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Film Projectors

In 2005, less than 100 movie screens in the United States used digital projectors. Now there are close to 16,000 digital cinema screens, with over 5,000 of them having stereoscopic (3-D) capabilities. Digital film projectors allow a cleaner and crisper viewing experience compared to traditional film projectors, which often makes the picture scratch or break. Movie studios are also pulling for the full digital revolution, as it saves them significant costs in making film prints and shipping them to and from the theaters in bulky metal containers.

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I knew many of us (include me) will hate to read this...especially Jose of Spain

cheers
 

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Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on August 09, 2010, 02:57 PM:
 
"Often make the picture scratch or break"?

Hold on tharrr!!!!

-instead, how about:

"Sometimes make the picture scratch or very rarely break."

Maybe they should have mentioned the string of digitally projected trailers I saw that were silent because there was some problem with the satellite downlink that day. Once they rolled the film, the sound was fine.

(...All that technology just to make movies silent again!)

I understand the idea of digital projection has a lot of benefits, and it may be just the thing to keep cinemas viable in the decades coming up, but from an entertainment point of view it's kind of edging us towards being a bunch of people watching a big TV set. (Although the idea of watching a live show in a cinema is kind of neat!)

Let's hope they can develop software to at least fake a "going to the movies" experience.
 

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Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on August 09, 2010, 10:33 PM:
 
Break polyester film... anyone ever tried it? I am going to try towing my car with a strip of this stuff soon. I reckon I can do it.....photos sometime later. I have only seen polyester film brake once and that was a demo by our expert part time "Tae Kwon Do" martial arts projectionist and he did it with his hands

As far as projectors scratching film that might only happen if the equipment is not properly maintained or the film is improperly threaded but its certainly not the fault of the 35mm format itself after all its been around for over 100 years.

Graham.

PS.

Am I missing something but what is meant by a DIGITAL film projector. I thought is was video or does it mean you can still thread actual film into it.
 

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Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on August 10, 2010, 04:09 PM:
 
That is true,

We go to two local theaters. One is this little Mom and Pop place where the prints are consistently nice on screen, the other is from a big national chain and there's always a gouge on screen right. (Nobody seems to notice but me...)

Either the coincidences are remarkable or the staff over at the big place isn't taking very good care of their machines and prints (Would hate being the next theater down the line.)

Murphy's law dictates that when this place goes digital they'll find a way to abuse that too.
 

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Posted by Tony Stucchio (Member # 519) on August 10, 2010, 06:33 PM:
 
It doesn't matter if it is a movie theater, grocery store, hardware store, deli, sandwich shop, etc. The Mom and Pop run one will be friendlier, better run, and much more fun to frequent.

When I go to Home Depot looking for something, I get sent on a wild goose chase down dozen of aisles, am told "this is not my aisle" several times, or find that the aisle I want is closed as they have that thingamajig loading shelves. Yet I can go to local family-run hardware store (which is a fraction of the size) and get exactly what I want quickly and easily.
 

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Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on August 10, 2010, 07:26 PM:
 
If you can find a family run hardware store. The Home Despot has sent most of 'em down Memory Lane.

Our Home Depot was built on an old family farm, the only problem is their cemetary was right in the middle of the property, so out in the parking lot there's this grassy patch with all these gravestones!

The Mom and Pop Theater has been in that family for at least a generation. The owner has a habit of standing at the head of the line before they let the people into the auditoriums and talking to them about movies, either new or old.
 

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Posted by David Erskine (Member # 1244) on August 11, 2010, 01:52 PM:
 
A note for GORDON! A pal of mine, at an MOD plant here in the UK, used polyester film to hitch a tank to a transporter and then towed the tank around the square. The film didn't break. So your car should be OK!! Then, in a spirit of mischief, he used the same bit of film to tie up the double doors to a lab - and the people inside couldn't get out 'cos the film didn't break. Shows we British have a sense of humour (albeit weird!!)
Cheers, David E
 

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Posted by Jose Artiles (Member # 471) on August 11, 2010, 09:44 PM:
 
"I knew many of us (include me) will hate to read this...especially Jose of Spain [Razz]"

Yes dear Winbert,you have all the rigth!!! i hate to read it jajajaj,but lets face the true to alL who things digital cinema is the future.....I SAY NO!!...you ask me why? its easy..because when all cinema were digital including the making of a movie..all digital video,, when all go digital the people never go to a movie theatre again paying a ticket because the picture will looks the same on home than on theatre,2k video proyectors will be easy on home in less than 5 years and when the people note its the same will never pay again,part of the magic to go cinema is the different way to see a movie,nothing of this happend with digital and forget the wonderfull colours of film,,once digital take the place inside the camera...good by beautifull colours..hello same colours same reds and blues and enhanced horrible colour tha look more and more electronic while they try to enhanced to imitate the film look(absurd,,try to imitate..for god sake,,,imitate when i can use real film ppfff),i always say to my job partners that the real cinema will be almost extint as business in 20 years because the business will lost the magic,yesterday i was showing open air "tarzan find his son" and i can asure that the magic of film is what makes the people to stay includind a lot of peolple who keep wonder me at the end of the show that they are amazed because they see "the real thing on real cinema" or "Oh, a film projector,how autentic and true way to see the movie" and i always says to them "as it migth be",once the picture quality will be as cold as a videogame..cold and dead..pure tv projected, the people will lost the interest to see a movie on a big screen because they are accustomed to see all on video like this,video games,football,all on bigscreen and on digital video so as i say once the film will gone the money will go forever too,you will see,in a very few years everybody will can download the movies from the pc for a dollar or a few pounds and the cinema will dissapear as business,then they will try to recover the mass public but will be too late..magic is lost and we,the collectors will have the oportunity to enjoy the real film for our eyes only because the rest of digital viewers dont deserve that pleasure.For my side i will die stuck on my films and projectors shouting with my old old voice to all who try to quit my films from me "FROM MY COLD ,DIE HANDS"
 

