Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Article: What one bad screening of 'The Hateful Eight' means for the future of film

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Posted by Rachael Barbash (Member # 5158) on 12-03-2015, 02:11 PM:

Link: What one bad screening of 'The Hateful Eight'...

From the moment the film began with the OVERTURE card depicting a horse-drawn carriage riding through snow in front of a stylized mountain range, Ennio Morricone's big lush score creeping in, there was a problem. The carriage was in the center of the screen, towards the lower third of the image, and right there, almost framing the carriage, was a soft-focus spot that kept dilating in and out of focus.

The film played for two hours, until the intermission, and nothing changed. For the entire thing, that maddening focus issue continued. When the lights came up, I heard several people talking about it, puzzled why no one seemed to be doing anything about it. Eventually, someone announced that they would be showing the second half of the film via digital projection because the 70MM was no longer working.

I'm frustrated that the article doesn't go further into exactly what was wrong. Does anyone have an explanation?

edit Just saw that this article was already posted in the 70mm Hateful Eight thread so apologies for that... but still. Does anyone know people at that theater? We were just booked with a press screening of this in a few days but obviously in digital.

Posted by Stephan Shelley (Member # 8587) on 12-03-2015, 05:07 PM:

From what I have heard there is an issue with the reworked JJ gates that caused this.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 12-03-2015, 08:14 PM:

I saw the article first on Facebook. After reading what seemed like 10,000 words to get to the description of the problem, it did seem like a gate tension issue to me too.

From the sky-is-falling, end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it buildup, I thought the issue was going to be the film getting scraped down the middle or having a gate burn or a thrown print or something like that.

Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 12-03-2015, 09:33 PM:

Well, it wasn't just 'one' bad screening.

I recall reading of a projector breakdown at another early screening
in New York last week.

< edit >

>>I found the article. Here it is:

"PROJECTION PROBLEMS AT EARLY HATEFUL EIGHT SCREENING"
Link To Story

Harvey Weinstein is taking a risk releasing Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful
Eight” in the extinct, widescreen 70mm format.

While the industry has gone digital, the Weinstein Co. bought more than
100 antique 70mm projectors and restored them so it can show a special
“roadshow version” of the film, with an overture and intermission, clocking
in at over 3 hours.

But at one of the first screenings Thursday night at Village East Cinema,
the projector broke.

Erik Lomis, president of distribution for Weinstein, told me the projector
wasn’t one of the 100 he had restored. “It was the theater owner’s and
a gear was stripped and then replaced in one hour.”

Producers Shannon McIntosh and Stacey Sher quickly threw together a
Q&A with actors Kurt Russell and Walton Goggins to keep the audience
occupied during repairs.

One audience member told me of the film, “It’s great. So I’m glad
I stuck around. <End Of Story>

Well, they were lucky :
1: They had a replacement part;
2) They had the stars of the movie there to occupy the audience.
Other screening breakdowns might not be so lucky!

Posted by Stephan Shelley (Member # 8587) on 12-03-2015, 10:28 PM:

One other important thing Jim. They had someone that knew what they were doing in the booth.

Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 12-03-2015, 11:04 PM:

quote: Stephan Shelley
They had someone that knew what they were doing in the booth.

Good point!
I did a screening of "Son Of Saul" yesterday at a venue where the 35mm
projectors had not been used in almost a year. Good thing I went in early to
check the equipment.
>The fuse that operates the change-overs had been removed. I eventually
found a spare- - not exactly the right size but good enuf to do the show.

>After checking oil levels, etc on both machines and cleaning lamphouses,
I ran a couple of test reels. About 4 minutes into the 2nd test reel, the
take-up belt snapped on the 2nd projector. I was able to find spare belting
and make the repair, but it took me almost till showtime since these were
old double system sound preview-type take-up magazines and it took a
lot of work to get everything adjusted & running right again.

If I hadn't been there, they wouldn't have had a show.

Posted by Sam D. Chavez (Member # 1841) on 12-04-2015, 12:22 AM:

Regarding the East Village screening; it was a Simplex 35/70's and a platter take up issue and the film backed up into the projector binding it up and breaking the main drive gear.

An unused projector at another screen was scavenged for the needed part.

No re-marriage ceremony including passwords was required.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 12-04-2015, 12:31 AM:

Let's please keep all Hateful Eight discussion in the existing thread located here. These news articles have already been posted there starting on page 5. [Smile]