Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: The Dying Of The Light (2015)

This is topic The Dying Of The Light (2015) in forum The Afterlife at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Mark Ogden (Member # 43) on 11-11-2019, 02:25 PM:

A documentary: movie projectionists reminisce about the end of the film projection era and visit the abandoned booths where they once worked. On AppleTV and Amazon Prime.

*****

This is an interesting and well made film that features current and former New England area projectionists (including some habitués of this forum) discussing their personal histories and relationship to film and the craft of movie projection, and the technological and market changes that made them redundant. The main interviewee is the Somerville Theater’s David Kornfeld, who is clearly America’s best dressed projectionist. He discusses the history of the craft, projection equipment, and laments the projectionist’s shrinking role in exhibition. Mitch Dvoskin is interviewed from the stage of the grand old Loew’s Jersey, and I was very happy to see a brief interview with the late Film-Techer Bob Throop, who I knew and worked with many many years ago. He passed away only two weeks after his interview, and the film is dedicated to him, a nice touch. There are some visits to old and barely accessible booths as well, in one segment a group of former projectionists reopen a long abandoned booth in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania and manage to get it briefly running again, albeit without a screen. There’s also a frustrating visit to The Brattle Cinema in Cambridge, Massachusetts, probably the only surviving rear-projection cinema in America, whose operator discusses, but does not demonstrate for us, the whole it’s-all-done-with-mirrors aspect of the theatre.

It’s a well-produced picture and is generally well-photographed, except that director seems to have an aversion to establishing shots and favors disorienting close-ups. It runs a bit long too, but it’s otherwise well worth your time if the era of film projection meant anything to you, and very well worth it if you ever spent time in the booth yourself.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 11-11-2019, 02:33 PM:

It never died! It just changed over...

Posted by Ed Gordon (Member # 10866) on 11-11-2019, 02:49 PM:

'The Dying Of The Light' is also available at Kanopy.com and Hoopla.com. These are streaming services available at no charge through local libraries (You can go to either site to find out if your library is a sponsor).

Posted by Sean McKinnon (Member # 612) on 11-14-2019, 09:14 AM:

David is America's best dressed Projectionist. He did not get dressed up for the taping that is what he normally wears to work.

Posted by David Kornfeld (Member # 9964) on 11-14-2019, 07:55 PM:

quote: Sean McKinnon
He did not get dressed up for the taping that is what he normally wears to work.

Yeah; so whats wrong with that weirdo, anyhow?

Posted by Mark Ogden (Member # 43) on 11-14-2019, 08:17 PM:

70mm showings get a tuxedo. I've seen it! [Smile]

Posted by Bill Brandenstein (Member # 7758) on 11-14-2019, 10:47 PM:

Glad I'm in good company. Running 70 would be a dream for which I am utterly unqualified, but I did get roped into wearing a tux for a 16mm Technicolor show I did for an elderly patroness and her family earlier this year. Now THAT's showmanship! Anything that makes showing film an event gets my vote.

Posted by Sean McKinnon (Member # 612) on 11-18-2019, 08:46 AM:

quote: David Kornfeld
Yeah; so whats wrong with that weirdo, anyhow?

Nothing is wrong with you David besides this illness that effects us all and keeps us in this business. I actually admire the fact that you care enough to dress professionally!

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 12-27-2019, 01:00 AM:

The fact that David packs the house for classic movies that he shows in both 35mm and 70mm -- titles everyone who buys a ticket could easily see at home and in most cases probably for less that the price of his theatre ticket to say nothing of the hassle of going out to his theater, is a testament to the quality of his presentation and showmanship. His on-stage preshow introductions educate and inform his audiences in a very personal and interactive way.

Yea, I know commercial theatres today are assembly line businesses and this kind of personal touch is a thing of the past, but boy, when you see it being done as well and as classy as Mr. Kornfeld does it, it truly is something beautiful to behold. And a reminder of what is used to be like in the Golden Age of the Movie Palaces when even local Mom and Pop neighborhood theatres strove for that kind of showmanship and their own kind of signature style.

Did I mention when the lights dim at The Somerville, TWO curtains open on the screen. Count them...T-W-O effin screen curtains! It's enough to give you an erection. [thumbsup]

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 12-27-2019, 12:02 PM:

quote: Frank Angel
The fact that David packs the house for classic movies that he shows in both 35mm and 70mm -- titles everyone who buys a ticket could easily see at home and in most cases probably for less that the price of his theatre ticket to say nothing of the hassle of going out to his theater, is a testament to the quality of his presentation and showmanship. His on-stage preshow introductions educate and inform his audiences in a very personal and interactive way.

The important thing about the movie going experience is the concept of people who do things for the benefit of others. Call it a service industry if you want but I think the concept of "service" has been lost on the general public.

The idea of service is that each party in a transaction derives benefit from their interaction with the other. It's not just, "You give me money and I'll let you stay in my theater for two hours." It is about one person being interested in another's experience and the second person giving back appreciation. Each makes a personal investment.

When Franks says that theaters have become like assembly lines, I think he hits the nail on the head.

Switching to digital has only put movie theaters on a fast track to obscurity.

Going to the movies is not about looking at pretty pictures on a screen. It is about people caring enough about others to be invested in their well being, even if only for two hours.

If people who manage and work in movie theaters don't get that idea through their thick skulls and actually practice what they preach, the movie industry as we know it will be dead in just a decade or two.

Posted by Stephan Shelley (Member # 8587) on 12-27-2019, 08:26 PM:

Here in the San Francisco Bay Area there are several theatres using two curtains. Screen 1 at the Grand Lake. Both Grand and Title curtains are flying curtains. I do not mean waterfall but ones that go strait up into the fly galley using the 90+ year old counterweight system.

The Standford Theatre in Palo Alto. Strictly 35mm rotating positive carbon arc. Shows nothing newer than 1959. No digital.

The California Theatre in San Jose and the Paramount in Oakland when they are showing movies. Both are mostly performing arts houses.