Hands down one of the best videos on RU-vid. Absolutely fascinating stuff. You continue to create some of the finest cinema related videos out there. Thanks for everything you do!
@@raymondhall8629 I know what you mean Raymond but there are still cinemas out there worth supporting. I plan to visit the Courtyard in the future now I know they have people who understand cinema. There are quite a few more around such as the Prince Charles, the BFI IMAX, the RONSON THEATRE IMAX in the Science Museum and one I've not yet attended that I can think of immediately, the Manchester Printworks IMAX. All still run film as well as digital video. Lots more but we have to find them. John.
I’ve lived in Hereford all my life and I’ve recently been going to the Courtyard a lot more, they’re doing a lovely amount of stuff recently. Had the pleasure of seeing the original Godzilla on 35mm the other week and it was fantastic experience. Being 22, I’ve not seen a huge amount of physical film in person, so it was a brilliant experience. Lovely video John! Always love to see people shining a light on Hereford, we’re a little corner of the country but I’m proud to be here haha!
@@simonnichollsfilm And it's great to have a comment here from you, Simon. I'm Norwegian. I worked as a 35mm projectionist from 2009 to 2011, and I've worked at several cinemas since then. In the video above, you come across as the kind of boss and/or colleague that I always wanted but never had.
Lovely video. I’m glad to hear film is making a resurgence. I’ve got used to digital, but on Wednesday went to see The Matrix and Close Encounters on 35mm at the Prince Charles, Leicester Square and I was knocked out at how gorgeous they looked. For 12pm and 3pm screenings they were both well-attended, I’m glad to say.
I should have been there for both of those Kamandi. I really do need to keep an eye on the Prince Charles programme schedules more closely. I need to get to the BFI IMAX to see DUNE TWO so maybe a couple of days in Londinium and take in a screening or two at the Prince Charles too. John.
I no longer can go to a cinema looking at a huge medium grade "video" display. The presentation is not vivid and full of life. I realize the "creativity" of the producer and an entire movie shot in subdued nighttime shots. I can barely see what the hell is going on the screen. My 65inch home system is amazing. Surround sound ...everything. Big beautiful sharp lively video from an LG screen...Additional wasted space...I was moderately impressed at various "films" during the 70's when I was a projectionist running 35mm and dealing with arc-lamp house.
I tend to struggle with video projection in cinemas too Adrian but I do have a new found respect for the effort some cinemas go to to get a movie on screen now. I have seen some reasonably good quality video in cinemas but nothing up to film quality... yet. I expect some videos shot at 6K and above with good quality lenses have looked very good though. TOP GUN: MAVERICK for example. John.
I was a projectionist back in the '80s. when it was all film; in my case, I did it all: 16mm, 35mm, and 70mm. We were a second run house that also ran film festivals and private screenings. We had a full, double-system, 35/70, dual projector setup. It was not unusual to be running 1000-foot cores, split-reel, double-system screenings. We had two of the classic Norelco AA 35/70 projectors. And yes, we had motorized masking and curtains.
I think cinemas need to get back to having all these things as options where possible Jeff. Cinemas here that still occasionally screen film prints get good audiences. I think that's because it appeals to the true film enthusiast and younger people who may have never or rarely seen an actual film. Masking and tabs shows patrons that the cinema actually cares about presentation but that's all been a dying art around the world in recent years. Maybe if I can do more cinema videos in the future I'll be able to encourage the return of a bit of showmanship. John.
🎉🎉 there is a definite difference in experience when watching a 35mm or IMAX Film print with a film projector, compared with a digital projector. Im not sure how exactly to describe it, but its like Tarantino said. Its the illusion of the film projector at 24fps.
I'd always thought the big thing that gave film a more natural appearance to the eye was the fact that there was a film between the light source and the lens but then in the documentary 'Splice Here A Projected Odyssey' Doug Trumbull stated the bleedin' obvious when he said it's the fact that there is a mechanical shutter and that gives us the natural movement as compared to a video camera and video projector. Video is often sharper than a 35mm print but that isn't the only factor. Colour and density on film are almost always way the hell better. John.
Just based on the quoted file size alone its clear that no Blu-Ray disc, cable TV channel, over-the-air broadcast or streaming download can come close to matching a cinema for audio and video quality and I will absolutely be seeing the new Ghostbusters on the big screen very soon.
