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Author
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Topic: An Experience
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John Lasher
Master Film Handler
Posts: 493
From: Newark, DE
Registered: Aug 2001
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posted 02-26-2002 11:24 PM
Not too long after new years, my parents had some fellow homeschoolers over for dinner. They had 3 teenage sons and after the meal I was showing them the DVD player we had received as a gift for Christmas (showing them my personal favorite movie "Twelve Monkeys") when one of them commented "I still think that ree-to-reel looks better."To which I replied: "You mean film?" To which he replies "Yeah." To which.. you get it: "Well, most theaters still run film, and it's the same film that gets run on a changeover or a platter." Them: "What are changeover and platter." The computer right behind me, I spun around in my chair, quickly pointed my browser to FILM-TECH, and proceeded to educate them about film. They had been to The Everet(sp?), a changeover house featured in the film "Dead Poets Society", Regal Cinemas Peoples Plaza 17, and Newark Cinema Center 3 (the latter 2 are platter). They commented about how they had noticed usually average/below average presentation at Regal, and how the films shown at Everet usually had battle scars from when they were at Regal. And how presentation at NCC was usually fan-bloody-tastic even with only mono sound. It's nice to know, in a world where most of the audience accepts bad film presentation ever patient for an all-digital cinema experience, and wouldn't know good film presentation if it slapped them in the face, that at least a few people appreciate quality film presentation. As I write this message my twin brothers stand looking over my shoulder commenting along the lines of "The public doesn't care for better and therefore does not deserve it." I know that they do this just to try to get me to argue with them when they are 2 against one biased. They are part of what I call the FFF crowd: Fast Food Films-- Cheap, sleazy, nobody-working-there-knows-what-they're-doing-and-we-don't- care-We-wouldn't-care-if-they-were-showing-it-on-a-13-inch- TV-just-to-give-us-an-excuse-to-waste-two-hours-The-only- reason-we-go-to-the-movies-is-to-hang-out-with-friends-and- make-catcalls-at-the-hotties-on-the-screen.
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John Lasher
Master Film Handler
Posts: 493
From: Newark, DE
Registered: Aug 2001
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posted 03-04-2002 11:09 PM
I appear to have gotten myself into a bit of trouble here. As I have not been to a film at the Everet (only a legitimate production- Anne Frank) I cannot comment on the presentation quality, the "battle scars from Regal" was meant as a joke and nothing more! I personally prefer the presentation quality at Newark Cinema Center to that at Regal although Regal has improved. In no way did the Author intend to imply that reel-to-reel is better than platter or vice versa, please stop sending me hate mail (Oh wait, that's from my girlfriend.)Here is a perfect example of the FFF crowd carried to it's extreme: When "The Others" had been out for a week a friend of mine invited my brothers and myself to go see it. Since we had plenty of time to spare before the movie, we decided to get a 6-pack of Cola at a dollar store which happened to be located in the same shopping center as NCC. NCC was showing the others with a matinee admission price of $3.50 all seats. It would have taken us 20 seconds to walk from the dollar store to the Cinema Center, but my friend and brothers insisted upon driving 15-minutes to Regal, in a cramped, non-air-conditioned car, and pay $5.50 each to see the same movie! The show didn't start on time (also it's a bit disconcerting to walk in and have the only sound be your own footsteps and somebody in the booth complaining to someone else in the booth about how there wasn't enough time to get one show built up and get the one in the next house over built up) the screen masking kept readjusting itself during the show, the lights faded up and down at random intervals, the film had 3 long scratches right through the middle. Plus I missed 5 minutes of the movie when I went out to complain. I was tempted to go to NCC the next day and see the movie again, but I figured I would already know too much about the ending and would still have it fixed in my mind with the scratches. Kind of like the way I will never pass that intersection near Regal without remembering the night I nearly died there. BTW- My brothers and I continued this converstion. They do care about seeing it on the big screen, it's just that the movie itself is more important to them than the presentation quality. I pointed out that a bad presentation of a great movie would obviously detract from their enjoyment of it. They pointed out that a great presentation isn't going to save a bad movie. They also said that they thought the scratches and dirt on The Others gave the film character.
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