Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Digital Phantom Menace

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Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 05-30-1999, 03:44 AM:

I found this notice on MSNBC so I thought I would pass it along.

Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace

Viewers curious to see “Phantom Menace” projected digitally will have to
wait until June 18, when two theaters each in Los Angeles and New York
will set aside one screen a piece for filmless presentation using equipment
from Texas Instruments and CineComm.
The digital screenings will offer the general public a glimpse of what many
believe to be the future of moviegoing. Contrary to published reports,
however, the film will not be transmitted via satellite to the theaters. It will
instead reside on a high-capacity storage device.
While Fox executives would not discuss the exact quantity of prints it had
distributed, the number is estimated at about 5,500.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

If you read the last pargraph it states that there may be as many as 5,500
prints of Phantom Menace out. This doesn't sound like a limited release to
me. Here in the Denver area there are 41 prints showing in 16 movie
theatres. That is the largest release since Jurassic Park #2. Two of the
theatres are very questionable. One is AMC Seven Hills 10. This plex is 15
years old and doesn't have much going for it. They do have SDDS. The
other is Bergan Park Cinema 4. This theatre is in Evergreen (a mountain
suberb of Denver). They have no digital equipment that I know of. The
Bergan Park theatre has very small auditoriums. Within five miles of both of
these theatres are good theatres I would concider seeing a movie at.

Obviously what George Lucas intended and what happened are two
different things. Purhaps we should make George Lucas watch his movie in
The Bergen Park Cinema.

Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 06-05-1999, 06:22 PM:

I found this post by Scott Norwood on another site. I just thought it would be interesting to post here.

Ian

Star Wars - digital projection - locations

Posted by Scott Norwood on Thursday, 3 June 1999, at 7:28 p.m.

At the risk of being flamed by the "I hate S*** W***" people, I'm posting this list of the locations which will begin screening SW using electronic projection equipment (from either TI or CineComm) on June 18.

Pacific Winnetka Theatre, Los Angeles CA (CineComm)

AMC Burbank 14 Theatre, Burbank CA (Texas Instruments)

Loews' Route 4, Paramus NJ (CineComm)

Loews' Meadows 6, Secaucus NJ (Texas Instruments)

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 06-05-1999, 06:41 PM:

I had heard awhile back the new Cinemark mega-plex in East Plano, Tx was to have a digital screen or two. Guess that isn't going to come through. Anyone know any definite info?

Posted by Paul Konen (Member # 41) on 06-07-1999, 09:55 AM:

The new Cinemark will have digital projectors. Just look for the 3 porthole theatres. Anyway, with them not opening for May 19, they are now (PUBLIC) heading for June 30. Maybe after opening, they will start Digital Projection. More to come.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 06-07-1999, 01:14 PM:

At least the Cinemark is going digital with film backup! The guys at TI weren't sure if new theaters would bother with a backup.

Let's look at this. Brand new technology, usually in one of the bigger houses...and no regular field tech would have any knowledge in repairing them. How stupid would that be to not have a film backup???

Posted by Adam Birge (Member # 20) on 06-07-1999, 06:03 PM:

Brad- Plans originally were to open by June 18th, when digital prints are released, but the building is coming along too slowly.. We have our 24 christie packages, but no TI's yet. Last we've heard, it sounds like we will only get one dv projector for right now, but we can hold up to four. It should be getting in just a few days before we open. We have the ability for it in one of the big houses, so I'm interested to see how good the resolution will hold up. I'll post anything if I hear it...

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 06-07-1999, 08:48 PM:

Re: new theatre in Dallas with digital projection equipment--I would be very interested in hearing how someone was able to justify the installation of expensive hardware with a very short useful lifespan (before obsolescense) to support an as-yet nonexistant distribution format. Somehow, I'm surprised that this sort of thing made it past the bean-counters.

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 06-10-1999, 10:27 AM:

Two words...
George Lucas