Movie MarauderDigital Projection - Revelation Film Festival Perth
July 7th 2008 05:50
I'm purist when it comes to some subjects,like baseball for instance. The designated hitter, steroids, turf, all these things are better left out of the game in my opinion. When it comes to film I tend to be wary of new technology but try to be pragmatic. Digital Projection so far is causing me some trouble.
Living in Perth, Western Australia is skewing my perception to a large degree; the latest and greatest in DP hasn't gotten here yet and might not for some time. I'd be eager to hear from some of you about your experiences with DP in American theatres. I enjoy watching documentaries at a cinema, and this is a great time for the documentary feature, each week seems to bring a whole new batch to enjoy and local theatres do a tremendous job in giving space to as many as they can. Many of these are projected digitally now and my experiences with this burgeoning technology have gone from irritating to ridiculous , with a few bright spots in between. Now, I know why DP is good for documentary filmmakers economically, I get it. I'm all for the technology as long as, just like traditional film projection (mostly) allows, I get to see the film the way the Producer and Director intended it. This more often than not has not happened. Many times, these films were shown in small rooms inside the cinema. Shockingly, (I really wasn't shocked) some theatre managers and employees seem to get defensive and act as if I was splitting hairs when I brought this up after the film and NOT requesting a refund. One even went so far to condescendingly suggest that I was being unrealistic as the film was clearly shot on hand-held DV. I remarked that I was unaware that DV cameras had a button to "Make Post-Production Titles Look Like ASCII Text" button. Not even one chuckle.
This past Friday night saw the opening of the 11th Annual Revelation Film Festival here in Perth. The selection of films this year is inspired, thanks to Jack Sargeant, well-known film writer who's tastes and subject matter cover a wide-range of genres. The venue, the Astor Cinema in Mt. Lawley, is a great vintage theatre that makes the atmosphere authentic and fun, the staff is great too. The projection however is (it's still going, all week!), well lets say, lacking. It all culminated with a showing of the imaginative 'Milk of the Land' documentary on Sunday evening. Roughly 20-30% of the film was thrown onto the wall and ceiling, many titles (and there are many in this film) were not readable. A few people left at one spot in the film where the poor images made the viewing pointless, and I joined them. I constructively mentioned the problem with mangement and cut bait. The previous night the showing of 'Tin Can Man' had to be stopped a few minutes in to correct the aspect ratio, they thankfully restarted the film. In fact all the films I saw the day of 'Milk' had issues with the projection, they seem to get progressively worse. Either they were too wide with titles off the screen, blurry or pixellated. All in all a very disappointing experience. Some others complained and I am hoping that the rest of the movies this week in the small room might show improved projection.
I have read that many theatres are cutting costs by not hiring trained projectionists. I'm not sure if this was the problem this weekend, or it was technological. For the 'Milk' movie, one of the staff members who was engaged in my earlier discussion about the projection came in to watch the film and didn't seem to notice anything wrong on the screen even as a handful of people left in quick succession. If staff doesn't know what to expect from projection...
I prefer the environment of the theatre to watch new movies, however I understand why people like to stay at home, could this possibly be part of the problem of why more people don't find poor projection, well, poor? Many of my friends have opted for the large plasma or LCD TV's in their homes but I have only seen one of them set-up in a way where the resolution was as good as it is meant to be in advertisements and general expectation, this thing was truly beautiful, however the owner is a filmmaker with a higher expectation for his investment. The rest were like watching a brightly colored ear-splitting game of Pong. No one had set up their couches far enough away or were getting the right picture and resolution, their cognitive dissonance however was lulling them into thinking their massive expenditure had them riding the High Def wave, hell the pretzels even tasted better!
This might be a stretch, maybe Aussies just don't get worked up about this stuff. I know what I see but as long as the film is generally 'on' the screen, and the image is not migraine inducing, I'll try to keep my mouth shut. But if I am getting an obstructed view and its hampering my ability to make sense of the content, I think its best to mention it gently and hope for the best...
Living in Perth, Western Australia is skewing my perception to a large degree; the latest and greatest in DP hasn't gotten here yet and might not for some time. I'd be eager to hear from some of you about your experiences with DP in American theatres. I enjoy watching documentaries at a cinema, and this is a great time for the documentary feature, each week seems to bring a whole new batch to enjoy and local theatres do a tremendous job in giving space to as many as they can. Many of these are projected digitally now and my experiences with this burgeoning technology have gone from irritating to ridiculous , with a few bright spots in between. Now, I know why DP is good for documentary filmmakers economically, I get it. I'm all for the technology as long as, just like traditional film projection (mostly) allows, I get to see the film the way the Producer and Director intended it. This more often than not has not happened. Many times, these films were shown in small rooms inside the cinema. Shockingly, (I really wasn't shocked) some theatre managers and employees seem to get defensive and act as if I was splitting hairs when I brought this up after the film and NOT requesting a refund. One even went so far to condescendingly suggest that I was being unrealistic as the film was clearly shot on hand-held DV. I remarked that I was unaware that DV cameras had a button to "Make Post-Production Titles Look Like ASCII Text" button. Not even one chuckle.
"Excuse me, Sicko made me...um...sick"
This past Friday night saw the opening of the 11th Annual Revelation Film Festival here in Perth. The selection of films this year is inspired, thanks to Jack Sargeant, well-known film writer who's tastes and subject matter cover a wide-range of genres. The venue, the Astor Cinema in Mt. Lawley, is a great vintage theatre that makes the atmosphere authentic and fun, the staff is great too. The projection however is (it's still going, all week!), well lets say, lacking. It all culminated with a showing of the imaginative 'Milk of the Land' documentary on Sunday evening. Roughly 20-30% of the film was thrown onto the wall and ceiling, many titles (and there are many in this film) were not readable. A few people left at one spot in the film where the poor images made the viewing pointless, and I joined them. I constructively mentioned the problem with mangement and cut bait. The previous night the showing of 'Tin Can Man' had to be stopped a few minutes in to correct the aspect ratio, they thankfully restarted the film. In fact all the films I saw the day of 'Milk' had issues with the projection, they seem to get progressively worse. Either they were too wide with titles off the screen, blurry or pixellated. All in all a very disappointing experience. Some others complained and I am hoping that the rest of the movies this week in the small room might show improved projection.
I have read that many theatres are cutting costs by not hiring trained projectionists. I'm not sure if this was the problem this weekend, or it was technological. For the 'Milk' movie, one of the staff members who was engaged in my earlier discussion about the projection came in to watch the film and didn't seem to notice anything wrong on the screen even as a handful of people left in quick succession. If staff doesn't know what to expect from projection...
I prefer the environment of the theatre to watch new movies, however I understand why people like to stay at home, could this possibly be part of the problem of why more people don't find poor projection, well, poor? Many of my friends have opted for the large plasma or LCD TV's in their homes but I have only seen one of them set-up in a way where the resolution was as good as it is meant to be in advertisements and general expectation, this thing was truly beautiful, however the owner is a filmmaker with a higher expectation for his investment. The rest were like watching a brightly colored ear-splitting game of Pong. No one had set up their couches far enough away or were getting the right picture and resolution, their cognitive dissonance however was lulling them into thinking their massive expenditure had them riding the High Def wave, hell the pretzels even tasted better!
Looks great from the other room, but on your couch it looks like a banana salad. ADMIT IT!
This might be a stretch, maybe Aussies just don't get worked up about this stuff. I know what I see but as long as the film is generally 'on' the screen, and the image is not migraine inducing, I'll try to keep my mouth shut. But if I am getting an obstructed view and its hampering my ability to make sense of the content, I think its best to mention it gently and hope for the best...
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