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Author Topic: Going out to a film reminds me why I much prefer to stay in Aaron Sisemore Flaming Ribs beat Reeses Peanut Butter Cups any day! Posts: 3061 From: Rockwall TX USA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 01-28-2003 10:10 PM                     quote: This is why I spend so much time making my home entertainment system work well. This is why I spend hours tweaking sound levels in the 6.1 surround-sound system. I'll bet that this -head makes sure that there is dialogue audible in all the speakers. Even on Woody Allen films. -Aaron  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-28-2003 10:20 PM                     Years ago at the infamous "eatons Centre" rearscreen megashitplex the ernaman 9's were 50Hz machines ruinning on the infamous transdominar 3 phase inverters Often when we had 4 in the morning show for the drunks or people looking for a place to sleepthe last part went throuh at about 48fps  |  IP: Logged Jesse Skeen Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1517 From: Sacramento, CA Registered: Aug 2000 posted 01-28-2003 11:42 PM                     Parts of that do sound exaggerated, but sad to say, a few times I've paid to go to a movie during the past year I've been out of the theatre business, I've often wished I was at home instead. I have a 5.1 sound system at home (and yes, if I'm playing a movie with a mono soundtrack, there's only sound from the center channel) so problems with sound at the theatre is unacceptable. While analog CAN sound good, if you're charging $8.75 per ticket, the digital soundtrack should be playing if there is one, and if you've only got analog, it damn well better be as perfect as possible! I attempted to see Minority Report at a UA theatre and the show started in analog mono. (They were at least equipped for analog stereo, but nobody bothered to check the sound format when starting the show.) I thought they'd at least notice by the time the trailers were over, but 5 minutes into the movie when I realized they weren't going to fix it anytime soon, I walked out and into another movie that was starting (Men in Black). I waited to see Minority Report on DVD. While the picture should ALWAYS beat video, even that's not always the case- I sat through Ice Age misframed, with black space on the top and part of the bottom cut off. I already had to have someone adjust the framing during the trailers; I guess they threaded it so far out of frame the framing knob would not let them get it properly centered. I bought the DVD and haven't watched it yet, but will probably enjoy it more even on my pathetic 4x3 screen. Throwing people out (or making them want to leave) during the end credits is totally uncalled for- I can see the need to turn the lights up enough to see for the lawsuit-happy folk, but turning them up to full level and/or turning on the janitor lights, and then having staff noisily clean up for the next show (I'm not going to be there for the next show, so why should I care if it's clean then?) is inexcusable. Also, if you're going to have the lights come up, don't put visible cue tape on the film! Nothing like having a slow fade-out with some flashes of black thrown in! Might has well have the shadow of someone's hand visible while they manually turn the lights up! Someone on another forum bragged that they actually stopped the show during the credits, unthreaded the projector and manually wound the rest of the film through! I do have to fault the writer for spending $100 per month on DirecTV though- constant logos on most of the channels there is unacceptable, and HBO shows movies in pan and scan and sometimes cuts into the end credits with show promos. Still, it IS possible to have a presentation at home that can come come close to a good theatrical presentation, and certainly exceed a bad one. This is always what I kept in mind when working in the projection booth- the theatre isn't the only way for people to see movies, so you'd better give them a good reason to keep coming. Also keep in mind that some people might only go to the theatre every few months or so, so even ONE bad experience is going to make a big impression (the show described could have happened at a theatre I worked at, but he could have gone on my day off when some ass was running things instead.) If you're at the theatre practically every day, you should know how things are supposed to be and keep it that way. (If a technical problem occurs that you have no control over, let the customers know you're sorry, and see that it doesn't happen again when they come back!) If all booth operators thought that way, articles like that would not be written. My living room probably has a dirtier floor than some theatres do though  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 01-29-2003 12:04 AM                        Gangs of New Yorks' credits do not roll. They flash on and off. But the article said that the U2 song sounded sped up. I wanna know what was goin' on!  |  IP: Logged Ray Derrick Master Film Handler Posts: 310 From: Sydney, Australia Registered: Sep 2001 posted 01-29-2003 04:13 AM                     Let's face it. This guy is desperate to justify spending half his yearly wage on his home theatre equipment and no doubt an equally horrific amount on the innane purchase of hundreds of DVD titles. OF COURSE his movie going experience was going to be lousy! I'll bet you pounds to peanuts if he had gone to the best cinema presentation in town it would STILL have been a lousy experience for him. Big screen and big sound that the most elaborate home theatre system can't even approach... naah, he doesn't need that. Just a video projector (with those annoying black bars top and bottom on the scope stuff), 5.1 channels to fiddle with to his heart's content, AND his home made popcorn, and this guy's in paradise. Forget him, you haven't got a hope with this kind of home-theatre-wacko.  |  IP: Logged Matt Close Expert Film Handler Posts: 226 From: Hervey Bay, QLD, Australia Registered: Sep 2001 posted 01-29-2003 07:44 AM                        Perhaps someone could e-mail this 'tool' , and ask him to explain this seemingly tall tale to us.  |  IP: Logged Andrew Duggan Expert Film Handler Posts: 127 From: Albany, NY, USA Registered: Jun 2002 posted 01-29-2003 10:28 AM                        Joe is definitely right about the U2 song being recorded a lot louder than the rest of the film. I don't know if Scorsese sits in on all of the sound mixing or what, but I've noticed a lot of very mismatched volume levels in almost all of his films. In Goodfellas, I remember some of Ray Liottas voice overs being *absurdly* loud compared to the rest of the dialogue. But when I watched it last night, loud as it may have been, the song didn't sound distorted to me. Shrug.  |  IP: Logged Mitchell Dvoskin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1869 From: West Milford, NJ, USA Registered: Jan 2001 posted 01-29-2003 11:18 AM                     I wonder if the end credits could have been chopped up, either as the result of an "accident" or by an unethical projectionist to make the film end sooner. That, to someone not familiar with film, could appear as "speeded up credits", and may also explain the sound problems. /Mitchell  |  IP: Logged Thomas Procyk Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1842 From: Royal Palm Beach, FL, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 01-29-2003 12:50 PM                     quote: so when the narrator sounded like Darth Vader on Quaaludes, Hmmm. I've had this problem with Dolby Digital before. Sometimes the error rate will be fluttering between 7-8-F and it will kick back from SR to SRD, causing the distorted digital info to be played back. We had CP-65's and penthouse readers. This happened on a used print of Titanic we received. (Theater opened in May 98) One of the reels had this problem with the SRD track and Kate Winslet sounded like she was using one of those voice boxes for your throat!! The sound would skip at this part too, which may explain why the author said the end was "sped up" (that, or they had a tail wrap and cut out footage.) =TMP=  |  IP: Logged Darryl Spicer Film God Posts: 3250 From: Lexington, KY, USA Registered: Dec 2000 posted 01-29-2003 10:42 PM                    That perticular machine could have a sound drum going out. THat can cause a drag in the sound. Scratches in the picture too. It also can cause the sound to go out of synce on a simplex because the film will loop out causing about a two to three frame sync change.  |  IP: Logged Greg Mueller Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1687 From: Port Gamble, WA Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-30-2003 11:03 AM                        While I understand the dissection of this guy's critique, I think the real problem is being over looked, and I have heard these same complaints before. I myself have complained when the teenage girls come in to clean up and and are yelling (chit chat) across the theater to each other while I am watching the credits. In fact I shushed one and got a terrible dirty look for doing so. I wrote in and complained. The bottom line I hear is people not wanting to put up with people. Added to that the management doesn't seem to really care much about the customers enjoyment of the film going experience. A lot of the complaints I've heard are about people bringing kids or worse babies who make noise. Others are cell phones, people talking, kicking seats, farting and a host of obnoxious things that tells me that either manners are not being taught by parents or manners are being ignored by a lot of people. If there is something technically wrong with the presentation, that can and should be fixed. But the problem of "the obnoxious public" is something that is very hard to fix. However unless the public is happy with being cooped up with other members of their community for a couple of hours, they will avoid doing so, technical problems aside. Of course this means that there will be no customers and then there will be no theaters and home entertainment centers will be the exhibition medium of choice/necessity in the future. The real question is.... What to do about rude people??????  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 01-30-2003 11:23 AM                        Greg has it right. There are *many* things that can have a negative impact on the moviegoing experience. Technical problems are just one area. To me, the worst thing is rude patrons. Have you ever had this happen? You get your seats, and 5 mins. later someone sits behind you and puts their feet up on the back of the seat right next to you. Now in your peripheral vision you have a pair of dirty shoes moving around, maybe getting ready to accidentally kick you in the head. But when everything is right and "magic" happens, there's nothing like experiencing a good film, with a crowd, in a real theatre. "Magic" still happens sometimes.  |  IP: Logged Andrew Duggan Expert Film Handler Posts: 127 From: Albany, NY, USA Registered: Jun 2002 posted 01-30-2003 12:11 PM                        quote: What to do about rude people?????? I feel like if I started to blurt out some of the things I feel like doing to rude people during movies, while in a public forum like this, I'd probably find myself being put on some kind of "potential threat" list at FBI Headquarters  |  IP: Logged Michael Brown Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1522 From: Bradford, England Registered: May 2001 posted 02-14-2003 08:49 AM                     I was reading the movie news groups the other day. There is someone on there saying that they saw GONY projected at 25fps instead of 24fps.  |  IP: Logged Michael Schaffer "Where is the Boardwalk Hotel?" Posts: 4143 From: Boston, MA Registered: Apr 2002 posted 02-14-2003 09:14 AM                        The difference between 24fps and 25fps would make the sound less than 1/8 tone higher. That is a nunance which most people couldn`t hear even in direct comparison. A digital system already on the verge of nervous breakdown due to bad reader alignment or a scratched soundtrack could have additional problems with 25fps. But my guess is that what this guy experienced was that the digital sound did not come on at all and he heard the first part of the film in analogue. The analogue components had probably not been aligned in years, causing the bad dialogue because of the level difference between Lt and Rt. When he complained, somebody pushed the digital button and the problem went away. As to the speeding up of the credits, we do not know what he experienced. The way he exaggerates everything makes it impossible to get a clear idea of the problem. Maybe he just thought it was sped up. Somebody who says he spent hours tweaking his 6.1 system does not seem to have any judgement of audio quality. Otherwise, you need just a couple of minutes to set up a home system properly. Or maybe 1/2h, when you equalise it too.  |  IP: Logged

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