Interstellar and XD Theaters

[airdvr 197]

Just got back from watching. Effects are excellent. I won't spoil it but one thing I learned tonight; if you don't sit near the center of an XD theater alot of the dialogue gets stepped on by the sound effects.

Please don't dent the planet.

Destinations by Roxanne

[quade 3]

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if you don't sit near the center of an XD theater alot of the dialogue gets stepped on by the sound effects.

That's not XD specific. XD, the Cinemark Trademark for their higher end 4K theaters, doesn't do anything particularly special when it comes to audio that couldn't be done in any theater. They're all getting the same audio from the studios (minimum 5.1 and 7.1 where available, but not a special mix). The technician who set up the individual screen could have screwed up, but Cinemark does generally do a pretty good job of setting up their theaters.

There's an awful lot of points of failure there from the original mix all the way to the technician who calibrated the audio in the theater. To attempt to definitively blame any one of those is kind of futile unless you're sitting in a theater that was set up by a technician paid by the studio itself (for instance, the El Capitan theater in Hollywood which is set up by the guys from Disney).

All of the above said, generally speaking the geographic middle of the house is the best audio mix; not just left to right, but also front to back. Technically the SMPTE spec has it at five times the distance from the screen as it is high (screen 20ft high is 100ft back), but some theaters are "stadium seating" with HUGE screens and fairly short distances between front to back. It's also really hard to judge that sometimes if curtains are closed. If you need/want slightly boosted dialogue to SFX mix (like maybe you're ears are getting old), you might want to sit a little closer to the front since dialogue is generally punched up mono out of the front center, but overall volume levels at most theaters are so high today that might be only a very small improvement.

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The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[airdvr 197]

Had to bring up the old thing dintcha...

Please don't dent the planet.

Destinations by Roxanne

[JohnMitchell 14]

I just read a New Yorker magazine review that said much of the dialogue was drowned out by the music soundtrack.

V and I were watching a movie the other night with that same flaw. Irritating as heck.

[jakee 1,254]

Chris Nolan does like loud music. Pretty much my entire recollection of Inception is BAAHHM (City upside down) BAAHHM (rotating hallway) BAAHHM (spinning top) roll credits.

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[quade 3]

Relevant to this discussion.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/critics-notebook-interstellars-sonic-soup-or-how-auteurs-diss-their-audience/2014/11/07/7f8e4110-65cd-11e4-836c-83bc4f26eb67_story.html

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The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[kallend 1,620]

Just saw it in a high end theater in downtown Chicago.

Apart from some pretty stupid physics (Kip Thorne???) it was VERY LOUD.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[quade 3]

kallend

Apart from some pretty stupid physics...

For me there is a sliding scale of responsibility when it comes to stories and reality.

If I'm watching "Toy Story" I have to accept the premise toys can be / are autonomous creatures who can walk and talk. I have to forgive certain aspects of reality.

If I'm watching "The Right Stuff" or "Apollo 13" I expect to see a high degree of faithfulness to historical facts and physics of reality.

"Intersteller" falls between these two extremes. Certain aspects of physics have to be forgiven in order for the story to be told at all. It's a requirement. The physics of the story can't be the physics of our currently known reality. With that in mind, I'll cut them a bit of slack with it comes to certain things.

It's not a physics lesson. It's a story about metaphysics; that we our are own ghosts and gods.

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The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[wmw999 2,116]

This. I enjoyed it.

And yes, it was too loud.

Wendy P.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[kallend 1,620]

quade

"Intersteller" falls between these two extremes. Certain aspects of physics have to be forgiven in order for the story to be told at all.

Narrativium - the element that creates narrative causality, which forces events to comply with the needs of the story.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[Tink1717 2]

How do you know so much about theatres?

Skydivers don't knock on Death's door. They ring the bell and runaway... It really pisses him off.
-The World Famous Tink. (I never heard of you either!!)
AA #2069 ASA#33 POPS#8808 Swooo 1717

[quade 3]

Tink1717

How do you know so much about theatres?

While most of my practical experience as a projectionist in a movie house is pretty dated, I like to think I keep up in terms of what's going on. Part of what I do in the freelance world (among a bajillion other things) involves occasionally making the odd promo or trailer for theatrical screenings, so I'm fairly clear on what's required in terms of deliverables.

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The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[Tink1717 2]

Oh, then you'd be a good one to explain or correct this one:
I've been told that projection no longer involves celluloid film, but rather the image is displayed on a LCD type screen and then is projected to the viewing screen.

How far off is that?

Skydivers don't knock on Death's door. They ring the bell and runaway... It really pisses him off.
-The World Famous Tink. (I never heard of you either!!)
AA #2069 ASA#33 POPS#8808 Swooo 1717

[quade 3]

Tink1717

Oh, then you'd be a good one to explain or correct this one:
I've been told that projection no longer involves celluloid film, but rather the image is displayed on a LCD type screen and then is projected to the viewing screen.

How far off is that?

