Film Students Who Don't Watch Films

[Ed Gordon]

The longest movie ever made is "Logistics," which has a running time of 857 hours (35 days and 17 hours). It documents the journey of a pedometer in reverse chronology from its sale in Sweden back to its factory in China.

Source: Guinness World Records

Good thing it was not produced by Martin Scorcese.

Thelma Schoonmaker, the Oscar-winning editor, who has worked with Scorsese on every one of his films since Raging Bull in 1980, told the Evening Standard that running the film with an unsanctioned interval was “not right”. The argument is that films are carefully constructed to be watched exactly as presented.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I'm not sure if the entire movie ever made it to YouTube, but at least you can see the first 6 parts, each about 8 hours of it online.

We can always ask Martin Scorcese or Michael Bay for a remake or maybe this could be their first (and last) cooperation.

According to Wikipedia, the longest cinematic film is "Resan" at 873 minutes, filmed in 1987. That feels like Lord of the Rings Special Extended Edition Marathon ballpark figures...

[Jim Cassedy]

About a decade ago, I was hired by Stanford University to run a very long
35mm documentary for a bunch of political science students that had a
running time of about about 5½ or 6hrs and was 15 or 16 reels, I think.
I was told it was a 'well known' documentary produced in Europe in the
1960's, and that it had been re-edited and updated some time in the late
1980's or early 90's. I've tried searching for a title but am coming up
empty handed. There was no official 'intermission' per se, but we had
agreed to take a break about 1/2 way through. There was a decent
number of students in the on-campus auditorium at the start, and
although the auditorium was slightly less full after the break, and I
was a little surprised at how many of them managed to stick through
the whole thing, although when it was over the campus police did
have to wake up a few people who had dozed off at some point
during the show. I probably would have dozed off too, if I didn't have
all those change-overs to do! (Their Simplex XL's still had reel alarms)

[Tj Hopland]

Are you sure this didn't start happening a long time ago and this is how we end up with some of the movies we have today?

[Bobby Henderson]

I'll give a shout out to "Shoah" (1985). It's one of the best documentaries made in the 1980's. Its running time is 9 hours and 26 minutes. "Shoah" didn't make much money in theatrical release. I can't tell if it's available on a streaming service. It would be easier to watch as a mini series.

What seems crazy is that while lots of people, particularly the younger set, have declining attention spans it sure doesn't seem to be preventing Hollywood studios from making movies over 3 hours in length. My theory on why they seem comfortable with that is the streaming platform. That allows people with short attention spans to watch a long movie or binge watch a series in segments at a time or just "watch" the movie while also playing with their phones and other digital pacifiers.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I'll give a shout out to "Shoah" (1985). It's one of the best documentaries made in the 1980's. Its running time is 9 hours and 26 minutes. "Shoah" didn't make much money in theatrical release. I can't tell if it's available on a streaming service. It would be easier to watch as a mini series.

Was it released to theaters as "miniseries" or actually as one 9-hour long movie?

[Martin McCaffery]

Shoah was released as a on 9 hour movie. If I recall correctly, it was shown with an intermission.

[Kieran Hall]

I'm sure I've said this on here before, but I've fairly consistently found that it's much easier to get undergrad students interested in the 70mm epics (especially 2001 and Lawrence) than it was 10 years ago.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Shoah was released as a on 9 hour movie. If I recall correctly, it was shown with an intermission.

That would've been a nice workout for all those who ran that in changeover...

A 9-hour movie split in two would be close to the maximum of most platter systems, which is around 4 to 4.5 hours.

[Ryan Gallagher]

For comparison what is the theoretical max runtime of a 4k 5.1 (non HDR) DCP delivered on the classic 250GB CRUs, with standard-ish bitrates?

I’m just wondering if this is another nuance where 35mm with platters was slightly superior? Obviously change over has unlimited runtime, just gotta convince someone to print it, ship it and run it.

Not that anyone should make films that long, and showing such beasts to film students is probably encouraging film makers to be horrible in the edit suite.

[Frank Cox]

Obviously change over has unlimited runtime

So does dcp, as far as I know. If you exceed the maximum size of a single dcp (whatever that may be, if there even is a limit) just add "part 2" "part 3" and "part 29" to the playlist.

[Leo Enticknap]

I probably would have dozed off too, if I didn't have all those change-overs to do! (Their Simplex XL's still had reel alarms)

Reminds me of the occasion when, working in a London arthouse, I accidentally did something to relieve the attention span burden of the audience. The projectors were the original variant of the Norelco/DP-70, with two separate motors for 24 and 30 FPS. The previous evening, Oklahoma had played in 70, with the chief officiating. The following day, I was scheduled to play Seven Samurai on around 10 reels of 35. The chief lived locally and frequented the pub near the cinema, almost always for a drink after work but often on his evenings off as well. At the start of my shift, he came in to help me convert the machines from 70 to 35 (which I had only done once before, also under supervision, and so he wanted to be sure that I knew what I was doing), and then retired to his, shall we say, "office."

As he left, I remarked that I might join him for an after work pint at the end of the shift, before heading for the tube station and home. The chief paused for a moment, before responding "Sorry mate, you won't have time." The show started at 7.30, and the film was something like 195 minutes. Even though this place never showed any ads or trailers (it was always straight in to the feature) and there was no intermission, a 10.45p finish time, followed by lamp cool down and completing the report, meant that I'd miss last orders (in those days, all pubs in the UK were required by law to stop serving booze at 11p).

So imagine his surprise when I showed up at 10.55 or so, just in time for a beer! You must have got the running time wrong, I commented, because it finished at around 10.15. There is no way that number of reels could be done in under three hours, he countered. After a lot of head scratching, we realized what had happened. When we'd converted the projectors from 70mm to 35mm operation, we'd forgotten to move the motor clutch, with the result that Seven Samurai ran at 30 FPS. Incredibly, there were no customer complaints, even though this theater's regulars were probably among the most knowledgeable cinephiles in the world, who would frequently bug the programmers if a scene they remembered in some obscure Hungarian B-movie from the 1930s was not in the print they'd just seen, etc. etc.

[Marcel Birgelen]

So imagine his surprise when I showed up at 10.55 or so, just in time for a beer! You must have got the running time wrong, I commented, because it finished at around 10.15. There is no way that number of reels could be done in under three hours, he countered. After a lot of head scratching, we realized what had happened. When we'd converted the projectors from 70mm to 35mm operation, we'd forgotten to move the motor clutch, with the result that Seven Samurai ran at 30 FPS. Incredibly, there were no customer complaints, even though this theater's regulars were probably among the most knowledgeable cinephiles in the world, who would frequently bug the programmers if a scene they remembered in some obscure Hungarian B-movie from the 1930s was not in the print they'd just seen, etc. etc.

It indeed depends a lot on the audience, but there often has a lot to happen before anyone starts complaining...

I "famously" played an entire reel that somebody forgot to rewind... I remember that we got the movie in late, had no time to build it, so the first show was in changeover. Now, the room wasn't really packed, but still, we had like just a single compliant...

[Frank Cox]

Two of the people who came to last nights movie (Mercy in 3d) apparently didn't actually watch the movie because after the show I picked up their Real D glasses. They were on the floor still in their wrappers.

This has happened before but rarely and usually with little kids, not adults.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Did they leave during or after the show? I've seen people without 3D glasses in 3D shows before... I'm not sure what they must be thinking. I know that some people cannot handle 3D. Some cinemas offer "2D glasses" for those people, those are glasses with the same polarizer in both eyes. Still, watching a 3D movie without glasses seems very awkward to me.