'The Shield: The Complete Series Collection' has recently been announced on DVD but not Blu-ray. Our friends at TV Shows on DVD looked further into the matter, and found confirmation from a
Twitter post by show creator Shawn Ryan that the studio considers that the film stock the series was shot on is "of insufficient quality to put out on Blu-ray."
The TV-centric site elaborates, "it does make sense and seem appropriate, though, that the 16mm film stock wouldn't translate to a good-enough high-def picture. And, while we're sure that a number of tech-savvy fans of the series already knew that, it's still good to have it out there from the studio, for everyone else who may not be as clued-in on the technical front of things. There are a number of other shows that this would also apply to (the first two seasons of Buffy, for example), so it's certainly worth bringing up from time to time."
Far from us to proclaim ourselves tech-savvy or second-guess anyone, least of all the industry or the media, but in the face of the above some factual, objective clarifications need to be made: firstly, 16mm-sourced BDs exist already, both for movies and TV series; and secondly, many users and reviewers consider its picture more than deserving for high-definition.
'The Shield' was shot on the variant of 16mm called Super 16. The Super 16 frame has an exposed area of 0.493 by 0.292 inches, that is, less than half the surface of a 35mm film frame. Image resolution is thus lower and film grain more prevalent, especially when blown up to a big-size screen. Our older readers will remember the 110 photographic format so popular in the 1970s and 1980s and whose tiny negative size caused enlargements to often be grainy and fuzzy. This is roughly the same problem with 16mm cinema.
However, film experts consider that the resolution in a 16mm frame, even undoubtedly lower than that of 35mm, is far greater than standard definition and thus benefits from a high-definition transfer. This has been borne out by real-life examples of actual releases.
The closest example to 'The Shield' available in Blu-ray, as regards cinematography and general look, would be Darren Aronofsky's '
The Wrestler'. Like 'The Shield', it was shot on Super 16 (cropped further to 2.35:1), with a gritty documentary style, using natural light whenever possible and with handheld cameras. The movie's cinematographer, Maryse Alberti commented: “The decision to shoot The Wrestler in Super 16 mm format was partially based on a modest budget, but mainly it's a bit of an edgier look that we felt was right.”
So much so that when 'The Wrestler' opened theatrically, one of our fellow forum members deemed it fit to open a thread to warn others that the movie was "extremely grainy", in anticipation of the complaints when it came out on BD, insisting that was “how the movie was in the theater and that's how it's supposed to look.” Had the movie not been received critical accolades and multiple awards, maybe it wouldn't have been deemed worthy of a Blu-ray release.
However, when 'The Wrestler' came out on Blu-ray, our reviewer Martin Liebman gave it 4.5 stars for video, labeling it an “impressive” transfer and considered it “generally exceptional in the context of the film's intended visual presentation.” He praised the color and detail reproduction, and concluded that “overall, The Wrestler looks fantastic on Blu-ray, serving as yet another disc that isn't clean and clear but recreates the director-intended look of the film very well, making it a first-class presentation.”
Several other films shot wholly or partially on 16mm have been released on Blu-ray, often to positive reception, such as '
This Is Spinal Tap', '
U2: Rattle and Hum', '
28 Weeks Later', '
Babel' (Morocco section), '
Hustle & Flow', '
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre' and '
Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music'. More movies shot in that format are coming up, including '
Clerks' and '
Chasing Amy' in November.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, the studio which is releasing 'The Shield' on DVD, is itself not totally averse to releasing 16mm content on BD: in August 2008 it released the movie '
The Counterfeiters', which was shot on Super 16.
Regarding television series, a fine example of how to treat 16mm right is '
Pride and Prejudice', which got 5 stars for video in its Blu-ray.com review by Svet Atanasov. HBO's '
Generation Kill' is another example. To be fair, another 16mm title, '
Burn Notice: Season 2', got a less than positive review, partly because of issues unrelated to the film stock. Also coming up in November is '
Scrubs: The Complete Eighth Season', which is shot on Super 16, albeit on a slower, more finely-grained film stock. 'Scrubs' cinematographer John Inwood recalled that initially “some people were claiming that the picture quality that you render on film in Super 16 format wasn't sufficient to air in HD format,” but, he adds, “Larry Fields and I tested the show in HD and found it not only held up, but it looked terrific.”
In summary, as we said at the beginning, there is quite a bit of 16mm content on BD, and by and large it is worthy of release on high-definition. And that's not even considering the improvement in sound quality from upgrading to a lossless audio track. Now, studios are totally free to decide what to release on Blu-ray for any reasons technical or commercial. But not because 16mm is not good enough.
Hopefully all of the above facts will sufficiently clarify the issue.
Update: Generation Kill added. Thanks to "mrbobtherubberrat".