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Topic: When was the last day 35 MM was run in your building?
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Peter Howard
Film Handler
Posts: 44
From: Forster, NSW, Australia
Registered: Dec 2005
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posted 12-02-2011 10:53 PM
We've got 5 screens and 2 are digital & 3D equipped, but we've only done that for the occasional time when there's actually a title in 3D that's worth playing in 3D.... around 90% of the time we're still using the 35mm in those auditoriums and have no intention of changing that in the near future.
We're completely tooled up and ready to go digital on a few weeks notice when 'D-Day' actually does roll around. We have the GDC servers boxed up in a corner ready to go, have the digital projector bases, the cards for the CP500's, and much of the wiring is complete. But until the time comes when a distributor actually cans 35mm - and according to all of them that's still at least 18 months away - we'll continue to play 35mm unless I have a particular reason to play something in digital.
Why? 35mm's cheaper to run, by far. Period. 4000+ hrs out of a UXL25SC versus 700 hours from a digital bulb that costs twice as much. We actually did the math on this and it was about 4 times more expensive per hour to run the NEC NC2000C versus the Simplex Millenium. And labor savings are massively overstated given our other screens are still solely 35mm and thus i've still got to have a projectionist onsite.... at the moment when we've got a mix of formats, digital doesnt make much sense. I forsee than even when full digital in a few years we're still going to need a guy upstairs overseeing everything because a booth isnt just a digital projector. ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
Cant see us going full digital until the distributors force us to.
quote: Jonathan Goeldner
may be a broken record on this subject but I find it interesting that some theaters that can playback both 35mm and digital content, favor and book the former
Cost per screening? 3D's not getting the bums on seats, and 2K flat isnt enough of a marketing hook to justify the expense of digital projection over 35mm. Plus I cant move the 'film' to another screen when the audience starts to die off in my digitally-equipped large auditoriums.
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Jim Cassedy
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1661
From: San Francisco, CA
Registered: Dec 2006
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posted 12-06-2011 10:21 AM
I really think the name of this thread should be changed to:
"When is the last day you expect to still have a job?"
Seriously.
How much longer do you think 'the bean counters' will be
willing to pay your salary once they realize that some 16
year old pimple-faced pencil necked geek kid working for
minimum wage (or a very talented monkey) can do your job
lot cheaper than you're willing to work for?
I've said from the very begining that this 'push-to digital
is primarily being motivated by digital equpment manufacturers
and vendors and fueled by a certain amount of coroprate greed
by the big theater chains and the studios/distributors.
Their ultimate goal is to cut costs and at the same time eliminate competition by smaller business operators.
Don't tell me how much "better" digital is. As has been
pointed out in earlier posts, 99.9% of the public is
clueless about if a show originates from digital or film.
For one thing, younger audiences, which have been victims of
the 'digital dumbing down' of America, are now quite used to
watching low res, compressed, murky-jerky images on their
i-phones anyway. They've become accustomed to lousy images.
The 'digital soloution' is a resposnse to a problem that just
doesn't exist. It's not in any way a 'market driven' event.
I can't EVER recall a customer asking "Gee, when are you
guys going to put in a digital system."
I RARELY get complaints about (film) picture or sound
issues unless something is REALLY out of whack.
(Which of course, only happens on my night off, since
my relief projectionst is a bit unclear on the concepts
of focusing and framing)and I hear about it the next day.
Yet hardly a week goes by that someone dosn't complain about
the preceived high cost of concessions or admissions, or the
amount of butter or lack of it on the popcorn, or that the
movie they just sat through sucked because 'there's no
more creativity in Hollywood" (digital won't solve that!)
or mabye they think it's a little too hot or two cold in one
of the auditoriums- - but nobody givesacrap about how the
picture on the screen gets there.
At the risk of repeating myself (which I will) -
The 'digital' people are in this only to line their own
pockets and put the last of the people who have some
sense of presentation skills out of work. Those who remain,
for the most part, will wind up making minimum wage, or not
much above that. It's already happened when platters were
introduced in the 1970's and it will happen again.
