Harry Potter - we hatesss him.

[cinema guy]

Ok I have to say that the whole thing wasn't nearly as bad as I feared.

The prints and hard drives arrived on Wednesday afternoon. So we got the prints made up in good time. We even had chance to screen 5 out of 6 before hand. The staff got a chance to see it early - but only 4 turned up.

On Friday morning the screenings were quite well spaced out, so I had plenty of time to get the multitude of films that we we no longer showing broken down. After about 5pm, I had nothing to do other than show films, so I got to eat my dinner in peace and watch a DVD later on.

I finished at 1.48am and slept till noon today.

[shadowpanda]

I love the Harry Potter series, and I used to work in a Pizza Hut next door to the cinema. Because of my HP obsession, I would know the release dates way in advance of my managers and would ask for that weekend off (would usually get it because they didn't know why I wanted it off)
It would always be difficult and stressful, hungry kids and a Mum on a schedule and food are never a wise mix

[cinema guy]

I love the Harry Potter series, and I used to work in a Pizza Hut next door to the cinema. Because of my HP obsession, I would know the release dates way in advance of my managers and would ask for that weekend off

Very sensible.

[XCashier]

I just started reading the Harry Potter series. Better than what I thought it would be.

I avoided them for the longest time, too. I figured that when something is hyped that much, 99% of the time it's not worth it. Eventually my curiosity got the better of me, so I borrowed the first book from the library and discovered that Harry Potter is part of the 1% that is worth the hype!

I wish you many hours of happy reading.

[Shalom]

The HP always arrive at the last minute because the studio are absolutely paranoid about piracy. Last year I got the the last print made up and plated on with literaly minutes to spare. That will be mitigated this year because our 4 biggest screens are digital. We can only hope we have time to get the films loaded from the hard drives.

For those purists (or Luddites, if you will) who prefer to see an actual projected analogue film rather than an LCD, do you make this known to the general viewing public? It never occurred to me to ask when seeing a movie whether it was film or digital, or indeed that both were available in the same theater.

Or even if there's much of a difference in the first place, as far as that goes. I do remember taking a course in film studies in college, circa 1990; the professor was a retired film editor who'd worked on many Hollywood films, and he absolutely insisted on showing everything in 16mm prints, whereas the other professors were satisfied with laserdiscs. He even spent hours and hours before class restoring some of the prints, after generations of film students had nearly destroyed them; the shower scene from Psycho being in particularly bad shape -- he said he'd had to rebuild that one frame by frame. (There were no digital prints then, of course, LDs being analogue; I wonder now if he'd have been satisfied with a true hi-resolution digital print.)

Although if they don't set things up correctly, defective film can be far worse than defective digital... I saw LOTR:TTT in a packed theater, and the top third of the screen got progressively fuzzier until the upper edge was totally out of focus. Not sure how that's even technically possible, unless something was bent. The scene where Legolas vaults onto his horse and does a handstand on the saddle was particularly fascinating, because I could see his legs fuzz out when he was upside down, and get sharper again when he landed. And the weirdest thing was, I was the only one who seemed to notice this. My cousin who was with me also noticed it once I pointed it out to him, so I wasn't just imagining things. Perhaps the rest of the audience was so used to watching bootleg low-rez grainy DivX's on their computers or cellphones that they'd forgotten what a real projected movie was supposed to look like. Had I paid for the ticket, I'd've demanded a refund (there was a voucher for a free ticket in the DVD of LOTR:FOTR, so it hadn't cost me anything to start with). After the movie ended, I climbed up the seats and stuck my head in the hole where the snout of the projector was, but the room was empty, so there wasn't anyone I could complain to. I have to say that the guy sitting next to me eating a horrible stinky nacho didn't make the viewing experience any more enjoyable either. Thank $DEITY, at least everyone in the theater kept their mouths shut (well, except when eating stinky nachos) and watched the movie quietly and politely like they're supposed to.

When I saw LOTR:FOTR, in a different theater, that one was also defective, in that the last ten minutes were horribly scratched, and the credits cut off halfway through. In that theatre I was able to meet the projectionist (I'd had to track him down in the first place to let him know there was someone who wanted to see the film, as the rest of the theater was empty) and ask him what gives, and he said that a couple days ago the final reel had unspooled itself and fallen off the platter onto the floor. Ordinarily they'd have ordered replacement footage, but it was a low-budget theater (mostly they show Bollywood stuff) and it was the last week of screening anyway, so they just left it as is. That could never have happened with a digital "print", of course. I wonder if they got billed for the damaged footage when they returned it.

[cinema guy]

For those purists (or Luddites, if you will) who prefer to see an actual projected analogue film rather than an LCD, do you make this known to the general viewing public?

I've never heard of that. Most people who I speak to are supprised that we still use film and it hasn't been digital for years.

Or even if there's much of a difference in the first place, as far as that goes.

Not that I have seen.

I saw LOTR:TTT in a packed theater, and the top third of the screen got progressively fuzzier until the upper edge was totally out of focus. Not sure how that's even technically possible, unless something was bent.

As a film plays, emulsion from the film can build up around the projector mechanism. If not cleaned properly, it can build up around the aperture plate. It pushes the film a fraction of a millimeter away from the lense and cause it to go slightly out of focus. It may have been this.

It amused me that at the end of Despicable Me, the minions we trying to get through the film (swinging and jumping at the audience in 3D), and in so doing apparently caused the film to come off its sprokets. Yet it was digital - so no film involved!

[Andara Bledin]

It amused me that at the end of Despicable Me, the minions we trying to get through the film (swinging and jumping at the audience in 3D), and in so doing apparently caused the film to come off its sprokets. Yet it was digital - so no film involved!

I loved that stuff. I like watching credits, anyway, so that made it more fun.

But we're all so used to the whole "film" look when dealing with movies at the theater that I suspect in 100 years when kids have no idea what film even is that they'll still be using film graphics because that's what's always been done.

^-.-^

[cinema guy]

The minions were great. That bit at the end was very funny.