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This topic comprises 4 pages: 1 2 3 4
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Author
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Topic: Rick McCallum, Star Wars producer on the expected film presentation of Episode III
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Mark J. Marshall
Film God
Posts: 3188
From: New Castle, DE, USA
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted 12-11-2004 10:57 PM
I found this really interesting. This is a quote from an article on the pay side of starwars.com. I'll post the link, but you need to be a member to get there. I won't quote the whole article, because that would probably violate some copyright or some such thing, but I'll only post the part that's relevant to discussion here.
Link Here
quote:
Rick [McCallum, Producer,] notes that none of the [Episode III] shots have been timed yet. "And once it'll get down to film, there'll be an amazing loss of resolution," he says, echoing a common frustration at the disparity between what we see here in the perfect screening room, and what the majority of filmgoers will see in theaters.
"Is the darkness a concern?" asks [David] Tattersall, [Director of Photography,] though he's not talking about the content or events of Episode III. Rather, he's worried about how dark the film frame is, the density of the shadows. "Will that be a problem when it gets down to film?"
"No," assures McCallum. "But who knows when it gets to theaters."
It's a constant concern, having to compensate for poor theatrical conditions. With only about 200 digital theaters in North America, McCallum and Lucas realize that most people won't be able to see Episode III as they intended it.
"It's scary, but it'll get there," says Rick optimistically, before adding, "Say the movie opens at midnight on a Friday. By Saturday night, the picture's gone. The experience is gone." Such is the fragility of film and the relentless erosion of exhibition.
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Matthew Jaro
Film Handler
Posts: 74
From: Gaithersburg, MD, USA
Registered: Jul 2003
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posted 12-12-2004 10:17 AM
I know that Lucas had wanted to release Episode II in digital only, but obviously there were not enough venues for projection.
I don't know of any video projection system that can handle the 4000 line high-end digital format (I'm not sure if I have the terminology correct). The maximum I know of is 1280 pixels vertically. This is certainly much worse than film. So they can't be seeing their film in super high resolution. I believe that Kodak estimates that there are the equivalent of 13 million pixels on a 35mm frame. Since the grain is not in the same place on every frame, the average must be greater than this. (John can correct me if this is wrong).
I recently saw a couple of minutes of "Alexander" in DLP, and it looked awful. While I couldn't see the pixels, the detail of film was just not there. Further, the border between objects have an electronic look that makes the whole image look artificial.
Finally, barring scratches from platter mis-alignment, the projectors only handle the film by the edges, so there should be no image deterioration. The only problem might be wear on the SRD track (or ugh! SDDS). The new estar base films are very strong. So what the hell are the Lucas guys talking about? How could they be professionals and not notice these things? Hmm -- I wonder, --- is there another agenda here???
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 12-12-2004 04:40 PM
Dear GOD will we ever be free of this interminable B-grade sci-fi drivel and the accompanying digital vs film babble that LucasFilm (FILM?!!) draged out before the release of each one of these dogs? I'll be a happy man when this final chapter is done an burried, and given the reviews and short life of the last one, the end to Ep III should be swift, albeit not quick enough for me.
As for the digital/film nonsense, it's the same tired, hackneed crap we have heard ever since SW Ep I, The Digital Menace; it's just gimmick their publicity dept used tried to jump start the media coverage. Hold a press conference....announce how concerned you are for the filmgoer and how digital is a gift from God, who, by-the-way speaks directly to George....digitally, of course. Funny, there was precious little talk in any of those press conferences about the actual MOVIE -- just about how their shitty film will look shitty on film in all those shitty theatres that didn't have the sense to spend $200,000 on a digital projector.
As for Lucas's "concern" about what the filmgoer is seeing in the theatre, again, I contend they couldn't care less, otherwise they wouldn't have booked it into theatres which time had forgot....you know, those that had, say MONO SOUND! It was all hype to get the media ball rolling. And the reason Lucas hardly ever spoke about his movie, was, methinks, that even he knew, as Mark so delicately put it, the last installments are pure crap . Hear hear.
Just like when Lucas held a press conference and announced to no one in particular and to the world in general (as if anyone gave a damn), that they absolutely wouldn't release Ep I to the drive-ins because they were "too far below Lucas's standards"....again this feigned concern about the filmgoer's experience didn't stop them from booking it into every rat-hole grind house across the country. Then, of course, after the film opened for a few weeks, Fox quietly booked it into any DI that would still play it, which was precious few because none of them held off booking other summer titles in the off-chance that Lucas would change his mind. Seems that once the press wasn't looking, DIs "low quality" no longer bothered Lucas -- to hell with the moviegoer -- this is CASH we are talking about, baby! Oh, and then the terms were so ridiculous -- the DIs couldn't play it with another feature (double features are part of the DI culture) and they had to hold it over for 18 weeks or something like that, no matter what business it was doing.
Winds up, they didn't care what it looked like to the view; they booked Star Wars in any hardtop dive or DI that would pay for it; they are no different than the rest of the Hollywood whores, only they are in low rez digital.
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