New film tech. Setting up different aspect ratios? F200, F220 (Christie Projector)

[Nathan Tesky]

Hey there,

I'm a new manager at a movie theater and we've been running into some issues with films like Jurassic World, The Northman, and Nope having very odd aspect ratios. I'd like to create a preset on our projectors to take care of this, so I'm not displaying the movie in a standard Flat container with black bars on top and bottom.

However, I'm very uncertain on how or where to get started. Does anyone have any advice or a link to a resource I can use to present these films properly?

Thanks!

[Carsten Kurz]

Did your theater hire cinema techs before, do you know them? Creating your own screen files is certainly doable, but, without any previous experience, it is a steep learning curve. At the same time you don't want to mess with your existing presets. On the Christies, you can use your TPC to create these files. What types of projectors exactly are installed on your site? Christie has a range of different generations with different operating devices ('TPC').

[Nathan Tesky]

We have a tech that's out of state, but his email response to me was to just run it in our standard Flat, which I don't think is ideal.

We're running a Christie CP-2000-S and Doremi DCP2000.

[Carsten Kurz]

So, that is a Christie series 1 projector. That is important to know, because it is an older system and very different from the later series 2 systems, or even their latest series 3 or cinelife electronics.

While I know the procedures, I don't have any personal experience with setting up a series 1 system, others may chime in.

As a start, generically, you will need to set up new presets ('channels'), probably one for 2.0:1 and one for 2.2:1 on the projector. Then you will also need to create two macros on the Doremi server so you can access these projector presets in Doremi playlists.


Do you have the manuals for the Christie CP-2000?

http://www.film-tech.com/warehouse/m...iecp2000sb.pdf

You also need to download a 2.0:1 and 2.2:1 framing guide DCP. If you played Jurassic World 3 and The Northman, chances are that there were framing guides on the discs of these DCPs. Did you find them, did you store them? If not, you need to download these framing guides somewhere. You also need the necessary administrator password to access the setup menu for screen and lens files on the TPC. Technically, adjusting the lens files is all that is needed for F200 and F220 channels, as these DCPs are meant to be played in F, cropping to the active pixel area should not be necessary, although that may depend on your screen geometry.

It is extremely important that you first create copies of the existing setup files before you alter and save them, otherwise you might ruin your working channel setups.

Who changes the bulbs at your cinema?

[Steve Guttag]

With a CP2000S, a motorized lens isn't even a "given." If you have a manual lens mount, have you considered just zooming out the lens for the F-200 and F-220 ratios? How do you go between Scope and Flat, as it is?

[Nathan Tesky]

We have a motorized lens.

Our actual tech is coming here on Monday, so I'll have him look at it then. I was just hoping there was something simpler that might fix it, but definitely sounds a bit out of reach for a novice.

[Carsten Kurz]

No, if you haven't done it before, there is not a quick setting that will do it.

[Randy Stankey]

...Our actual tech is coming here on Monday, so I'll have him look at it then. ...

My advice is to take some time on Monday to get to know your tech. Buy him a couple of beers or something. (A cup of coffee or whatever.) Then talk to the guy and ask questions.

Find out how he wants your systems to be set up and how he wants things to work.
People have certain ways of doing things and it's very upsetting for a tech to come into a theater and find things that he worked so long and hard to set up "just right" have been messed up by somebody else, no matter how well-meaning they were. Messing up other peoples' work is a good way to get on their shit list.

Second, ask him to give you a list of things that you can work on and have him tell you what things he wants you to call him for.
For instance, he might give you the go-ahead to change lamps and filters but he might want you to leave settings and parameters for him to work on.
Then, as you gain experience and he gains trust in your abilities, he can give you permission to work on other things.

When you get permission to work on things stick to that list. Do NOT overstep your permissions!

Probably the number one thing that pissed me off the most, as a cinema technician, was to come into a theater and find stuff had been tinkered with.

I actually had one theater in Oak Ridge, TN where I spent two days at the theater performing PMs and making repairs but, no sooner had I packed up all my gear and gotten into my car, my cell phone rang. It was a call from that theater telling me that something was wrong. When I got inside, I found that a projector that I had JUST spent two hours fixing up "just right" had been tinkered with! I was blood-spitting, pissed off!

I had another theater in Lynchburg, VA that was just the opposite. The guy running the booth, there, was an old hand who had probably forgotten more stuff than I ever knew. You could eat ice cream off his projectors, they were so clean! When I made my three-month visits, all I did was do a few quick PMs then we'd go out to the local Waffle House to drink coffee and shoot the shit for an hour or so. I only ever got one service call from that theater and it was because he needed me to order a few oddball parts for him that he couldn't get on his own. I even paid for the meal and put it on my expense report and my boss never said a word because he knew that theater was top tier and deserved it.

Let me ask you this... If you were a Field Service Tech who had two theaters like Oak Ridge and Lynchburg, which one would you be more likely to coach an employee?

Be like the guy at Lynchburg, not like the guy at Oak Ridge!

[Leo Enticknap]

I would qualify Randy's remarks by noting that the professional relationship between the theater manager and the tech is a bit different when both are employees of the same company (i.e. the theater is part of a chain and the tech is hired by the chain to make periodic service visits), and when it is an independent theater that is hiring the tech as a service vendor.

In the case of the former, there will (or at least should) be formal job descriptions that both are expected to do, but stay within the limits of; especially if it's a unionized situation. That was the case in my last projectionist job, the contract for which (negotiated between the theater and Local 33) stated that projectionists "are not expected to perform duties commonly undertaken by a service technician." In a typical large chain, I imagine that the manager will have been formally trained as to the projection maintenance functions (s)he is expected to do, and where that responsibility ends and the field tech's begins.

