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As for the second projector, the only good closeup I could find quickly was when they were moving it to the Arena for the summer. The upper magazine was removed, so there was no nameplate. Sorry for the blur, the cart was moving across the screen as the camera was zooming. "La Lettera" at 1:29:12.

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Here, lifted from IMDB are some of the dvd details:

Aspect Ratio(s): Widescreen anamorphic - 1.66:1

A new one on me. I didn't know there is such a thing as widescreen anamorphic @1.66! Guess I've been a Wetired Lunatic too long. <g>

Discographic Information:
DVD Encoding: Region 1
Layers: Single
Available Audio Tracks:
Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo), Italian
(Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), English (Dubbed) (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)

Available subtitles: English, Spanish, French, Italian

This has been on my list of dvds to acquire but if a full director's cut reissue is pending I'll hold and wait for the dvd of that. I think dvd's are generally quite overpriced considering the cost of mfg. one is less than a vhs tape; but it might be just a matter of being patient and waiting as I expect the coming imploding collapse of the economy [caused by the doubling/tripling + of winter heating bills wiping out all discretionary spending capabilities of millions of families -- i.e. the utility bills gobble up ALL of the money] will bring most dvd prices down to 1/2 or less of what they are now.

In the early days of pre-recorded VHS tapes the prices were astronomical and the quality abysmal. Collectors like myself building huge libraries quickly learned that pristine tapes could be had by recording direct off-satellite to good blank stock, such as Maxell HGX-Gold; and so I have only a tiny handful of commercial VHS tapes.

As an aside, DVD players are selling like hotcakes in Billings due to the carmike cinemas disaster. Like drugs, the word around is "Just Say NO -- Don't Go!!!" Our local costco outlet which offers highly competitive dvd prices with no "shipping" add-ons, is hard pressed to keep recent titles in stock and video rental stores with growing dvd libraries are quite busy. I can't understand how DirecTV thinks a payperview price of $3.99 can possibly compete with 3-day dvd @$2.97; plus you can run off a tape. People do this all the time and swap tapes around; a VHS blank film is under a dollar. PPV on cable is $5 a pop. [!]

Well, they can all do whatever they want on the dvd prices, this consumer won't be buying. Not a necessity of life, you know! As always, Greed has to work its way thru the system.

Besides pay-per-view, a limited-length window, competition for dvd is in the 35 or so movie channels on satellite which more or less are mostly showing reruns of all the same recent features. There's more variety on the old-movie channels.

The studios eventually discovered with vhs tapes that after the quality was improved and prices drastically reduced, sales went up dramatically. The same will happen with dvd. And those with the technical expertise CAN dub them to vhs very successfully right now.

Ignoring yet another problem, do we really want to? The critics are saying the last year has produced the worst crop of movies in decades. Amen!

I was surprised to hear my french teacher tell me recently that all English films are dubbed into French in France. Ditto for Italy where the dubbing is of a very high standard.

Unfortunately I can't say I have ever seen a film where the dubbing into English was very good. In fact the efforts I have seen & heard thus far have put me off dubbing completely. I think the problem is that the outfits that do the dubbing do so on a shoestring budget. (Note however that most foreign films I watch are comedies). To cut costs they have one person do several voices and as you would guess the soundtrack ends of sounding like a whole series of 'funny voices' a la Mel Blanc. If Mel Blanc had been doing the dubbing the soundtrack might have been tolerable however the results are just dreadful. One might almost be tempted to say that Hollywood deliberately destroys the soundtrack to ensure that the film is not commercially successful.

THese days I will not watch a dubbed film or video. I insist on subtitles which is the only way to guarantee that some cut price editing company has not destroyed the film.

Incidentally I would be interested to hear how American audiences view foreign films. Is there much interest these days? I understand that in the 70s interest in foreign films was much higher than at present which is a shame as the French in particular do make many good films. La Cage Aux Folles is still one of my favourite films.

Here's hoping we see a resurgence in interest in good european films but pleeeeeez ... no dubbing ok?

cheers Peter

The one cinema I know of in the UK which still regularly projects nitrate (the National Film and Television Archive's preview theatre) has a limit of 1,000ft reels and will split 'doubles' if necessary. The National Film Theatre used to, but I was recently told that they had to remove their fire-resistant spoolboxes in order to fit digital sound readers.

I agree, 6000 feet of nitrate in one roll is asking for disaster.

------------------
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 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

Something I used to do occasionally to teach people of the dangers of nitrate was unwind a length from an old junk reel and stretch it out across a parking lot area with a rock on each end, then light one end: whooooooosh!

Very Frightening. John P -- have you ever done a demo like this?

As to nitrate projection, it may be reasonably safe IF in good condition, IF the projector has a water-cooled gate, IF there is a heat shield between the lamphouse & the proj, and IF the light source is somewhat low intensity like under 1KW. A lot of IF's but a little preview screening room would meet them.

I worry about the UCLA archive's print of Phantom/Opera of 1943, it really shouldn't be projected any more but used for a television master / new internegative / and otherwise held in retirement. Irreplaceable.

I say opening the door is what spread the fire. The way I understand thing is that if he left the door shut the fire would burn itself out in a while. Sure the projector would be trashed but the fire wouldn't have spread, or at least it might have been kept down to a "containable" level.

Anyway, if it hadn't been for that there wouldn't be a whole 2nd half of the movie, would there?

Remember what Joe Schmidt said: "...trying to fight the fire -- which should NEVER be attempted. (Let it burn, drop the fire shutters and GET OUT)." Losing a roll of film or damaging the equipment isn't worth risking your life or that of the audience.

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