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This topic comprises 7 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
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Author
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Topic: Switch from common width to common height - trend or aberation?
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Thomas Pitt
Master Film Handler
Posts: 266
From: Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK
Registered: May 2007
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posted 10-07-2007 04:05 PM
Fixed-height screens with side masking have always been (in my opinion) better than fixed-width screens. With a fixed-width screen, it doesn't matter whether you have just top masking or top and bottom masking - the screen is still getting SMALLER when you switch over to scope.
I saw Halloween at Sheffield VUE last week; the screen was fixed-width with top and bottom masking. When it changed over to scope, I overheard someone behind me say "I swear, the screen's just got smaller!"
It's much better if the screen widens and gets bigger when the main movie starts (side masking). Again, when I saw Zodiac I was in an auditorium with side masking, and a few of the other people in the audience went 'Yeah!' when the screen opened up to full width ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
If you've ever seen This Is Cinerama, after the introduction the tiny 4:3 image in the centre of the screen suddenly changes into a very wide 3-projector image of a rollercoaster ride. You can imagine how it must have awed audiences who were used to seeing all movies in the tiny 4:3 screen format! Fixed height is like that too; making the image bigger for the main movie.
Regarding D-Cinema and fixed height screens, surely it would be better to align the projector so that it fills the full scope area of the screen. For flat features, simply pillarbox the image digitally and have the projector showing black borders (which would be on the masking, so less obvious). Is this what David was trying to say?
The Leeds Light has a single digital projector, but they have fixed-width screens there. The digital projector is set to fill the full flat screen. For scope digital features, the image is scaled down slightly and only projected onto the bottom area of the screen - leaving a large black bar on the top. This, coupled with the top masking, makes the projector do a scope aspect ratio image without having to use an extra anamorphic lens.
I'm still unsure whether most moviegoers would notice that images have been scaled up or down when using a digital projector, though. It's not as if you're sitting right in front of a computer LCD screen, where upscaling is obvious!
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Edwin Graf Diemer
Film Handler
Posts: 47
From: Red Bank, NJ, USA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 10-07-2007 09:10 PM
Pravin wrote:
"Also , why not use the fixed width auditorium to show mostly flat movies and show 2.35:1 movies only as a last ditch scheduling fix. This way, at least the ratio is not compromised when they are forced to show a scope movie."
I remember doing that when I was a projectionist at the Eric Concordville 4 (PA). It was a single-screen house that was built in the late 60's, twinned in 1976, and had 2 screens added in a early 80's addition. Sameric was very big on screen curtains (with a big "E" on them), which was neat, and all was retained when UA bought the chain. (It was something having to remove those letters from the curtains!) Anyway, when the original auditorium was twinned, a bowling alley theater of about 330 seats resulted at the left, while 737-seat auditorium #2 was at the right. The smaller house was the only one in the complex to have a fixed-width screen, and 'scope presentations looked so miserable there that we only showed "flat" prints on that screen. At least the image was a bit larger! Like many of you probably had to do, the side masking was moved by yanking a rope at the side.
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