Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Harry Potter

This is topic Harry Potter in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Andy Muirhead (Member # 712) on 10-16-2001, 06:53 PM:

Only a few weeks to go before Harry Potter hits our screens. Probably most of you are at the stage of negotiating terms, as we are (ouch!).

Thing that struck us most was Warners confirmed running time was approx 2hrs30min! For what is essentially a kids film? Yeah i know a lot of adults are excited about it too, but two and a half hours? here in the UK, we are hoping for a PG certificate which basically means we can have any age in. Can you see 4 year olds sitting contendly for two and a half hours? Ok could make some revenue for the sales (sweets, etc), but it's a bit long!

What do you think?

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-16-2001, 07:25 PM:

If it's a good movie, they'll sit (with maybe a bathroom break or two!). If it's a bad movie, it doesn't matter if it's 60 minutes long, they'll be fidgeting.

I've never read any of the books, but I know how thick they are... So I would guess that they tried to work in as many of the details as they possibly could, because if they shortchanged the story at all, word of mouth will be terrible.

Posted by Josh Jones (Member # 447) on 10-17-2001, 10:15 AM:

I think scarry movie two said it best.....

"Harry Pot Smoker"

Just my two cents

Josh

Posted by Bernard Tonks (Member # 809) on 10-18-2001, 07:04 AM:

They should allow an Intermission for any picture running 2 ½ hours, especially for children. I just hope there will be a larger ratio of adults in the evenings anyway. Heard yesterday that the running time is 153 minutes, PG, Scope (Super 35).

Posted by Michael Brown (Member # 890) on 10-19-2001, 02:15 PM:

has it been classified PG allready

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Michael Brown
Head of projection
An un-disclosed cinema

Posted by Andy Muirhead (Member # 712) on 10-19-2001, 05:51 PM:

Last i heard (Monday) it was still awaiting classification. We are fingers crossed for PG

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 10-19-2001, 06:10 PM:

An intermission would be WONDERFUL for theaters to boost their concession sales! I doubt Warner will allow it though.

Posted by James R. Hammonds, Jr (Member # 673) on 10-19-2001, 07:09 PM:

We got the banner today and it had a PG on it.

Posted by Arthur Allen (Member # 969) on 10-21-2001, 11:41 AM:

*Ahem*

That's "Harry Pot Head" in Scarry Movie 2

Posted by Jonathan M. Crist (Member # 413) on 10-25-2001, 08:07 PM:

Saw Harry Potter today at an exhibitor screening at the GCC Franklin Mills 14 in Philadelphia. By my watch it clocked in at 2 hours 31 minutes, 30 seconds. About 2 hours and 25 of picture and 6 and one half minutes of credits.

The picture was very deliberate in getting where it was going but held the full attention of the 'intended audience' (anyone above about 8 years old who has read the book).

The problems we as exhibitors will face was graphically illustrated by the family sitting in the row in front of me. The family consisted of a father, mother and three children ages approx 12, 9 and 5. The 12 and 9 year old were enthralled. After about 30 minutes the 5 year old had enough and began to wander first between her parents (who were on either end of the kids), then throughout the row and then up and down the aisle(playing on the stadium risers). The father fell asleep; the exhasperated mother kept trying to alternately quiet and occupy the 5 year old.

For this parents should leave the real young ones (under 7) at home. (In my opinion it really pushes the envelope for a PG with many frightening scenes). However it is inevitable that the whole family will come along (including the real young ones) and the problems that I experienced will be repeated.

If any adult or filmgoer really wants to enjoy this film (and there is much to enjoy) I would seriously recommend waiting for a 9:30 PM (or later) show.

This was my first visit to the Franklin Mills and the presentation left much to be desired. The print (a wetgate studio dye transfer) was very dark particularly in the opening reels. As soon as it hit the screen there was a noticeable flicker. The picture had that fading dull look of a bulb on its last legs. When I finally went to the booth to complain about the sound (more on that below), I noticed that the bulb in the lamphouse (4,000 watts which should have sufficient) had over 18,000 hours on it. (The fallout from Chapter 11?) I got the impression that the projectionist felt that as long as the bulb still struck there was no need to change it.

The presentation was intended to be in DTS (which was the only digital format available for that screen). Well it was...Sort of. The print came with two discs which looked like they had home made in someone's CD burner. Disc One had reels 1,3,5, 7, and 9 and Disc 2 had reels 2,4, 6 and 8. A couple minutes into the feature Disc One quit and would not run anymore at all for the rest of the show. It was readily apparent that the analog was missing a good part of the center channel. Upon my complaint, it was explained to me that since they didn't use the analog much they had never bothered to optimize it. When the DTS worked, the sound was excellent. But the end result was 20 minutes of Analog and 20 minutes of Digital alternating throughout the show.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 10-25-2001, 08:16 PM:

Are you sure about that "wetgate studio dye transfer print"? What did you see that proved to you it was a dye transfer?

Posted by Jonathan M. Crist (Member # 413) on 10-25-2001, 08:32 PM:

It had the telltale small circle cue marks as opposed to the standard big black dots.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 10-25-2001, 08:43 PM:

But were the cue dots green? The size of the cue dots doesn't matter.

Posted by Jonathan M. Crist (Member # 413) on 10-25-2001, 08:48 PM:

The cue marks were brown and not green.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 10-25-2001, 09:07 PM:

I've never heard of that. Mr.Pytlak???

In any case, that was not a dye transfer print.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 10-25-2001, 09:39 PM:

Sorry, I don't think you can get brown cue marks by simple scribing or opaqing of a pre-print element, regardless of the film system used.

The classic green Technicolor cue marks on dye transfer prints are made by scribing the matrice that transfers the magenta dye to the print.

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

Posted by Michael Castronovo (Member # 621) on 10-26-2001, 03:08 AM:

I had the pleasure of viewing this film at a private screening last thursday and i have to say.....I love it!
Beautiful print, great sound, great composer (john williams of course) and all around entertaining. yes it's true its 2 hours and 30 minutes, but it flew by very quickly. it is rated PG, to confirm any doubts, but it seem to be border line in some scences between PG and PG-13 in my opinion.
I think this film will be a great success and plan on many sequels to come.

-Michael

Posted by Bob Healey (Member # 1003) on 10-26-2001, 10:49 AM:

If they follow the trend of the books, each sequal will be longer...

Posted by Michael Brown (Member # 890) on 10-26-2001, 02:51 PM:

This film has just been given its british PG certificate.
And the BBFc list it as 152min 13 seconds.

Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 10-27-2001, 09:23 PM:

Hand scribed cue marks?

Likely what you saw was an EK print. (print struck from the original camera negative)

-Aaron