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Author Topic: D-VHS vs Blu-ray DVD....? Duncan Smith Film Handler Posts: 50 From: England Registered: Jan 2003 posted 05-13-2003 12:51 PM                     Hi Steve, I think John's right (as always ), if the xenon is too bright when lining up the light on screen when for example I change the lamp, it does have a more perceptable flicker (I'm not telling you this like you don't know, merely stating that I have observed it myself). Interestingly, the last cinema I work at used to do a lot of silent film at speeds as low as 14fps. They have Vic 8's there and 3 bladed shutters to increase the flicker rate. The silent films looked a lot better for it but the standard 24fps and sometimes 25fps looked a lot smoother. If I could get hold of a 3 bladed shutter for my projectors I would, it's worth it despite the light loss. I only run my 1600watt xenons on a low amperage as it is. See ya, Duncan.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 05-14-2003 02:51 AM                        Out of interest, what were you running at 14? I know that some purists believe that Griffith films should be run very slowly in places, because Billy Bitzer was a notorious undercranker - Kevin Brownlow's video restoration of The Birth of a Nation has some shots running as slowly as 11fps. But apart from that I don't know of anything that was intended to be run slower than 16. Shooting and projection speeds gradually increased in the years following WWI, because the opening of ever larger cinemas meant that projector designers had to maximise light output. The way they did this was by moving from three blade to two blade shutters, hence the need for higher speeds to avoid visible flickering. Germany stuck doggedly to 16 pretty much until the conversion to sound. Metropolis, for example, was shot almost entirely at 16 (in 1926) even though British and French studios were generally shooting at 18-20 by then and Hollywood had virtually gone to 24. So I'd be interested to know where your 14fps films come from.  |  IP: Logged Duncan Smith Film Handler Posts: 50 From: England Registered: Jan 2003 posted 05-15-2003 03:58 PM                     Hi Leo, I don't remember the titles or the specific speeds we ran them at. It was generally regarded that we should run them at a speed that rendered "natural" motion which is subjective to a degree. Of course you've also got the historical factor that even decades ago they were still run at a speed greater than that photographed at in cinemas. This always seemed to provoked debate and in the political arena around at the time some of the decision making was removed from the projectionist. The vast majority of prints came from the BFI film archive and various institutions who's names I was not always privvy to. Some features I seem to recall needed to be monitored throughout as the speed would change slightly during exhibition (usually by a representative of the distributor who couldn't take his finger off the variable speed control or trust the projectionist). The best thing about these shows was the pianist playing live by the screen, a little "theatre" added to the proceedings! Sorry I can't be of any more help, info-wise. Duncan.  |  IP: Logged

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