Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Inserting an intermission in Hateful Eight?

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Posted by James Waite (Member # 4536) on 01-20-2016, 01:25 AM:

We are a single screen and I'll be playing one show a night so I'd like to put an intermission into my digital version of Hateful Eight.

I for one felt a little peeved I had to sit through a three hour movie without an intermission just because I couldn't make it to a 70mm show.

other than manually pausing it is there anyway to set the playlist to put in an intermission? I have a doremi server.

Posted by Christian Hove (Member # 6743) on 01-20-2016, 05:48 AM:

For other long movies I have successfully used the intermission feature introduced with software version 2.6.0.

I have a PDF describing its use (not sure if it is the latest revision):

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7vnqodu66yfcpip/Intermission_Feature_Configuration_003696_v1_1.pdf?dl=0

Cheers,

Christian

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 01-20-2016, 08:49 AM:

The following DCI servers offer an explicit intermission function in their recent software versions:

- Doremi (from v2.6x)
- Dolby (from v4.8x - so not for DSS100)
- Sony (all versions)

Not sure for GDC. Anyone?

- Carsten

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 01-20-2016, 11:04 AM:

Are you sure that you're allowed to do that? Without actually going and digging it out to be sure, I vaguely recall that some of the exhibition contracts require you to play the movie from beginning to end without pause except for technical problems.

Posted by Timothy Eiler (Member # 383) on 01-20-2016, 12:57 PM:

quote: Frank Cox
I vaguely recall that some of the exhibition contracts require you to play the movie from beginning to end without pause except for technical problems.

Over the years when I've had long movies and the technical problems usually developed somewhere during the movie each show but We always able to get it going after a brief intermission.

Posted by Brian DeCiancio (Member # 1422) on 01-20-2016, 01:35 PM:

quote: Frank Cox
Are you sure that you're allowed to do that?

Is this the same contract that requires moveable masking, 5.1 sound, a GORE/Enigma board and 14fl in order to be DCI compliant?

Just kidding. We are all compliant.

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 01-20-2016, 01:44 PM:

Someone should figure out where it should go on the non roadshow timeline to be essentially at the same spot as on the roadshow. Besides the lack of an overture, it is, I believe, cut slightly differently.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 01-20-2016, 01:49 PM:

The german HTF8 distributor actually added a technical letter to the normal DCP version with a suggestion where to insert an intermission.

There is a 10s black piece between chapter three and the chapter four title card (around 1h35min31s).
At the beginning of chapter four, the off-speaker actually mentions the previous intermission. So I'd say, with this movie it is clearly wrong to NOT insert an intermission.

BTW - cinemas in switzerland always make intermissions - even with normal-lenght features. It's just their local habit.

- Carsten

Posted by Aaron Garman (Member # 1653) on 01-20-2016, 02:13 PM:

I don't know the time stamp, but if you were to place the intermission where it was on the roadshow, it would go right after Bob the Mexican closes the piano. I believe there is a hard cut to black at that moment.

Posted by Michael Kurtzke (Member # 7512) on 01-20-2016, 02:30 PM:

The cut to black is at 1:34:55. Unlike the Roadshow prints, there is still sound between the chapters [some wind howling].

Posted by Annli Com (Member # 8266) on 01-22-2016, 12:22 AM:

Dear All
The Movie HATEFULL EIGHT 2 PART CPL Available
Contact Your Content Service Provider,
we are in india the movie playing in 2 part CPL.

Posted by James Waite (Member # 4536) on 02-06-2016, 10:08 AM:

Personally I don't care if we are 'allowed' to insert an intermission or not. I was kind of insulted that just because I couldn't make it to a 70mm show I had to try to sit through a 3 hour movie having to take a leak the last hour.

If the Roadshow version has an intermission then the DCP one should too.

My server does have an intermission function so I'll play with it. It seems to play a separate playlist during the intermission. Maybe I can find one of those countdown clocks online.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 02-06-2016, 11:35 AM:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=countdown+clock+15+min

+ dcp-o-matic

- Carsten

Posted by Pietro Clarici (Member # 4937) on 02-06-2016, 12:31 PM:

In Italy we have been told that Tarantino himself requested an intermission to be placed at 1.35.40, basically the same spot Carsten mentioned. The voiceover in Chapter 4 says "we left our characters 15 minutes ago...", I think they got this line straight from the roadshow version. Could have changed it to "a few minutes ago" to be less specific, or we could have done it locally since we dub everything anyway.

I would also have appreciated if they left out the sound from the black segment, or at least faded out. We have to cut while sound is still playing, feels a little unprofessional.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 02-06-2016, 02:32 PM:

Couldn't you do an audio fade on the cheap by issuing a few fader commands in the SPL?

