70MM The Odyssey

[Aron Toplitsky]

Hello All,

I have not seen the film yet, but did poke my head into a 5/70 screening at my local cinema at AMC Del Amo 18 in Torrance CA. And to my disbelief, the film was being projected letter boxed on a common height screen. Please tell me this is incorrect?

[Ryan Gallagher]

If they have a common height screen normally they would have movable side masking... but perhaps that room's system is down.

If you have masking you should use it, 100%. But plenty of rooms don't these days. Though I would hope generally speaking any room offering 5perf 70mm screenings would, but maybe not.

[Aron Toplitsky]

If they have a common height screen normally they would have movable side masking... but perhaps that room's system is down.

If you have masking you should use it, 100%. But plenty of rooms don't these days. Though I would hope generally speaking any room offering 5perf 70mm screenings would, but maybe not.

Actually their screens have that top up and down moving masking, not sure what the tech term is. I've seen plenty of films there where they mask scope films. So I just don't understand why they didn't mask this presentation, unless like you said, their system is down. I would be quite pissed if I had paid money for that!

[Ian Puffenberger]

If they have up and down masking that's a common width screen. They almost certainly only have masking settings for scope and flat; very few chain theaters will have anything more than that. So it's either letterboxed with a larger picture (but also larger boxes) or pillar-boxed inside the scope masking with a smaller picture (and boxes). I'm going to just go ahead and assume it was on a medium-sized screen as well. Ultimately, unless they have the ability and skill to show it properly on their largest screens, chain multiplexes are no place for 70mm.

[Jim Cassedy]

<edited> If they have a common height screen normally they would
have movable side masking...but perhaps that room's system is down.

Thanks for giving the projectionist the 'benefit of a doubt". Let me tell you what I've had
happen to me at my venue: My 70mm film playlists are often creatively convoluted, because
I know exactly how long it takes for our curtains to open, for the masking to move, for the audio
processor to switch formats, etc. So, for someone not familiar with 'my' booth, some playlists
may look overly complicated. One of the things I lke to do for 70mm shows, is to program all
of our (digital) pre-show shorts and trailers, etc in FLAT, and then, I have an automation cue
open up the masking wide when the 70mm hits the screen, to give a certain "wow" factor.
(more than one customer has commented they like how our screen 'expands' for 70mm)

Unfortunately (for me) corporate programmers can remotely modify my playlists to add or
remove content, and sometimes, not all my custom cues wind up where they should be or
occasionally they're not there at all. Since my theater chain operates across the USA, and
the 'cloud people' who 'fix' my playlists are in a different time zone, these changes very
often happen very early in the morning, or very late at night, when I'm not around.

Although I've asked them to let me know if they make any changes, or better yet, let
me know what changes need to be made, and then let ME make them, this doesn't
always happen. ( Unfortunately, there's no way for me to 'lock' a playlist so it can't be
changed remotely, although they can lock their playlists so < I > can't edit them, but
I've sort of found a way to do that anyway) So, I have occasionally had strange things
happen during a show where the masking doesn't wind up where it should be or the
sound isn't in the right format. . , but it's not always my fault. I did have a masking
issue recently, which I didn't catch until several minutes into the first reel because a
manager came in to ask me a semi-important question, and I didn't catch the masking
issue right away. Luckily nothing was cut-off. The top/bottom masking was open too
wide, which gave the appearance of the picture being 'letterboxed' because of the blank
screen above & below the image. I did manually fix it, rather than leave it that way.

[Ed Gordon]

What do Olivia Wilde, James Cameron and Mark Jenkin all have in common? Each filmmaker has, in one way or another, paid thanks to film projectionists by referring to them as the last member of the crew. After enormous teams spend months, if not years, working on a film, it’s the projectionists who hold the final result in their hands and work their own magic to bring movies to life on the big screen.

In Seattle, that final member of the crew is Aaron Ridenour, and he’s having a busy month.

