What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Fading Fast]

On special occasions. We kept our 35mm setup on my insistence when we converted to digital last winter, and run occasional 35mm archival shows. Our digital system is the bane of my life, and I dream every night of attacking it with a shovel.

Sincere question - why is the digital so bad?

 

[LizzieMaine]

It's glitchy and unreliable, and the main reason it exists is not because it's an improvement over film but because it's a way for Hollywood to keep its material from being pirated.

In ten years we never lost or even delayed a single show due to a problem with 35mm film -- if anything ever went wrong I could fix it with a screwdriver and a pair of pliers. Digital Cinema isn't just technologically fussier -- we've lost two shows in the last ten months due to digital failures of one kind or another, and almost lost another one last weekend -- but it requires that anything more complicated than rebooting the server be fixed by a service technician. There are compartments inside the projector sealed by a lock and key for which I don't have the key -- because Hollywood insists that it, and only it, should have the right to say who should service those parts of the equipment. It's ridiculous.

And with all that, the picture is no better than we had with film. We took great pride in the quality of our film presentation -- rock-steady, clear, properly lit -- but digital gives us an image that's flat, dead, and dim. It's a step backward to everybody except the intellectual-property lawyers.

 

[3PcSuit]

Sincere question - why is everything/anything digital seen as good, better, inevitable?

You guys don't go after oil painters, leave movies alone!

 

[3PcSuit]

35mm film, up until early 2000's, gave you about 2500 lines across.

The the digital intermediate made film worse than digital. because the digital master was put on film, then copied three kore times.

With a contact print or a 4K (4,096 lines across) master, film looks significantly better.

It has a larger color range, deeper blacks, better contrast, no aliasing.


Digital is essentially the same resolution as a Bluray. 1980 lines versus 2048 lines is what 5%? by the time you go through a projector lens and, hopefully, clean port glass, it is probably an even wash.

Why pay $12 to see a movie when you can own it at the same resolution, three months later for $20?


I won't be back. When they stop projecting film I stop going. For that mich money we deserve the BEST, not the movie equivalent of friggin' iTunes and MP3s.

With Nolan's latest film coming out on, shock, film, first, some of the theatres have their panties up in a bunch! What a joke! The guy is trying to save e theatre experience and the theatres are fighting him on it!


If it weren't for him, Tarantino, Scorsese, Pfister, and one other big director Kodak would have been gone, and with it the very technology that made motion pictures possible, forever. If four people hadn't spoken up, it would have been gone for good. No new film, EVER. What a collossal loss that would be!

@Fading Fast, seeing as you live in NYC, you have absolutely no excuse for not enjoying movies on 35- and 70-mm film.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Sincere question - why is everything/anything digital seen as good, better, inevitable?

Because the people selling digital have the Boys From Marketing on their side, and Boobus Americanus never can resist their pitch.

 

[Touchofevil]

Wasn't going to. :eusa_doh:

Because you already knew.

 

[Horace Debussy Jones]

I sure hope they don't come after oil painters! I can't imagine anything worse than digital Van Eycks and DaVincis. shakeshead

Sincere question - why is everything/anything digital seen as good, better, inevitable?

You guys don't go after oil painters, leave movies alone!

 

[Two Types]

'Cheer Boys Cheer' (1939) A british comedy starring Graham Moffat & Moore Marriott. it's basically an allegorical tale regarding Nazi Germany's threats to Czechoslovakia etc, telling the story of large modern brewery (Ironside) trying to enforce the takeover of a small traditional brewery (Greenleaf). Just in case you didn't get the message, we see the owner of Ironside brewery reading Mein Kampf!

 

[Fading Fast]

It's glitchy and unreliable, and the main reason it exists is not because it's an improvement over film but because it's a way for Hollywood to keep its material from being pirated.

In ten years we never lost or even delayed a single show due to a problem with 35mm film -- if anything ever went wrong I could fix it with a screwdriver and a pair of pliers. Digital Cinema isn't just technologically fussier -- we've lost two shows in the last ten months due to digital failures of one kind or another, and almost lost another one last weekend -- but it requires that anything more complicated than rebooting the server be fixed by a service technician. There are compartments inside the projector sealed by a lock and key for which I don't have the key -- because Hollywood insists that it, and only it, should have the right to say who should service those parts of the equipment. It's ridiculous.

And with all that, the picture is no better than we had with film. We took great pride in the quality of our film presentation -- rock-steady, clear, properly lit -- but digital gives us an image that's flat, dead, and dim. It's a step backward to everybody except the intellectual-property lawyers.

Thank you. Kinda like my iPhone which won't even allow me to change its battery. I stopped going to movies about four or five years ago when my girlfriend and I figured out that we disliked the theater (dirty and ugly glitzy), the crowds (loud and rude), the prices (stupid expensive) and that we could see the same movie in the same digital format at home several months later for much less money. Now, the only thing that might get us to go would be a revival in a classic old movie theater, but we are seeing less and less of that in NYC.

