70mm Oppenheimer

[Geoff Jones]

A new 70MM location has been added for the metro Denver area - the Regal UA Colorado Mills. It appears to be on a much larger screen than the one at the problematic AMC Promenade location.

I guess the takeaway here is that everyone should keep an eye on the listings for your area.

https://www.in70mm.com/news/2023/opp...nema/index.htm

[Terry Monohan]

The few theatres in my SF Bay Area that still open and close their stage curtains have them all set to auto with the bare minimum and the don't do anything special. Most people miss the drapes that don't stay for the end credits.. The proper way for classic showmanship is to open the curtains now on the ads close after the ads open on the trailers close after the last trailer then re open with the studio logo image on the curtains and then close after the credits with some color lights on the drapes.. Seems many cinemas around here open the curtains on a white screen then start the projector. So nice to see the image projection on the fabric then open.

With long 70mm movies coming back like 'Oppenheimer ' I think they need to bring back the roadshow experience for a new generation with a intermission and curtains if they still work The theatre owners may like the extra refreshment sales.

[Brad Miller]

No intermission is permitted on Oppenheimer. The movie must run all 3 hours nonstop.

[James J Pyke]

This schedule seems a bit brutal for one projectionist to handle - and apparently it's like this every day of the run!
Hopefully they assigned two projectionists to cover this site.

[Jim Cassedy]

(edited) This schedule seems a bit brutal for one projectionist to handle -.

I'm handling my venue pretty much solo, but we've only got 3 shows per day. - - But I did run much more 'brutal'
schedules for HATFUL 8 and DUNKIRK at other venues. The thing that makes it tolerable for me is that I'm running
change-overs, so the day actually goes by very fast, since there's always something to do. Threading, rewinding,
cleaning, figuring out where that mystery spring that popped out of the projector goes. . . . . etc.

Running a 3hour~ish movie like that offa platters is deathly boring to me. But I could do change-overs all day.
(and it looks like I will- - if I'm still around next week)

[Jim Cassedy]

(edited) Did you remember to REMOVE the 35mm pad roller from the
upper loop? That's what causes the "train track scratches" on 70mm
prints on a JJ if this is not done.

Even better- - I replaced the 35 rollers with extra 70mm ones from my personal collection of pad rollers.
That way, someone can't inadvertently flip the rollerthingy into a position where there's no roller present.

JjRoller_1.jpg

JjRoller_2.jpg

We still runalotta 35mm almost weekly, so I'm just now getting around to converting
the JJ's to 70mm, since we have several 70mm shows starting this weekend.

[Brad Miller]

Even better- - I replaced the 35 rollers with extra 70mm ones from my personal collection of pad rollers.
That way, someone can't inadvertently flip the rollerthingy into a position where there's no roller present.

The logic makes sense, but if there is no pad roller on the shaft it will be quite obvious during threading. I've seen an awful lot of JJs where these shafts are bent slightly and one of them is in perfect alignment and the other digs into one edge of the film causing massive shedding problems. If you get a flashlight and shine on the pad roller in the operating position and have good eyes, you can visually verify that there is the same amount of clearance on each end of the pad roller to the sprocket. If one end is closer, flip it around and check the other side. Use whichever is in even alignment or pull the assembly and prepare to do a little bit of bending.

Also be aware of the older style of 70mm pad rollers where the inner ring (mag track area 3 and 4) is as wide of diameter as the outer ring (mag track area 1, 2, 5, 6). The revised and ideal style has the inner ring just slightly smaller with a tiny taper so as not to be abrasive. If your rollers are some of the newly manufactured ones from the last several years, also beware of the corners on the raised areas at the ends being sharp without any taper. Some of them seem to have come out just fine, but others have sharp edges and little burrs. Those can lay scratches down the film. I realize many people say "that's outside of the picture area", but that doesn't matter. Any scratch on the film, picture or edge, is what starts polyester shedding and as you likely know it turns into a mess real quick.

[Jim Cassedy]

(edited) ..... if there is no pad roller on the shaft it will be quite obvious during threading.

It would be obvious to you and me and most of the people on this forum, and while I'll be handling all
the OPPENHEIMER shows, I'm forced to relinquish some of the projection duties for some of the 70mm
shows leading up to the "Oppenheimer" opening next week to a couple of people who are not always
quite as good at spotting the obvious. (Ît's amazing to me how some people can inspect, thread and
run film with one hand, and reply to text messages with the other while also watching tik-tok videos at
the same time. - I'm actually sort of surprised that management hasn't noticed by now, that the amount
of splicing tape we go through is directly proportional to the number of shows I don't run. )

[William Kucharski]

I'm sure if Cameron needs another 15/70 print that Foto Kem will get one made in pretty short order

Nolan.

[Ian Puffenberger]

The few theatres in my SF Bay Area that still open and close their stage curtains have them all set to auto with the bare minimum and the don't do anything special. Most people miss the drapes that don't stay for the end credits.. The proper way for classic showmanship is to open the curtains now on the ads close after the ads open on the trailers close after the last trailer then re open with the studio logo image on the curtains and then close after the credits with some color lights on the drapes.. Seems many cinemas around here open the curtains on a white screen then start the projector. So nice to see the image projection on the fabric then open.

