The San Francisco Silent Film Festival included this photo in a recent email. I thought I should share it: Click it to see the full-sized image. I’ve also added this image to my report on Saturday’s screening.
Filed under: Large Formats, Silent Films, Technical | Tagged: french Cinema, french film, Napoleon, silent film | Leave a Comment »
In my first two pieces on the conversion to digital projection, I covered what the conversion would do to theaters and how it would likely effect small distributors and classic film presentation. In this final installment, I discuss the scariest part of all: Will studios and archives be able to preserve their motion pictures in [...]
Filed under: Preservation, Restorations, Technical | Leave a Comment »
As the theatrical film industry moves to digital projection, will we still be able to watch independent films and classic movies on the big screen? Last week I covered one major issue: How will small, independent theaters finance expensive new projectors and the servers required to run them? This week I’m covering the other side [...]
Filed under: Technical, Theaters | Tagged: 35mm film, Blu-ray, DCP, digital projection | 1 Comment »
Esthetically speaking, I see no problem with digital projection. Under the best of conditions, 2K DCP projection looks better than 35mm film–and 4K looks better than 2K. An incompetent projectionist can ruin a digital presentation, of course, but with film, they can ruin the presentation and the print. As transitions go, digital hardly changes the [...]
Filed under: Technical, Theaters | Tagged: bay area, digital projection, Pacific Film Archive, Rafael Theater | 2 Comments »
If either The Artist or Hugo wins the Best Picture Oscar, it will say something interesting about how the Hollywood community accepts the technical changes around them. If Hugo wins, it will be the first 3D movie, and the first shot digitally, to win the prize. If The Artist wins (which would please me far [...]
Filed under: Awards, Censorship, Technical | Tagged: Best Picture, Hugo, oscars, the artist | Leave a Comment »
I’ve read a lot about the birth of color movies, but little about the reverse transition: the near death of black and white. (I say “near death” because, thankfully, a few films are still made in shades of gray.) Until the late 1930’s, almost every Hollywood film was in black and white. A decade later, [...]
Filed under: Technical | 2 Comments »
I know people who use the word showmanship to refer to a high technical quality in motion picture presentation—usually referring to old-fashioned technology. I don’t. When I think of "showmanship," I don’t think of movies. I think of circuses, magic shows, and rock concerts. Showmanship isn’t about technology, but about live human beings putting on [...]
Filed under: Festivals, Technical, Theaters | Leave a Comment »
I first saw Terrence Malick’s historical, visually poetic epic, Days of Heaven, in 1978. It was brand new back then, and I saw it in 70mm, at San Francisco’s now-defunct Regency II. I saw it a second time last night at the Cerrito. I’m pleased to report that it is still a great film. Which [...]
Filed under: First-person Report, Reviews, Technical | 1 Comment »
I’m a cinema purist. I want my films shown in the correct aspect ratio. I don’t approve of colorization, adding new and “improved” special effects, or 2D-to-3D conversions. I’m offended when the DVD or Blu-ray disc of a classic doesn’t include the original mono soundtrack. Yet, in terms of the esthetic cinematic experience, I wouldn’t [...]
Filed under: Film Preservation, Technical | 1 Comment »
After yesterday’s digital projection morning, I went home, relaxed for a few hours, then went with my wife to the Castro to see Lawrence of Arabia in 70mm. This wasn’t a new experience, but an old, beloved one. Hollywood made a lot of long epic movies in the 50s and 60s. Many of them were [...]
Filed under: Great Films, Technical | 4 Comments »
