The first occured a couple of weeks ago when I was showing a 70MM print of '2001: A Space Odyssey'. There was another projectionist on that shift to run the other five screens while I ran the 70MM one. He told me that a patron had stopped him in the foyer during the intermission and asked if he was the projectionist. He said that he was one of them, and the patron said something to the effect of, 'Let the other projectionist know that the presentation of 2001 is excellent!'. The next day, I was talking to one of the ushers who was on during that same shift and without prompting her, she mentioned that there was a general 'buzz' about the presentation as patrons came out for the intermission. She overheard many of them discussing not only the film, but the high quality of the presentation itself, and some of them stopped to mention it to her. While I did go to some lengths to ensure the timing of the lights/curtains was as good as possible during the overture, etc. (it's a manual booth), I would have to say that the 70MM format must take the majority of the credit for this, because I cannot imagine receiving the same level of positive feedback for a 35MM print of the same movie.

The other instance occured earlier tonight. I went to the theatre I work at to see 'The Mummy Returns' with a friend. I built this print on Thursday (the film opened here one week after the US). The onscreen image was extremely bright, sharp and literally free of any visible artifacts. Although not in the industry, he mentioned - within minutes - how pleased he was with the brightness of the image! Later, during the forest/pygmy scene which takes place at night, he once again remarked how wonderful the colors were, and mentioned the rich, powerful reds (the costume worn by one of the villains) and the green of the foliage.

(I should also add that I am particularly pleased with this print. It has not shedded one bit and the projector is spotless after each show - there is nothing to clean! Although it has only had about 25 passes on it thus far, it looks the same to me as when I first ran it straight from the lab on Thursday morning, and I predict that it will look pretty much the same weeks from now (I would have said months, but I don't know how long it will remain popular). It is printed on Kodak 2383 Vision stock.)

So, these two situations reassured me that quality is perceived and enjoyed in a very real, conscious way. What instances have others experienced which back up the case that patrons can tell the difference? A special mention must go to John Wilson who made the vast majority of this possible. He must take the credit. Without him, (to name but one thing) the auditorium in question probably wouldn't have those wonderful 5K Xebex lamphouses!

Thank you for your testimonial to "Film Done Right"! Kodak continues to invest many millions of dollars annually to make the quality of film even better and improve presentation quality.

To paraphrase our friends at THX: "The audience is listening...and watching."
Splendor of 70mm Part 1
Splendor of 70mm Part 2
Technical Data for Kodak VISION Color Print Film 2383

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
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

Demetris Thoupis

More and more people these days are exposed to high tech things inh their own home like digital audio, HDTV, and when attending 70mm Imax and other fine things. This exposure only makes the general public more aware of how good it can look and sound when it is done right. Hence when it happens correctly there is audience reaction to it positively.
Mark @ GTS

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If your sound system was set up and balanced properly and everyone still says it is "too loud", turn down the fader. But you need to factor in whether the complaints are personal preference of just a few sound-sensitive audience members, or just a "hot" mix on a particular trailer or feature.

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
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

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Im sure you have several articles on your
site explaining it.

I believe the problem relates to the two following examples...

PERFECT examples
Trl Pearl Harbor. (got to love ver1 dont you)
Feature Mummy Returns

Both are VERY loud.
That said, I like how loud they are.
I'm amazed there have been been no complaints from the audience, Im happy for that, the 'it's too loud' only seem to only come from clueless floor staff, via 2-two way to to projection, which is mainly ignored.

I've _never_ had a complaint about sound quality or volume when running something in mono (which, of course, I've only done with mono prints or in weird emergency situations). I've gotten a few complaints about volume level when showing films in Dolby A or SR (which, more often than not, were "turn it up"). I've received tons of complaints when showing films in any of the digital formats, almost all of which were "turn it down."

Admittedly, most of the mono films I've run have been art or repertory films and all of the digital presentations that I've run have been mainstream "blockbuster" stuff, but it's still interesting to see how digital generates more complaints even on systems which are generally aligned properly.

Compression in the mixing stage of a soundtrack goes a long way to giving the illusion of "loud". Most trailers are loaded with it. Also, selective eqing of the tracks before they are mixed together on the dubbing stage can make things sound "loud" regardless of the fader setting.

The point that I was trying to make though, is that most problems I see in respect to "it's too loud" and projectionists running the fader at a lower setting stem directly from poor EQing. If the sound tech sets the dials and then packs up without tweeking the final result by ear when listening to a lot of different reels that he is familiar with, you need a new sound guy. Some auditoriums based upon their size and acoustics require more or less treble, bass, and various specific frequencies. Just setting the eq "to the reference line" is a guarantee for crappy sound that will end up being played at 5-6 on the fader to avoid ear fatigue. Actually another good way to see if the eqing was done well without listening is to just look at the dials. Anyone who has large differences between adjacent frequencies is obviously just looking at his RTA. So to clarify the point again, you can take the most perfectly mixed film and run it in an auditorium that was not tweeked well and it will still sound like crap (and need to be played at 5-6 on the fader).

