Be honest in your appraisal, as we are trying to develop an up-to-date listing useful to distributors in deciding whether to make any 70mm prints. Saying your theatre can properly handle 70mm, and then ruining a print through carelessness or lack of experience will only help kill any rebirth of "The Splendor of 70mm".

As Mickey Rooney said many times in those MGM musicals --- "Hey gang, let's put on a show!"

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
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

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At the Warner theatre I used to volunteer at, there was a set of Norelco AA's. I ran them in 35 and I was getting pretty "handy" when I had to leave for NC. I never really had a chance to run it in 70. There was a few feet of 70mm leader lying around on a reel and I ran that through, just to prove to myself that it worked. It did and I'm convinced that, with some work to get the projectors clean and adjusted properly, a 70mm show could be shown in that theatre just about any time you wanted.

So... for a guy who is willing to try hard enough, how difficult is it to learn... to do right?

That being said, the biggest problem I see with 70mm runs is the techs not setting up the equipment properly. Take for example when Hoffa came out at the Prestonwood in 70mm. The film broke on over 95% of the shows! Some shows had multiple breaks!!! Why? Because the tech did not properly calibrate the timing on the platter and the takeup was oscillating, occasionally slamming the takeup arm into the motor. The stripping rollers were so close together in the brain that every splice the film would stall and as the film pulled taught, frequently the tension would cause it to break. The guide rollers were doing a 90 degree twist over a course of less than 6 inches! For that matter, the rollers weren't even aligned right in the first place, for the film was dragging over the edges of the flanges. Add to that the fact that the gate/trap was TOO TIGHT, and it was one disasterous show after another. I was visiting a friend of mine who was a manager there at the time on opening weekend and witnessed all of these problems in the 15 minutes or so that I was upstairs. The really sad part about it is that a senior tech set it up and had the equipment been set up properly, that film would have never broke.

35/70mm projectors are not just a "flip the rollers and run the film" situation. If we could only get rid of the people who treat it that way, 70mm would not have gotten such a bad reputation. We ran TONS of 70mm film at the Northpark and never had a break the entire time I was there, and we did our own setups. There is no excuse.

I guess I kinda kicked MTS in the butt for quite a while and their work was always really inferior to what I was doing(and still is). I inherited most of the above customers just by word of mouth after a short time. Wisconsin is nice(too cold in the winter for me), but Utah blows it away...no comparison if you are the outdoorsy type like I am.
I came out to Utah on a whim and liked it here so much that I moved out here to be semi retired.....yea, right, now I'm busier than ever and have less time to do what I want to...Oh well.
P.S. I'd love to hear the Union thing going on there. I'm sure that did not sit too well with them.
Mark @ GTS

Plus, most of the general public wouldn't care. I get people, mostly younger, that think all projection is is popping a vhs cassette into a machine.

I for one would love to have a 70mm house, there are
many people that would drive from far away to see it.

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Rivoli Cinema One seats 500 and there are 7 additional theatres in the complex. The building originally opened in 1940. Cinema One has two Bauer U3's so one is converted to 70mm full time which eliminates the biggest trap for the unwary 70mm projectionist - forgetting to convert the entire film path from 35 to 70!!!

The theatre is equipped with Dolby Digital and DTS (the DTS does not have a 70mm reader at this point, we will upgrade it at the first sniff of a DTS -70mm print). Light is 5,000 watt xenon and automation is Pennywise CA 100.

The Rivoli is one of 7 screens on our Australian circuit that can run 70mm. Three can run a print tomorrow, the other four need work (lenses, processor mods etc). Our senior projection staff are the only ones able to operate on 70mm shifts.

For a look at the Rivoli:
http://home.vicnet.net.au/~caths/rivoli.htm

David