Our AP20 has configurable fade to/from for format changes.

I wish there was something like that for picture as well ;-)

- Carsten

Posted by Pietro Clarici (Member # 4937) on 02-06-2016, 02:50 PM:

I wish... still have a CP500 + DMA8 in that theater, it's manual volume control for me! [Big Grin]

Yes, digital equipment still lacks a lot of very obvious features, it's clear most of it hasn't been designed with a focus on showmanship and usability. I can't believe we had to wait till last year to have intermission support on Doremi servers.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 02-06-2016, 02:54 PM:

If you use Doremi servers - they have their own digital gain control cue. The timing resolution I think is only 1s, but it would still allow 'some' graceful fade out over a couple of seconds.

- Carsten

Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 02-06-2016, 02:56 PM:

quote: Brian DeCiancio
Is this the same contract that requires moveable masking, 5.1 sound, a GORE/Enigma board and 14fl in order to be DCI compliant?

quote: James Waite
Personally I don't care if we are 'allowed' to insert an intermission or not. I was kind of insulted that just because I couldn't make it to a 70mm show I had to try to sit through a 3 hour movie having to take a leak the last hour.

No. This would be language you'd find in your master contract. I don't know if Canada has different language, but whether you care or not would probably relate to whether the business belongs to you and how much risk you're willing to take. Frankly, I don't think the studios care that someone might have been insulted over the workings of different media.

Years ago, I had a legitimate problem during the credits of a Disney show. It was something like 30 seconds before the roll ended and I didn't think much beyond getting the problem fixed. Before the next week was out, I got a note from my booker, telling me that a customer had complained to Disney that I had dropped the credits intentionally, and Disney wanted to know what that was about.

It only took the explanation to clear the matter, and I didn't heard about it again. Still, you never know...

Incidentally... this is the same language the studios referenced when informing us the trailers they spliced on the front of the prints were, in their opinions, "integral parts of the booking" and had to be played as provided. Just cutting the trailer to insert a policy snipe was enough to violate the rule. I'm not sure anyone took it seriously, but to each his own!

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 02-06-2016, 03:01 PM:

I've YET to see the "DCI POLICE" in theatres. Save one, only none of our series-1 projectors have GORE boards that are not in a VPF agreement. The VPF agreements required the GORE boards. One would think that via KDM they could have enforced that one alone. Clearly, the system "knows" that the "security enclosure" is present and armed (Says so in the status of the respective projectors or TI control program).

And if the masking rule was enforced...boy would the big-boys, including the new Dolby Vision Theatres would be out of compliance. Which shows what a sham it all is because Regal/AMC can still do whatever they want.

Posted by Pietro Clarici (Member # 4937) on 02-06-2016, 03:42 PM:

quote: Carsten Kurz
If you use Doremi servers - they have their own digital gain control cue.

Wow, I had no idea - should have tinkered with the Macro Editor more. Thanks a lot!

Posted by James Waite (Member # 4536) on 02-06-2016, 03:51 PM:

I haven't played with it yet so I'd probably figure it out but...I'm confused in the intermission function in Doremi why it has the rewind part?

I figured it would stop the movie, play the intermission playlist, then restart the movie at the same place.

So what's the rewind bit for?

Posted by Travis Cape (Member # 466) on 02-06-2016, 04:56 PM:

I went to see this twice in 70mm. We then played the digital version at our theater. I was concerned about the intermission. The paperwork enclosed with the drive was for the roadshow version. I knew that was a mistake, so I called Technicolor. After being put on hold a couple times, I was told that the multiplex version shouldn't have an intermission.

I then loaded the drive and skipped to the point where the intermission should have been. As previously stated, piano lid shuts, cuts to black and resumes with a voice-over that approximately 15 minutes have passed. I made a sign for the auditorium door stating that there would be an intermission at such point. I inserted a pause cue. We have GDC servers and I don't have an intermission function. It upset me to not have an intermission title card, but it would have upset me more to not have an intermission.

The customers did appreciate the break. If they didn't want an intermission, they shouldn't have mentioned it in the voice-over.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 02-06-2016, 05:24 PM:

quote: James Waite
So what's the rewind bit for?

For the same purpose it is used e.g. in tv serials/feature intermissions - in order to replay the last couple of seconds before the intermission in order to allow the audience to tune back into the story. That is clearly for features without a dedicated intermission. It would be useless to play the last seconds before the fade-to-black intermission point of 'The Hateful Eight'.

- Carsten

Posted by James Waite (Member # 4536) on 02-06-2016, 06:24 PM:

I wondered if it was something like that.

I found a fun 10 minute countdown.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QF9rciWvGXI

This is where DCP-O-Matic is so useful.