I was a projection for a major theater companies here in the US and just became a cinema engineer. It’s incredible to see the amount of basically magic that goes into everything like the projector, the sound, and the brains behind everything. It’s an honor to enter a craft where people like these gentlemen exist. Excited to see what the future brings!
I hope the cinema chain you're working for has retained film projection capabilities too ARV because that's even more interesting than the work that goes into the current video projection solutions being utilized. And if you ever find yourself doing anything in a genuine IMAX cinema then we'll all want to hear about it because there is currently nothing that comes close to 15/70 IMAX films that were shot with 15/65 IMAX cameras. Good luck with your new engineering role. Exciting times ahead. What an adventure. John.
DCP is the top quality but I don't know if we'd perceive a difference on our comparatively tiny home screens. The bigger a projection is the easier it is to discern a superior image. John.
That was a great video John! 👍🏼I’ve always wondered about the colour space of 35 mm film, I understand Digital cinema is DCI-P3 colour standard , I’m assuming 35 mm is roughly Rec 2020? Best Danny
I suppose for 35mm film a lot depends on the colour grading worked out from the interpositive Danny but it's an analogue process so not as exacting as digital video. Having said that, film is still ahead of any video projection I've seen in terms of colour saturation and density. For example, the best blacks I've ever seen are probably on the IMAX print of TENET at the BFI IMAX. I want to see that again... and again and again and again. Maybe then I'll also know what it's all about but who cares when it looks that good?!? John.
I always find that projection box video is noisier than when I'm actually in there. The microphone on my rig tends to enhance everything that's at all audible. John.
I'm not exactly enamoured with video in cinemas either Finlay but I have to admit I found this very interesting and gave me much more appreciation for the work involved. John.
Yes, but it's dead so nothing to worry about! Fried by the heat of the xenon lamp! Actually, it's one of those toys that you put batteries in and then it has a breathing action to make it look like a lazy, sleeping cat. John.
Great video John. Working in television in Australia, I've always remained in the 'Presentation' departments, basically a transmission coordinator (or in the UK known as 'continuity'). All this reminds me of the TV equivalent - it used to be videotape/film all switched manually etc (the projectionist), and now it's hard drives/servers/and computer playlists (digital). It's all so similar...!
It's certainly not as interesting as projecting film Mark but it has educated me on how much work is still required and how much can go wrong. Getting a video on in foreign language but not having the subtitles for example. John.
Man it hits you hard when you realize there are kids or even teenagers these days who have never seen actual film. I'm 34 and went through film school right during the transitional periods. Shot both on 16mm film as well as RED and lots of DSLR type stuff. Luckily i live not far from an independent cinema that still does both 35 and 70mm projection.
Film is making a steady return here in the UK Colin so let's hope that continues now that OPPENHEIMER has proved the point so categorically well. I don't think every movie needs to be screened on film but an occasional show in every cinema should help to draw patrons back in. After all, what's the attraction if people think they can see the same thing on a telly or a phone a few months later? John.
@@moviecollector5920 I think to have a chance to save cinema as a whole 35mm with support from studios, directors and cinemas could save cinema. Then the most important aspect of the lot is to have exclusive cinema releases with a five year cinema window before home release. The first studio and cinema chain to figure this out and market it will clean up in the market place.
Man, just seeing the work that goes on behind the scenes in the projection booth really makes me want to take up being a projectionist. Heck I would absolutely love to learn how to set up a film projector if I ever got the chance. Who knows, maybe once I start being able to drive I might see about getting a job at a movie theater.
Well Chris, if you don't already follow Clark Teddles in Australia then you've got to look at some of his projection box videos. I think he's still only 15 years old and he's now trusted in one of the two main Sydney cinemas to lace up and project a film. He only really got into physical film about two years ago so what an adventure he's on. www.youtube.com/@ClarkTeddles John.
Great video. Greetings from a fellow projectionist, just down the road at Roses in Tewkesbury (also have my own home garage 35mm setup haha … gotta keep 35mm going somehow!!). Good to see that the Courtyard is keeping the traditional presentation and attention to care for film going too. Cineworld and the likes could learn a few things from venues like ours 👍
Keep in touch Steve because if this video does well it might be a good idea to do something at yours and also your home cinema. The more we get out there to a reasonable audience then the greater the chance that the moron element running some cinemas today will get an education. John.
