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Topic: France Kills Silver Screen

Mike Frese
Master Film Handler

Posts: 465
From: Holts Summit, MO
Registered: Jun 2007

posted 03-11-2012 10:22 PM

quote: Marcel Birgelen
Must be a real bummer for Gaumont/Pathé, the absolute market leader in France. They invested a lot of money into RealD and only recently announced a large deal for hundreds of new screens (although not all of them in France).

I guess, RealD will either come with a different solution, probably based on interference filters like Dolby/Infitec within the next 5 years. Or hopefully, 3D will be almost dead again and limited to a few special venues.

Most exhibitors are investing nothing to go Real3d except the cost of a silver screen. Low cost to start is how they got into the theaters.

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Monte L Fullmer
Film God

Posts: 8367
From: Nampa, Idaho, USA
Registered: Nov 2004

posted 03-12-2012 01:12 PM

quote: Mike Frese
Low cost to start is how they got into the theaters.

True. Yet, it's costing them in the end big time due to the lease agreements.

Dolby is still the cheapest in the long run.

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Marcel Birgelen
Film God

Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012

posted 03-12-2012 06:23 PM

quote: Mike Frese
Most exhibitors are investing nothing to go Real3d except the cost of a silver screen. Low cost to start is how they got into the theaters.

I guess you're right, together with being the first on the market, that's probably the reason they're still the market leader.

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Robert Schultz
Film Handler

Posts: 28
From: Tehachapi, CA, USA
Registered: Mar 2004

posted 03-13-2012 01:33 AM

And the truth about silver screens comes out...

Standards are a good guideline but the choice should still be one of a free people.

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Allan Young
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 125
From: EGHAM, Surrey UK
Registered: Jun 2011

posted 06-06-2012 02:27 AM

quote:
I saw a 6 story 15/70 Imax show on a silver screen recently.
It was MI4 in 2d and the silver screen side effects stood out even more!

Well, that sucks. With really shitty timing, the BFI London IMAX has announced the installation of a silver screen just a few weeks before The Dark Knight Rises is released. They're retaining 15/70 alongside a new IMAX digital projector but I may well have made my last visit.

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Frederick Lanoy
Film Handler

Posts: 88
From: North of France
Registered: Aug 2009

posted 06-06-2012 04:05 AM

Don't worry, BFI will show "The dark Knight rises" in 70 mm :

" We are excited to announce that on Monday 11 June at 00:01 (Sunday midnight/Monday morning), tickets for The Dark Knight Rises – The IMAX Experience will be going on sale at BFI IMAX. We will be the only cinema in London showing The Dark Knight Rises in a 15/70mm IMAX DMR film print . The film will feature about 55 minutes of footage shot on IMAX cameras, filling the entire BFI IMAX screen"

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Cameron Glendinning
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 845
From: West Ryde, Sydney, NSW Australia
Registered: Dec 2005

posted 06-06-2012 06:45 AM

quote: Monte L Fullmer
Dolby is still the cheapest in the long run.

Panastereo's 3d system seems to be the cheapest by far, Active Shutter glasses that can be washes in a commercial dish washer, glasses cost similar to Dolby, no need for a new screen. Inexpensive electronics in the projection room.

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Allan Young
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 125
From: EGHAM, Surrey UK
Registered: Jun 2011

posted 06-06-2012 07:01 AM

quote: Frederick Lanoy
Don't worry, BFI will show "The dark Knight rises" in 70 mm

Yes, they will. But on a silver screen.

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Tim Asten
Film Handler

Posts: 98
From: Brighton, United Kingdom
Registered: Nov 2006

posted 06-07-2012 08:31 AM

I saw MI4 at the BFI London and was underwhelmed. The silver screen they have there already was hotspotting badly, especially the IMAX scenes, and the resolution did not seem to be there either. Also the flicker & strobing on movement spoiled the realism. I used to love IMAX and I am sure it was better than this. I may not bother with TDKR if they are putting in another silver screen.

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Bob Bregazzi
Film Handler

Posts: 17
From: Hampshie, England
Registered: Jan 2010

posted 06-07-2012 09:20 AM

by all accounts odeon cinemas have aquired the bfi imax, which is being looked into by the office of fair trading.
if odeon do get their grubby paws on it, it'll be totally ruined like the rest of their circuit.

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 06-07-2012 11:17 PM

quote: Frank Cox
What is the CNC and how did they get veto power over this stuff?

I don't want to get into the realms of politics, and so the following is a simple statement of fact as I understand it: basically, the French government has, continuously since the 1920s, played a very big role in its film industry. It started with the "contingentement" laws in, IIRC, 1929, which limited the proportion of foreign films that could play on French screens (similar laws were passed throughout western Europe at around the same time). In 1946 the CNC (originally called the Centre national de la cinématographie) was formed - it was similar in idea to the British Film Institute, but unlike the BFI it had legal teeth with which to regulate the industry in various ways. In the late '40s and '50s, figures such as Henri Langlois and André Malraux campaigned for the film industry in France to be seen more as a kind of state-run symbol of national prestige than business pure and simple, and the idea stuck. The Avance sur recettes system, started in 1959, basically charged a tax on all theatre admissions which went into a fund to loan money to filmmakers. If their films made a profit, they paid back the loan: if they didn't, they didn't have to.

Jumping forward, the CNC played a big part in the 1984 GATT negotiations, getting involved in a huge argument with the MPAA over the issue as to whether films should be regarded as any other internationally traded product (which would have meant France giving up the right to charge import tariffs on them) or a culturaly protected product (giving France the right to use import tariffs to protect its domestic film industry). David Puttnam's book The Undeclared War makes for a fascinating read on this episode.

The basic answer to Frank's question is that along the way, the CNC picked up the power to set and enforce technical standards in at least some of France's theatres; though I'm not sure if this applies to all of them or what the criteria are.

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Peter Howard
Film Handler

Posts: 44
From: Forster, NSW, Australia
Registered: Dec 2005

posted 07-04-2012 10:49 PM

quote: Cameron Glendinning
Panastereo's 3d system seems to be the cheapest by far, Active Shutter glasses that can be washes in a commercial dish washer, glasses cost similar to Dolby, no need for a new screen. Inexpensive electronics in the projection room.

Absolutely. We were Ray's first customers (actually, we were partners in arranging the components) and we've had no problems whatsoever. [Smile]

Low cost, no ongoing charges aside from changing the 25c batteries about every 6 months or so.

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