Did you forward the hundreds of death threats toward Jar Jar to George so he can give him a lengthy, bloody and painful death in Episode 2? If Jar Jar's screen time had've been devoted to Darth Maul fighting, the movie would've doubled it's profits.

(A fellow Jar Jar must die fan.)

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At what point in the production (or post-production) process is a film selected for the 1-800-PHONE-THX thing? It seems it would have to be before the closing credits are shot. So why wasn't there enough time to put the notice on X-MEN?

Who decides whether a film is part of the program? Does the studio approach THX? Does someone like Gary Rydstrom lobby for it after he's worked (or consulted) on a film? Does the studio have to pay a big fee for the service? Is it a one-time fee or a per-inquiry fee or is it based on how many prints are struck? Or does THX share the cost because, after all, you're trying to build a database of which theatres are the best for your own purposes, right?

It always puzzles me when a big, important release from a given studio isn't part of 1-800-PHONE-THX and then, sometimes, some really insignificant, box office bombs are part of it instead.

Just curious.

Joe and Scott are right: Good theaters need to be rewarded, just like bad theaters need to die with Jar-Jar!

Ted, would it be a good (or bad) idea to put guidelines on what to look for on the THX/TAP web site, so inexperienced people "know" a good theater from a bad?

Scott and Joe,

Are you recruiting new TAP Evaluators? I'm sure you have a pool of willing (and able) recruits here on Film-Tech.

Another idea would be to allow Film-Tech folks to enter data into the on-line TAP evaluation form whenever they see a TAP-participating movie in another theatre. No compensation needed (although I DO like the checks with Yoda on them). You'd get lots of unbiased, technical evaluations. (Not that anyone here would ever deliberately down-rate the competition).

BTW, I've been doing TAP evaluations for almost 15 years. And I'm TOUGH!

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com

So ya wanna know about TAP, huh?

I'll try to cover what I can without being too preachy...

Regarding PHONE THX... A legitimate complaint by definition is a complaint that has the information we need to do an adequate follow up on the complaint. If it has the following, it is legitimate: The date / the time of the show / the auditorium number / the Theatre's name / the city and state / and we only take complaints that deal with picture or sound, we do not follow up on operations unless it is a saftey issue.

And do we pass on compliments?... on PHONE THX we have gotten two. And to be honest, we were a little perplexed. They both came on EP1 presentations, and amidst the other 3000 plus calls, they went the way of the Jar Jar haters. Delete. Unfortuanately, this situation is a lot like those "how's my driving, call 1-800-yada yada", how many times do they get called about a guy who made a nice right turn...? It does say on the PHONE THX end credit, "If you experienced anything that detracted from the theatrical presentation of this film..."

However, we do Theatre Evaluations for some Exhibitors and Distributors, and our reports are sent to the client and the theatre circuit... hopefully, the circuit managers will pass on the good reports and not just the bad ones. Ask your manager to forward the TAP report, if your theatre ever uses us, to you. You may find it interesting how in depth we go in reporting a theatre's presentation of a film. I must say, we are out there to help improve the presentation as best we can, because it doesn't matter how much $$$ are spent on special effects if nobody can see them. The way the film is shown is the last and most important link in the chain, and as Rick McCallum, Producer of EP1, says, "Once theatre owners lose sight of the value of a good presentation, they will lose their audience."

In the future, we may add a section to the PHONE THX end credit that says, "If you think the presentation really kicked ass, tip your projectionist."

John Walsh: Regarding a *minimum* standard for every theatre, well, we're close... If you can get your hands on the NATO Enclyclodedia of Exhibition, the one coming out this September, 2000, we (TAP) have a section called "TAP Recommended Guidelines for Quality Presentations" which is, according to TAP, a minimum standard for exhibition. It's a 15 page document, updated to today's SMPTE, ASHRAE, and AES standards, and includes two important, bold new statements by TAP...

1) All motion picture theatres should be equipped to properly reproduce at least one type of digital audio. Yep, digital sound in all theatres.

2) Digital Cinema Presentations: Although the SMPTE Engineering Groups are coming up with standards for digital cinema presentations currently, we at THX, have put together two pages (of the 15) of Guidelines based on the Digital Cinema presentations we have been a direct part of: EP1, Titan A.E., and we have evaluated all the Disney Digital Cinema presentations to date.

We are going to add the TAP Guidelines to our TAP section of the THX web site, along with the corresponding SMPTE reference material by ShoEast 2000... as well as much more. Check it out, soon.

Greg Anderson: The decision to include the PHONE THX end credit must be made before the end credits are locked... in the case of the X-MEN, the trigger was pulled a bit too late. And the end credit is an additional TAP service, and thusly costs money, that's why it is not on every title out there. If a Studio cares enough about quality, they hire us... Lab QA, Theatre Evaluations, Director's letter mailing and hotline, and / or PHONE THX end credit service. You can pick and choose, and most of the time we only work on the big titles... for instance, three of the five Best Picture Oscar nominees were full TAP service pictures.

Joe Redifer: Aren't you the guy who made that projection video with all the funky effects? Wearing a THX hat, I might add? We were contemplating doing a TAP Top Ten Theatre distinction, because I agree, good presentations should be rewarded... Give me a little time, and I'll think of something.

And if you are a projectionist in Rochester, New York, watch out! Mr. Pytlak brings his white gloves to do his evaluations, and he doesn't mess around.

Best to all,

Ted Costas
Manager, THX Theatre Alignment Program

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So you think John Pytlak is tough, eh? Have you not checked the reports I did for TAP? I didn't think anyone else would be quite so brutal as I am. You should send both of us to a screening without either of us knowing the other will be there and see who finds the most defects!

My only beef with the TAP system (and I'm talking about actually sending in TAP evaluators) is it is always done on the first show...before the theater has much of a chance to screw up their print! Right about now is the ideal time to be evaluating "Gladiator" prints. Send John out to evaluate ours! I dare him to find something wrong. (John, feel free to stay for 2 performances of it...just to make sure.)

I understand that distributors like immediate feedback from TAP on opening day. But I agree with Brad that evaluating presentation quality later in the run is very useful. Having a print look like new after months of running should be the norm, not the exception.

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And yes, THX theatres have to uphold the THX Standards or risk being de-certified, yet other theatres risk losing their audience by putting on sub-standard presentations. We at TAP submit our reports to the Distributors and Exhibitors that hire us, but how they use this information is up to them. In the old days, the TAP Evaluator was told to "flog" the theatre manager if there were glaring presentation problems, but the Lucas Legal Team quickly changed that policy.

In a nutshell, if we do an Evaluation of a sub-standard theatre, we can follow up with the management about correcting problems, and send out a "bad report" on their theatre, but unfortunately, we cannot shut them down... only the audience can do that.

Best to all,