As a former projectionist, from some 50 years ago with Gaumont Kaylee 35mm machines, this is really space age by comparison. Very impressed by this presentation. Having kept my knowledge up to speed, I was able to understand everything in this video.
I'm glad you like it Peter. I was one who rather presumed video projection in today's cinemas was somewhat easier than it really is. I think I'd have an easier time with 35mm film but probably not during a film festival! John.
@@WhoFlungPoo2024 It's good to prove some assumptions wrong Joel. I too thought it would be more of a press the button role so humble pie being digested as I type. John.
@@Art-is-craft I think it already does David but I don't know exactly how advanced the automation systems had become before the big downgrade in 2011. Subtitles were never possible other than one fixed language directly onto a print. John.
Absolutely fascinating. How things have changed since I was a projectionist 60 years ago with twin Kalee Princess projectors with hand adjusted carbon arcs, hand cranked curtain, 20 minute reels with totally manual switchover. Not to mention film snapping and covering the floor with film as you couldn't stop the show 😩 Even so, it is still a highly skilled job despite the automation. Thanks for a great video.
It sounds like you have some wonderful stories to tell Peter. You worked through a time when film was mass produced and screened in cinemas all over the world. The improvements you must have lived through can only be imagined but by the time the downturn in quality started in the late 1990's I had been completely amazed by the perfection I saw achieved in the premiere houses. We only get that same quality now when the three IMAX cinemas in Britain get a genuine IMAX print to screen. Actually, it's better quality but nothing else I've seen comes up to the best of 35mm in the 1990's. I expect some would such as TOP GUN: MAVERICK but I don't bother going to see a video at the cinema any longer. I gave up after too many disappointments years ago. John.
Great video! Just about to start the installation of a DCP home cinema comprising of Barco Freya+ onto a 7.8m Display Technologies 4-way masking motorised screen with MadEnvy VR video processor and Dolby CP950 and Lyngdorf Audio processors for a client in their new home!
That sounds like a wonderful adventure you're about to embark on there Adam. I did ask Simon about the cinema video projectors being available to private customers and he told me there weren't restrictions on them. Should be terrific when it's finished... hopefully to run alongside occasional 35mm screenings! John.
@@moviecollector5920 Huh. That's kind of surprising, given how paranoid they are about content protection. What's the situation with back-catalogs? Could you retain a DCP file and "rent" the key any time you wanted to watch it? I would imagine those 100-200GB files probably look better than anything consumers have access to, otherwise -- and I'm sure they're priced to match.
@@nickwallette6201 I'm not entirely sure what you're asking here Nick. I don't know about the DCP costs and how they are rented as a private individual but what I do know is that films to cinemas were always distributed on a percentage of box office basis. When the Star Wars prequels were released from 1999 onwards I remember being told 90% of the box office went to the distributor for the first two weeks but that declined thereafter. Clearly that meant cinemas were struggling and almost totally reliant on popcorn sales and the like. I doubt many video DCP's today would demand a similar percentage but it's probably worked out on a percentage of box office basis. I presume that if a cinema wanted to keep hold of the DCP for a future possible screening then they would keep hold of the video and obtain a new unlock code for the date or dates they are proposing to re-screen it. The Prince Charles Cinema manage to keep hold of the pre-restoration 70mm print of 2001 A Space Odyssey by scheduling occasional screenings of the print every three months so that does indicate that it's possible to keep hold of a DCP assuming the distributors treat films and videos equally. John.
As John suggests the second point I do keep content on the system if we are likely to bring a film back. Oppenheimer as an example after its Oscar win. We simply have to add to our booking and in return receive a key (KDM) emailed to us. As there is no work for the distributor we usually get preferential terms.
Morning Michael. I emailed the other day when that nice surprise arrived in the post. Thank you! I need to get up to see DUNE TWO. Won't go anywhere else to see it. By the way, Simon Nicholls (from this video) travels up to you and joined us for one of the screenings of INTERSTELLAR last year. He then got the train with his son for OPPENHEIMER... which then turned out to be one of the two screenings when the vacuum wasn't working so saw the digital video! The poor sod! John.