 

[EmergencyIan]

Thank you. Kinda like my iPhone which won't even allow me to change its battery. I stopped going to movies about four or five years ago when my girlfriend and I figured out that we disliked the theater (dirty and ugly glitzy), the crowds (loud and rude), the prices (stupid expensive) and that we could see the same movie in the same digital format at home several months later for much less money. Now, the only thing that might get us to go would be a revival in a classic old movie theater, but we are seeing less and less of that in NYC.

The Film Forum is one of the last or the last here in NYC that shows classic movies, as you know. It's worth the time and money, but that's about it.

We very rarely go to the movies here in NYC. The two main reasons are the price and the audience. The other reason is the that the majority of the new releases aren't worth seeing and if we want to we can see it within three months at home.

- Ian

 

[3PcSuit]

Yeah, the smaller and smaller windows may be the death knell for all theatres. Studios couldn't care less about them.

I wasn't talking only of art houses. There are plenty of first- and second-run film theatres in New York too.


Not everything new is garbage, though I am done with Superhero movies. Another Batman two years after Dark Knight Rises? I don't care if they shoot every frame on IMAX cameras, you don't do a "remake" or "reimagining" or whatever BS spin you want to put on it ona movie TWO YEARS after the last release.

 

[3PcSuit]

The Film Forum is one of the last or the last here in NYC that shows classic movies, as you know. It's worth the time and money, but that's about it.

If you are talking about the place I think you are, last time I was in town, most of the shows there even were DLP. Maybe not their fault, but still not worth my showing up if they don't get in prints. Got the $100 Bluray olayer and the 48" set at home. DLP has effectively zero advantage, and that assumes they bother to focus it (although I'm sure the projectionist at Film Forum can find their ass with two hands).

 

[LizzieMaine]

Yeah, the smaller and smaller windows may be the death knell for all theatres. Studios couldn't care less about them.

I wasn't talking only of art houses. There are plenty of first- and second-run film theatres in New York too.


Not everything new is garbage, though I am done with Superhero movies. Another Batman two years after Dark Knight Rises? I don't care if they shoot every frame on IMAX cameras, you don't do a "remake" or "reimagining" or whatever BS spin you want to put on it ona movie TWO YEARS after the last release.

The big problem with revival shows on film is that most of the studios either aren't supplying prints anymore or are very very stingy about letting them out. Forget about getting anything from Fox on 35mm -- they've withdrawn all the prints that Criterion was distributing for them and either junked them or locked them away. If you want to screen any old film under their control it's either DCP -- if they have a DCP -- or they'll license you to show a Blu-Ray or a DVD that you yourself have to provide. Universal doesn't even know what they have anymore other than the monster films, and they couldn't care less about the pre-1948 Paramount product they own.

We've had good dealings with the UCLA Film Archive, which still lets things out on 35mm, although you have to sign your life away to get them, and Warner-MGM can usually find 35mm on their better-known films -- although most of those prints tend to be pretty junky unless it's a high-profile title like Oz or GWTW.

 

[Formeruser012523]

This was some disappointing news I heard today:

https://willmckinley.wordpress.com/2014/10/07/as-turner-layoffs-loom-one-fan-says-donttouchtcm/

 

[Worf]

This was some disappointing news I heard today:

https://willmckinley.wordpress.com/2014/10/07/as-turner-layoffs-loom-one-fan-says-donttouchtcm/

Thanks Mae.... One more reason to dread getting up in the morning. IF ANTHING happens to TCM in any way shape or form it's basic cable or no cable for me. ****** I'm serious!

Worf

 

[topango]

Gone Girl It was pretty good, I am going to give it my highest rating, Two thumbs and two big toes up

 

[Retro Spectator]

Scent of a Woman.

 

[Fading Fast]

Thanks Mae.... One more reason to dread getting up in the morning. IF ANTHING happens to TCM in any way shape or form it's basic cable or no cable for me. ****** I'm serious!

Worf

That could be the cut-the-cord moment. Right now, I turn on my TV, go to TCM and if it doesn't catch my attention, I usually just turn the TV off. I read years ago that TCM is very profitable, but who knows if that is still true and if the numbers are big enough to matter to Turner.

 

[Touchofevil]

This was some disappointing news I heard today:

https://willmckinley.wordpress.com/2014/10/07/as-turner-layoffs-loom-one-fan-says-donttouchtcm/

I pay way more than I would for cable just so that I can have TCM. It is, for me, the best reason for turning on the television.

 

[1mach1]

I pay way more than I would for cable just so that I can have TCM. It is, for me, the best reason for turning on the television.

A big +1 on that!