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Author Topic: Avatar's Aspect Ratio Craziness John Wilson Film God Posts: 5438 From: Sydney, Australia. Registered: Dec 1999 posted 12-14-2009 03:58 PM                     quote: Joe Redifer Oh I thought it was a recent movie. You've never seen 'Bachelor Party'?  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 12-14-2009 05:26 PM                     Ya, 1984 .. MANN took a nice cut from the studios for use of their location .. I think (if my memory served me correctly since I was working for MANN at the time), that location was in Simi Valley which was built in 1978. Think it was a 10 plex that was dolled up to be that 36plex. (They loved ORC consoles with V5's and ORC platters there..and opaque tape usage) MANN was big in the red/white striped concession area, the gold chandeliers over the boxoffice,the white walls with blue trim and the checkered carpet back then in the late 70's and mid 80's.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 12-14-2009 06:16 PM                        WTF is "ghost busted"? I understand that this has something to do with the image ghosting in each eye, but WTF? John, I've never even heard of it. Is it a John Belushi movie or something? Sounds like it would be.  |  IP: Logged John Wilson Film God Posts: 5438 From: Sydney, Australia. Registered: Dec 1999 posted 12-14-2009 06:20 PM                     It was a Tom Hanks comedy...remember them? One of my guilty pleasures and a lot of fun. Put it on your list, Joe. "Jesus! Look at my TITS!"  |  IP: Logged Julio Roberto Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 938 From: Madrid, Madrid, Spain Registered: Oct 2008 posted 12-14-2009 07:22 PM                    Joe, Ghostbusting is the digital way to try to avoid the problems Bachelor Party had with 3-D in '84 http://www.strimoo.com/video/14895882/Bachelor-Party-Best-3D-Dailymotion.html  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 12-14-2009 07:43 PM                        It was a 3D movie? Crazy. Yeah, it's been a long time since Tom Hanks did a comedy.  |  IP: Logged Dennis Benjamin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1445 From: Denton, MD Registered: Feb 2002 posted 12-14-2009 07:44 PM                        Whoa! I am stating to notice a very bad trend in the exhibition industry. Since when did the theatre chains start dictating this kind of stuff to the film companies? Oh yeah, it's been a while now. I HATE UP AND DOWN MASKING.When I am sitting in a theatre and the screen GETS SMALLER for the feature film. I think it's good that people seeing AVATAR won't notice the screen getting smaller, so they won't complain. HOWEVER, I think it SUCKS that it came to this. I am glad my theatre doesn't have up and down masking. But I bet my next location will.  |  IP: Logged Jonathan Althaus Master Film Handler Posts: 435 From: Bedford, TX Registered: Dec 2008 posted 12-14-2009 07:50 PM                     If only the preshow was in the same format as the feature, then more people wouldn't notice the viewable portion of the screen was smaller than the entire screen. I've heard rumors that this is in the works.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 12-14-2009 07:58 PM                        quote: Dennis Benjamin I bet my next location will. Probably, about 90% of newer locations (re: built in the last decade or so) seem to.  |  IP: Logged John Wilson Film God Posts: 5438 From: Sydney, Australia. Registered: Dec 1999 posted 12-14-2009 08:11 PM                     quote: Joe Redifer It was a 3D movie? No, it wasn't. It just had that scene inside a 3D auditorium showing that movie.  |  IP: Logged John Walsh Film God Posts: 2490 From: Connecticut, USA, Earth, Milky Way Registered: Oct 1999 posted 12-14-2009 08:45 PM                     I just don't share this hate of adjustable top masking. It's certainly not ideal, but it gives you the largest possible screen for each format. Does it make sense to have a flat picture with unused 'black' all around it? Let's go after the people who run with fixed 2:1 ratio first!  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 12-14-2009 09:09 PM                        If you want the largest possible screen image for each format, then you will ALWAYS have top/scissor masking because the width will always need to go wall to wall. But like Brad said, from a composition standpoint it's not that simple.  |  IP: Logged Dennis Benjamin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1445 From: Denton, MD Registered: Feb 2002 posted 12-14-2009 09:10 PM                        John, I've been lucky enough to have never managed a theatre that has top and bottom masking. I've helped open a few. I understand that the purpose of this is so the audience is able to see the whole scope picture as the director intended. Much like the widescreen format on DVDS. So I get why it's there and I understand it's purpose. The flip side of this is the reason theatre chains do this - because the auditorium is not wide enough to accomodate the proper aspect ratio without changing the height of the picture. It is always a huge let down when the height of the picture changes right when the projectionist hits the start button. Especially when it causes the picture to literally be smaller. Kinda like watching a widescreen DVD on the 'ole square box TVs (Thank God they are going away). I hope you were able to understand my point.  |  IP: Logged Mike Croaro Master Film Handler Posts: 394 From: Millbrae, CA Registered: Apr 2005 posted 12-14-2009 10:38 PM                     ...."Does it make sense to have a flat picture with unused 'black' all around it?" I much enjoy this. The picture has the appearance of "floating" in mid air and there is no stray light illuminating the side walls. Mike  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 12-14-2009 11:19 PM                        Waaaaay back when I worked at the Greenwood Plaza 12, all of our automations commanded the masking to reset to flat in each auditorium after each show. We did not have any kind of pre-show at all, not even slide projectors (though those were added eventually). The problem was that our 6 small screens used scissor masking. So I programmed the automations in the small auditoriums never to switch masking unless it was specifically told to. The large houses I left alone in this regard because I liked seeing the screen get wider. However on the large houses I did add a MUTE command during the lens change because otherwise you'd listen to leader as it switched. We used the Strong BCA-10 barcode automations which were a lot better than the normal UA barcode stuff (with the exception of lacking a "lights mid" button on the panel).  |  IP: Logged

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