It's all about the masking. It's a night and day difference! Made my own masking and can't imagen seeing a movie without it anymore. Happy i only have to put in a disc to enjoy a film. Very interesting to see what a real cinema has to do prior watching a film. Must have been a highlight for you John that day!🙂
It was certainly an education Dominus. Digital video will never be as interesting as film though simply because there are moving parts to show on a film projector and that to me will always be cinema. I do have a new found respect for projecting video in a cinema though. So much more to it than expected. John.
Thank you so much for enlightening all on the subject of screening digital cinema. Very informative educative and interesting. No matter what Digital is Digital just zero and one The charm of real reel, the nostalgia, the theatres with all its regal curtains and carpets, the 18 inch Altec voice of the cinema sound Can never be by any yardstick even close to the quality of those days. Then it was real acting real sound real actors real singing Todays it’s animation and processed sound and with AI it’s gona get worse. The human ear is not made to listen to digital sound 🤪 SOUND. CAN ONLY BE STEREO no one has ears at the back 🤪🤪 It’s simulated artificiality 😂 all this 9.1 and 11.1 nonsense Cheers to real film 👍👍👍
You're a man like myself Jo. But I do think we're going to see some improvements in presentation in cinema eventually otherwise it will all come to an end. Maybe this video will help educate a few cinema executives to improve their own screens and have a better understanding of how important motorized masking is to correctly present every different aspect ratio. John.
When film fails, it's gone forever though. Film reconstruction takes a microscope to the 35mm and recomposites it into a much larger image without losing any of the inherit depth and clarity. Grain is actually just noise from blowing up a 35mm image into a 35ft one. Never fear, we can always blow up the reconstructed image to the equivalent, and have both. 35mm negative is 3D without glasses at 35mm. That's why we're doing film reconstruction over just scans. John Ford wanted us to achieve this damn it.
Film is making a comeback thanks to OPPENHEIMER so even though I don't think we'll be going back to how cinema was done before there should be more movies being shot, finished and released on film in the years ahead. That will get me back to cinemas much more regularly and I don't think I'll be alone there Gary. John.
@@grant9214 Film has proven itself to be archival which RAID storage hasn't - yet. It's great that films are being treated with so much respect now and getting these restorations so that they look just as good as digital videos. There's something about real film projection though and I think it's down to the mechanical shutter and the diffusion of the light from having a physical film passing between lamp and lens. It's simply more natural and easier to look at, or at least, it is for me. Thank you for the detailed reply there Grant. John.
It does to me too Austin. But we should bear in mind that the files making up each DCP are uploaded onto the holding server by the distributor so in that regard a lot of the work is done outside of the cinema whereas putting 35mm films onto big reels is always done within the cinema. I'd prefer the latter just to have as much control over the presentation as possible in-house. John.
I hoped people would like it but couldn't be sure. Simon suggested that while we were over at the Courtyard that we should cover how a DCP gets onto the screen so it was his idea and it seemed like a darned good one to me. I spent about 25 to 30 hours editing and all of that malarkey to try and trim it as much as possible and make it flow as well as I could. I was a little trepidatious when I hit the 'Publish' button. Half an hour later and it looked like it was going to do okay which was a relief. Now it's doing quite surprisingly well and currently out performing my recent 2001 A Space Odyssey in 70mm from the Prince Charles Cinema projection box. You never know what is going to do well and what isn't. John.
Very interesting, thankyou! I think like many of us, I wondered how the digital file that's played at a cinema varies from, say, a 4k Blu Ray, as I think the cinema version is also in 4k. I've read DCP uses a lossless compression system, maybe frame based, hence the larger files. In your video, the projectionist mentioned a 180GB file for that particular film which I think is roughly double a 4k Blu Ray, depending on the layers. So I'm guessing the main difference in terms of quality is simply having less visible compression than 4k Blu Ray. I know I've not noticed compression artefacts in the cinema, but I do see them at home sometimes, but that could of course be down to any part of my viewing chain, most likely my projector. It's certainly interesting how good 4k can look when you consider an IMAX Laser presentation at, say, the Cineworld Leicester Square - that's a big screen and the image can be very sharp, but the projection is only in 4k. Dual for brightness, but still only 4k res. Anyway, thanks again!