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Posted by Bill Phelps (Member # 1431) on August 12, 2010, 05:16 PM:
 
Right on! Tell it like it is Jose!

Bill
 

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Posted by Jose Artiles (Member # 471) on August 12, 2010, 09:01 PM:
 
JAJAJA,HI Bill,you can be sure i´ll do
 

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Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on August 14, 2010, 09:10 PM:
 
Well David
We gave it a go

single strip of 35mm polyester film

It broke under tension

not to give up totally my son Steven tried it again this time with the film doubled.

and this time it worked we slowly towed the car to the end of the street and back. If you were double the film even more than that it would be better still. However it does prove that even though you can brake it, its still strong stuff and wont brake easily in projection use.

Graham.
 

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Posted by Patrick Walsh (Member # 637) on August 14, 2010, 09:46 PM:
 
Thats amazing Graham!, I have heard of film pulling platters around the floor but towing a car!!
 

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Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on August 15, 2010, 08:37 PM:
 
Yes Pat.
It did work,it might pay to keep an old trl in the boot for an emergency although towing uphill might not be such a good idea

Graham.
 

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Posted by David Michael Leugers (Member # 166) on February 02, 2011, 11:03 PM:
 
I can not remember the last time I saw film damage in any of the theaters around where I live. Pristine images and sound have long become the norm. I love the few mom and pop "art" theaters and usually see most of the movies I go out for at those favorite spots. All film projection. If and when the day comes only digital projection is available, I will retire to my house. I can get the same experience from a large screen HDTV without some idiot with a cell phone disturbing my viewing experience... Of course, my showing of films in my basement will continue and become more fun all the time. BTW, the switch to digital only helps the bottom line of the studios and distributors. The single screen mom and pop theaters will mostly go out of business rather than invest $100,000 in new technology that might become obsolete next week... sad.
 

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Posted by Allan Broadfield (Member # 2298) on March 06, 2011, 04:20 PM:
 
It is a shame that film shows will eventually be 'non film'. I have worked in the film business since 1959, firstly as a cinema projectionist, then in the labs, and from the very beginning I was advised to move into a different field of employement as 'films' wouldn't last much longer. Well, it took a while, but it does seem to be happening now. Comments regarding scratches and film damage are amusing, polyester film is indeed very strong, and this is a mixed blessing to the labs, as on the rare occasions that a print comes off the rollers during processing, it will often bend the shafts before the developing machine stops. As for scratches, call me old fashioned, but the blemishes assure me that I am actually watching a film and not an electronic reproduction.
 

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Posted by Greg Marshall (Member # 1268) on March 06, 2011, 07:19 PM:
 
Static electricity can cause issues, and can cause platters to malfunction and try to throw the print. Because of that, there will be an interruption. The mylar film will want to break, instead, it will lodge itself in your DTS or Dolby reader, and damage those. Mylar prints can be costly to theatre owners, for sure.
 

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Posted by Gerald Santana (Member # 2362) on March 06, 2011, 08:30 PM:
 
Digital Films skip and freeze, how are you going to fix that HOLLYWOOD??
 

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Posted by Allan Broadfield (Member # 2298) on March 07, 2011, 02:01 AM:
 
Whatever the rights and wrongs of film v digital, digital will win out because in the long run, after the initial expense, it will be cheap and convenient compared to film. I am steadfastly pro film because I have grown up and worked in it from the start. I remember as a projectionist running the saturday morning kids shows, and the prints, invariably, were in an awful state, with joins throughout and end of reels covered with scratches and many change-over dots flashing up on the screen. This, however was all part of the fun, and no matter how badly beaten these prints were from previous venues, the actual picture quality was sharp and beautifully exposed. Now we are in an age where some young people won't even consider watching a black and white picture, which is a shame, as they are missing a lot. I enjoyed a medium that is now probably considered quite archaic, but I think I got the best part of the deal.
 

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Posted by Pasquale DAlessio (Member # 2052) on March 09, 2011, 08:40 AM:
 
Alan

I agree with you 100%. BTW my wife's family is from High Halden. We visit there every year. Kent "The garden of England".

Pat DAlessio
 

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