Take a look at almost any advertisment for the digital presentation systems. Alomst all of them say, in one way or
another, that one of the 'benefits' of installing their
equipment is that it will eliminate the need for any skilled
(ie: well paid) labor in the booth. (and in some cases it
will even eliminate the "booth" as we know it, entirely!)
I'm telling ya- there ought to be a big anti-trust or
conspiracy lawsuit to stop this assualt on the small
theater owners of America. If this were any other
buisness, there would be lawsuits galore by now.
Instead f wasting time "occupying" Wall Street or Oakland,
we should all be marching down & occupying Hollywood,or at
least the corporate offices of the major distributors.
This nonsense has got to stop.
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Edward Havens
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 614
From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: Mar 2008
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posted 12-06-2011 10:51 AM
When I was managing the Beverly Center during its final year of operation, I had a number of customers ask me if and when we were getting digital projection, and we saw a sharp increase in business when we did install our first digital projector... even though we were essentially a second run house at the time. Seeing the response from customers when we presented Avatar in 3D at lower-than-market ticket prices, when everyone else in town had moved on to Alice in Wonderland, really showed me the value of digital for second run. Lower ticket prices no longer had to mean lower quality presentations, and it was such a blessing not have to carefully store a bunch of 35mm prints when we ran the After Dark Horrorfest. All eight movies were able to fit on the server with a good 20% space to spare.
Yes, you can lament the loss of film all your want. And yes, I know the loss of film means a loss of jobs to many on this forum. And yes, that is a sad thing to me. But here is my question... so many of you have been aware for years this transition was going to be happening. Why allow yourselves to become obsolete? Why not get the training to be able to transition from a 35mm tech master to a digital tech master? I don't know what Christie and Barco and Dolby pay their house techs, but it certainly has to be better than no paycheck at all, and I would love to have techs with the passion of many on this board in my building should I ever have an issue.
I applaude Brad and the others who saw the writing on the wall and got proactive in making sure they were ahead of the curve. My wife and I plan on opening our own theatre in my old hometown somewhere down the line, and I can assure Brad once that happens, I am going to call on him for a Film-Tech Digital Cinema System. I just hope more studios see the value of converting their repertory titles to DCP the way Sony has, as I hope Sony ramps up their digitizing of their back catalog.
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Ramon Lamarca Marques
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 186
From: Edgware, England, UK
Registered: Feb 2006
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posted 12-06-2011 04:22 PM
quote: Edward Havens
I just hope more studios see the value of converting their repertory titles to DCP the way Sony has, as I hope Sony ramps up their digitizing of their back catalog.
Regarding repertoire, this is a tricky area. There are many people like myself who only like to see those films on film. It is going to be an increasingly rarer activity to see classic films on film but I personally find it a very pleasurable experience. Yesterday I saw a nitrate dye transfer print of Cobra Woman. It is one of the worst films I have ever seen but to see the beauty of a nitrate dye transfer prints is worth the price of admission. The black levels were amazing, and the colours had (obviously) nothing electronic about them. I left the cinema thinking that I will not see such amazing black levels until the next dye transfer print. Certainly DLP is nowhere near those levels. If anything, I assume repertoire screenings will lose audiences by phasing out film since it will not bring in more customers but many people like myself will not go if film is not shown (I refer to classic titles). As to the DCPs… studios are realising that many repertoire cinemas are getting away showing Blu-rays and even DVDs and therefore why bother and spend more money producing DCPs of classic titles? Many repertoire cinemas are themselves saying that there is no noticeable difference between Blu-ray and a 2K DCP.
It would be great if all those people with expertise in the film-tech world could get together and try to work out a business plan for classic titles presented on film. A mixture of a skilled hobby and a business. My hunger for motion pictures is often satiated at home, with more access to movies than ever. However, my hunger for projected film is not satiated at home or with a digital projection. For that I need traditional film projection.
As it has been said here before, probably and sadly, it is not the same to keep a niche market for LPs than to keep a niche market for film prints.
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