A longtime projectionist and technician who travels from state to state plying his trade, Ridenour was one of the last to play 70mm films at Cinerama before it went dark in 2020. Though much has changed, including the name of the theater itself, it’s Ridenour who will be there once more running 70mm screenings, long a staple of the space. This time, he’s overseeing all the screenings of Christopher Nolan’s highly anticipated epic “The Odyssey” at SIFF Cinema Downtown July 16-26 and July 31-Aug. 2.

The full article with photos continued at: SIFF’s 70mm screenings of ‘The Odyssey’ are thanks to this projectionist

[Mark Ogden]

I'm curious; I see 70mm prints of The Odyssey shipping on three triple-sized reels and loaded onto platters. What happens if, like the fellow above, you want to run it as a changeover? What reel configuration do you get from the distributor? Is it cue marked?

[Ryan Gallagher]

Distributors are usually aligning their distribution methods to the needs of the theatre. All of the above are semi-compatible with platter houses... but R2R houses will get specific distribution, these days I think most distributors want you to be able to handle 24" reels if doing change over? But Brad could probably better answer that.

That said, it was most definitely more than 3 reels if you were being asked to build up from 24" reels. Combining onto larger for platter houses is just a choice, might depend on their build-up/loading systems.

[Sean McKinnon]

Aron Toplitsky, The masking is actually non-functional in that room. Not sure if its broken or has been removed but unfortunately there is no functional movable masking in that room.

[Javier de Blas]

Funny thing projecting the film. Even though we are using dts for the soundtrack on 70mm 5 perf. There's no mention to datasat or dts in the sound credits at the end of the picture.

[Aron Toplitsky]

Aron Toplitsky, The masking is actually non-functional in that room. Not sure if its broken or has been removed but unfortunately there is no functional movable masking in that room.

That's a shame, but thanks for that info! I hope it's not a new policy at that theater.

[Marco Giustini]

Funny thing projecting the film. Even though we are using dts for the soundtrack on 70mm 5 perf. There's no mention to datasat or dts in the sound credits at the end of the picture.

Reminds me decades ago when I used to wait the end of the credits to see "what sound format the film had been presented with" ?

I'd imagine in 2026 there is not much left of DTS Marketing dept!

[Bobby Henderson]

I could be wrong, but I think the reason no DTS logo is listed in the end credits of The Odyssey is due to murky trademark/patents issues.

IIRC, FotoKem is now the owner (or final caretaker) of the original DTS Theatrical format IP. A good while back the consumer electronics side of DTS separated itself from the theatrical side, spinning the theatrical portion off into what became Datasat Digital Entertainment. But now Datasat itself is largely a consumer electronics company now. I'm not sure if the company still has anything to do with supporting the theatrical DTS format. I'm not even sure if the AP-25 cinema processor product they sell is compatible with the old DTS Theatrical audio format (it does support consumer DTS-HD Master Audio though). It seems like most 5/70 projection setups are using DTS XD10 and XD20 units in the booth racks. Anyway, both DTS and Datasat companies still technically exist. So it could be tricky using either DTS or Datasat brands in advertising purposes on movie posters or end credit listings. In the film lab and projection booths most still refer to the audio format as DTS.

I really wish the DTS time code on 35mm and 70mm film prints could simply made an industry standard, general purpose time code so other audio formats could be synchronized to it. The old DTS format was decent, but now lossless audio is common and available in high bit rates. And then there are the immersive formats like Dolby Atmos. It's clear there is legit consumer demand for film-based projection in cinemas. I think the appeal would be boosted by improving the audio playback options. The magnetic analog audio tracks aren't coming back. Higher quality digital is the only way to get around the data-lossy nature of the old DTS audio format.

[Chris Haller]

I really wish the DTS time code on 35mm and 70mm film prints could simply made an industry standard, general purpose time code so other audio formats could be synchronized to it.

Isn't that what Boston Light and Sound's new TS-1 processor is supposed to do?

[Sean McKinnon]