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Author Topic: Worst 70mm Presentation EVER of IAMMMMMW Jarod Reddig Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 513 From: Hays, Ks Registered: Jun 2011 posted 12-30-2012 04:39 AM                     I agree Tony. Frank what a shame they messed up that classic!! Union lol. More like Western Union that night. Bill how can you not find IAMMMMW humorous?? It's hilarious!!  |  IP: Logged Jock Blakley Expert Film Handler Posts: 218 From: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Registered: Oct 2011 posted 12-30-2012 05:34 AM                     Huh, when I read of 70mm junk pagoda leader I was expecting something along these lines: We acquired at one point from a collector a 70mm print of THE MISSION that appeared to have, on the head in front of the original leaders, dozens of feet of an original print of KHARTOUM.  |  IP: Logged Rick Raskin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1100 From: Manassas Virginia Registered: Jan 2003 posted 12-30-2012 08:14 AM                     quote: Tony Bandiera Jr The main reasons that Unions have lost projection jobs is because they continually allowed incompetent boobs into booths where they had no business being. I disagree. It was all about money; nothing more. Need a good 70mm operator? I know a few people here who can fill the bill.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 12-30-2012 11:43 AM                        quote: Ben Wales I wonder how many prints they either scratched/marked as the website they are screening Archive Prints as well. Enough for archives to be imposing increasingly strict conditions on letting their prints out, even to venues they've previously dealt with. Like Jim, I am noticing an uptick in requests for help from venues that want to show an archive title but need assistance in complying with their conditions, and archives wanting me to check out venues they haven't previously dealt with, either at all or for a significant length of time. This is only going to get worse as time goes on, and for two reasons. 1 - the manufacture of film stock is declining, and there is going to come a time when 35mm release printing is no longer going to be possible at any price. I suspect this'll be quite soon for colour, though given the much simpler chemistry involved b/w motion picture printing will probably be possible to maintain as a boutique operation, albeit at a very high cost. So archives will be looking at a situation whereby if someone wrecks their print, they simply will not be able to replace it. Therefore, the mindset that most large scale non-profit archives used to have - that the preservation master stays in the vault, but that some risks can be taken with release prints because they can be replaced if necessary - goes out of the window. In the last year I've heard two senior archivists tell me that they now regard prints as physical, primary evidence of how a film looked to its original audience, and now should be treated as master elements. In other words, no projection - they're used only to examine colour balance and gather other information to be used in the creation of digital surrogates. 2 - the infrastructure of film projection is declining, both in terms of the craft skills and spares and maintenance for the hardware. OK - projectors are mechanically simple, but if your CP650 blows a board in 20 years' time... The problem is that this is self-feeding: the more stories we get about sh!tty presentations such as this one, the more programmers and archivists will conclude that however much purists want to preserve the film experience, it's easier, cheaper and less risky just to go digital. And especially now that done properly, a decently transferred and encoded BD, presented with care and on a projector with decent resolution and colour space can give 35mm a run for its money.  |  IP: Logged Louis Bornwasser Film God Posts: 4441 From: prospect ky usa Registered: Mar 2005 posted 12-30-2012 12:28 PM                        Are you telling me that changeover operators with 70mm experience will become like circuit-riding preachers. . . . no, ROCK STARS with Lear jets delivering them from site to site. I want to be the one who writes the contract-with-riders. ("M&Ms with all of the yellow ones removed; Perrier, 5 gallons, 16 White Castles with extra pickle, Mexican Coca Cola, etc") Louis  |  IP: Logged Robert Koch Film Handler Posts: 93 From: Williams Ca USA Registered: Apr 2006 posted 12-30-2012 06:50 PM                     I agree completely with Rick Raskin on the demise of the operators. Money and the corrupt leadership in the international office of the IA were the causes of no more operators charters in the IATSE. Things were better when George E. Browne was president.  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-30-2012 07:21 PM                        Although it sounds like much suckitude was involved, I wonder if there was an opportunity for a test run. Sounds like a crappy print and operators who may have been told to show up an hour before the show in a booth that hadn't run 70mm in a while.  |  IP: Logged Bill Duelly Film Handler Posts: 92 From: Roselle Park, NJ Registered: Feb 2006 posted 12-30-2012 09:50 PM                     For a place like New York, one would expect there to be a wealth of qualified booth personnel. However that is not the case. There are only a smattering of venues that can be considered 'premiere' or 'exceptional' venues. Radio City doesn't run any film shows, Ziegfeld is only for sporadic runs and premieres, which leaves Museum of Modern art, Lincoln Center and a handful of other venues. Bernie Anderson and myself, came over from New Jersey to run the Bryant Park film series last summer (35mm with changeovers in Cinevision's Airstream, a complete booth on wheels). HBO who co-sponsors the series were very impressed with what should be basic showmanship... proper ratios; alignment; tweaking light sources; screen masking; good changeovers; but evidently was lacking in the past. Sad but true, we are a dying breed. Lets face it, the closest a lot of folks have to being a 'projectionist' was to build a print on a platter, thread up, press a button and walk away.  |  IP: Logged Jim Henk Master Film Handler Posts: 364 From: San Diego, CA Registered: Feb 2006 posted 12-30-2012 10:56 PM                     Louis, I'm sorry, but that's not correct. The White Castes should be ordered with *no* pickles!  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 12-31-2012 10:36 PM                     <-- Ready for some rockstar treatment! ...and THANKS for the clarification on the whole "pagoda" business.  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 01-01-2013 05:43 AM                        quote: Martin McCaffery Sounds like a crappy print and operators who may have been told to show up an hour before the show in a booth that hadn't run 70mm in a while. Well, even if you hadn't run a 70mm print for years, do you forget how to adjust focus? BOTH these guys let it play without any attempt to correct soft focus in the CENTE of the screen; and if it were something with the projector gate or whatever that would cause film to buckle, then at LEAST focus the CENTER of the image and let the sides go soft. And btw, this was the SECOND show, not the first; the first show was five days before -- plenty of time to make corrections for this show. So if they didn't have time for a test run, the first show five days before was their "test" run. They should have seen the reels that had DIRT in various areas and one of these two hot-shot union guys should have manually cleaned those areas. When I run classics, I routinely clean the film of big globs of dirt before I go on the screen and otherwise subject an audience to it. In all fairness, someone said this was indeed the "bad" print of the two that were struck. Evidently it was run at the Cinerama Dome to a really pissed audience. Knowing that, MGM sent it to Lincoln Center instead of junking it? Screw Lincoln Center AND MGM.  |  IP: Logged Rick Raskin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1100 From: Manassas Virginia Registered: Jan 2003 posted 01-01-2013 06:34 AM                     Putting everything else aside, there is absolutely no excuse for going on screen out of frame.  |  IP: Logged Paul Linfesty Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1383 From: Bakersfield, CA, USA Registered: Nov 1999 posted 01-01-2013 09:21 AM                     When I saw it at the Dome in 2003 (for the combined 40th anniversary of both film and theatre), the newly struck print was excellent (except for the badly faded credit sequence). The masking was a bit bizarre, curving upward from the center bottom to the sides. They seemed to be determined to get every bit of the UP70 image onscreen, including the lens refractions at top and bottom of frame. There was also no sign of changeover cues (this print was run from a platter so they wouldn't have been needed). However, it was professionally presented as far as light and curtain cues, which seemed properly timed, sound levels were good, etc. Focus was sharp, even with the UP70 lens attachment (suposedly on loan from Panavision). I have given up on 70mm presentations of classic films, however. I saw West Side Story back in 2008 at UCLA's Billy Wilder Theatre in L.A. and the sound was up WAY too loud and very shrilly with bad EQ to the point of being painful and headache inducing. Projection was good (print had allegedly been just struck), but light and curtain cues were messed up for intermission. And the curtains opened halfway through the Entracte. here was actually LEADER seperating the end of the Entracte music and beginning of part 2...how did that happen? And then this past summer I saw SOUTH PACIFIC at the Egyptian Theatre. The sound was also painfully shrill and too loud and the print was filled with small specks of dirt. I left at intermission. And am no longer interested in film prsentations of these classics. It's done.  |  IP: Logged Michael Goucher Film Handler Posts: 34 From: New York, NY USA Registered: Oct 1999 posted 01-01-2013 11:15 AM                        I agree that large-format film is rapidly disappearing. However the Walter Reade spent quite a bit of marketing and publicity money to build up this showing of real 70mm screenings. Fact is, as a New York union person I can vouch for the fact that almost everyone on that crew saw 70mm for the first time when this series of films showed up in the booth. Even their chief projectionist came from a 35mm screening room downtown before it closed so his 70mm experience is minimal, at best. Funny how in that situation, instead of calling on their union for help by sending over a person who had shown 70mm in a Broadway house or elsewhere, they "toughed it out" on the basis of ego and a pay check. This doesn't stain the union at all. It stains the crew and the crew chief for having more ego than brains. One person with experience would have changed the entire picture on IAMMMMW.  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-01-2013 01:52 PM                        Well Frank, if that's the case, you're right (though maybe this should be in the Hey! You Suck string). I find it hard to believe there aren't enough people in NYC who have run 70mm. Admittedly, it has been about 27 years since I have, but I think I could still put on a show. Whoever made the decisions leading up to this screwup really need to be dealt with in a harsh manner.  |  IP: Logged

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