Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Dear Mr Scorsese.This is what they did to your movie last night.

This is topic Dear Mr Scorsese.This is what they did to your movie last night. in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by System Notices (Member # 2357) on 01-17-2012, 01:23 AM:

Link to video

Posted by Ian Parfrey (Member # 5122) on 01-17-2012, 02:24 AM:

..and the funniest thing is that this WAS RECORDED!
But, as we all know, this is piracy and a crime punishable by dancing hamsters eating your brains.

So many things are wrong here it is beyond a joke.

To quote a poster on the You tube page ...

quote:

Congratulations, Regal. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS when there is NOBODY UPSTAIRS to catch this stuff... A projectionist could've been there to shut-off the pre-show, but Presentation and Artistic Integrity be damned, we're saving payroll.

'Nuff said.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 01-17-2012, 02:58 AM:

I really like how the pre-show is about 10 times brighter than the movie itself. Regal's attitude is likely one of "Movie projector? Screw that! Don't give it more than 100 watts. Pre-show machine? That brings in revenue, give it a full 1000 watts!" Of course, that's as bright as Regal gets.

Also, don't most competent facilities run the preshow through the regular projector nowadays? Seems redundant and costly to have a shitty little projector sitting next to it just for preshows. But hey, who's to argue with Regal's infinite wisdom?

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 01-17-2012, 03:04 AM:

They got bright preshow projectors .. this was film, not digital then since their preshow in the digital houses runs through the main projector.

Did anybody come out to the lobby and complained on this to the ones in charge? Guess not...

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 01-17-2012, 03:43 AM:

There is a guy in the Youtube comments demanding that Regal is now 100% digital. He sounded authoritative, so he must be right.

Posted by Frank B. McLaughlin (Member # 6683) on 01-17-2012, 08:24 AM:

"a shitty little projector sitting next to it just for preshows"

The really sad thing is that little projector with a 2000 watt bulb at 720p is sometimes more capable of producing a better image on the screen than the expensive stuff. The theater (in the top ten of circuits) I was once employed at sometimes used Blu-Ray and the preshow digital projector as presentation source. You should have been there!

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 01-17-2012, 09:17 AM:

The Regal's Union Square Complex in NYC is one of the worst places to see a movie in the city. With film now I see they have continued to the next generation.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 01-17-2012, 10:48 AM:

720p? All of the stuff I've seen has been 480p, or at least it looks like it.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 01-17-2012, 11:06 AM:

Just goes to show there are plenty of ways to do digital wrong. It ain't perfect, folks. That's despite the "digital" buzz word.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 01-17-2012, 11:20 AM:

quote:
Congratulations, Regal. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS when there is NOBODY UPSTAIRS to catch this stuff... A projectionist could've been there to shut-off the pre-show, but Presentation and Artistic Integrity be damned, we're saving payroll.

The preshow didn't start until the last 20 minutes, after 2 "film breaks". This would've happened at that site whether there was a guy in the booth or not. Either their automation has issues and caused it to happen, or the person fixing the problem didn't know how to properly restart the movie causing the preshow to come back on after awhile.

Either way the problem was the people operating the booth equipment.

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 01-18-2012, 01:20 AM:

I dunno, Brad. Sounds like whoever hooked up the automation to the pre-shows didn't do a very thorough job.
Our 35mm houses have a dry-contact relay driven off the motor circuit. If the motor is on, the pre-show is off.
Of course when there's something wrong with the server and the idiots override the failsafe within it that's another story...
99 times out of a 100 the fault is ALWAYS in the ad machine and not the automation because SIMPLE is frequently better.

This crap never happened when the preshow was a Kodak Ektograph or equivalent and non-sync...

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 01-18-2012, 08:35 PM:

Since they had already two "film" breaks, I will bet that the pre-show was just on its own automation (or some kind of timer) and just came on when it was originally supposed to for the next scheduled show.

What amazes me is that somebody from the audience didn't go say something within, oh maybe 30 seconds of it starting. This went on for 20 minutes? The problem could have been fixed in five seconds by putting a piece of cardboard over the pre-show projector lens.

The audience members must have all been stoned or something, the way they're laughing it up on that video.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 01-18-2012, 08:49 PM:

....they could have simply flipped off the power to the preshow units.... Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out.

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 01-19-2012, 11:55 PM:

Monte - you're assuming that someone from the theatre was watching.

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 01-21-2012, 08:20 PM:

Is anyone sure that the theater shown here was using 35mm? I didn't think many places were set up for 3D 35mm, or that it was even being supported very widely. The theaters around here still use a separate projector for the pre-show even if the movie is "digital".

Don't know if that screen is common-width, but if it was and the movie was scope, the pre-show would've been BIGGER than the movie too. You may recall that 10 years ago I LEFT my job as a Real "Booth Manager" because I was forced to have the masking on the common-width screens always go UP for the slides (they hadn't gotten the digital preshow yet but I knew it was coming) then come DOWN when the film started, essentially making the screen smaller for the movie! I simply refused to do that so I left, and have no regrets. Common-width screens shouldn't be used at all, but if you have to have them don't rub it in everyone's face by doing that with them!

Of course it's distasteful to show ANY type of paid ads on theater screens, but that's another topic for another day. Funny that Kia was sponsoring this; I was recently flipping TV channels and saw on The CW Network (which stands for Can't Watch), around the CW logo which was on during the entire show something else popped up that was promoting something from Kia. I went to their website to tell them that I would NEVER buy one of their cars after seeing that, but you had to "register" before they'd let you contact them.

Posted by Victor Liorentas (Member # 5272) on 01-21-2012, 09:06 PM:

Hugo is flat and I played it in 35mm 2d.

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 01-21-2012, 09:24 PM:

Looks like the theater in question was showing it in 3D, but can't tell if it was on film or digital.

Posted by Joseph L. Kleiman (Member # 3097) on 01-25-2012, 07:34 AM:

That particular cineplex shows 3D digitally with the REALD system.

Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 06-09-2012, 10:01 AM:

My pre-show projectors were connected so that when the film projector motor was on, they stayed off. We dont even use them anymore.

I had an issue when we first went digital and had the old pre-show machine kick on for no reason during the show. It was a bad command in the automation, and our tech told me how to clear it. Now, the pre-show is on the big projector.

Except for power failure days, the machines run pretty well.