Not all the videos shown in cinemas are 4K Gordon. Many are but I don't know the ratio between 2K and 4K. I think you can see the 2K or 4K listing at some point on the screen when SImon is going through the myriad titles on the holding system for the Borderlines film festival. We do occasionally get digital blocking caused by a 4K video disc being too compressed but it's a rare thing. This is usually because the 4K master file has been compressed during the conversion process to fit the 4K UHD Blu-ray disc being used and if it's a 66Gb disc then sometimes it's not enough to avoid a visible issue. For example, TOTAL RECALL has blocking in the extremely red sequence when the ship is coming in to land on Mars. That disc can be purchased for as little as £15 so I don't think we can complain too much. DCP is the cinema format for a reason and that reason is to present the best possible video quality for exhibition to the public. The home market isn't quite so vital, or isn't considered to be quite so vital. John.
@@moviecollector5920 thanks John. I wonder if there's a chance to do a comparison between a DCP and a 4k Blu ray at any point? Obviously it'd have to be done at a cinema to access the DCP system, and the difficulty would be availability of a 4k Blu Ray during the same window as an authorised cinema presentation, but it would be interesting to see what the differences might be in quality and compression. I do feel we're lucky to have 4k Blu Ray though for the home, as some of them can look - and sound - absolutely amazing.
@@cameralabs I don't think it would be particularly easy to discern the difference unless the screen was huge and there aren't many cinemas around with huge screens any longer. The test would probably have to be done by a projectionist like Simon as they're really the only people with the access to do it. Most 4K discs look brilliant though Gordon, any that don't, such as THE CREATOR, is because they never had the image quality to start with. John.
DCP uses jpeg 2000 compressed files. It is compressed per frame, but it is not lossless. JPEG 2000 can however handle lossless compression, they call that level 7. Blu-ray uses mpeg compression. A 2hr 2k film uncompressed is about 1.7TB, where a DCP is roughly 200GB. In comparison, a 4K film uncompressed original files is closer to 8 TB.
@@princesswalt4010 Thank you for leaving such wonderful information there PrincessWalt. I have a frame by frame transfer of the BATMAN (1989) trailer and it's around 50mb per frame. No way of projecting that with anything at the moment then but once Quantum Computers are here no doubt we're going to see a big change in the quality of digital video. John.
An interesting insight into how a modern cinema works. In the late 1970's and early 1980's I worked in a documentary film company where we had our own 16mm & 35mm preview theatre. These days I transfer cine film to digital and use restoration software to save the images and sound.
I find aerial image cine to video transfers give superior results to scanning the tiny 8mm gauges. I wonder how good the results professional studios would be able to achieve if they aerial image transferred the larger gauges rather than scan them. I suspect the results would look a little more natural as the exacerbated film grain side effect probably wouldn't occur. John.
I loved showing film on 70mm and that was a wow factor for the size of the screen. Hated splicing in the AD's some ad's were so short. This meant switching over machines. Then rush to get the next reel threaded for the start of the movie. Today we will see this profession coming to an end as many people stay at home watching Netflix on big TV screens. People looking at their phones has stopped me going to the movies. Pity as I worked three years in the projection room in the 90's
There has been a bit of a recovery owing to OPPENHEIMER Brian and the industry appears to have taken notice. Hence the 4K video to 70mm and 15/70 blow-up prints currently on exhibition. Let's hope it works and entices more and more people back into cinemas. If so, I think a lot of experienced projectionists are going to be dragged out of retirement to train up a new generation. And quite right too. John.
Thank you. It was educational for me too as I really did think it was pretty much the press of a few buttons and rather surprised to find it is a lot more than that. John.
@moviecollector5920 That's what I did over the last years. If you start with the films you want to watch in the very near future it's manageable. Just don't plan on ripping EVERY disc. Step by step. Even the file name system I use is just a little bit similar to the professionals. For example my file name is like "Avatar way of water (2022 - E - D - C - kids).3D-SBS...." - that would mean the film is from 2022, it has english and a german sound (I always watch movies in the original language but have dubbed versions for guests not able to watch a film in a foreign language or doesn't want to) and is in 3D side by side. The C would stand for an audio commentary track and the "kids" for a kid friendly film. Of course Avatar doesn't have a commentary and is not a film for small kids but it's just an example. I then can use this information for filtering the database and also as information for the projector (3D or not etc.).
@@sanctanox It is a rather good idea to rip a copy of the discs just in case they pack up. I've come across five 4K discs so far that have developed faults. But it does seem to be an awful lot easier to me to just pull the disc off the shelf, put it in the player and press PLAY. John.
