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This topic comprises 4 pages: 1 2 3 4
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Topic: 70mm Fantastic Beasts
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 11-07-2016 01:05 AM
I don't get it -- if they are running it in 70mm, why only do it for the first week? Thereafter they will switch to digital? What's the point of that? Just keep it running in 70mm its entire run...unless they think they can't fine projectionists skilled enough in 70mm to keep if from being trashed by the end of the first week?
So is film dead or isn't? Will they keep it on this kind of limbo/life support forever, never really being able to pull the plug? Will 70mm keep being resuscitated every so often for this and that tentpole title until every projectionist who knows how to run a 70mm projector is gone? Or until everyone who can remembers and still can appreciate the exquisite look of a 70mm presentation has move on to that big projection booth in the sky?
And then there is the question...is the mere fact of outputting to 70mm going to render the look what we used to love about 70mm? I mean, this isn't REAL 70mm, i.e., it doesn't originate on film so what exactly is the point of ripping it out to film stock other than just slimy marketing hype? Unless perhaps it was shot in 8K, the idea being that 70mm will display more detail than a 4k digital "print," but that still isn't Oneg-to-release-print 70mm.
Don't get me wrong, it's great that they still come up with these clever ways to keep film in the mix, but they should have appreciated film a little more when it was still alive. I seem to recall the digivangelists totally pissing all over film because saying it was "dirty and had scratches and the color faded and who would ever be able to stand watching a movie if it's on film?" Now all of a sudden film is something special again...you know, the way billions of humans on the planet experienced the greatest works of cinema history for a century. Nice; after they've ripped out every projector on the planet, now it's "Oh, let's see how we can make this really SPECIAL and run it on film!" They should have shown that kind of respect for film when they were doing everything the could to trash it in the worship of their digital god. Hey, they got what they wanted; so excuse me if I don't empathize when they are all "Gosh, where can we find working film projectors to run our trophy film?"
Where are they getting the stock and the highly skilled printer operators to do these 70mm runs anyway? Won't be too long before those people all pass away too..none of us are getting any younger.
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Daniel Schulz
Master Film Handler
Posts: 387
From: Los Angeles, CA USA
Registered: Sep 2003
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posted 11-17-2016 10:13 AM
quote: Frank Angel
So is film dead or isn't? Will they keep it on this kind of limbo/life support forever, never really being able to pull the plug? Will 70mm keep being resuscitated every so often for this and that tentpole title until every projectionist who knows how to run a 70mm projector is gone? Or until everyone who can remembers and still can appreciate the exquisite look of a 70mm presentation has move on to that big projection booth in the sky?
I am no longer "in the loop," so this is a personal theory of mine, not grounded in any insider information. I think there are two separate, but related, things keeping 70mm printing going:
1) It's become a matter of prestige for the A-List of the A-List - after The Master, Interstellar and The Hateful Eight, 70mm has a heightened profile. Tarantino in particular was doing a *lot* of 70mm screenings of H8 for his fellow directors. For movies with sufficiently huge budgets, the directors are pushing to get a 70mm release in the same way they push for first class airfare for the press junkets.
2) I think there is a 5-way agreement between Christopher Nolan, IMAX, WB, Fotokem and Kodak to maintain the viability of 15/70 IMAX film for Nolan, for both filming and for projection. In order to keep the infrastructure in place for Dunkirk, perhaps WB needs to send some business through the pipeline. A few 5/70 prints every few months keeps the machines running and helps preserve the institutional knowledge to keep film alive.
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Tyler Purcell
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 180
From: Van Nuys, CA
Registered: Dec 2015
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posted 11-17-2016 12:38 PM
I was told the film was finished in 4k, so the 70mm prints should be a scan out from the 4k source. I'm going to see it tonight and will let ya'll know if it looks ok. I can usually tell right away because the text elements will have aliasing on them if it was a 2k scan out.
In other news, I'm doing deliverables for a film that's going to be shown in the theaters and distributed by Sony. When we offered them a 4k finish, they declined and wanted it in 2k. I was shocked because we spent extra money to shoot the movie in 4k, yet the studio doesn't care. I was so frustrated, I talked with someone higher up the food chain in their technical services and they said almost everything from sony (and subsidiaries) releases in 2k.
Digital cinema has been around for 20 years now and we're STILL delivering in 2k?
In terms of 70mm blow-up's, they're really only being released by Warner. I have a feeling Nolan suggested they do this based on the turnout of his movies on 70mm, which was much higher per theater then digital. They experimented with Batman v Superman, which did very well on 70mm. Had Suicide Squad not been a disaster in post, they were slated to do that one as well. I don't think Fantastic Beasts was on the schedule, but perhaps they had made an order for Suicide Squad and needed to fill it? I doubt people seeing Fantastic Beasts care about 70mm. It's just another gimmick used by the studio to get people coming back to the theater. Older people like myself, hear the words 70mm and they're like "ohh that must be special" and maybe they can grab some extra viewers, who knows. It's actually quite expensive for them to strike so many 70mm prints and do a wide release like they've done, so they MUST see benefits in turn out. I'll say this much, Arclight Hollywood's 9:00 showing in 70mm is sold out, but the digital screenings have plenty of seats available.
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