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Does anyone miss 35mm?


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Old 05-07-2016, 03:06
hazydayz
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It's been about 4 years now since 35mm projectors were replaced by the digital ones we have now, I'm sure some of the chains in the big cities kept at least one including many art cinemas but looking back, did we notice a difference in picture quality? Is digital really better? For many directors 35mm and it's resolution are a no brainer, there is no competition, for many others it's digital all the way.
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Old 05-07-2016, 08:34
FusionFury
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Tarantino is all you need to listen to TBH.
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Old 05-07-2016, 09:23
Inkblot
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The Prince Charles cinema shows a lot of films in 35mm.
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Old 05-07-2016, 13:21
stripedcat
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On the whole, I suppose not. The future is digital. It's just so much more convenient for both filmmakers and cinema chains. I do feel sorry for projectionists though. I suppose, there is an argument - that the idea of showing a performance of film is gone now - having a good picture, sound, etc. Although, I've got to say that I have never really had any problems with digital projection(i.e. I've never been to a cinema where it's broken down) - only one time, was there a hiccup - and that was that the server needed rebooting - so there was a delay of 15 minutes.

Do people miss the whirring of the projector? You could only really hear that if you were very near the back of the cinema.

Do people miss the "cigarette burns"(the little squiggle that on the film to show the projectionist to change the reel)?

I doubt the average cinema goer could tell the difference between 35 mm or 2K digital(unless they were perhaps aware of the "cigarette burns").
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Old 05-07-2016, 14:43
elnombre
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Not really much I can say apart from yes I miss it. It made a movie look like a movie.
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Old 05-07-2016, 18:38
giratalkialga
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I'm too young to have remembered 35mm very well; I'm 16 so although I did see quite a few films in the format seeing as it was phased out in 2012 or so, I wasn't interested enough in cinema at that time to notice and appreciate the differences.

I can see why DCPs are more convenient to display, but I would love to see some of my favourites the way they were meant to be seen, now that I'm aware of the differences between film and digital. I don't live near London so going to the Prince Charles to catch a 35mm showing isn't really an option . Even when old films are re-released in cinemas nowadays, it's in a digital format.
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Old 11-12-2016, 20:48
hazydayz
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One thing that bothers me with the digital screens is not only are the pixels more noticable but a lot of times the images can appear fuzzy. Even the text before a film starts telling you about the copyrights are not that clear to read. It might be different if you are near the very back of the cinema or a reasonable distance from the screen but recently I've noticed more than ever that you really are just watching a digital broadcast, it's hard not to notice all these tiny little pixels on the screen.
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Old 11-12-2016, 22:17
David Waine
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It has been quite some time since the full 35mm frame was used regularly. In the last days of film, the most common format was Super 35, which used a strip across the centre of the frame. If the movie was shot in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio (most have been for decades), the actual image covered only about half of the frame, so a truly massive enlargement was required to fill the biggest screen at your local multiplex. I remember watching the James Bond film, 'Quantum of Solace' (shot in Super 35) twice in the space of a few weeks. The first time was at an independent venue, the Tyneside Cinema. On its modestly sized screen, the image was pristine. A couple of weeks later, I saw it at the nearby Empire multiplex on a screen at least twice the size. The image was very grainy at the best of times and absolutely fell apart in the rapid action sequences.

Having written that, I also watched 'Les Miserables' in Imax. What I saw, of course, was a digital copy of a 35mm original - one that had employed the full frame. The image quality was spectacularly good.

In short, I don't miss 35mm because in recent years it was rarely used to its full potential anyway. If you want to see what it was really capable of, get yourself a Bluray copy of 'Zulu' and watch that. It was shot in Technirama, which exposed the image along the length of the film instead of down it. This produced a negative that could be printed directly onto 70mm film, giving rise to the myth that it was shot in 'Super Technirama 70' (there never was any such format in reality)..
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Old 12-12-2016, 09:47
ironjade
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It has been quite some time since the full 35mm frame was used regularly. In the last days of film, the most common format was Super 35, which used a strip across the centre of the frame. If the movie was shot in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio (most have been for decades), the actual image covered only about half of the frame, so a truly massive enlargement was required to fill the biggest screen at your local multiplex. I remember watching the James Bond film, 'Quantum of Solace' (shot in Super 35) twice in the space of a few weeks. The first time was at an independent venue, the Tyneside Cinema. On its modestly sized screen, the image was pristine. A couple of weeks later, I saw it at the nearby Empire multiplex on a screen at least twice the size. The image was very grainy at the best of times and absolutely fell apart in the rapid action sequences.

Having written that, I also watched 'Les Miserables' in Imax. What I saw, of course, was a digital copy of a 35mm original - one that had employed the full frame. The image quality was spectacularly good.

