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Author
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Topic: Getting More Damaged Prints
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Joe Schmidt
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 172
From: Billings, Montana, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 05-22-2001 02:23 AM
Hope for the best, Bill!There will be less film damage once these chains are closed down and die for good, plus tons of used equipment available verrrrrry cheep, cheep as in birdies. You might find some bargains for the Byrd. Meanwhile, I guess you have the right to reject bad prints. Keep doing so. Is anyone going to play the Wurlitzer for Pearl Harbor? I'd love to see carmike closed down. Then, we'd have no movie theatres at all where I live. But then, we have no theatres now.
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John Pytlak
Film God
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Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000
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posted 05-22-2001 08:19 AM
Bill: I agree the blame probably lies in a lack of proper "Equipment maintenance and operator training". We all know the damage you cite is preventable, and should not have happened. Hopefully, by you rejecting the severely damaged prints, the distributor will make the guilty theatres pay for the damage caused by "penny-wise and pound-foolish" cost cutting. ------------------ 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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John Pytlak
Film God
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Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000
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posted 05-24-2001 06:00 AM
Sadly, there is a pervasive "cut costs to the bone" attitude of hiring inexperienced people to handle projection. Many theatres don't provide proper projection training nor the incentive to develop needed skills or make it a career. The same poor attitude that hurts film presentation today will affect digital cinema tomorrow. With film, incompetence or carelessness may trash a print with a severe emulsion scratch. With digital cinema, it may ruin a DLP or D-ILA chip, or corrupt the data for a movie with the click of a mouse. I have already attended Digital Cinema presentations compromised by lack of proper maintenance. "Film Done Right" and "Digital Done Right" depend more on the PEOPLE than on the EQUIPMENT.------------------ 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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Evans A Criswell
Phenomenal Film Handler
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Posts: 1579
From: Huntsville, AL, USA
Registered: Mar 2000
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posted 05-24-2001 09:37 AM
John, you're right about the inexperienced people handling prints these days. Occasionally, when I do my ratings, I will choose to see a movie that has been running at a theatre for several months just to see what kind of damage it has accumulated. In one particular theatre, the prints are typically still in excellent condition [case in point: Toy Story 2, 2000/02/05 (scroll down to it)] and in another theatre, they tend to have scratches all the way through [case in point: Chicken Run, 2000/07/27 (scroll down to it). I feel sorry for any second-run theatre that may have gotten that Chicken Run print. I have found that the condition of a print after several months correlates very well with other aspects of my presentation quality rating system, which is no surprise.One time, the staff at one theatre talked me into going into a different showing because their print of Austin Powers II on 1999/06/13 (scroll down) arrived with scratches and they didn't want me writing that their print had scratches. I told them if the print arrived with scratches, I would not deduct for it. I'm impressed that they cared, and am sure they got a replacement print as quickly as possible. Are most managers who post here who must hire high school aged people to run their projectors able to effectively "screen" them so that a certain GPA is required, or are the numbers of people available for the job so low that you must pick nearly anyone who is available and willing to do the job? ------------------ Evans A Criswell Huntsville-Decatur Movie Theatre Info Site
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