@@moviecollector5920 It depends on your workflow, what features you like to keep, and how particular you are about metadata. It's easy enough to grab the source M2TS files and copy them to a shared drive, but I prefer to keep things in MKV files for better seekability (the key frames are indexed). This means having to go through a re-muxing step (no re-encoding), and requires a little effort to figure out which tracks are which. The language and format of streams are all known, but you don't know if, e.g., a DTS-MA HD track followed by Dolby Digital 2.0 means you have a stereo mix of the movie, or a commentary track. Subtitles streams are particularly bothersome, as sometimes (albeit a particularly rare case) you might have separate stream for English subtitles, English captions, forced subtitles, and commentary. It's definitely a labor of love, but worth doing not only for the ordinary convenience, but for the ability to send those source files back through an encoder for mobile versions, and of course to hedge your bets for when optical drives become scarce. (Or, more likely, when the manufacturers give up and the only thing you can buy is a least-effort technically functional player with no regard given for its quality.) Anyway, maybe (and in fact, probably) you already know what it takes and how it's done. In that case, maybe some other fellow will find this useful. haha
It was an education for me too Jeff. As much as I don't think video projection has done the world of cinema a world of good, it's good to know it's not just the press of a button and there is much knowledge and skill required after all. John.
Morning Steve. I learned a lot that day. I have an adapter on order to give the pre-amp solution into the CP500 a go so I'll let you know how the sound is after it arrives and I've had a chance to play. I'm also thinking about looping through an amplifier by going into the phono input and out through the tape outputs. That might work better but it's the little pre-amp first. And also, the PPT mag arrived yesterday and I read it all the way through. I want that VistaVision projector! John.
I will keep looking for the correct lead for the CP500. I am off to the PPT tomorrow and the VistaVision projector will come home with me if no one is looking :). Do not take any notice of my wife's articles in the PPT magazine:) @@moviecollector5920
Yes, it's important for people to learn that the world wide web is only one of four parts of the internet and not 'the internet'. We all tend to think everything is done via the web these days because we make assumptions but in this case we've all been wrong. John.
That would be a very fast connection. I don't know how long it would take here but I know it takes around five to ten minutes for about one-hundredth of that to upload to RU-vid before it then sets about all the other checks which can sometimes hang up and go on interminably. Downloads come down bloody fast though so probably not too far off the 120Gb in two to three minutes. John.
I'm not sure I've fully understood what you've said here Marco but it reads well and makes me think of a little film called CINEMA PARADISO. Now that's a beautiful little cinema showing real film. John.
So a long play unit can be used Brett to facilitate a complete feature without the necessity of a changeover. Some cinemas use horizontal platter systems (aka cake stands) while others use vertical long play tower units. The Courtyard uses the latter. John.
I don't know the answer to that I'm afraid but Simon does keep an eye on the incoming comments so he may see this and know the answer. I would imagine it will be the fastest possible as 1Gb would take around 20 minutes minimum to get a complete average size file across to the holding server and it's not like the distributors only have to upload it to a few cinemas. 10Gb therefore seems more likely but as I said, I don't know. John.
the speed of the line which delivers the feature to the Cinema is around 80Gbs however the delivery server is regulated and data is sent in 'packets' so in an emergency it can still take 3/4 hrs to receive a film. Once on the holding server I am not sure of the line speed internally but it takes around 40mins to 1hr depending on the file size and much longer if the receiving projector is screening a film.
The big issue for me with digital is that there has not been advancement in resolution. Lots of tricks to try and make it better but no real advancements. I think 8k has to be the minimum for digital project to try and get the experience at least within completion to 35mm.
I think the enforced use of digital video projection is a big part of the cause of the terminal decline of cinemas David. The cost of the projectors is prohibitive in terms of keeping up to date. With 35mm the next advancement tended to be handled by an add-on rather than the necessity of the outright purchase of a completely new projector. That is not possible with video projection and that means that improving video projection across the board is not likely to ever happen. If 8K projectors do become available to cinemas then a few of the top cinemas will get it but everywhere else will stick with what they've got. The solution to all of this is to ensure the film projectors are re-installed and occasional shows on 35mm and 70mm in each surviving cinema is possible each month. Travelling projectionists to handle this in each site perhaps? This will put the quality on offer back up and entice patrons back in to remind them what a great pastime and great value going to the cinema really is. John.
