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Topic: Harry Potter: The Prisoner Of Azkaban

Stephen Furley
Film God

Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002

posted 06-08-2004 06:54 AM

quote:
That would answer why the end credit roll was 12 minutes long!

12 minutes! I thought 'The Passion of the Christ' was bad enough at a few seconds over eight.

One of the films I ran on Saturday was strange; It must have been either 'The Missing', 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' or 'I'll Sleep When I'm Dead', as those were the only films I ran that day. Film started fine, each time I checked it was still fine, then suddenly some titles come up, right in the bottom left corner of the screen, they're so low that the bottom of them is just off the screen, and I have to pull the racking up a bit. This was within a minute or two of the end of the first reel, and it wasn't an unusally short reel.

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Brian Michael Weidemann
Expert cat molester

Posts: 944
From: Costa Mesa, CA United States
Registered: Feb 2004

posted 06-08-2004 02:32 PM

I've seen this film about six or seven times now, and in IMAX DMR. I think the Matrix sequels were a bit crisper and less grainy than this one, but it's still an impressive presentation.

I really loved this movie the first time. I think I still like it, but I've just seen it too many times. The effects hold up amazingly well, even with the scrutinizing clarity of the digital remastering. It was well-paced, had plenty of good crowd laughs.

Yes, the credits are over 10 minutes long ... that was more than THREE reels worth. It took me a good 13 hours to assemble that thing, as it was 43 reels PLUS the Catwoman and Polar Express trailers.

The maturity of the script of this movie, over the others, makes me want to read the novel (which I haven't read any of), as it seems like a sophisticated novel plot. So I was impressed on that level.

Yes, Hermione will be damned fine looking in a good few years, so I'm looking forward to the next several films. [Big Grin]

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Richard Greco
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1180
From: Plant City, FL
Registered: Nov 2003

posted 06-09-2004 12:07 AM

quote: Brian Michael Weidemann
It took me a good 13 hours to assemble that thing, as it was 43 reels PLUS the Catwoman and Polar Express trailers.

How long is each reel? Is there a special 2000' 70mm reel? What do the reels look like? I'm just shocked that 35mm is only 8 reels and IMAX is 43!?!

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Paul Mayer
Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under!

Posts: 3836
From: Albuquerque, NM
Registered: Feb 2000

posted 06-09-2004 02:50 AM

Approx. 1000' per shipping reel/roll at 337.5 fpm (IMAX linear speed at 15 perfs per frame runs 3x faster than 5-perf 70mm to get 24 fps). At 1100' per reel you get about 3+20 running time per reel. 3+20 times 43 yields approx. the 142 minute running time for this title. Fun, ey? [Big Grin]

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Brian Michael Weidemann
Expert cat molester

Posts: 944
From: Costa Mesa, CA United States
Registered: Feb 2004

posted 06-09-2004 05:05 AM

Each reel comes at about 3.5 minutes of footage to a core, which takes about 15 minutes to load to the platter, splice, and prep the next reel. I got it down to about 12 minutes a reel when I hit my sweet spot. The build-up table spindle feeds only so fast.

I saw this movie about three more times tonight. It's not getting any better, but it's not getting much worse. Some of the scenes seem underlit. And the continuity errors are popping up a lot now.

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 06-09-2004 08:52 AM

Okay...I am a fan of the books...

HP1 was and excellent book and the movie was an excellent rendition of it.

HP2 was one of my least favorite books of the series but the movie was a great rendition of it.

HP3 was my favorite book of the 5 currently written and the movie was the worst rendition of it. I'm waiting for the other half of the story. In fact, it was HORRIBLE story telling. If you don't know the series, this film doesn't fill you in too much. If you do know the series, it doesn't satisfy.

The basic premise of the books/films is that you spend an entire Hogwarts year with the kids. Naturally, that is a long time so only the key points are told. Harry only learns about himself and his history in snippets and so does the reader/viewer.

In HP3, about half of these key-elements that will or should come up in future films are left out thereby making these future films either have to continue the omission or hand-wave the details that you should have known by now.

Even in this film, there is handwaving...when Harry and Herminone go into the Whomping Willow they have a tough time with it...others, do not. Why?

What happened with the Quddich matches...we only see one in this film and never hear about the others or even the outcome.

Hogsmede is made out to be this great place...from the film one can hardly figure out why and again according the film, I guess Harry will never be able to go there...the list goes on and on.

As to how dark the film is...I didn't find the film any darker than HP2 and actually a bit on the lighter side.

The characters did not seem as well directed and seemed much more cardboard like.

I guess you can say I wasn't impressed with this installment but clearly by other reviews above, this is just my opinion.

Rating: 2/5 stars.

Hopefully the other half of the movie will be on the DVD.

Steve

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Evans A Criswell
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1579
From: Huntsville, AL, USA
Registered: Mar 2000

posted 06-09-2004 12:53 PM

The third movie definitely did not feel like we spent an entire Hogwarts year with the kids. It felt more like three days with the kids. We did not see which group won the points thing at the end of the year, or anything.

