This is topic Lord of Rings Screenings in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Henning Anderson (Member # 725) on 12-05-2001, 06:12 PM:
Is this a first? I just saw Lord of the rings today at a screening for Cinema bosses in Denmark. The film was shown yesterday december 4 in Copenhagen (at Cinemaxx) and today in Vejle (Lido cinema). Has the film been shown anywhere else yet. I was wondering if the distributor has arranged one date all over the world to make sure their marketing is universal?I would also like to know if anybody knows if the film was shot in "real" scope or just super-35. Some for the scenes looked a bit grainy, but I haven't been to this cinema before so I don't know if it is the print or the presentation, but i'm willing to give the projectionist the benefit of the doubt. You gotta have faith in your collegues :-)
Posted by Phil Connolly (Member # 465) on 12-06-2001, 03:42 AM:
It was shot on Super 35.
Posted by Aaron Haney (Member # 747) on 12-06-2001, 05:37 AM:
I was a bit disappointed when I first learned the LOTR movies were being shot in Super-35, but then again, I've seen so much variance in what I see on the screen in recent years, that I'm beginning to think it doesn't matter.Some Super-35 movies look fantastic. "Driven" is one example. (And yes, despite what the IMDb says, it was Super-35 -- just take a look at it on video and you'll see that it was definitely spherically photographed.) And, some "real" scope movies look like utter crap. "Heartbreakers" with Sigourney Weaver is one that comes to mind -- it looked extremely grainy when I saw it in the theater. Of course, the reverse is also often true: some Super-35 movies look bad, and a lot of Panavision movies look good. But it doesn't seem to be guaranteed anymore, if it ever was, which will be the case.
Peter Jackson seems to be a director who cares about image quality. For example, I remember "The Frighteners" was one of the better looking Super-35 films I've seen. And an article I read recently about special effects for the films mentions that some of the shots were even rendered at 4K resolution!
So I'm a little surprised and disappointed to hear that some of the scenes looked grainy, but I'm hoping that, overall, the film will have good image quality. Henning, was it really bad, or just mildly noticable?
Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 12-06-2001, 09:17 AM:
Several articles on the cinematography of "Fellowship of the Ring" are in the December 2001 issue of American Cinematographer. All three films were shot in New Zealand by cinematographer Andrew Lesnie with Arriflex cameras in the Super-35 format, using Kodak 5245, 5293, 5279 and SO-214 camera films. The films were given slight overexposure to place the scene information "up the curve" on the finer grained emulsions and offset the disadvantage of the smaller negative image area with Super-35.------------------
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 Henning Anderson (Member # 725) on 12-06-2001, 10:01 AM:
Aaron. I only noticed the grainyness in a few scenes and as I said I haven't been to this cinema before, and it was a big screen. The screen size i found on the net puts it to 13x6 meters. That could account for it. Overall the film looked nice, but i'll have another look in two weeks time when it hits my screen (roughly same size 12x5 meters)
Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 12-09-2001, 08:12 PM:
Henning: The Lord of the Rings is being released 12/19 everywhere except Italy (January) and Japan (February/March). New Line arranged this worldwide release date with all their subdistributors.Marketing? Each subdistributor is handling LOTR differently depending on local customs. In Germany, Warner Bros. will handle LOTR and had LOTR trailers attached to Harry Potter.
Posted by James R. Hammonds, Jr (Member # 673) on 12-10-2001, 11:56 PM:
New Line is offering a 12:01 tueasday night/wednesday morning show.
Anyone doing it?
Posted by Steven Pickles (Member # 785) on 12-11-2001, 12:29 AM:
James,Nope, can't say that I'm disappointed about it either. 
Posted by James R. Hammonds, Jr (Member # 673) on 12-12-2001, 02:44 AM:
We got word today we are doing it.
I sure hope we get these prints Monday instead of Tuesday so we don't end up in the same situation we did with Harry Potter.
When we did the midnight for that one, we didn't get the prints until Thursday (the day of the midnight) so we had to cancel a show just to get the print screened.
Posted by Per Hauberg (Member # 529) on 12-14-2001, 07:54 PM:
Henning: Then You should have been at FiskeCity the day before....
25 meter (75 feet) wide scope, and the for the time being most popular "pre-screenings always on dolby level 7" technique.
Grains (in selected scenes) were HUGE - although the all-over picture quality was better than i've expected for that screen size. -The Kinoton FP 30E really does a nice job over there, but still: Bigger is not always better !
(Jyllands-Posten har rent faktisk engang sammenlignet KinoMaxX og Malling - og elskværdigt noteret, at "Småt er smukt". -Vi ses nok en dag. -Hils i Esbjerg)Per
Posted by German Marin (Member # 918) on 12-15-2001, 12:51 AM:
We'll show it this saturday (dec 15) on all 7 screen only for the bosses. i've maked up it today but i just got 7 reels (they said that is more safety to avoid copy).
Posted by Paul Cassidy (Member # 951) on 12-18-2001, 02:05 PM:
We had a Media showing of the film Last night and the Premier Tonight NZ time , at the Newly Restored Embassy theatre (New 70mm Screen)could be the only True 70mm theatre left in NZ
http://www.wcc.govt.nz/wellington/heritage/inventory/pg273.htm claiming to be the biggest screen in NZ, would be good if it were 70mm guess they have to drop the masking for this one.
Posted by Paul Cassidy (Member # 951) on 12-18-2001, 02:14 PM:
Sorry guys the site is playing up , if you get the search button ,enter Embassy Cinema and this will take you to the Cinema History ,not too sure what type of 70mm projection as the DP70 is not shown as at this location .
Posted by Paul Cassidy (Member # 951) on 12-19-2001, 01:50 PM:
If you click on the New Page ,today you will see the Troll on top of the Embassy for last nights Premier.