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Author Topic: Digital projection only for adverts? Thomas Pitt Master Film Handler Posts: 266 From: Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK Registered: May 2007 posted 05-26-2009 05:29 PM                     Yesterday I went to see "Tormented" (a British film) in a multiplex. The auditorium was equipped with a digital projector in addition to the regular 35mm projector. To my surprise, the advert 'reel' was shown on the digital projector, then the trailers and the actual movie were on film. Isn't this a bit of a waste and making things overly complicated? Why not have the entire thing on film, or the entire thing on digital? I have seen it the other way round before - i.e. the adverts and trailers on film, then the movie itself on digital - but never like this!  |  IP: Logged Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 퍼항시, 경상푹도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 05-26-2009 05:40 PM                     It would only be a waste of money if the digital projector had been installed for the purpose of showing digital trailers and not for the purpose of showing digital movies. And clearly they kept the 35mm for the handful of movies still only available in that format. And it would seem to me that if all the trailers were already sent out in a digital format, wouldn't sending out 35mm ones be a waste of money? And why is it overly complicated? Couldn't this be easily automated, where the end cue for the digital triggers the 35mm projector to start? edit: Also, when you say "advert" do you mean "trailer for a movie" or are you referring to pre-show advertising? Because if it's the latter, it's the norm to have that stuff run off some regular video projector. A lot of chains here use that controlled via a computer server. No more dealing with sending out ads and they can pretty much guarantee that the ads they requested get played.  |  IP: Logged John Hawkinson Film God Posts: 2273 From: Cambridge, MA, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 05-26-2009 06:54 PM                     There are huge questions of availability. Movies are often not available in digital, only in film, and sometimes vice-versa. And advertising is probably more easily handled digitally. Many U.S. cinemas use cheap digital projectors for pre-show advertising that don't have the resolution to support digital cinema. --jhawk  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 05-26-2009 06:55 PM                        I think most theaters do it this way. The digital projector (which is only 480p quality) is for the ads, and the trailers and movie are shown on film. Basically the digital projector replaces the slide projector. These ads start up to 20 or so minutes before the movie is scheduled to begin. They take you on exclusive looks from behind the scenes of upcoming movies that promise to be awesome and show you a hot new music video and all of the latest ads. To top it all off, when the program ends they tell you what you just saw because they figure the customer is an idiot and cannot remember. Then they say it is all over and then they show more ads. Unfortunately you must wait until these ads are over before you can begin your movie (the projectors are connected to the internet where they spy on you). If you start the movie a bit too soon or turn off the ads for any reason, a representative from Screenvision or whoever comes out and rapes your children.  |  IP: Logged Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 퍼항시, 경상푹도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 05-26-2009 07:14 PM                     Digital ads are definitely easier to handle than rolling stock ads. Where I worked before, we'd get rolling stocks but never enough of them for the formats of prints we were running so to be compliant, there had to be use of lens changes. And if you ordered additional ones for the format you need, good luck. Seriously, I remember my manager having me call in an order for the additional ones every shift I worked for a couple weeks then having them arrive the day after I'd replaced all of that run's ads. And we had to keep track of how long the ads were so we'd know how early we were supposed to start the movie.  |  IP: Logged Scott Christopher Film Handler Posts: 69 From: Adelaide, South Australia Registered: Apr 2001 posted 05-26-2009 07:39 PM                     I agree, digital ad's are much easier to work with. Our advertising company likes to move ad's from one film one week, then put them back the next week. If they book it in for one film, they'll send us one copy - no matter that they'll be moving it around for the next 6 weeks. I've got my own system going now and can move through ad' changes with ease, but i'd prefer digital ad's. Automating the c/o is easy, I've installed many units without a problem.  |  IP: Logged Caleb Johnstone-Cowan Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 593 From: London, UK Registered: Mar 2006 posted 05-27-2009 05:24 PM                     The vast majority, if not all UK cinemas show a 35mm advert reel before the trailers on each show and have done ever since I've been going. I also recently encountered digital adverts for the first time, it is a massive improvement as the ad reels usually look and sound like crap out of the can. However the trailers were in digital 3D as was the film. The showing of digital adverts, then a 35mm film is no more stupid than showing of 35mm ads and trailers then a digital film which is what normally happens.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 05-27-2009 11:06 PM                     quote: Chris Slycord It would only be a waste of money if the digital projector had been installed for the purpose of showing digital trailers and not for the purpose of showing digital movies. And clearly they kept the 35mm for the handful of movies still only available in that format. I've seen more than a couple Cinemark locations do this, have a digital projector installed for pre-show ads only and then run the movie off 35mm. The difference is the digital projector is a much lower cost, much lower powered unit. The pre-show imagery is pretty darned dim, really not much brighter than the old film slide projector method. Our local Carmike theater, and I assume just about any d-cinema equipped Carmike location, runs its pre show videos and static slides through the primary digital projector. The lamp is operating at a lower brightness level and possibly a lower resolution setting too, probably 720p.  |  IP: Logged Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 퍼항시, 경상푹도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 05-28-2009 10:01 AM                     Bobby, I explained later in the post about what you're referring to. The way he wrote it, I thought he meant that they were using a D-Cinema projector for the ads and that seemed like a waste of money but I explained that even that would make sense because the projector wasn't installed to show the ads (but to show movies and you got a better pre-show projector for free).  |  IP: Logged Galen Murphy-Fahlgren Master Film Handler Posts: 405 From: Canton, MI, USA Registered: Oct 2007 posted 05-28-2009 10:34 AM                     I don't know if it would actually be more economical to play the preshow on the real DLP. Considering the lamp cost of 2K DCinema projectors, over time it may be cheaper to spend the money on the smaller projector with cheaper lamps that last longer, rather than jacking the output down on the the main projector's lamp to the detriment of its long-term performance. Remember that one does not want to run a lamp at less than 75% of its rated output, and running the 4kw lamp in your CP-2000 or whatever at 3kw to show preshow ads that could run on a 1200w 1080p projector just fine may be more expensive when lamp cost is factored. It'll look a lot better on the CP-2000, but it may not be cheaper. Perhaps someone has run the numbers.  |  IP: Logged Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 퍼항시, 경상푹도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 05-28-2009 10:56 AM                     I've heard of some places doing it that way (everything through DLP) because it was only slightly more expensive than using the cheaper projector while looking a lot better. Plus, it would make things easier in the sense that you have less equipment to deal with and possibly using a simpler setup for automating stuff.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 05-28-2009 12:10 PM                     In a digital theater, it is cheaper to use the D-cinema projector for intermission preshow/advertisements than it is to use a separate small LCD projector. The reason is due to the bulb costs. Leaving the D-cinema projector's xenon lit all day and never turning it off, vs. turning it on and off for each show...and likewise turning on and off the LCD projector's bulb for each show costs more money in operating costs. Plus you get a significantly better looking preshow.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 05-28-2009 01:04 PM                     For the bright LCD type of projectors, lamp costs are not cheap! It would certainly be cheaper to run the DCinema projector for all "video" type images than to have a separate preshow projector.  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-28-2009 01:55 PM                     I thought I head that one of the distributors will not permit a digital preshow on the same machine  |  IP: Logged Tristan Lane Master Film Handler Posts: 444 From: Nampa, Idaho Registered: Feb 2002 posted 05-28-2009 04:30 PM                     Whether that's true or not, it's totally unfair If it's your projector, you can do what you want with it. Funny, why didn't the distributors care back when the big chains were running rolling stock ahead of their films on 35mm?  |  IP: Logged

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