Getting back to the Mummy Returns, that film has a poorly mixed soundtrack from the start (aka "a loud track"). In comparison, the original Mummy feature's soundtrack was the worst I've ever heard. I think many will agree with me on that one. By the way, Gary Rydstrom is one of my favorite mixers. All of his tracks are top notch!

Interesting side note: Does anyone else get a laugh out of that occasional sound tech who comes into a theater to EQ an auditorium, yet seems to be about 100 years old and can't hear worth a flip in day to day life? (They are always easy to spot, for they speak VERY LOUDLY and never seem to understand anything you say to them. Another tip is a tech who just gets "too close" and invades your personal space in an attempt to get closer to your mouth to hear what you are saying.) I actually was at a theater when one of "those guys" stuck his head out of the port window for about 20 seconds after EQing the auditorium and said "that's the best sound I've ever heard". He was basing that judgment on not only 20 seconds of audio, but from the port window with the projector clattering away right beside him and as if that wasn't bad enough, it was a trailer he was listening to as a reference. His end result sound was very shrill, had no low end, was incredibly dull in the upper frequencies and got us a LOT of customer complaints. He probably couldn't even hear above 5k anyway, so maybe it DID sound great to him.

Check out this chart of hearing loss in amplitude vs. audio frequency. Note how severely the upper frequencies are lost as the average man ages.

Just look at that chart. By the time the average man hits 60 years of age, his hearing at only 4000hz is lost 30 decibels! A frequency like 8000hz or even 10,000hz is off the chart. Add to that the all-too-common remark I hear from the senior sound techs of "bass scares people" (so they roll off all the low frequencies) and you've got yourself one hell of an extremely harsh and shrill sound system that must commonly be played at "5" on the fader to prevent from killing everyone else's hearing. This certainly should be taken into effect and I have always been amazed that most people (including THX!) toss this fact aside.

Disclaimer: No offense intended to any of the older techs. I'm talking about the ones who have lost a huge chunk of their hearing due to age or another cause, yet still align sound systems. There really should be a detailed hearing test performed as a requirement before a tech is allowed to alter a sound system. If someone who is 60 can still pass the test with flying colors, then by all means break out the RTA. If someone at 30 can not, he should not be touching sound systems. My only point here is that hearing loss from age alone is a proven fact of life and should be tested. Unfortunately, this is not the case and these are the same techs that when listening to a defective print (or misaligned reader) in the SDDS format, simply can not hear the switching back and forth between SDDS' primary digital tracks to SDDS' backup (and lower quality) digital tracks. Some techs can't even tell when the digital on any system defaults to analog and will argue the point until hell freezes over that there is no problem...and these guys are actually tuning sound systems. Perhaps THX will consider making a comprehensive hearing test every few years a requirement. It is very much needed.

I was shocked.

I projected that movie for at least one month and I have just 1 (ONE) compliant by a crazy woman.

So, if you receive a LOT of volume compliants just think about the quality of your EQ and acoustic.

When Star Wars Episode 1 came out, Lucasfilm required that a projectionist (and only a projectionist) watch each print and verify quality (Kudos to Lucasfilm for doing that, by the way). The print I watched sounded very good. But another projectionist had to turn his auditorium (in the same complex) down to about 4.2 on the volume fader. And this was a guy who loved things LOUD. He started his print after mine, so I got a chance to listen to it. It was very shrill and harsh sounding.

Now I don't have an RTA, but I do have a good SPL meter. So I reset the levels (they weren't very far off at all, actually). And then I proceeded to adjust the EQ of each channel BY EAR until it sounded good, using the auditorium I had just watched the same movie in as a reference (one had a CP500 and the other a CP65). This took awhile and required a lot of trial and error. After that I reset the SPL levels again. The movie opened to a wild bunch of Star Wars fanatics and the volume played at 7.6 for a week, and then dropped down to 7.2 as the crowd shrunk. The guy who originally watched the movie in here at a volume level of 4.2 was amazed at the difference.

I was complimented three times by random customers for having the best sounding auditorium in the state. They were all from the #1 auditorium (the one which I adjusted). I thought that the #16 auditorium (the one where I watched my print) sounded perhaps a bit better, but it just goes to show that EQ is VERY important!

Joe, nothing wrong with the sound in Ep1.
But I hated the movie itself.
Ep4 so far is the best.
Hopefully Ep2 WONT have opera music blasting away during sabre sword fights.

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