@@moviecollector5920 I think the only way at this point to save cinema is to introduce special film theatre experiences. Dune on 35mm with anamorphic presentation only available in cinema would have forced people out to cinema to an experience not available at home.
Was hesitant to click on this video, as I just got home from work and working at a large cinema it felt like an extension of my working day... But glad I did, it was interesting to see (small) differences in the way they're working with DCP's and some of their hardware, though as I'm working in a large multiplex, part of a larger chain, it was bound to be different from a smaller cinema. After this video I kinda wish I could give you a tour of the cinema I work at, especially differences like managing 14 screens/servers and playlists across them, the added complexity of ScreenX and MX4D, and more. Then again, some of our hardware is also nearly eight years old, so I'm sure there are already several generations of more modern equipment you could see at your local multiplex 😊
That all sounds very interesting Ewald and would surely make for another interesting 'How Cinemas Work' RU-vid video. I expect there are some chains that don't even have experienced people on site and handle it all remotely but that would be asking for trouble... so it must be true! John.
@@moviecollector5920 haha, well, both automation and centralization have their benefits, but they definitely cause both local colleagues as well as the head office to assume everything's taken care off... Which obviously isn't always the case and frequently needs local troubleshooting and adjusting to get everything working and/or optimized.
@@Ewld I'm not enamoured with the way the cinema industry is being run these days. I mean by that that cinema is being run by people who don't appreciate cinema and that has proved to be a disaster for the industry. But what do I know? Keep up the good work and keeping any possible showmanship going given the circumstances. John.
@@moviecollector5920 thanks so much for the kind words John, will keep pushing back whenever choices are made or suggested that I feel go against the spirit of the cinema experience. On a related note, simple things like downgrading a proper thick paper ticket to a flimsy receipt is a trivial chance according to some people, but quite a few people (like me) tend to enjoy a proper physical reminder of a memorable movie experience. Hate it when changes like that are made and tend to be (annoyingly) vocal about them as well 😅
@@Ewld Oh yes, I used to like to keep the tickets which were properly printed items on cinema branded, good quality paper. These days it's akin to a fax printout and the print usually disappears after a few years. Crap! The wrong people are running most of the cinemas today. John.
I'm a 76-year old former IATSE projectionist in the States. I've followed the evolution of cinema and this video, by far, is the best presentation of how, I understand, it works. But Lordie, what monumental changes from DCP's 35-/70-mm forerunners! I started in the changeover days and carbon-arc lamps (long live the Simplex X-L and the Ashcraft Super Cinex water cooled carbon arc lamp), I gradually succumbed to xenon, platters and semi-automation and at the time, I thought I'd experienced the pinnacle of motion picture projection. How wrong I was! I will add I had the fortune of touring the Baker and Charlie booths of the now long-gone Denver Cooper Cinerama theater, in 1965 and during its run of "How the West Was Won." While that remains my high point of seeing celluloid strip being projected, this still fascinates the heck out of me. (But, I would be remiss if I didn't discount the fun I had running 35-mm during that period of its history.) Thank you for this wonderful documentary!
Thank you Joel. I had the fortune of a tour of the Able, Baker and Charlie boxes at the CineramaDome in 2011. I was there for a British classic car documentary but when I saw the CineramaDome was still there I went and banged on the doors. Got the full tour which was wonderful. I included some of the video I shot in a 2001 A Space Odyssey video about three and a half years ago. I still haven't seen video projection that matches up to the best 35mm we used to enjoy in the premiere houses in the West End of London, let alone 70mm and genuine IMAX 15/70 presentations so things have still got a way to go before they catch up to where we were years ago... with the exception of a few IMAX 70mm movies of course. John.
Greeting from across the pond. Recently, I purchased James Cameron's _The Abyss_ in a 4K / blu-ray combo pack. From what I've heard, the film is not going to be issued in the UK due to some censorship problem. Do you anything about this?
This is due to the rat immersion into breathing fluid scene. It was heavily cut over here and I think it would have to be re-submitted to the British Board of Film Classification for a new certification to be issued with the scene intact and there is probably not a guarantee it would get through. It's therefore uneconomic to either re-work the disc into a seamless branching version with two different cuts or to produce an entirely separate disc. I have the film on film so this doesn't really affect me. John.
