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Author
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Topic: RIP John Pytlak (was titled "John Pytlak recovering well from a mild heart attack")
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 08-23-2007 10:47 PM
It was with great trepedation that I read these posts over the past months as John's condition worsened. I knew at some point a terrible post was going to arrive. I simply stopped reading them about two weeks ago. I am a coward. I finally saw Brad changed the thread title and even then I couldn't open the thread for a few days. Over at the Exhibitors_Screening _Room list, a post came up: "John Pytlak passes." I posted this:
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Sadly, this was coming for awhile. The thread on the Film-Tech forum was titled "John Pitlak recovering from mild heart attack." For the last month the news in that thread kept getting worse. They found this, they found that. It had metastizied. He couldn't eat. Modern science was failing. It had been going seriously down hill and I knew sooner or later the news in one of those posts was going to be very very sad. It got to be that whenever I got an email notice that another post had be made there to that F-T thread, I dreaded logging in to read it. Sometimes I just wouldn't read them for days on end because reading bad news makes it real. My computer crashed last week and just today I got back on line to see a long lists of email alerts that posts to the thread had been made and I knew it couldn't anything good. Then as I ran down the list of the emails from Film-Tech, there it was.....the moderator had changed the title of the thread to "RIP John Pylak" and so the little boy in me could no longer keep his friend alive by refusing to read the posts.
I still haven't ventured over there to read what can only be very painful and sad news.
I spoke with John a few times during his illness and he was as brave as any man could be. He was the head of the Projection Committee at the SMPTE and I had joined up and when I atteneded my first meeting, all the big guys were there -- techs from Dolby, guys from UA Theatres and a consortium of people who were pushing for that idiotic 1.85:1 three perf format -- a feature on one big reel and shipped that way so you wouldn't need makeup and breakdown; and the price to be paid for that convenience? -- reduction in picture resolution, picture brightness and terrible analog sound. The speed reduction alone would obliterate any possibility of SDR or SDDS on the film -- the only digital format that could survive would be DTS. To say I was against it would be an understatement.
I had written the SMPTE about why this idea was wrong right from concept through to execution and John had invited me to voice my opposition at this, my first committee meeting. Well, I waltzed in feeling pretty confident and ready to challenge this backward idea, but I quickly realized that this was the big leagues, not me and my buddy projectionists solving the worlds problems over a six pack. I immediately felt intimidated and unnerved. All of a sudden, I was a little kid in a room full of angry, unpleasant grownups. But John was one of those people who, even when meeting him for the first time, could make you feel like you were with a friend and he was on your side. His soft-spoken encouraging manner and easy smile put me at ease. When he spoke to you, you felt like his total attention was fixed on you and whatever you had to say was most important. And at that meeting he treated me with the same deference that he gave the big techs from Dolby and Technicolor. It was easy to like him.
That and the next all too few occasions when we found ourselves at the same tech functions, we found ourselves discussing more personal matters, more important than the pros and cons of this or that technical issue. He knew he was very sick; he was very open about it, and, as I said, he was every brave.
He will be missed.
Now I will have to find the grownup in me and go over there to Film-Tech to read those sad posts.
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I stand corrected -- the posts here are sad, yes; but they are beautiful and uplifting....I think John would have been touched. There are wonderful people here at Film-Tech; I am sure he got comfort from the commradary. I know reading these heartfelt posts helps us all each deal with the loss of this, our friend. And perhaps this so very sincere outpouring can, in some small way, give some comfort to John's family.
Deepest condolences to John's wife and children.
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Ted Langdell
Film Handler
Posts: 1
From: Marysville, CA, USA
Registered: Feb 2006
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posted 08-25-2007 08:18 AM
Last Saturday we were all learning of John's passing to a different place, starting a new chapter in his life, and in our lives.
Today, family and friends will gather at Noon today (8/25/2007) in Rochester for a Memorial Mass.
Those of you in the Rochester area might be able to attend (sorry about such short notice.)
Wonder what would happen if we all thought something about John at Noon, Eastern time?
Ted Langdell
Another person John helped in various forums.
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Here is his obituary as published in the Rochester newspaper and its website:
Pytlak, John Paul
Penfield, NY: August 17, 2007 at age 59 after a courageous battle with cancer. Loved dearly and survived by his wife, Elizabeth, of 34 years; daughters Katie (Jim) Spillman and Anne Pytlak, and grandson Benjamin John Spillman; sister Adrienne (Stanley) Ziemba and brother Frank (Pamela) Pytlak; many nieces and nephews, cousins, colleagues, and dear friends.
John offered his physical body to the University of Rochester anatomical gift program.
A memorial Mass will be held at the Church of St. Jerome, 207 South Garfield Street, East Rochester, NY 14445 at noon on Saturday, August 25, 2007.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to:The George Eastman House,900 East Avenue, Rochester, NY 14607;The Church of St. Jerome,207 South Garfield Street, East Rochester, NY 14445;Rochester General Hospital Foundation, c/o Rochester Heart Institute,1299 Portland Avenue, Rochester, NY 14621, orRochester General Hospital Foundation, c/o Lipson Cancer Center,1299 Portland Avenue, Rochester, NY 14621.
First ran on: 08/21/2007
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