievement for Cinematography, Best Achievement in Film Editing and Best Writing, Original Screenplay.

Oscars Won:

  • Best Achievement in Costume Design
  • Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling
  • Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score
  • Best Achievement in Production Design

Whiplash (2014)

Damien Chazelle’s drama tells the story of a promising young drummer who seeks the respect of his abusive instructor, who will stop at nothing to get his students to reach their full potential. The film is based on Chazelle’s own experiences in the Princeton High School Studio Band, and has received wide critical acclaim.

Whiplash won three awards from five nominations, including Best Motion Picture of the Year and Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay.

Oscars Won:

  • Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (J.K. Simmons)
  • Best Achievement in Film Editing
  • Best Achievement in Sound Mixing

Boyhood (2014)

This film, directed by Richard Linklater, received a lot of hype; mainly due to the fact that it was filmed with the same cast over a period of twelve years. Boyhood shows the story of growing up through the eyes of a boy named Mason, who genuinely grows up on screen before our eyes. Following the protagonist from the age of 5 to 18, the film captures the most poignant moments of childhood and adolescence in a way that is completely unprecedented on the big screen.

The film disappointingly only received one award out of a total of six nominations, including Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Achievement in Directing, Best Writing, Original Screenplay and Best Achievement in Film Editing.

Oscars Won:

  • Best Actress in a Supporting Role – Patricia Arquette

These films were the most popular and the most critically acclaimed of the past year, leading them to win the most coveted awards in Hollywood. However, here at Video2Dvd Transfers, we believe that all film is worth watching, and we treat your home movies just as we would the year’s biggest blockbuster. We offer a wide range of services, including betamax to DVD transfers, and can help you to bring your home videos back to life. For more information, contact us today or order via our website.

Set Helical Scan to Stun: Transferring Videos in Real Time

When copying DVD files on to DVD or digital formats, you can just transfer them to the format without too much hassle. Just because you’ve created a four-hour epic of Sheila and Pete’s wedding day, the transfer won’t actually take four hours to complete. The files are all digital anyway, right? So while the transfer may take a while, it won’t be real-time.

But let’s say you’ve got that awesome home movie recorded on VHS – then we’re dealing with the real-time factor. And suddenly going through that four-hour marathon of romance and memories can become a serious chore.

 

There’s a reason that converting VHS to DVD happens in real-time, and it’s all down to the helical scan – which sort of sounds like a gadget aboard to Starship Enterprise. The helical scan is the method with which images are recorded onto the magnetic film inside a video-tape. Fun fact of the day, pub quiz fans, VHS originally stood for Vertical Helical Scan before being changed to Video Home System.

So what happens? Well, when you pop your video inside the player, the tape’s taken from the cassette and wound past the read/write head. That’s where the magic happens, and the images on screen are recorded to the tape. The head produces a magnetic field which correspond to the signal being recorded, and as the tape passes along it, that magnetic signal is printed to the tape.

 

And although there have been digital applications used in the helical scan process, these formats need a far higher bandwidth – which means the tape would have to run super-fast to even capture anything, and that’d require a ton of tape. But it works perfectly for analogue tech like video-tapes.

Another fun fact, helical means spiral. Y’know, like a helix. And that’s the clue to how it all works inside.  The tape is drawn from one reel, rotated around a tilted drum head at a speed of almost 6m/s, and deposited on to the other reel, completed with shiny new images.

This doesn’t just happen when recording, but also playing the footage back. The magnetic tape needs to be spun around the scanner in order to show the picture on the strip. And that’s why converting VHS to DVD happens in real-time.

So if you fancy getting your videos transferred on to DVD, and don’t want to hassle of sitting through those awesome epics you’ve recorded, why not let the professionals do it for you. Here at Video 2 DVD Transfers we’ve had years of experience creating the perfect transfer system. For more information about what we do, how we do it, and how we can help you preserve your memories, simply contact us on 0800 592 433 and our experienced team will be delighted to help.