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Topic: GRINDHOUSE HeadsUp - Missing Reel, Dirt

Mark Lensenmayer
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1605
From: Upper Arlington, OH
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 01-28-2007 09:35 AM

In an article in the New York Times today, Quentin Tarantino & Robert Rodriguez talk about GRINDHOUSE, which opens on April 6.

Look for 2 full length films (one 80 min, one 90 min) with fake trailers in-between.

NY Times article (may require subscription)

Quoting the article:

quote:
As part of the game, the two directors have “aged” their movies, adding scratches, dust and dirt to the prints. “That’s part of the lurid quality,” Mr. Rodriguez said. “It feels like it’s a popular film that’s been screened a bunch of times. The texture, all the scratches, makes it look really creepy, like you’re watching something you’re not supposed to, where anything could happen at any moment.”

And since the old grindhouse films were often missing reels, both filmmakers have purposefully cut out a segment of their movies. “My whole thing is to play with the audience,” said Mr. Tarantino. “I guarantee you, when it pops up ‘Missing Reel,’ the entire theater is going to scream. They might very well be screaming my name: ‘Quentin, you bastard! We hate you!’

“And then the next reel starts, and all of the sudden, people who don’t like each other suddenly like each other now. ‘What happened to that guy?’ The only way to do a missing reel is, it’s got to be something you can’t wait to see.”

The article indicates the Weinstein Brothers are "readying the largest promotions push since it's founders" left Disney.

[ 01-28-2007, 03:14 PM: Message edited by: Mark Lensenmayer ]

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Peter Mork
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 181
From: Newton, MA, USA
Registered: Jun 2002

posted 01-28-2007 10:37 AM

All you film handlers are encouraged to really "handle" this one. Won't be a problem for me - I bow to no man in my ability to goober up a once-pristine print in jig time!

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Jack Ondracek
Film God

Posts: 2348
From: Port Orchard, WA, USA
Registered: Oct 2002

posted 01-28-2007 12:49 PM

Guess after 40 years around this biz, I still have something to learn. (?)

Were there really places where whole reels were "often missing"? I recall one or two cases where the depot might have sent two cans with the same reels (1,2,3) in them... but never a whole reel missing from an otherwise complete print.

Scratches and dirt?... I suppose... especially on prints we got at the drive-in (back in the '60s & early '70s). Those things had seen a lot of use, but the dirt (and oil) was mainly at the ends. You knew a changeover whas coming up, because the picture was pretty bad. 15 seconds or so after the changeover, everything looked pretty good again.

I saw more than a few union booths, where the projectionist was proud of the "cookie tray oil catcher" he'd put under the XL's. More than a few reel ends made it into those trays! [Eek!]

Still, getting 3 months out of an acetate print (Star Wars), 3-5 times a day... guess that wasn't too bad. It still looked pretty good, too... but cracking between the sprocket holes made them a bit unreliable at the end.

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Louis Bornwasser
Film God

Posts: 4441
From: prospect ky usa
Registered: Mar 2005

posted 01-28-2007 01:52 PM

Jack; you just made for case against reels; the situation locally as I grew up.

The only film I ever heard of that "lost" a reel was a surfing movie back in the late 60's. Louis

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Dennis Udovich
Film Handler

Posts: 71
From: Sheboygan, WI, USA
Registered: Dec 2001

posted 01-28-2007 03:40 PM

This film sounds like it could be a lot of fun!

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Mark Lensenmayer
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1605
From: Upper Arlington, OH
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 01-28-2007 08:49 PM

All the push for the "perfection" of digital projection and QT throws a wrench in the whole thing. If this has a digital release, it's going to look very weird to see scratches.

Looking at a couple of pictures here, it looks like the Greco Factor will be VERY high with this film.

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Jack Ondracek
Film God

Posts: 2348
From: Port Orchard, WA, USA
Registered: Oct 2002

posted 01-29-2007 02:08 AM

Went to the local Regal tonight... watched "Epic Movie". Won't bother to say what I thought of the value I got for my $8.75, but we did get there about 10 minutes before the end of the "first look".