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Gunnar Johansson
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 181
From: Gothenburg, Sweden
Registered: Mar 2003

posted 06-10-2004 05:27 PM

I´m siding totally with mr Guttag on this one, down to the letter.

Most of it seemed to me to be outtakes from the book and that they tried to make a story out of it. I knew it all and recogniced and "filled in the blanks" for most of the film, but if you´re not in to the universe you´re not getting much out of it. If you´ve seen the first two then maybe you´ll be a little more wiser, but any newcomer is lost.

Let´s see how number 4 turns out... Imdb says it´s filming... The last change of director seemed to me a little better, but it´ll have to be a lot better, but I don´t know if the new director (Mike Newell) will do the next one justice.

I´m really hoping mr Guttag is right and that the DVD will have the rest of the movie, even if it´ll have to be 5 hrs +.

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Richard Greco
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1180
From: Plant City, FL
Registered: Nov 2003

posted 06-13-2004 03:11 AM

Saw this again..This time in IMAX.

I loved every bit of it. Just as amazing as Matrix Reloaded. I already posted what I think of the story. The image quality was AMAZING!!! I took a tour of the IMAX booth before the show and I was stunned. The threading is so muchdifferent than what we 35mm people do. I have a lot of respect for IMAX now. Is it true that these films cost like 60,000? Anyways, this is a HELL of a lot better in 70mm than 35mm.

5/5

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Brian Michael Weidemann
Expert cat molester

Posts: 944
From: Costa Mesa, CA United States
Registered: Feb 2004

posted 06-13-2004 03:29 AM

Well, our invoice stated the print at $1,500. But this might have been a rental charge as opposed to the price of the print. Or possibly just the SHIPPING cost of the boxes containing the print. The two trailers were $200 each, I think. I'll read over that invoice a little closer.

And congratulations on your experience of the superb presentation standards of which IMAX is capable. Glad to hear you were impressed.

I wish I could give tours, but we have this whole Managers-Only-And-No-Non-Employees thing going on with the booths.

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Bob Brown
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 146
From: Grand Rapids, MI
Registered: Apr 2002

posted 06-18-2004 01:03 PM

Adam Martin explained film costs in another thread:

quote:
Because of the speed at which the film travels (about 336 feet/minute), a 45-minute film is about 15,000 feet long. This takes up about as much space on a platter as a feature-length 35mm print. Current cost for 70mm lab work is about 66 cents per foot, making that 45-minute print a $10,000 investment. Double that for a 3D film. And that's just for a single release print.

Richard, I hope this helps answer your question on film costs.

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Pravin Ratnam
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 844
From: Atlanta, GA,USA
Registered: Sep 2002

posted 06-18-2004 02:39 PM

quote: Steve Guttag
What happened with the Quddich matches...we only see one in this film and never hear about the others or even the outcome.

Are these matches that crucial regarding the characters? It was Ok to watch them once in HP1. But I have no problem with getting rid of them for HP3. I mean, it's like watching Rollerball on broomsticks.

From what I heard, the map thing was not explained well in the movie.

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Brian Michael Weidemann
Expert cat molester

Posts: 944
From: Costa Mesa, CA United States
Registered: Feb 2004

posted 06-18-2004 08:22 PM

PROBABLE SPOILERS I GUESS: The only thing I've gathered about the map in discussions is that the movie doesn't mention that its creators were friends with Harry's parents, which really isn't vital, is it? What more about the map need be explained? I haven't read the books. A map, which "doesn't lie", tells the location of people, regardless of their animagus disguises ... not all that confusing.

And yes, leave out the Quiddich. A novel usually has too much plot to fit into a feature length movie, so removing purely action sequences is welcome, especially since I always tend to skim past "action sequences" in books anyway. Boring! Give me plot, development, twists!

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 06-20-2004 12:34 AM

The Quidich matches are indeed vital to Harry's character and indeed lead up to the next part. As to showing full-length versions of the matches...No! that certainly isn't necessary...there are only but so many a year anyway...One of the maches starts a character interaction that should be developing in part 4...no match, no meeting, no sense is made without hand waving in the next part.

The matches (and end of the year outcome) could have been represented without boring the crowd.

The Map...more than just Harry's parents friends created it....and your lack of understanding of that (having not read the books) just proves the point...they glossed over too much.

I don't feel that the movie needs to be a word-for-word, action-for-action version of the book but at the same time, you can't gloss over key points that lead to later information.

Lord of the Rings certainly took liberties with the books but not with the story. I would give them low marks on how they handled The Return of the King...a little too much glossing over...and really High marks for Fellowship of the Ring. Overall though, rather high marks.

With Harry Potter...the first two films really captured the feel of the books and the third really did not.

Steve

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Michael Schaffer
"Where is the
Boardwalk Hotel?"

Posts: 4143
From: Boston, MA
Registered: Apr 2002

posted 06-21-2004 01:30 AM

quote: Steve Guttag
Even in this film, there is handwaving...when Harry and Herminone go into the Whomping Willow they have a tough time with it...others, do not. Why?

Professor Lupin casts the "Immobilis" spell over the Willow!

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