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This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3
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Author
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Topic: The Advanced Projection Manual
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Michael Schaffer
"Where is the
Boardwalk Hotel?"
Posts: 4143
From: Boston, MA
Registered: Apr 2002
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posted 10-03-2007 03:36 PM
quote: Leo Enticknap
If you look at the typical range of books published by, say, Focal Press or Routledge on technical topics (which also sell comparatively short print runs, of usually well under a thousand copies), you'll see that almost all titles are also available in paperback and that the prices rarely exceed £20 (35 euros or $40). And these are produced by for-profit publishers! FIAF is supposed to be a non-profit professional body and advocacy organisation, and so either they're raking in a big profit on book sales or their production practices are inefficient. Their costs will be slightly higher than those of the big publishers, but not that much. My point is that the price is high enough to deter people who are interested but not that interested from buying it, or who simply don't earn enough to be able to spend nearly $100 on a book.
I agree that the book achieves a lot of very good things, and covers aspects of projection installation, operation and training which no similar manual published in the last 30 years does. But the coverage is too patchy (something which could have been addressed by consulting with archive technicians and access officers more than I suspect the author did) and contains too many unsubstantiated opinions for me to consider it definitive or the last word.
Like Oliver said, there is no "complete" and "definitive" book about anything, that's why we typically have several books about any given subject. We don't have that many about cinema technology and history of cinema technology though, so I would think that any well researched publication, however "complete" or not, should be highly welcome.
If you feel there are gaps that need to be closed, then it's time for you to write your own book, Dr. Leo! When is the publishing date? ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
I don't understand the fuss about the price either. This is obviously the result of many years of research, $40, $50, $80, who cares? I will gladly spend the money for all the information contained in the book. Especially since no one else offers an alternative to it.
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Stephen Furley
Film God
Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002
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posted 10-03-2007 03:59 PM
quote: Leo Enticknap
Some issues are covered in great depth, while others are brushed over or just aren't there. For example there's a big chapter on 3-D projection and short-lived sound formats which even rep projectionists are unlikely to ever encounter (e.g. 70mm CDS), but nothing whatsoever on nitrate projection.
To be honest, there are probably no more cinemas that are still able to project nitrate prints than there are ones that could run 70mm DTS; I suspect that quite a few of the CDS systems are still in store, and could be got to work again if needed. Very few cinemas could run nitrate, and very few projectionists will ever run a nitrate print again. Maybe they thought it was so unlikely that a cinema would have to deal with it that it wasn't worth including. Or maybe they thought that any projectionist working at a venue that still ran nitrate would already have been properly trained in handling it.
A section on how to recognise a nitrate print would not have been out of place though. Just out of interest, is anybody here still able, i.e. equipped and licenced, to run nitrate? There was something in recent 'Cinema Technology' magazine about running it at the NFT, so it looks like they still can, but that was only a few minutes which was run at a special event; I've no idea when they last ran a complete nitrate feature. One of the preview theatres at the NFTVA could still run it the last time I was there, but that's not open to the public of course. The last time I saw a nitrate print at any other public cinema was at the old news theatre at Victoria station, on it's closing night; I think that was in about 1982.
Is this book available in the UK, or can it be ordered from GEH for delivery here? It sounds like it would be worth having a copy on the shelf.
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 10-03-2007 04:59 PM
quote: Michael Schaffer
If you feel there are gaps that need to be closed, then it's time for you to write your own book, Dr. Leo! When is the publishing date?
Just over two years ago - and yours for only $24!
quote: Michael Schaffer
I will gladly spend the money for all the information contained in the book. Especially since no one else offers an alternative to it.
You're right in that there is no direct alternative. For one thing, the potential market is probably too small to support one. The Projection and Presentation Group within AMIA did consider producing an archival projection guide a couple of years ago, but when we heard that FIAF had a similar project already underway, decided that there'd be no point in reinventing the wheel. What we're trying to do instead is to develop a set of materials (e.g. Powerpoints, film print samples to handle and project, etc.) to support a 'live' training day, which could be offered anywhere that can provide a suitable venue and someone to deliver the training. The idea would be to pitch it at projectionists who know the basics but no more than that, e.g. someone who has worked for a year or two in a multiplex but is about to change jobs to a single-screen arthouse which runs legacy formats and changeovers. At a projection workshop we held at last week's conference there was a lot of support for the idea, and we hope to pick up on the development work over the coming weeks.
quote: Stephen Furley
Is this book available in the UK, or can it be ordered from GEH for delivery here? It sounds like it would be worth having a copy on the shelf.