It's a bit off. The changeover to digital has mostly happened, but there are still a few film houses around. Some distribution companies now don't support actual film, but some still do.

The screens are still fabric same as before, but the projectors are vastly different. Generally speaking they're not using LCD technology on anything, but the projectionists display to set them up. The way most (but not all) projectors work is a light is being reflected off a silicon chip which has millions of little transistors controlling the equivalent of millions of tiny mirrors. From there the light is reflected through lenses and on to the screen. If it's a "cheap" projector the mirrors turn on or off as a color filter is being rotated past it for separate red, green, or blue light. If it's an "expensive" projector, there's a separate chip for each color and the light is combined through a series of prisms before heading toward the screen.

The digital files being shown are encrypted on hard drives and coded to each individual screen. It's (theoretically) not possible to play the files anywhere else. This helps to cut down on piracy which was a huge issue back in the day where dishonest projectionists would make have copies of prints made. Now, that's not really practical. Sure, people can still sit in a movie theater and shoot the screen with a camcorder, but even then any bootleg copy made that way can get traced back to the individual movie theater it was being played in.

If you're really interested in the technology, take a look at this.

http://www.dlp.com/cinema/dlp-cinema/default.aspx

THE really nice thing as far as the audience goes is the 100th showing looks just as good as the 1st. No scratches, no dirt, no breaks. Every viewing should look pretty awesome as long as the theater is set up correctly.

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The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[Tink1717 2]

Quote

http://www.dlp.com/...-cinema/default.aspx

Wow, that's way different than what I was told.

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THE really nice thing as far as the audience goes is the 100th showing looks just as good as the 1st. No scratches, no dirt, no breaks. Every viewing should look pretty awesome as long as the theater is set up correctly.

Yeah, I know that wear on the celluloid was a big deal. And I noticed that the "fade" problem, along with the dust and scratch issues had disappeared too.

Are projectionists still a union trade with apprenticeships, journeyman, and all that?

Skydivers don't knock on Death's door. They ring the bell and runaway... It really pisses him off.
-The World Famous Tink. (I never heard of you either!!)
AA #2069 ASA#33 POPS#8808 Swooo 1717

[dpreguy 14]

Lame and pathetic story line (It actually really didn't have a story line) WAY TOO LOUD. Not even the ending, which was only kinda an ending. This was a colossal dud. Don't bother.

Now Fury....there's a movie.
MockingJay was pretty good too, but open ended. Intentionally.

[quade 3]

Tink1717

Are projectionists still a union trade with apprenticeships, journeyman, and all that?

Some yes. Most no. The ones working for the studios, absolutely. The big premier theaters in Hollywood, mostly. The average theater in the US, nope. Generally either the theater manage has gotten some training or contracts it out to a "guy" who services several theaters.

I believe you can still get severely injured or killed by changing out a projector lamp depending on the projector and lamp involved. Xenon arc lamps could definitely do it if you weren't careful. Even when cold they are basically a glass hand grenade, but when hot they are a star in a bottle.

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The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[SkymonkeyONE 3]

I saw it the day it came out in a "regular" theater and loved it.

[Calvin19 0]

dpreguy

Lame and pathetic story line (It actually really didn't have a story line) WAY TOO LOUD. Not even the ending, which was only kinda an ending. This was a colossal dud. Don't bother.

Now Fury....there's a movie.
MockingJay was pretty good too, but open ended. Intentionally.

If this review and accompanied praises does not perfectly illustrate a genre-bias against hard science fiction I don't know what would. (it's ok, I have one too against other genres)

The film was not what I thought it would be from previews. I loved it. I loved the 'theoretical' accuracies in astrophysics, relativity, manned space travel, Tsiolkovsky problems, etc. I never noticed the music being too loud. My ONLY complaint, that is also a praise, was that it was LONG. I normally don't mind 2:10 hour movies but this one was well over that. The praise part? i didn't even notice. I was glued the whole time. I also really liked the robots, technically and as literally the only comic relief in the film. I did not notice much of a love story, but I would have to say the most blatant was between robots and the pilot.

4.5/5 stars.

-SPACE-

[Calvin19 0]

quade

I believe you can still get severely injured or killed by changing out a projector lamp depending on the projector and lamp involved. Xenon arc lamps could definitely do it if you weren't careful. Even when cold they are basically a glass hand grenade, but when hot they are a star in a bottle.

My sister worked at the theater here in Boulder for years as a projectionist. I was lucky enough to get to hang out in the dark hall with her for hours watching splices, etc. real cool stuff. I never saw a bulb be replaced but like you said this kind of thing is no longer used in the average theater? These projectors were mosters though... you could easily get a finger ripped off or start a serious fire with a film binding. The film plate is like two meters in diameter. Cool place. She eventually got bored with it, i'm sure I would too. but still. hand grenades sound fun.

-SPACE-

[Calvin19 0]

Off topic, and a shout out to my fellow "hard science fiction" fans; but I all but literally creamed my pants when I saw the RAMA style cylindrical spaceship in the end of the film.