How cinemas work - getting a digital movie (dcp) on screen

[Ed Gordon]

John Clancy's latest video

The Courtyard Cinema in Hereford is part of a complete arts complex and this is where Simon Nicholls works as Head of Film. Simon is ideal for this role given his long experience as a projectionist and also his own home cinema which can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqEE3... 35mm is still screened on occasion at The Courtyard but this time we are here to learn about the process of getting a DCP onto the screen. Many of us tend to think it is just a case of pushing a few buttons and then PLAY but as Simon explains, getting to the point when you can press PLAY is where all the work and skill is required. It was quite an education for me and so I hope it will be for many others. At the time of our visit the Boderline Film Festival was in full swing and this means there is a plethora of movies in the DCP holding station prepared to be transferred to the digital video projector for presentation on the big screen at the appointed time. Each different show has to be built up to run automatically and correctly along with the correct soundtrack at the most suitable volume. Yes, there's far more to it than I ever considered.

[Dave Bickford]

Very cool! I’ve never worked in cinema, but I’ve been in television for about 35 years. The changes in technology and delivery for both cinema and TV appear to be very similar. I actually understood what was being described in this video. Cinema and TV may be very different as far as audience and presentation, but at the same time, very similar in concept behind the scenes.

[Ken Finch]

This is almost identical to the demonstration I was given at my local cinema. It was not quite so complicated as there are only two screens. The projection room is too small to be able to retain the cine film equipment. I guess it seems very complicated for those of us who have not been particularly computer literate, but appears to me to be similar to importing video files and using programmes similar to those used for editing and then exporting them to the projector. The downside is that if some part of the system develops a fault the show has to be abandoned. Fortunately this is rare but it does happen.

[Steve Lee]

I am so glad that I got out of the business when I did. I would find this soul destroying and boring, to say the least.
I used to love going into work on a Friday morning, to make up the entire weeks programs. While getting your weekly fix from freshly processed film. Taking a deep breath in while removing the film can lid, on a new first run print. The same as opening a brand new book for the first time. There's nothing quite like it.

If you can't press the play button until you have permission to do so, I think this answers the question to why there is no presentation these day, let alone showmanship.
If you can't see the actual film you are about to show, until you have a paying audience sitting there, how are you supposed to make any corrections that may be needed. or even know the exact ratio it may be in, for those cinemas with masking.

At least with film, you know what you are dealing with. You can tell with a glance what ratio it needs to be projected in, if there is any damage. Basically do anything you like to it, and it would very rarely let you down. At least you can repair broken film, and get your hands dirty in the back of a projectors mech, to keep the show on the road.

I guess this means the end to staff and press preview screenings.

Computer says "No."

https://media1.tenor.com/m/MTUPE0QCa...d-walliams.gif

[Ed Gordon]

...
If you can't press the play button until you have permission to do so, I think this answers the question to why there is no presentation these day, let alone showmanship.
If you can't see the actual film you are about to show, until you have a paying audience sitting there, how are you supposed to make any corrections that may be needed. or even know the exact ratio it may be in, for those cinemas with masking.

At least with film, you know what you are dealing with. You can tell with a glance what ratio it needs to be projected in, if there is any damage. Basically do anything you like to it, and it would very rarely let you down. At least you can repair broken film, and get your hands dirty in the back of a projectors mech, to keep the show on the road...

In this case the digital and film presentations are managed by a professional projectionist, Simon Nicholls, who indeed does pay very close attention to presentation and showmanship. That probably is not the case in many venues.

Once the digital movie has been ingested and the license key activated you can show the film anytime until the key expires. You can preview the show at will. Simon talks about digital "film" specifications at around minute 13.

If the projectionist is the person selling tickets/refreshments who remotely starts the show, that would certainly become a point of possible problems I would think.

If the venue is badly managed and understaffed, kiss showmanship goodbye, whether it is film or digital.

[Lindsay Morris]

When film supply in Australia ended 2013/2014 I was faced with either closing my outdoor venue (NOT a drive in) OR GO digital. My patrons strongly encouraged me to make the shift and I managed to source a LOW hours NEC 1200C digital machine which also came with Dolby 3D and bundle of 3D Glasses.
SO around $50K later in August 2014 I had the machine installed and VERY quickly learnt how to setup the play list and program things to run VERY smoothly.

To get decent screen light particularly IF I wanted to screen the odd 3D feature I needed a 4KW lamp which only ran close to that when doing a 3D session.
But it needed 2.2Kw for a Flat presentation and 2.8Kw for a Scope presentation and bumped up to 3.8Kw for a 3D show.

The machine came with an Interface unit for remote control so I was able to use that to control the auditorium lights AND the parking area lights.

The playlist functionality was excellent as one could could program it to switch parking lights on as required, control the auditorium dimmer, control the volume settings each Trailer or Feature was to play at and also change formats from Flat to scope and back etc as needed by simply inserting 15 secs of BLACK Screen into the playlist as required and the necessary cue to the projector to swap formats. As you changed formats the lamp power was also taken up or down t what was required for that format.
It also provided for fading down the Non Sync audio and switching to the digital machine audio as the screen ads started after having of course switched on the lamp.

Then as the ads finished on a half bright auditorium light setting it would send the lights out and commence the trailers and then the feature and should the trailers have varying audio levels you could see the knob on the CP 650 Processor going back and forth adjusting the volume as I had previously setup in the playlist so the auditorium volume was optimum every time ..NO Loud or soft trailers and the feature volume spot on.

When the feature ended a cue set in the playlist would bring the auditorium lights up halfway as the Credits rolled and go to full on as they finished and then switch the Non Sync music back on.

Smooth as and all I had to do was each night was switch on the power and the projector in the bio box and shut the door and walk away to take tickets on the door and greet patrons.
As the feature ended the cues also switched OFF the lamp and by the time the place had emptied the lamp and projector had cooled down I simply switched it off and the parking lights stayed on for another 15 minutes so I could lock up and go home.

The 35mm machine had a 2.5Kw lamp which I only ran at 1600 Watts as light on the screen from that was more than enough as the projector was a twin shutter Century with a water cooled gate ex a local drive in.
So power consumption went up a bit but the switchmode power supply for the digital machine lamp was far more efficient than the old Xenon rectifier that came with the 35mm machine so the change to digital dropped the overall running costs.

The 3D effect was excellent but a tad dark being the Dolby system but the 3D image itself seemed to lift OFF the screen and sit midway between the viewer and the screen..it could be quite startling on some scenes when things were coming towards you. It was fun watching kids squeal and duck behind a seat in some scenes.

As much as I really liked running film this was far better management wise and being a small fry setup I was NEVER having to delay booking titles because prints were NOT available and I had to delay booking stuff.

Thus going digital made the programming so much easier and also improved the overall season average attendance figures.

But film to my eyes STILL looks far better than Digital.