Cop on the Edge IX: 10th Anniversary Edition DVD

One of things I always regreted as a kid is the lack of technology that we have today when it comes to filmmaking. I was a very creative child (at least, I thought so) and would spend days working on small video projects with my mates using my dad’s VHSC video camera.

VHSC, for those who are too young to remember, was a smaller version of VHS… VHS, for those who are too young to remember, was a tape based system we used to put in video recorders! The quality of the VHSC camcorder wasn’t great, and when it came to editing films together I was forced to use my parents’ twin deck VHS recorder – the height of technology once upon a time.

The results were fairly varied, as you couldn’t exactly mark-in with frame accuracy, and the start of each cut was greeted with a choppy bit of picture as the VHS rolled into action.

Not so nowadays of course. Now we have CDs, DVD recorders, Blu-Ray and digital editing software such as Avid and Premier. You can make broadcast quality movies from the comfort of your own bedroom with a little imagination, and some high spec kit.

Well, with that in mind my good friend, and co-collaborator on one of more ambitious projects, Eddie Keaton, spent a good many hours locked in his room at his computer mastering a DVD version of our film Cop on the Edge IX: Prelude to Justice. He used DVD authoring software to create the menus, the interactive video sequences and even added some hidden ‘Easter eggs’ for people to find. Then, using CD and DVD replication software he authored the DVDs to the standard that you can see above.

The result was glorious, even complete with a director commentary track which, as with all of the best commentaries, was recorded while drunk. Anyone who’s listened to one involving John Carpenter and Kurt Russell will know what I mean there.

Here’s to Cop on the Edge, and to technology… if only it had been invented 15 years earlier.

Darren Jamieson

Darren has enjoyed an interest in film for many years, studying the subject at Newport Film School where he worked on the film ‘Cop on the Edge IX: Prelude to Justice‘ in a directing and acting capacity. The official site can be enjoyed here. Darren setup WhatDVD.Net in 2003 to further his love of films and to write passionately about the movies he enjoys, and about those that he doesn’t.

Although his day-to-day activities mean that he now has less time to review movies than he would ideally prefer, he still tries to review new releases, and DVDs from his extensive collection, whenever possible.
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