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Author Topic: "Benjaman Button" Premiere Falls Victim To Faulty Digital Projection Jon P. Inghram Expert Film Handler Posts: 124 From: Wichita, KS USA Registered: Jan 2007 posted 11-30-2008 02:24 PM                     quote: "On the right setting it was wrong and on the wrong setting it was right," The way I read this is that it looked correct when something was set to the "wrong" setting. If so, why cancel the show?  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 11-30-2008 03:04 PM                     Don't take reporter's stories too seriously...they'll say most anything...really. Steve  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 11-30-2008 10:41 PM                     quote: Steve Guttag I think it is going to be a bit expensive though to always have a spare DCinema projector around for the just-in-case situation. Switching digital projectors in and out is not all that easy when you need to also switch the KDM!!! It typically takes right now 2 weeks for the studios to get new installs into their records before you can even book a digital print. Servers are much easier to switch in and out and are not always affected by the KDM itself. Premiere show prints would probably not be encrypted so as to allow this to easily happen just in case. I have yet to see a large format digital print that is encrypted... they usually just let the location honor what is ever in the locations contract. Mark  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 12-01-2008 03:05 PM                     What's terribly odd on this is WHY wasn't there a pre-screening of this movie to ensure that EVERYTHING was in order instead of diving in head first before checking to see if the water is deep enough. Somebody really fubared on this one. -Monte  |  IP: Logged Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 12-01-2008 03:06 PM                    quote: Jim Cassedy The two trial runs during the day had gone smoothly.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 12-01-2008 05:47 PM                     Okey, missed that one... but still agree: why not a 35mm film backup... What would cause the excessive green then? Did one of the color arrays in the engine might have gone bad?  |  IP: Logged Bill Gabel Film God Posts: 3873 From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA Registered: Jan 2002 posted 12-01-2008 06:21 PM                     quote: Monte L Fullmer why not a 35mm film backup... Well Monte, with some filmmakers Post-Production schedules running late. Some studios might only have digital versions of the film available to screen off of. Last week we had two screenings of a major studio release. The film is slated to open in the about a week. The studio told us the 35mm prints would be available for screenings after Dec. 1st., so last weeks screenings would be on D5 format. So on Monday the 1st. screening was on D5 and later that afternoon the studio told us the Tuesday screening would change to 35mm from Technicolor. So sometimes there is not a 35mm print available to screen or if there is one it might be on the wrong coast at the time. Doing these types of screenings they go over everything, but this time the projector took a dump on them.  |  IP: Logged Chase Taylor Expert Film Handler Posts: 175 From: Troy, Alabama, USA Registered: Mar 2001 posted 12-02-2008 11:27 AM                        quote: Mark Gulbrandsen It typically takes right now 2 weeks for the studios to get new installs into their records before you can even book a digital print. It only took about 2 days for ours to turn around for "Madagascar 2". The equipment came in and I sent serial numbers out immediatly to the studios, and two days later we booked "Madagascar 2" (October 30th) in digital.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 12-02-2008 12:31 PM                        I can't believe most studios only use ONE backup system!!! What if the backup fails? The people would be pissed, the movie would bomb at the box office, everyone would laugh at you and you'd likely never work again. At my theater, we have three backups running for each movie at all times... every auditorium.  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 12-03-2008 09:25 AM                        We recently four-walled our theatre for a small independent studio that was premiering its film here in Brooklyn. They were still working on it and it was only available as a file (Final Cut, I think) in this guy's Apple laptop. We don't have a video projector and only rent for occasions when one is needed for non-DCinema stuff. Initially I questioned them about the appropriatness of this kind of ECinema setup for a premiere, but the producers & the studio insisted this was just fine with them, in fact, they spec-ed and arranged for the rental themselves -- an Eiki "Theatre" 10,000L 3LCD unit which sat in the booth on a slant table (severe down angle for which the keystone correction couldn't fully correct). Thing is, when their video was output to the projector, in ANY version -- VGA digital, RGB, even SVideo (we tried them all) -- the image was very VERY dark. The producer was insisting that the projector was faulty but once he brought up the menu on his laptop, it was obvious that the projected menu was bright as you'd want, yet the movie image behind it was still very dark. I told him it wasn't the projector but that it was either 1) the away the film was authored or 2) the way his Apple laptop was outputing the signal. Whatever, the image was too dark to be even marginally acceptable. I resisted asking him, so how come he didn't have a 35mm print. But I did ask him if there was any way he could adjust his laptop to kick up the video level and adjust the gamma. He played with menus for more time than we had to spare before we had to open the house, and he finally gave up. No, he didn't know how to adjust anything. Anyway, the night was saved because of my distrust of running a movie for 1500-2000 people off a laptop without a backup. When the producer originally told me there was no print but only the "digital" file and that he would bring it in on his laptop, I insisted that he also bring in either a DigiBeta or at least a DVD that we could run in sync; I wanted a backup. He only brought in a DVD copy so we set that up and it played fine -- bright picture....as good as a DVD blown up to a 40ft screen can look...you know, The audience seemed to love it and we heard not a complaint about the quality -- they seemed to think they were watching a regular movie. The producers were also thrilled (who wouldn't be -- they charged $20 a butt). And they want to do it her again. Hopefully by the time they come back to do a regular run they will have some prints available, film and at least a DigiBeta or BR copy so I don't have to take a handful of horse tranquilizers again.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 12-03-2008 05:00 PM                     Frank it could be the computer and it also can be the projector. I have had a projector come in out of calibration...believe it or not, each TYPE of input (analog video, digital video as well as computer) has separate internal calibrations to set the white point, brightness and contrast. Thus, using the SAME TERMINALS you could have a computer and a DVD player look drastically different. One thing we do when we set up a projector is to use our calibrated generator to the initial set up...if it looks good with that (color, brightness, contrast) then we've ensure the projector is right...we then do final calibration on the devices themselves. Steve  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 12-04-2008 03:06 AM                        True, Steve, but thing is, when he through up his laptop destop wallpaper image and with all the icons, it all looked perfect. Even when he was trying to adjust with a menu window on top of the image, the menu was fine but the movie still playing beneath it was very dark. And we did plug into digital, VGA and RGB inputs and all three had the same problem. The DVD looked fine. He was happy so I was happy.  |  IP: Logged

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