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Author Topic: Mission Impossible 4 in wrong aspect ratio? And more... Matthew Prince Film Handler Posts: 4 From: Croydon Surrey England Registered: Jan 2012 posted 02-01-2012 12:56 PM                     Hello! Thanks for letting me on to the forum! I wanted to ask this question but wasn’t sure which thread as I’m just a film goer. I saw Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. It was at my local multiplex's "super screen" - the extra large screen than their standard ones. I was shocked to see after the trailers and adverts which are nearly always shown in Letterbox (1.85:1), the movie itself was showing WITHIN the Letterbox ratio, when it was clearly a Scope 2.35:1 picture! The result was vertical bars each side of the image screen AND bars at the top & bottom to compress the picture to an approx 2.00:1 image. I estimated 60% of the screen was unused, I was astonished! I complained to the manager, who said that since converting to Digital projectors, the movies arrive on hard drives with the picture and sound locked in place and they cannot manually adjust the picture to fill the screen! (B.S.??) It was the same thing with Cowboys and Aliens last year, but the effect wasn't so drastic as it was on a smaller screen and the Scope 2.35:1 image took up the width of the screen leaving black bars top and bottom. Cinema is expensive enough as it is, I don't go to see a movie that takes up 40-50% of the screen. When I think of the endless ads going on about piracy and the big screen experience, this is NOT it. Heck, I could watch the same movie on my plasma TV and would only lose 20% of the image. Can you explain why this is happening? I have attached two pictures: The 1st one is how I had to watch the film (even after I complained): The 2nd is how I think it should have been: If it happens again, what should I tell the cinema manager/technician to do? Thanks, Matthew Prince  |  IP: Logged Elise Brandt Expert Film Handler Posts: 160 From: Kuusankoski, FIN/ Kouvola, Finland Registered: Dec 2009 posted 02-01-2012 01:13 PM                     Apparently get a new job. What they told you is indeed BS, no movie and no hard drive can arrive and somehow override the projector settings they screwed up and showed the content on "flat" when it should havebeen "scope". And not the first time? Not the last either, I bet. Please direct the projectionists to this forum...  |  IP: Logged Justin Hamaker Film God Posts: 2253 From: Lakeport, CA USA Registered: Jan 2004 posted 02-01-2012 02:07 PM                        I have seen something similar on an NEC projector where the lens file didn't execute properly. In the case where I've seen this, it's an intermittent problem and may be related to the InVision lenses (intermittent meaning it might happed once every couple of weeks). What we normally do to resolve the problem is open the DCC and manually execute the lens file. Some times it helps to "exercise" the lens by running out the zoom and focus to both extremes before executing the lens file. If the picture always looks like this on the particular screen, then it's likely the screen files were not set up properly.  |  IP: Logged Matthew Prince Film Handler Posts: 4 From: Croydon Surrey England Registered: Jan 2012 posted 02-01-2012 03:33 PM                     @Elise Brandt - thank you! I asked the manager about this when I went to see "The Grey" and he said he and ALL of the usher/assistants fill the projectionist's role since they went all Digital. All the staff have basic training and he assured me next time if there is a problem and he is managing that day, he will instantly fix it. Here's hoping... @Justin Hamaker - I appreciate what you say, but I think the technical info would be lost on the staff. I think only the original installers and repair staff would understand what you're saying. The fact is: the cinema doesn't employ an experienced projectionist anymore...  |  IP: Logged Philip Jones Film Handler Posts: 90 From: England Registered: Dec 2011 posted 02-01-2012 04:03 PM                     sounds like the lens hadn't zoomed up to scope but the masking had opened (assuming there was masking) which would cause the "black bars" top and bottom and left and right. and the cowboys and aliens thing the same thing but the masking hadn't opened so you'd only get the bars top and bottom. whoever was supposed to be building up the shows probably didn't put the cue in for the format change. it can happen easily with film as well though (with automation and no checking) so i wouldn't just blame digital. on two occasions at my local odeon films came on in the wrong format - once it went to scope when it was a flat film and the other time it didn't go to scope when it should have.. both times were on a monday so i assume they'd been shown in the wrong formats for the whole weekend and no-one had bothered to say anything  |  IP: Logged Bruce Hansen Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 847 From: Stone Mountain, GA, USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 02-01-2012 05:19 PM                     Just more crap that will push people away from theaters, but their getting away cheep (and putting themselves out of business). Greed is a negitive emotion. when you are using your emotions, you are not using your intelect.  |  IP: Logged Rick Raskin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1100 From: Manassas Virginia Registered: Jan 2003 posted 02-01-2012 05:46 PM                     I can count on one hand the number of times I saw a projectionist change over to the wrong lens and aperture plate. And I can count in seconds the amount of time it took to fix it.  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 02-01-2012 05:48 PM                     Not sure how accurate the images are -- but the "smaller" image isn't cropped, it's just smaller -- if that's really what you saw then they weren't zoomed in to fill the screen. The movie on the drive *can* be affected by projector settings. So, either: the manager was ignorant (on this issue) or else he lied to you. Either way, he communicated misinformation. That's a problem.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 02-01-2012 07:36 PM                        This is yet another one of those issues that would literally take 10 seconds to fix, if only the person on duty knew what button to push. It's a scope movie being projected on the "flat" setting. (For those still running film, in digital there is no horizontal "stretching" of the image like there is with a scope film....scope vs flat is simply picture shape, and the size is controlled by zooming the lens.)  |  IP: Logged Edward Havens Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 614 From: Los Angeles, CA Registered: Mar 2008 posted 02-01-2012 07:55 PM                     You should go back to the theatre and ask for the manager you spoke with before. When you talk to him, tell him you asked a dozen of your closest projectionist friends around the world about your experience, and every single one of us thinks that manager is a freakin' moron who makes all of us look bad with his bullshit excuses and lies. And then give him Film Tech's URL, and tell him if he and his team want to learn about the importance of a quality presentation, he's welcome to join us.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 02-01-2012 11:08 PM                        Don't blame the manager though. He was probably told that line of crap by HIS boss. He's probably been told not to touch the expensive new digital projectors or risk losing his job. Thing is, though, digital projectors aren't even as complicated to run as a typical desktop computer is. A competent owner (or whatever) would type up a fairly simple troubleshooting sheet and have it hanging next to the machine, where the manager could refer to it. Something like this would take care of it: "Picture too small for screen: Press the button marked SCOPE. The screen may go dark for a couple of seconds while the lens changes position. If the problem persists, call technical support."  |  IP: Logged Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 퍼항시, 경상푹도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 02-02-2012 12:28 AM                     Mike, The problem is we can't assume the manager in question was being sincere and really believed the information he was giving. There are, in fact, managers who make something up so they don't admit that they did something incorrect.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 02-02-2012 12:36 AM                     The fact most of these "premium eXperience auditoriums" fail to meet DCI specifications by ignoring the most simple thing in the world...proper masking...tells me the manager may not have even understood the picture SHOULD have been larger. All most of these X auditoriums are doing is throwing up a huge sheet that is wall to wall (trying to get the initial "oooooooooh wow" from people walking in), only to DISAPPOINT when the picture DOES NOT FILL THE SCREEN! It doesn't fill it in flat, and it doesn't fill it in scope. It is false advertising, but who is to say just HOW big it is SUPPOSED to be? I don't necessarily fault the manager. Side effects of a lack of masking are perceived by the human eyes as a lower contrast, less sharp and lower color saturation image too...yet the bean counters are ignoring this and intentionally putting on a lower quality show, bullshitting the customers as if it is a higher quality auditorium, and many are doing it to simply get out of spending the money for proper masking. I'm sure there are people out there who will disagree with me on this, but that is presentation done wrong in my book. Why even have the DCI spec if the studios won't enforce it? At least they should refuse to pay a VPF for movies played in those auditoriums.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 02-02-2012 02:24 AM                        quote: Matthew Prince Hmmmmm...  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 02-02-2012 03:51 AM                     I agree with Chris's comment - for that "suit" manager isn't going to expose himself in any mean or form. What I've seen is just horrible training procedures on "how to show digital right" ... and afraid that it's going to get worse as more screens convert.  |  IP: Logged

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