|
|
This topic comprises 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5
|
|
Author
|
Topic: Distrib Getting Rid of (repertory) Prints
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Brian Guckian
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 594
From: Dublin, Ireland
Registered: Apr 2003
|
posted 02-24-2010 05:31 AM
There are troubling legal aspects to this development.
A cinema patron is entitled to expect a certain level of quality when they purchase a ticket to a show, and it would be easy to argue in court that domestic SD-DVDs do not provide that.
Even if a DVD screening is advertised clearly as such, and even if the admission price is reduced, that may not cut it in a court of law.
It could also be argued that Blu-Ray is not an acceptable theatrical presentation format - again in a purely legal context, and where expert industry testimony is called upon.
Cinemas showing DVDs may be unwittingly leaving themselves open to legal actions, either by customers or by consumer rights groups.
Conversely from the legal standpoint, there is also the issue of precedent: it could now be argued that, from evidence in the field, SD-DVD or Blu-Ray are becoming "accepted" theatrical presentation formats.
Thus, why continue general theatrical distribution and exhibition of 35mm prints and 2K or 4K digital files?
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
|
posted 02-24-2010 11:53 AM
I had a DVD freeze and wouldn't go past the freeze point no matter what I did. It was a full house of kids and parents watching HAUNTED MANSION. Swank sticks a little note in their DVD case saying to play the disc thru before the show because, hey, you are still paying $250 for it, but no guarantee this thing we sent you will actually work. I did that; it played perfectly in preview -- froze anyway at the show. Inspection showed not a speck or scratch on the surface.
From that point on, I refuse to do a show without two DVDs running in sync like Bill does. All you need do is experience a freeze or worse, a crash where you can't finish the show and that will be the last time you run without a backup ever going or trust a digital machine again. At least with a film projector (or two of them like I have in all the places I work) there isn't much that can happen to that strip of celudoid or mechanical machine that you can't fix and finish a show. But that DVD player with a disc spinning inside (that you can't even see) -- you push a button and from there on out till the last bite, are just at it's mercy. If it stutters or freezes, you sit there like a fool pushing that freakin PLAY button on that remote till your fingers bleed.
I was running DVD last summer in the park where we get about 6000 people for a show and I am in a open booth where they can pretty much see me. I told the producers that I wanted THREE DVDs running and a switcher that could select any one of them. They made me settle for only two, but even then I was a nervous wreck, sitting there for two hours with my finger on the switcher button.
Just last night I was at Regal's "Movies at Sheapshead Bay" Brooklyn. There were lots of very angry people in the lobby and one guy was on his cell -- so naturally I was forced to hear the conversation as if he were speaking to me -- seems that the digital show of SHUTTER ISLAND had to be shut down because it turned into STUTTER Island and they had to refund tickets. He wasn't a happy pup. I sighed to myself, "Ah...digital," hoping nothing would go wrong in the LIE-MAX theatre where I was going.
| IP: Logged
|
|
Scott Norwood
Film God
Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99
|
posted 02-24-2010 12:14 PM
My worst DVD experience was with the Academy Shorts program a year or two ago. The DVD stopped abruptly mid-show and had to be re-started from the beginning. The DVD player did not have a counter and required that I fast forward to approximately where it had failed (fortunately, I had been watching the screen) with the video projector doused and sound muted.
jhawk can confirm this one (he was at the screening).
More commonly, it is difficult with most consumer players to not show the on-screen "play" image at show start without also clipping the opening fade-in of the feature. Some of them will also re-start the menu immediately after the program ends, leaving almost no time to mute the sound and douse the video projector.
The other major issue with video is that picture quality can be all over the place. A Blu-ray played on a D-cinema projector can look and sound amazing. And I really hate to say that, but it is true. On the other hand, a DVD played through a composite video connection to a consumer-grade video projector that is too dim for the screen size can be perfectly miserable. And, even if the screening is advertised as "shown on video," how can prospective patrons know what to expect?
In any case, a decent player (the Denon DN-V210 and -V310 are good choices), scaler, and video projector, along with a backup copy of the disk running a few seconds behind (as mentioned above), will go a long way to making DVDs look watchable on the big screen.
I would be curious to know what the directors of these non-available films would have to say about any of this. I cannot imagine that they would be particuarly happy.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jonathan Smith
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 201
From: Youngstown, OH
Registered: Jan 2010
|
posted 03-01-2010 11:49 AM
quote: Joshua Waaland
I know a few guys in that local and from everything that I have heard, it is barely scraping by and is only a hollow shell of what it once was.
Who do you know? I assure you we are still alive and kicking, despite losing Cleveland Cinemas and the artist currently known as "Atlas" (which is apparantly almost as dead as their late owner).
The Akron Union is dead, absorbed, I believe, by the stagehands union there. They were kicked out of most booths there in the mid-'90s.
Local #160 (Cleveland branch of IATSE) has:
AMC Theatres shared booth
Some Regals shared booth
Some Cinemarks shared booth
All "General Cinemas" (Detroit and Parma theatres) Union only booth
OMNIMAX Theatre Great Lakes Science Center Union Booth
And that new theatre that opened up on the East side is either shared or union only; I know they had to scrap a bunch of digital projectors at several theatres formerly Carmikes helping out the Pittsburgh branch of IATSE.
So there is still plenty of well-paying union work out there. Frankly with the DLP conversion stalling, unions are on the upswing these days because a lot of chains whose names shall remain unmentioned have been neglecting their equipment for 3 years and it is catching up with them.
Unfinished booths, no spare parts, inadequately trained projectionists, and improper projector servicing come back to bite you in the ass sooner or later. . .
Anyway, IDK why my comments about where most prints go was deleted. I don't condone movie piracy or theft myself, but I know plenty of people who have purchased 35mm prints of major motion pictures which were about to be thrown in a dumpster instead.
Does it make sense to throw out thousands of dollars worth of film instead of giving it to a good home? When distributors are now sending DVDs, the standard is lowered so much that it makes sense for SOMEONE to hold onto 35mm, not to make money off of it illegally, but for the poor archivists who are going to talk about what a stupid generation this was, 100 years hence, when all the F-in movies are lost. This current generation is like in the silent film years with improperly archived nitrate (and no forthought to the invention of television), because all the 2K digital intermediate master files and edit decision lists (EDLs) are probably going to get lost eventually, because they won't be properly backed up. ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
All times are Central (GMT -6:00)
|
This topic comprises 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5
|
Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM
6.3.1.2
The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion
and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.
|
Home
Printer-friendly view of this topic