Here We Go Again! (BUGONIA Aspect Ratio)

[Jim Cassedy]

I've got a preview show of this coming up soon, and just a 'heads-up' to everyone that
BUGONIA is in another asinine aspect ratio. "F-150" to be exact, according to the CPL:
Bugonia_FTR-5_F-150_EN-en-CCAP_US-CA_51-HI-VI_4K_. . etc, etc

The framing chart looks like this on the DCP
BugoniaFraming.jpg

. . . and it looks like this i played with lens and masking set to standard FLAT
(- - low res, un-color balanced picture with the houselites up a bit- - )
BugoniaFraming2.jpg

FYI, last month, at a certain big film festival, we had content in FOURTEEN friggin' different aspect ratios ! ! !
Most of them were for NETFLIX DCP's, and yes, we had to set macros and masking for all of them.
We spent over 2½ hours one morning setting nothing but lens files & masking settings. I felt like I had
been sent to Aspect-Ratio-Hell!

[Agnius Acus]

Thanks for the heads-up.

It's not a big deal. Most people don't care unless the image doesn't fill the screen either vertically or horizontally.

I'm wondering if lightsteering can reduce letter/pillarboxing glow. That would help a lot in places without masking.

[Ryan Gallagher]

Maybe they just wanted to join the VistaVision aspect ratio band wagon because it's hip again. ;-)

I feel ya on the festival modes... our big festival does not demand we do anything other than show such films pillarboxed with a flat screen exposed... but because our keystone is so severe I usually take it upon myself to set proper masking and Screen/ILS files for the unusual ones. It's gotten easier now that I have most of the funny ones pre-made. Where that bites me is the festival provided content won't fit in that masking, so I have to re-do all their pre-roll DCPs for unusual masking situations.

[Armand Daiguillon]

These people (film makers) need to realize for a movie like this we will play it same as any other Flat movie. If it does not fit the screen right ....that is on THEM, They need to check their egos and conform to what is "normal" or be wiling to suffer in how there movie looks in the end.

[Gordon McLeod]

These people (film makers) need to realize for a movie like this we will play it same as any other Flat movie. If it does not fit the screen right ....that is on THEM, They need to check their egos and conform to what is "normal" or be wiling to suffer in how there movie looks in the end.

I very much disagree the obligation is on the theatre to play it correctly. If enough theatres dont then filmmakers have other means of exhibiting their films

[Jim Cassedy]

These people (film makers) need to realize for a movie
like this we will play it same as any other Flat movie. If it does not fit the screen right
....that is on THEM, They need to check their egos and conform to what is "normal"
or be wiling to suffer in how there movie looks in the end.

I've got the advance preview for this tonight, which includes an intro and a live Q&A after
the movie with the director or somebody. (I'm not sure who the studio is sending) - Although
it will be playing in an auditorium with movable masking, it is technically and physically
impossible to adjust it to BUGONIA's aspect ratio - - so it will go on screen as FLAT.
Three days ago I was promised a background slide they want on screen during the Q&A,
which I'm still waiting for. I can hardly wait to see what aspect ratio it will be in!

> A very intelligent, young film-student visited me in the 70mm booth last night, and we had
a discussion about this. That visit may have changed that young man's life, and the future of
film exhibition, if he remembers our conversation when he becomes a famous director.

[Armand Daiguillon]

I very much disagree the obligation is on the theatre to play it correctly. If enough theatres dont then filmmakers have other means of exhibiting their films

Unfortunately that is just not reality. As someone who worked for both a big chain like AMC and now has my own theaters - to ask a theater to accommodate this just won't happen.
This is not just about masking (which to be blunt is almost obsolete in many theaters) theaters do not have people with the technical knowledge to go into their projector and adjust things like screen and image files to make their projector show these things in the best possible way. That's just not the reality of the situation. You can say its for the theaters to make it happen - but it won't .....

Also, you mention if theaters don't play it right the film makers will take their films elsewhere, but no ...its not on the film makers to decide who plays their films. Its not their film. Its the studios film. And everybody from AMC down to the little guys like me are mostly going to show it the same way.

[Stefan Scholz]

Vista 1.5:1 historically never existed this way, deduct the soundtrack, and you got 1.85:1.
Today this ratio is a rather standard AR in digital film cameras, and of course full format. still cameras. Not everyone shooting a movie today will be aware of the 1.89:1 imager chip ratio found in theatre projectors, and many think in smartphone screen ratios, rather than theatrical AR standards. This is, why we have horizontal and vertical masking installed upfront the screen.
It?s nasty to set up new screen and lens files, masking and keystone correction files for each and every new title that comes in another weird, and not standardized AR, but seems unavoidable.
If something can be done to stand out for a film maker, it will be done.

[Antti Näyhä]

BugoniaFraming.jpg

I love it that it's 3241 x 2160 instead of plain old boring 3240 x 2160.

[Sascha Roll]

Already looking forward to our 35mm print.
Almost 100% sure it will be 1,50:1 inside a Flat 1,85 image...

[Jim Cassedy]

Already looking forward to our 35mm print.
Almost 100% sure it will be 1,50:1 inside a Flat 1,85 image...

I'll be curious to see what they send you. Our OBAA 70mm engagement ends
this Wed, since we've got a firm commitment for TRON ARIES in Barco HDR.
(BarcoVision??) But the week after that, we're opening "After The Hunt" in 35mm.

[Ryan Gallagher]

Already looking forward to our 35mm print.
Almost 100% sure it will be 1,50:1 inside a Flat 1,85 image...

Oof. Better you than me, I’ve exhausted my plate filing quota for a bit.

[Jim Cassedy]

Already looking forward to our 35mm print.
Almost 100% sure it will be 1,50:1 inside a Flat 1,85 image...

I guess I've been too busy with 70mm O-B-A-A shows that I didn't notice that
we ARE getting this in 35mm, following a weeks-worth of "After The Hunt"
shows, also in 35mm which start next week.

[Luis Wesner]

Maybe they just wanted to join the VistaVision aspect ratio band wagon because it's hip again. ;-)

Actually it was shot on VistaVision, and not just select scenes like Poor Things or The Brutalist, but 95% of the whole movie according to Robbie Ryan, even One Battle After Another only had 70-80% of scenes shot in it

[Ryan Gallagher]

Actually it was shot on VistaVision, and not just select scenes like Poor Things or The Brutalist, but 95% of the whole movie according to Robbie Ryan, even One Battle After Another only had 70-80% of scenes shot in it

Well that explains that one. Just staying true to the camera format then!