With long 70mm movies coming back like 'Oppenheimer ' I think they need to bring back the roadshow experience for a new generation with a intermission and curtains if they still work The theatre owners may like the extra refreshment sales.

Being longer than The Hateful Eight, Oppenheimer seems like a prime candidate for a roadshow, or at least an intermission. But maybe that's too ostentatious for Nolan. Or more likely, his filmmaking style--regardless of length--is basically to beat you over the head with intensity, and he doesn't think we should have a break.

[William Kucharski]

A new 70MM location has been added for the metro Denver area - the Regal UA Colorado Mills. It appears to be on a much larger screen than the one at the problematic AMC Promenade location.

I guess the takeaway here is that everyone should keep an eye on the listings for your area.

https://www.in70mm.com/news/2023/opp...nema/index.htm

Thanks - I had a ticket for Westminster for months now, swapped it for one at the Regal, not like Regal doesn't have their share of exhibition issues.

The Westminster 70mm house is indeed tiny, but beggars can't be choosers.

[Sam Cuthbert]

Just wanted to say best of luck to everyone running Oppenheimer in whatever format you've got. May your shows go off without a hitch and audiences be dazzled with your showmanship!
It's so nice to have the general public excited about film on film and getting back into cinemas! Cheers!

[Kyle Mikolajczyk]

Yeah guys thank you all for keeping the 70mm projecting! Theaters all around me are completely sold out for showings on all physical film formats, the public hype for film is high

[Terry Monohan]

The two Imax70mmTheatres in the SF Bay Area are mostly sold out for the first 3 weeks of Oppenheimer unless you want to sit in a few seats in row A. Most on line sales don't show dates after the 3rd week in August. The many regular 70mm non Imax showings around the SF area are also almost sold out. I bet many of these pre sales were obtained by AMC & Regal member clubs. This leaves many people that are not members will be out of luck to see this new film in 70mm or Imax in the SF area at least in a good center seat.

I have a question for any Imax or 70mm folks. If I see Oppenheimer in the many regular non 70mm Imax theatres in the SF Bay Area in 2 projector Imax DCP will only the middle scope image be shown or will the whole top & bottom print image be on the semi large square Imax screen for Oppenheimer?

It will be interesting also to hear how deep the base is on these 70mm regular or Imax film prints.

I may wait till some good seats come up at the Drafthouse New Mission Theatre in San Francisco that will be showing a 70mm film print . The top pro union 70mm presentation projectionist in the SF Bay Area Jim Cassedy will be in the booth doing all the big reel changeovers. We hope he survives the 9 reels per showing. In the old roadshow 70mm days I think the union had two projectionist types in the reserved seat cinemas. Not the case anymore. I wonder how many of these brand new Oppenheimer 70mm prints are going to ruined by not maintained projectors or unskilled candy counter managers.

[Lyle Romer]

The two Imax70mmTheatres in the SF Bay Area are mostly sold out for the first 3 weeks of Oppenheimer unless you want to sit in a few seats in row A. Most on line sales don't show dates after the 3rd week in August. The many regular 70mm non Imax showings around the SF area are also almost sold out. I bet many of these pre sales were obtained by AMC & Regal member clubs. This leaves many people that are not members will be out of luck to see this new film in 70mm or Imax in the SF area at least in a good center seat.

I have a question for any Imax or 70mm folks. If I see Oppenheimer in the many regular non 70mm Imax theatres in the SF Bay Area in 2 projector Imax DCP will only the middle scope image be shown or will the whole top & bottom print image be on the semi large square Imax screen for Oppenheimer?

It will be interesting also to hear how deep the base is on these 70mm regular or Imax film prints.

I may wait till some good seats come up at the Drafthouse New Mission Theatre in San Francisco that will be showing a 70mm film print . The top pro union 70mm presentation projectionist in the SF Bay Area Jim Cassedy will be in the booth doing all the big reel changeovers. We hope he survives the 9 reels per showing. In the old roadshow 70mm days I think the union had two projectionist types in the reserved seat cinemas. Not the case anymore. I wonder how many of these brand new Oppenheimer 70mm prints are going to ruined by not maintained projectors or unskilled candy counter managers.

As far as I know, none of the standard digital IMAX theatres have a 1.43:1 ratio screen. A few of the IMAX.....WITH LASER theatres, mostly legacy "museum" sites, are set up for that ratio but I don't know if they have made a special DCP for those that uses the same ratio as the 15/70 film presentations.

I'm happy that I live close enough to the Autonation IMAX in Ft. Lauderdale that is showing the film in 15/70 IMAX. They don't have assigned seating. They sell 86 tickets to a priority entry line which I purchased so I will be able to get a pretty good seat without issue. Every showing is sold out through 7/31 so I'm glad I was able to purchase tickets.