Yes, reel 5 (one of 2 prints) at the Galaxy had ONLY SRD and DTS tracks. It must be presented in SDDS since the DTS units are busy chasing those non-SDDS prints which are becoming more and more common.

Anyone else get a print like this???

 

One print had two good reels, and they weren't all that great either. One reel had no SDDS as mentioned earlier and the other six had base scratches! Fortunately, many scenes are dark and they aren't noticeable, but they're there jiggling on the right edge just waiting for the next bright scene.

The second print had three bad reels with the same characteristic scratches.

Upon inspection of the leaders (platter house) the scratches run right on through them, thus not an operator error.

I called one other theater whom I knew the projectionist's mobile phone number and he had the same problems with his print.

How many other people got scratched prints of this movie???

 

I liked Eyes Wide Shut as a whole, but not the ending. That's all I can say without spoiling it.

On another note, everyone be sure and check out 6th Sense. I know the trailer looks lame, but if you watch the film in it's entirity you will like it.

 

As for the movie, I liked it, but what the hell was it about?
 

Interestingly enough, I've found a few other theaters around town that have the same identical scratches mine had. One other theater also had a reel 6 without an SDDS track too. For some reason, many managers won't say anything about it for fear they will get charged by Warner for the print. How many managers are out there who don't give a flip about their presentation like that?

Warner Brothers was overly gracious in sending out TWO brand new prints. These prints were from the Rank lab in Europe and on Fuji stock!!! The quality FAR surpasses the ones Technicolor did on Kodak stock, and that's ignoring the scratch defects too.

 

I'd rather watch South Park.
 

My prints looked ok except for a few light black scratches on two reels. My manager won't report it because he says we will be billed for it.

Is there any way to request Fuji prints in the future? Kodak prints shed too bad. Will the studios give the option or did Brad just luck out?
 

But first a word about the presentation: I saw the 7:30 show at Denver’s UA Colorado Center. This is a nice theatre with what I thought was decent presentation. The theatre was in chaos; there weren’t enough people at the box office. We stood behind 30 people one hour before show time to get our tickets. We then went and had dinner. We arrived back at the theatre where we found the assistant manager running around apologizing for canceling a film. There was a line of people at a refund window. I wandered around to see what had been canceled but I didn’t figure it out.

I skirted the lake of coke on the hallway carpet to get to my auditorium and found I had to sit in the second row. I understand it is opening weekend so I didn’t make a fuss. Will Rogers started and stayed in Non-Sync for the whole trailer. No one collected for it. The Trailers had platter scratches on them. The film did not. They use Christie projectors and there was so much jump, that my date made a comment like “I wish the projector would stop shaking.”

There was dirt at every splice. Hurry up with Film-Guard or P5. We need to get the industry to mandated its use.

The theatre was full of kids who thought they were there to see an ”R” rated porn film. They were disappointed. Cell phones went off constantly during the film. I leave mine at home when I go to the movies. (Much to my bosses dismay.)

When I left the film the manager was apologizing to 100 people in the lobby that there was no 10:50 show. She said that there was a mistake with the ad. If I had 100 people in my lobby wanting to see a film only 20 minutes after I was supposed to be closed I would show them a film.

I think I will go back and see the film in it’s sixth week when all the hoopla has died down, and at a different theatre. Now, about the film:

All Kubrick’s films are about obsession. This one was just about the Calvin Kline's kind of Obsession. I didn’t find the film erotic. I don’t know if I should have. I did find it spell binding. I loved that Dr. Bill kept trying to cheat on his wife because of an obsession about her dream. At every turn He was thwarted. I even liked the ending. Hillary Clinton has shown that a wife can forgive more. At every turn you kept expecting something and at every turn you got something unexpected. I don’t think anyone second-guessed this whole film.

Did anyone else find the orgy scene cold and sterile? Did anyone find the film erotic? Did anyone feel that if they saw behind the digital people, who stood in our way at the orgy, the film should have been rated any different than it was? The film isn’t about sex it is about obsessing about sex. Did you notice the Stanley Kubrick signature close-up? Every Stanley Kubrick film has a close-up of the main character that defines the film. I this one it is where Dr. Bill is sitting on the bed listening to his wife tell her fantasy.

How did you all like the score? I thought it was brilliant. I hope it gets mentioned around Oscar time. I hope the actors don’t get mentioned I didn’t think that it was their best performance. Nicole was good, but underutilized. I think Sydney Pollack should get a mention for best supporting actor. He was great.

Well, I will see if the film holds up to a second viewing in a few weeks time.

I am suprised that you called the presentation "decent" however. The Colorado Center is world reknowned for its major suckage. They had dirt on every splice already??? Even without FilmGuard or anything else, it takes a few weeks before any dirt collects on my splices. Sounds like they don't know what they are doing. The theatre needs to be torn down and turned into a K-Mart. I would never put scratched trailers on anything. I would configure my automation to switch to the proper sound format. It is theatres like this that make mine look phenomenal, so perhaps there is still a use for the Co Center.
 

I thought, in the past, that they might have had decent presentation. What I saw last night was in no way decent. I will come to your theatre and see Eyes Wide Shut later and see how FilmGuard is working on a part-time basis. I need to wait untill all the kids have stopped sneaking in to watch kiddie porn.

Ian
 

The first scene I saw before taking in the entire movie was Tom Cruise scoping out the mask on his pillow and freezing. The music was chilling. However since most of the music throughout the movie is the exact same thing, it does indeed get old. I almost think that this movie would sound better in SR than any of the compressed digital formats, it would sound smoother perhaps. I don't think the movie uses much (if any) pumping subwoofers or discrete surrounds. But I don't care enough to take it out of digital to find out.

[This message has been edited by Joe Redifer (edited 07-19-99).]
 

I have seen many prints here at Cinemark that come in with some reels in SDDS and some not.

Scream (1&2), I Know What You Did... (1&2)
Halloween, and a few more that I can't remember.

I've since gotten into the habit of making sure that all reels have SDDS & DTS tracks.

It's funny because most of those movies are from Sony Pictures, if I'm not mistaken!
(They also came from Technicolor too, so go figure!)

A lot of people call the booth and ask us, "Is such-and-such-movie going to be in digital?" It has become my standard procedure to say, "I don't know until the print actually arrives."

All advertisemrnts and "cheat sheets" (Like 'Scoreboard') are WRONG as far as I'm concerned. I've seen them say right on the trailer that there will be digital and there wasn't. I've also seen the reverse. Furthermore, "Scoreboard" has been known to get ASPECT RATIOS wrong!

My advice is to wait until you have the print in your hot little hands before you tell people what soundtracks you're going to play. Yeah, I'm a bit cynical but I've been stung more than once.
 

It kills me why people keep buying the SDDS system with all of it's problems...especially now that there is NO more exclusive SDDS titles out there. An ideal theater would just have SRD in every screen (with one or two DTS floaters for the exclusive DTS releases) and never worry about playing a movie in digital again! Of course that's assuming a penthouse reader is used, as most theaters who have basement readers have problems. Personally, I've not worked with the basement reader enough to say 100%. A less expensive solution would be to have all DTS. Personally I feel the format sounds a little bit better than SRD and virtually everything is in DTS too. Of course having some SRD floaters would be required for the smaller films.

Check out the thread here on digital installation spreads.
 

I don't recall any SDDS prints of Scream 1 existing at all. SRD only.

Aaron

As it turned out about 3/4 of the reels were randomly printed in SDDS. I was able to "make" an SDDS print, if you know what I mean