from 35mm to dcp - how do they rob us of our innocence

[Ryan Patrick O'Hara]

Well... not quite as bad as my experience as a youth in 25/50 cent movie houses... but at the moment, the digital experience of 'defective projection'... has been far less than with digital than film.

Putting aside the Wife's need for captioned, which now supplied with most digital 'standard projection'... for some strange reason not available for IMAX typically... and 3D as well... but anyway, when we talked to the 'projectionist' of late, there has been only one person to manage the projection system on duty for the theater... with automated systems even for film, it cut down on the needed staff. The reason why we have frequently spoken with the projectionist, or manager, is because the caption equipment was not working correctly, or the audio 'piped' in from IR or RF transmitters for her earphones was whacked...

This does not happen in LA, since I go to Arclight, Egyptian, Rave18, Landmark and etc... but when I'm out of town at smaller theaters, like home in Ohio, focus has been out about 40% of the time. It's hard to notice sometimes, but when you go complain and sit back in your seat, you'll know it when they fix it. You'd be surprised how you almost could have not noticed. I typically notice from the edges of the text in previews... that and when the projection is too bright and the blacks aren't as black as they should be.

 

[Stephen Mick]

This does not happen in LA, since I go to Arclight, Egyptian, Rave18, Landmark and etc... but when I'm out of town at smaller theaters, like home in Ohio, focus has been out about 40% of the time. It's hard to notice sometimes, but when you go complain and sit back in your seat, you'll know it when they fix it. You'd be surprised how you almost could have not noticed. I typically notice from the edges of the text in previews... that and when the projection is too bright and the blacks aren't as black as they should be.

You know…sometimes you want things to be out of focus. I'm thinking of the jacuzzi scene with Kathy Bates in "About Schmidt."

 

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

This does not happen in LA, since I go to Arclight, Egyptian, Rave18, Landmark and etc... but when I'm out of town at smaller theaters, like home in Ohio, focus has been out about 40% of the time. It's hard to notice sometimes, but when you go complain and sit back in your seat, you'll know it when they fix it. You'd be surprised how you almost could have not noticed. I typically notice from the edges of the text in previews... that and when the projection is too bright and the blacks aren't as black as they should be.

The last time I saw a film at the Arclight "Cinarama" in Hollywood, was "Letters from Iwo Jima"(2006)... and because of my father's infirmities and vision problems... we were in the first row up from the entrance level... I would not class that as an optimal viewing experience...

Ordinarily about as far as we typically venture into LA... at the moment is Downtown Disney AMC and nearly equal distance, Cinemark Century 25 on Katella... both have captioning for most general releases.