8mm Forum: The Descendants on 35mm

This is topic The Descendants on 35mm in forum General Yak at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Akshay Nanjangud (Member # 2828) on February 01, 2012, 01:17 AM:

Hi Everyone,

I almost didn't want to watch The Descendants today, but my father just had to watch a movie. So, I put aside some repairs on my Bolex SP-80 and we went.

This theater we went to has two screens, one of which still has a 35mm film projection. What luck! I was thrilled to be watching this very good movie on film. They even showed trailers of The Artist on film. Here are some thoughts:

1. I noticed that the text was a little 'shaky', jumping up and down just a little bit. Does anyone know why?
2. I also noticed that there was a slight flicker in the picture. When my projectors weren't right, I'd have a flicker too. Can someone explain this flicker?
3. Now, I've been to this projection room before and know they have the entire movie on a film platter. But, I still saw some round black circles on the right-side that indicate reel changes.
4. Finally, I was thinking about how some people are trying to convert their films to digital format. Today, at this theater, it was the other way round. The Descendants was probably shot digital and then converted to film, right? Can someone say a bit on how this conversion affects image quality?

I can't wait to watch The Artist, and I have asked the theater to try to get it on film. [Smile]

Posted by Jean-Marc Toussaint (Member # 270) on February 01, 2012, 01:36 AM:

Akshay, many things can cause a flicker effect: a slightly lower speed projection, untiming of the shutter, failing diods in the rectifier or an ageing Xenon lamp (this just happened to one of my 3Kw lamps).
The "jumping around" could also be caused by several things, including untightened skids in the film gate and bad printing at the lab.

Posted by Larry Arpin (Member # 744) on February 01, 2012, 01:51 AM:

The Descendants was shot on film.

Posted by Akshay Nanjangud (Member # 2828) on February 01, 2012, 11:46 AM:

Yes, Larry. You are right. IMDB says it was shot on 35 mm Kodak Vision3 200T 5213, Vision3 500T 5219. I only understand the 35 mm and Kodak part. I just checked and The Artist was shot on 35 mm.

There is something called Cinematographic Process. What does it mean? Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1033575/technical

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