Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Technicolor ending 35mm operations in July?

This is topic Technicolor ending 35mm operations in July? in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Jason Metcalfe (Member # 5739) on 06-01-2015, 01:59 PM:

Just heard this second-hand from a distributor, anyone else hear about this?

Posted by Michael Kurtzke (Member # 7512) on 06-01-2015, 03:35 PM:

I heard it from Technicolour a few weeks ago when they shipped us a 35mm print of Poltergeist by accident.

The rep on the phone said that they are going to phase out 35mm at the end of June.

Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 06-01-2015, 04:16 PM:

Is Technicolor the source for all 35mm prints? We've been 100% digital for several years, and virtually all of our content comes from Deluxe. I think Paramount and Wienstein are the main ones that come from Technicolor.

Posted by Jason Metcalfe (Member # 5739) on 06-01-2015, 04:23 PM:

there are some smaller distributors too like G-Kids that use them
I assume this means no more first run 35mm as well? Or maybe they will be distributing through a different source?

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-01-2015, 04:29 PM:

Disney uses Deluxe at least part of the time - Avengers 2 came from Deluxe and so did Tomorrowland, I think.

Probably whoever gives them the best price per print gets the business.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 06-01-2015, 05:23 PM:

FotoKem is still making some 35mm movie prints. The lab can process 65mm film negatives and make 70mm prints. On a related note though Datasat plans to shut down the digital sound for film prints part of its business this Summer, but Datasat will handle special projects like the 5-perf 70mm print run for The Hateful Eight.

Posted by Daniel Schulz (Member # 1881) on 06-01-2015, 07:29 PM:

AFAIK all 35mm release prints for North America are manufactured by Fotokem. Technicolor was handling the distribution of those prints to cinemas, but as reported above that operation is shutting down. At least some studios are going to use Vision Media Management in Santa Clarita for future 35mm print shipping.

Posted by Jason Metcalfe (Member # 5739) on 06-04-2015, 04:35 PM:

I'm also hearing that they are unloading a bunch of prints (all of them?)

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 06-04-2015, 05:05 PM:

They appear to be unloading some by the simple but effective method of simply not arranging for their return shipping after they play.

There have now been three times since the start of this year in which one of the programmers have told me that a number of prints will be arriving for a specific show, and asked me to pick the best one for screening. They are all titles from the last decade (Cradle Will Rock was one, and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind the other - can't remember the third), and all came from Technicolor.

So I duly did the technical selection, and long after these shows we still have a bunch of these prints sitting and festering here. I don't know what's going on, but if I had to guess, Technicolor would seem to be clearing out their inventory of older and more obscure 35mm titles (i.e. the ones for which there is likely to less piracy paranoia from their owners) by simply shipping out every copy they have of a given title when a booking comes in for it, and not bothering to collect them afterwards.

That's one way of freeing up warehouse space, I guess!

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 06-05-2015, 09:05 AM:

Technicolor did the same thing with their master 3-D lens kits that were given out to most of the technicians that completed the 3-D training. Oddly though they wanted all the lenses back that were installed in theaters... I know several techs and myself that still have that lens kit...

Mark

Posted by Blaine Young (Member # 3992) on 08-14-2015, 03:45 PM:

I received an email from Daniel Schulz last week. "Terminator: Genisys" was the final title to use DTS/Datasat. There will be the 70mm presentations this winter of Tarantino's "The Hateful Eight" which will be in Datasat, but that's the end of it.

RIP DTS
1993-2015

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 08-14-2015, 04:33 PM:

I wouldn't go as far as to put money on it, but the fact is that if any of the usual 70mm suspects (Nolan, Tarantino, Anderson etc.) wants to do another show in the format, they're going to need to produce a DTS/Datasat track for the release prints.

I'd therefore speculate that Datasat and FotoKem may well come to some arrangement whereby FotoKem takes over the rights to the process and takes it fully in-house for boutique projects. It depends if there are likely to be any more major 5/70 releases after The Hateful Eight, I guess.