But in the case of a theater hiring the tech as a service vendor, which is the case with almost all the theaters I service, the dynamic is different. I frequently encounter situations in which the theater owner wishes to do their own maintenance/repairs/upgrades in order to keep their costs down. I will offer diplomatic advice as to whether I believe they are capable of it or not, and occasionally need to make clear that if they attempt a repair and fuck it up, their eventual service call outgoings may be significantly higher than if they'd had us out to do it in the first place.

As a general rule, I would not be too worried about a manager trying to create F-220 lens and screen files, as long as I was confident that they weren't going to accidentally overwrite existing ones for other ratios. But replacing an integrator rod in an NC900? To borrow George Bernard Shaw, not bloody likely. But ultimately, if they demand to buy the rod without installation service, they are the customer, and the risk is on them. When I went into my local Honda dealership the other day to buy a serp belt for my wife's Civic, I wasn't given a lecture about how I could destroy the coolant pump and a/c compressor if I installed it incorrectly. If I'd ended up doing so, it's not their problem, unless I pay them a lot more to fix it than I'd have had to for them to swap out the belt in the first place.

Maybe in this case, Nathan's tech could remote in to the projector's VNC interface (I believe you can do that with Christie Series 1 touch panels, but am not 100% certain), and guide him through the process, with Nathan's being the eyes on the screen?

[Ioannis Syrogiannis]

[...]
Maybe in this case, Nathan's tech could remote in to the projector's VNC interface (I believe you can do that with Christie Series 1 touch panels, but am not 100% certain), and guide him through the process, with Nathan's being the eyes on the screen?

You can, but it will possibly call for a VNC viewer version 4.1.3, or maybe earlier.

More on that:
Can I control 2000s with vnc?

Edit:
In regards to zooming to fit the screen, for the sake of people that might not be familiar with the fact, we need to mention that when zooming, the focus changes as well. So, a correction in the midst of a show is not the best course of action.
Working as a projectionist, I was once asking for a 2.2:1 framing chart to prepare a screening back in 2019, I was given the advise "to zoom in while playing the movie, as other cinemas of the wider region have done". We finally agreed to me receiving the framing chart made for a movie, two years earlier, but I couldn't get to make those non-technical people understand the significant difference between the two courses of action.
Studios and distributors need to provide such necessities along with their non standard Flat or Scope features. An informational sheet baptizing as "normal" the window-boxed image is far from enough.

[Carsten Kurz]

I think a theater manager must be able to recognise and correct image presentation problems on his own. Wether he is able to actually do it himself, or by keeping a very short line to a competent staff member or tech who is able to remote in, I don't care. Aside from different aspect ratios, the projector focus or image position could have drifted, and that would need a fix on the same day, just as a bad amp or speaker, a clogged loo, etc.

Of course, that implies that he/she needs to be thought the necessary skills by a tech or course.

[Leo Enticknap]

It's a business decision, made either by the owner of an independent theater, or the technical manager of a chain. As Ioannis points out, any change to the zoom also causes a change to the focus, and if it's a big change, also to the light level. If you don't create a new screen masking file as well, then if the DCP has an incorrect matte on it, you will project unwanted image onto the masking. Such adjustments cannot be made solely remotely, because the remote operator cannot see what is on the screen, and I know of no webcam that has good enough resolution to make these adjustments that way (not to mention security paranoia issues if you have a webcam permanently installed and focused on the screen). Another consideration is that a new macro/preset means a new automation cue, and that can cause TMS issues if you have cues to trigger a macro/preset that work in some screens in a complex, but not others.

So either these settings should only be touched by the visiting field tech, or a permanent employee at the site (doesn't have to be a manager, as Carsten points out - in fact, some 'plexes I service have brought back the job title of projectionist, though that person usually does some other duties as well, often related to front-of-house IT and building maintenance) needs to be trained properly to make the adjustments. Which of those two options is chosen will depend on how important the technical presentation quality of image and sound is to the theater's business model, and other logistical considerations. If the service vendor is a 10-minute drive away, an independent theater is more likely to leave everything to him or her than if a field tech call involves shelling out $2K for a plane ticket, hotel, and car rental. Among my customers, there are some for whom showing a F-220 movie as letterboxed F would not cause managers or customers a second of lost sleep, and others who would want the bespoke macro/preset done and everything set up just right.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

With a CP2000S, a motorized lens isn't even a "given." If you have a manual lens mount, have you considered just zooming out the lens for the F-200 and F-220 ratios? How do you go between Scope and Flat, as it is?

Christie had a motorized magnifier insert arm that mounted to the front of the projector.. A real Rube Goldberg contraption that moved the magnifier in and back out. Unfortunately, I had to install one on every single S-1 Christie that went in. People wanted their booths fully automated.

[Leo Enticknap]

I've seen our XL Movers used for the same purpose, and to move anamorphs back and forth, on S1 setups. They are intended for 3-D polarizers, but will work just as well for other lens accessories.

[Steve Guttag]

Christie had both a 1.26 spherical magnifier that effectively just zooms the image (which doesn't help for vertical stretch if there is any keystone) as well as a 1.25 Anamorphic lens (lenses were offered from both ISCO and Schneider when they were separate companies...when they merged, the ISCO variant was kept. To this day, we have sites with anamorphic lenses and used on S2 projectors from Christie and NEC. They save about 23% on one's light or about one lamp size. It can make a huge difference in operating costs if it can keep you in a lower lamp as you move into the 3KW and larger lamps or allow one to high proper light levels on larger screens.

To Leo's point, we have used an MiT XL Mover with a Christie 4K S2 projector with an anamorphic. We even added our own circuit so that the Christie MALM port would treat the MIT mover as its own so it is controlled via the Christie channel and on its TPC interface.

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