In short, I don't miss 35mm because in recent years it was rarely used to its full potential anyway. If you want to see what it was really capable of, get yourself a Bluray copy of 'Zulu' and watch that. It was shot in Technirama, which exposed the image along the length of the film instead of down it. This produced a negative that could be printed directly onto 70mm film, giving rise to the myth that it was shot in 'Super Technirama 70' (there never was any such format in reality)..
See also Vistavision.
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Old 12-12-2016, 10:06
DeathMagnetic
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The Prince Charles cinema shows a lot of films in 35mm.
I will definitely be checking out some old films there. Thanks for the info.
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Old 13-12-2016, 15:10
fhs man 2
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There is a Cineworld which opened near me in 2009 which was fully digital however they fitted two screen with 35mm compatibility too. Not sure if that is used anymore.
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Old 13-12-2016, 15:58
Virgil Tracy
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shooting on 35mm is waaay better than digital , but when it comes to projection film does have a lot of downside - it gets scratchy very quickly .

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Old 13-12-2016, 23:22
Billy Hicks
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You don't get 'projectionists' at cinemas anymore, most were made redundant during the early 2010s move to digital. I've worked on and off at cinemas since 2013 and usually they'll train a handful of staff (the same ones who serve you popcorn and clean the screens) to use the digital projectors safely, much easier than the days when rolls of film had to be loaded in and out. Despite all mainstream cinemas in the UK now being fully digital-equipped, many still think there's actually someone in the projection rooms all day playing the films, and a few have asked me if it ever gets boring just "watching films" all day! All automated these days, the only time I'd be up there would be to check the film was playing in 3D correctly, which just involves sliding an extra screen over the lens.

It really is astonishing how quickly we went from film to digital though. First time I remember seeing a digitally-projected film was Mamma Mia in 2008 (at the Odeon Leicester Square which had one of the first digital screens in the country), and the last time I saw a 35mm was One Day in 2011 (at the Odeon Sheffield, the last Odeon to go digital I think later that year). Although an annoyance to some, it still feels odd to me not hearing the 'crackle' of sound during silent sections and the burn mark at the top right-hand corner at the end of a reel. All added to the cinema experience for me!
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Old 14-12-2016, 02:44
stripedcat
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I think the film that I saw projected digitally - was "Signs" at the Odeon Leicester Square back in 2002. Then I think they had a Texas Instruments DLP projector. I remember some DLP digital projector indent trailer before the film started. Of course, the film was shot on film and then put on to a digital intermediate.
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Old 14-12-2016, 08:19
Horace Wimp
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So, how does it work then ?

Just a bigger version of those office projectors that throw your whatever your laptop is showing onto a white wall ?

Pfffft, the smell of the fizzing arc rods, the muted clatter as the film slides through the gate. The magic of celluloid, gone as quick as cocaine up a film star's schnozzle.

What happens to the old projectors I wonder.

How good would one of them look in the corner of my living room.
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Old 16-12-2016, 16:47
stripedcat
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So, how does it work then ?

Just a bigger version of those office projectors that throw your whatever your laptop is showing onto a white wall ?

Pfffft, the smell of the fizzing arc rods, the muted clatter as the film slides through the gate. The magic of celluloid, gone as quick as cocaine up a film star's schnozzle.

What happens to the old projectors I wonder.

How good would one of them look in the corner of my living room.
Essentially, yeah - it's just a bigger and slightly more complex version of those office DLP projector. DLP projector have those mini mirrors inside of them for reflecting the different colours. Obviously, the cinema DLP projector is a bit more sophisticated - has to deal with different aspect ratios(4:3 - even though that's rarely used nowadays), 18:9(I think the trailers use that) and 21:9(for the main feature film) - it could go even wider even wider, I think there's a new digital camera which is meant to be the equivalent of 70 mm film. Most cinema DLP projectors are 2K at the moment - although 4K is in certain places(and you can now get home cinema projectors with that). I think the cinema DLP projector has to also project a digital watermark(to mess up people trying to camcorder a film) and it also some sort of DRM(digital rights management) to counteract piracy.

I have seen films delivered to a cinema. It was the Curzon in Canterbury. They turned up in a van and just delivered these small plastic hard drives in caddies to the cinema. They then went into the server room with them. Quite strange seeing it. I think far different from the old days of film. I imagine though, in the future, it will probably be done over the internet.
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Old 16-12-2016, 17:08
mrprosser
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Have to say I miss it. I worked as a volunteer projectionist at Uni and for a small independent cinema.
At Uni we had 2 projectors side by side, you would load the first reel onto one projector and the second on to the one beside it. When playing the film you watched out of the window for the cue dots and then switched one projector to the other as the reels ended.

At the independent cinema we had to splice all the individual reels together on on massive reel and then play it. Because of the splices we had to run the film once it was done to ensure the film didn't come apart, so you always got a free preview of the film before it opened to the public.

When it switched to digital you didn't get that perk, as the software that played the digital films knew if a film had been played and reported it back to the distributors so the cinema got billed for an extra showing.

One drawback of that process for us was that the film licence came on a USB stick. We were due to show one of the twilight films out in our remote island community. It had been heavily advertised by the local radio station, who had even given away tickets as prizes.

The night was sold out, we pressed play only to get a message that the licence that decrypted the digital film was corrupt appear on the screen! We had to give everyone a refund, and as we still had the old projector and some fairly recent films made up on reels we showed one of those to the few people that decided to stay.
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