You can also buy it directly from the publishers, FIAF in Brussels: but given that the dollar is weaker than the euro relative to the pound, it would probably be cheaper to order it from GEH, regardless of shipping costs (though that having been said, it's a big and heavy book - around a kilo I'd guess).
AFAIK, NFT2 is still licensed to run nitrate, and occasionally does so.
I seem to remember that the price issue came up before in relation to BKSTS membership. Michael is right: a hard core of true enthusiasts who have a real stake in the book/organisation/resource will buy it, whatever the cost. But surely the point of a project like this is to extend knowledge to people who might not be motivated to buy something at abnormally high prices (relative to those of equivalent products), rather than just preach to the converted? What will almost certainly happen here is that many of us will buy it, as will major archives and rep/arthouse cinemas. It tells us very little that we don't know already, but we want it out of curiosity and professional interest. However, many people who could potentially benefit from it in terms of finding out things they don't know already will probably never set eyes on a copy. For a small, independent theatre which shows the occasional print in a non-standard format and needs to be told that (for example), early sound ratio films shouldn't be projected in Academy, $80 is a lot for what they might see as a non-essential item.
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Stephen Furley
Film God
Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002
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posted 10-03-2007 05:32 PM
Looks like I need to order two books, though the $80 one will have to wait until next pay day.
This year I have been given responsibility for certain aspects of the telephone system at work, something like 500 extensions, about 40% of them IP, the rest analogue. My last experience with such things was with mechanical Strowger equipment, many years ago, so I bought a book. There don't seem to be any on the system we have, Mitel 3300, so I had to get a general one. It's a proper bound paperback book, but I was surprised to find that it was digitally printed direct from the computer, avoiding the need to make litho plates, and set up the press. I don't know how common this is for short run books now.
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 10-04-2007 01:36 AM
quote: Stephen Furley
It's a proper bound paperback book, but I was surprised to find that it was digitally printed direct from the computer, avoiding the need to make litho plates, and set up the press. I don't know how common this is for short run books now.
I've noticed that this is starting to come in. Earlier this year I bought Read and Mayer's Restoration of Motion Picture Film for £30 from an Amazon sub-retailer which said that the book was 'printed direct to order'. The cover was a slightly different shade of red to that of the copy in the university library (I know, how sad can I be to notice such things?), suggesting to me that this was certainly a different print run. When it first came out the book cost over £100. It's an excellent book - as with the Advanced Projection Manual, there's nothing else on the market which explains the nuts-and-bolts process of a major photochemical feature film restoration, with lots of technical information and detailed case studies. But its original price was far more than I could afford. Hopefully as this technology becomes more widespread it should make short-run books more widespread (just as, for example, CD-Rs have enabled local bands to publish their own albums) and, copyright issues notwithstanding, make it possible to bring out-of-print but in demand books back into circulation. For example, if it was possible to do a reprinting of Cornwell-Clyne's Colour Cinematography, you could probably sell 100 copies tomorrow, but not much more than that. With conventional printing and binding technology the sums simply don't add up, but hopefully 'print on demand' might make this sort of thing possible.
quote: Frank Angel
Bottom line -- future generations may get to see our film heritage only as good as a HD-DVD or Blu-Ray disc can reproduce.
In the long term you're probably right. Once the big theatre chains go digital the economies of scale of print film manufacture will start to tip over, and then the writing really is on the wall for film. But I suspect that there'll be a very long tail, especially for archives which are sitting on vast collections of 16mm and 35mm viewing prints. Digitising this material to d-cinema quality is time consuming and expensive if done right, and even if Moore's Law brings the price of hardware right down, you'll still need a properly trained colourist doing the grading/timing. In the meantime these prints continue to be sent out to rep cinemas, film societies, universities etc., and will do for the foreseeable future. My guess is that film projection in these places will continue for a long time after it's effectively gone from the high street or the multiplex.
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