I sat there, through commercial after commercial, wondering how people could find positive about enduring this experience. Even knowing I was watching a video projector, I had just about convinced myself that it wasn't TOO bad... then the projector started and we sat back to enjoy 275 trailers before the feature.

Maybe I'm getting old and crabbby... but give me the trailers. I'd rather watch them than a hundred car, shampoo and tv cable channel spots... geez!

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Dennis Benjamin
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1445
From: Denton, MD
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 01-29-2007 07:36 AM

When "Kill Bill 2" went into sub-release, it played here locally at a sub-run house. They played "Kill Bill 1 & 2" back to back at the Jumpers Hole Cinema in Glen Burnie, Maryland.

I have to say that was the ideal situation to watch these films in and "Grindhouse" sounds like it will be a cool experience.

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Mike Heenan
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1896
From: Scottsdale, AZ, USA
Registered: Mar 2000

posted 01-29-2007 09:54 AM

I dont think they're trying to remember the theaters (and the experience of watching them there) in the 70s that played Star Wars... more so stuff like "Truck Stop Women" and "Death Race 2000" and "Blacula"... theaters where maybe the projectionist didn't run a reel in order to get home a little earlier, etc. Having handled a bunch of "grindhouse" prints, I can attest to them being in pretty poor, but runnable shape (with a little work).

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Mike Schindler
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1039
From: Oak Park, IL, USA
Registered: Jun 2002

posted 01-29-2007 10:24 AM

quote: Mark Lensenmayer
All the push for the "perfection" of digital projection and QT throws a wrench in the whole thing. If this has a digital release, it's going to look very weird to see scratches.

An even bigger test may be Rodriguez' movie, which was shot digitally.

On a side note, when asked about which movie would play first, Tarantino said that in Austin (Rodriguez' town), it would be PLANET TERROR, and in L.A. (Tarantino's town), it would be DEATH PROOF. But as far as the rest of the country's concerned, it's projectionist's discretion! Advertising has since implied that PLANET TERROR would be first everywhere, but wouldn't it be cool if that wasn't the case?

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Mitchell Dvoskin
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1869
From: West Milford, NJ, USA
Registered: Jan 2001

posted 01-29-2007 10:27 AM

I ran both "Truck Stop Women" and "Death Race 2000" back in the 1970's at the Town & Country Drive-in in Coalton, OH. Both print came in in excellent condition, and left in excellent condition.

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 01-29-2007 06:23 PM

I say we intermix the reels and run them out of order intentionally to further create art. [Razz]

We could also have (insert local multiplex theater name here) pre-screen all of the prints once to make sure they are super crapped up! [Big Grin]

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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 01-29-2007 07:05 PM

Will each reel end with a "parade of cue marks," with a mix of lab cues, Clint Phare cues, grease-pencil cues, punched cues, and giant slashes scratched across the entire frame?

How much does everyone want to bet that Brad will refuse to show this one? [Smile]

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Mike Schindler
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1039
From: Oak Park, IL, USA
Registered: Jun 2002

posted 01-29-2007 07:27 PM

The missing reel thing reminds me of a story that John Frankenheimer told about how he went to see THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE in Greece (I think). They skipped a reel in the middle of the movie, and when he went to tell the staff about the mistake, the projectionist said, "Oh, I did that on purpose. The movie plays a lot better without that reel, and we can squeeze in an extra showtime!"

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Frank Angel
Film God

Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 01-29-2007 09:09 PM

To tell you the truth, I don't like this whole concept....it's supposed to be "art" but sound to me like one big fart instead. It's just another really annoying way they get to piss on film....making it seem as if this is the way you tell if something is film or digital, by all this garbage and not by how you really can tell film, but how spectacular the film image can looked on the big screen; hell, even in the grindhouses film rarely looked this ridiculously bad. I used to run commercial subrun and watch many a film in the 40 douche street theatres in Times Square where they would play day and date with first run around the corner on Broadway. They were perfectly watchable presentations. Hey, Quentin....here's a "concept" --- make a film in 70mm and call it "Roadshow." Or make one with video cameras and put it through low rez pixilation and low bitrates and call it "VD Artifax" ....ooops, sorry, they are doing that one already.

I say, send the thing back to TES and demand replacement reels.

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