DVD PRODUCER: ANA BARREDO -SWAMPTHING 2 DVD

I conducted this interview with Ana Barredo. She was the DVD producer for the Return Of Swamp Thing DVD. A special thanks to Spencer from Image Entertainment for connecting me with the DVD producer of Swamp Thing.

1) How did get involved with DVDs?
[Ana Barredo] I've been with Image Entertainment since 1993. Prior to working in DVD Production, I was involved with DVDPlanet's marketing department. I moved to Production in 2001 and have been enjoying every minute of it!

2) what other DVDs have you done?
[Ana Barredo] The most notable one so far would probably be The First Nudie Musical Special Edition DVD (where I also make a quick cameo appearance in the feature documentary "From Dollars to Donuts"). I also worked on The Haunted World of Ed Wood, several Hopalong Cassidys, Pinocchio in Outer Space, The Dick Van Dyke Show and a few hundred more! Oh, that's right - I almost forgot: The Return of Swamp Thing! I worked on over 300 DVD titles in the last 2 years.

3) how did you get involved with the return of the swamp thing DVD?
[Ana Barredo] I remember back in the laserdisc days, one of my favorite commentaries was the one Jim Wynorski did for his movie "Dinosaur Island," which coincidentally, was an Image Entertainment laserdisc release. It wasn't only informative (he gave away a lot of secrets on how he kept the budget low on that movie), but it was entertaining as well. So when I found out that we were doing his movie The Return of Swamp Thing, I jumped at the opportunity to work on it.

4) what was it like talk with Director Jim Wynorski about Swamp Thing and his commentary.
[Ana Barredo] Recording an audio commentary with Jim Wynorski is great! He's such an engaging man with tons of fun anecdotes. So the commentary track for The Return of Swamp Thing, as you would expect, is not like other commentaries that sound like something being read out of a script. Jim takes a more casual approach as if he's in your living room talking about the movie with a beer. I suppose he inspired me when we recorded our commentary for my own movie A Real Job. Although I think we took the "movie with a beer" a step further by actually doing our commentary...um, shall we say... in good "spirits."

5) I was surprise by the additon of DD 5.1 and DTS on the dvd? it was very nice.. since it was originally annouced that it would only be mono.
[Ana Barredo] When we heard how good the Mono soundtrack sounded, we decided that it was worth doing it in DD 5.1 and DTS. It seems like the perfect movie to receive the treatment: lots of action sequences and huge explosions.

6) I know that some people have problems playing the DTS, will there be another release with the correct info?
[Ana Barredo] The DTS track on the DVD was flagged by the authoring system as a PCM stereo track, though the DTS datastream is intact and decodes properly on DTS equipment. The end result is a DVD encoded in the manner of the DTS Laserdiscs and DTS CDs, with PCM flagged DTS datastreams. Systems properly configured with DTS compatible DVD players and DTS receivers/processors will playback the DTS audio track seamlessly. Systems lacking either a DTS DVD player or a DTS receiver (or with the DTS output setting set to "off" in the DVD players set-up menu), will generate noise through the speakers if the DTS audio is selected. If the user is hearing noise through the speakers, this is an indication that the system isn't capable (or isn't set up properly) of playing back DTS audio tracks in general.

A new master has been created with the proper DTS flag on the datastream. This flag prohibits a non-DTS audio system from generating the noise through the speakers if a user improperly selects the DTS audio track. This corrected version is available for replacement by contacting Image's customer service department.

RETURN OF SWAMP THING