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Topic: "The Master" 70mm London Screening

Ben Wales
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 602
From: Southampton. England
Registered: Jul 99

posted 11-03-2012 11:03 AM

Did not go well for the Press Screening this week, 70mm Audio not in Sync and Projector problems. so it was screened in 2K DCP!.

Odeon West End 70mm Press Screening

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Jock Blakley
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 218
From: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Registered: Oct 2011

posted 11-03-2012 04:49 PM

Please tell me the problem was not as simple as the DTS offset being set incorrectly.

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Ben Wales
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 602
From: Southampton. England
Registered: Jul 99

posted 11-03-2012 06:18 PM

From what I can find out it was a Projectionist error who laced up around the wrong roller! [Roll Eyes]

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Michael Brown
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1522
From: Bradford, England
Registered: May 2001

posted 11-03-2012 07:41 PM

This was at an Odeon who no longer employ dedicated projection staff.

So it would have been a 'manager error' not a projectionist.

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Scott Norwood
Film God

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

posted 11-03-2012 09:06 PM

Couldn't the operator have just adjusted the DTS offset during the show? Is this a reel-to-reel or platter house? Either way, this doesn't really sound like an insurmountable problem.

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 11-05-2012 04:35 AM

quote: Scott Norwood
Couldn't the operator have just adjusted the DTS offset during the show?

Or even better, just stopped briefly to correct the lacing.

If the problem was that the projector had been laced up incorrectly, then that would suggest that the operator didn't know the correct way. Again, if that was the fault, then I also wonder if any print damage was done. In order to put enough extra footage between the DTS penthouse and the gate to cause an audible sync fault, that film must have taken quite a detour, possibly over some sharp or non-recessed surfaces.

This is going to become a bigger problem as film projection recedes further into the distance. Just as there are very few people left who can drive a steam locomotive or fly a DC-3 (and almost all of them are based in a small number of museums and heritage venues), within a generation or two there will be very few people left film projection skills, and even fewer with advanced film handling and maintenance/repair skills. Maintaining that skills base is going to be a very real challenge for the cinematheques, museums and rep houses that want to maintain the ability to project film prints into the long term future.

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John Wilson
Film God

Posts: 5438
From: Sydney, Australia.
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 11-05-2012 05:30 AM

quote: BEN WALES
Did not go well for the Press Screening this week, 70mm Audio not in Sync and Projector problems. so it was screened in 2K DCP!.

quote: Ace critic TOM SUTCLIFFE
But as the film restarted and we saw the same opening images unfold – lustrous, pin-sharp and steady as a rock – it was very difficult to feel that there'd been a regrettable alteration of quality.

In 2K?? This guy must be:

A) On crack
B) Blind
C) Stupid
D) All of the above

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Tim Asten
Film Handler

Posts: 98
From: Brighton, United Kingdom
Registered: Nov 2006

posted 11-05-2012 01:48 PM

A couple of weeks ago, I was talking with the tech who fitted the 70mm reader for this show, and he said they were going to get an operator who had retired to run the film apparently.. Vic 8, platter, XD10.

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 11-05-2012 02:54 PM

If the offset had been set on the assumption that the film would not be threaded through the mag penthouse and it was then threaded through it, or vice-versa, that would cause the sync problem alright.

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Derek Young
Film Handler

Posts: 8
From: Stockwell London England
Registered: Aug 2012

posted 11-06-2012 03:21 AM

I went to a showing yesterday and as i walked in to the foyer there was a note telling patrons that the print has a scratch
for the first 20 mins and they can refund you within 20 mins if
the scratch on the 70mm film puts you off.

It did have a Digital cert and first logo then we went over to the 70mm, it was badly over the top and right hand masking then
up to 3 scratches come and went for 20 mins, all was right after.

The picture was bright and the DTS sounded great, the 70mm bits
looked really good,plus if you showed this reel to reel you would never miss those cue dots.

I asked an usher and he said the scratch happened in the morning,i think it was done in the Press show re the above posts.
Also this was in screen 2, I saw lots of 70mm when this was one
screen and i was never really impressed then.

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Stephen Furley
Film God

Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002

posted 11-06-2012 07:48 AM

quote: Derek Young
I went to a showing yesterday and as i walked in to the foyer there was a note telling patrons that the print has a scratch
for the first 20 mins and they can refund you within 20 mins if
the scratch on the 70mm film puts you off.

I don't know about putting the customers off, but it will probably put the cinema of doing any more 70mm in the future, and may put distributors off making any 70 mm prints available.

quote: Leo Enticknap
This is going to become a bigger problem as film projection recedes further into the distance. Just as there are very few people left who can drive a steam locomotive

There are probably more people who can drive a steam locomotive today then there have been for decades. It's still a very small number compared to the number when steam was in normal service of course.

There does seem to be a renewed interest in older technologies as they are replaced in normal use, traditional letterpress printing is becoming quite popular again, as are the older photographic processes. It may be a very small proportion of the total number of photographs taken, but there are certainly more wet plate photographers around today than there have been for well over a century. It's quite easy to find wet plate courses today, though they seem to be fully subscribed, so it may not be easy to get onto one. The same applies to the Neon sign course which I want to go on, at a time when neon is becoming rapidly replaced by LED for mainstream sign work.

None of them will ever be on anything more than a very small scall in the future, but it's a bigger very small scale than a few years ago.

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Ben Wales
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 602
From: Southampton. England
Registered: Jul 99

posted 11-07-2012 03:07 PM

quote: Leo Enticknap
If the offset had been set on the assumption that the film would not be threaded through the mag penthouse and it was then threaded through it, or vice-versa, that would cause the sync problem alright

That sounds like it I heard what happened, not sure if it got scratched at the same time or another screening, the first reel has now been replaced today I hear, let's hope the remaining screenings are a success!.

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