@@moviecollector5920 Thanks for the information, John. For the record, the new disc has both the original theatrical cut as well as a longer version. I personally prefer this longer version. Hopefully, the British Board of Film Classification can work out an agreement with Cameron and get the film released in the UK. I think it's a good film.
@@jknuttel Conversely, I don't like the extended version. This will probably ruin it for you now so don't read on if you don't want me to spoil it but... the success of the film is the claustrophobic, confined nature of it. The only distraction from the events down below are the short sequences showing the command ship above. They are few and short and so the whole film is focused on the adventure and tension within the submersible drilling rig. The extended version breaks that focus and it suddenly becomes an alien invasion, worldwide destruction movie. We're taken out of our confined surroundings within the submersible and seeing rather dodgy computer effects of goings on around the world. I found it interesting to see it once (the re-release at the Shaftesbury Avenue which is now an Odeon) but I have never wanted to watch it again despite having multiple copies on home video formats. I did use the extended edition LaserDisc to re-record my Super 8 print and there are two alternative takes used of the same scene within that extended edition. I did see a few extracts from the new 4K a few days ago and one of these was when Mary Elizabeth's character is en route down to the sub and Ed Harris says "God, I hate that bitch!" and the chap playing Hippie responds, "Well, you probably shouldn't have married her then, huh?" - well, those two wonderful lines appear to be missing now. Please feel free to correct me if they are still there but it's possible they're deemed politically incorrect now. John.
Thanks for this excellent video! Even though I've never been a projectionist, that projection room looks like home to me! I kind of wish I had pursued a career in that field...
Simon came into his projecting career rather late Beau but he did have the advantage of growing up with Super 8 film and then progressing into collecting 35mm. I don't think I'd have had the nerves of steel required for it when I was younger but I'd probably be able to handle it today. John.
Thank you John for this VERY VERY interesting, fascinating BTS look into modern cinema. I just LOVE this video. thanks so much. regards, Roland from NL
Hey John I saw dune 2 on 70mm a couple of nights ago. I can say this the sound is incredible and the picture although not as rich of color as Oppenheimer on 35 but seeing the film grain was special. I wish it was shot on 70mm. But the next Nolan movie that comes out I will fly down for. My mom had an interesting comment she said it felt like watching Star Wars back in the 1970’s.
I haven't had any time to make arrangements to get to the London BFI IMAX to see DUNE TWO yet Jesse but I'd like to. I have a couple of weeks left - three I think so I must get onto it shortly. I did watch DUNE again last week and it played a whole lot better a second time and possibly because I was ready for the dark sequences which I adjusted via the HDR button on the remote. I don't know why Dennis Villeneuve doesn't shoot on film but maybe he will from now on given the lesson that OPPENHEIMER has just taught the industry. Get Hoyte Van Hoytema in and he'll have no problem shooting 65mm or even genuine IMAX. I suppose the cost of production would go up somewhat but who cares when it's much more likely to generate a significant audience? John.
Hi John! Hmmm I see the like signal coloured in but I guess my comment yesterday didn't go through. Normally i'd hear back from ya so not sure there but nevertheless was curious so coming back as I wrote yesterday for another watch though this interesting video. I was asking how you set these up can't see you just walking in off the street and getting a tour haha. ( while prepping for a film festival to boot!!) What a great host! However you do this thanks again for the efforts around nurturing cinema and hope you have a great weekend ! D in BC.
Morning Dave. I didn't see your comment yesterday but this one has come through to the right area. Simon did the two film collector conventions with us last year so if you take another look at those you can see him handling the 35mm shows. Brilliant. We've probably known each other for 40 years or more without actually ever speaking because we'd have been at the same events quite often. He's been a film collector as long as I have. We were going over to see The Courtyard to check it is suitable for a FILM IS FABULOUS event and Simon suggested we make the time during the day to cover how a DCP gets on screen and I thought it was a jolly good idea. That's how this video came about - Simon's idea. I hope yo have a good weekend. We've woken up this morning to blue skies which makes a nice change from the incessant rain of recent weeks. John.
Great video John. The digital storage size makes me think back to a documentary I have somewhere as a disk extra on how Lowry Digital scanned all the Bond films in 4K which resulted in lots of flight cases with lots of hard drives. You probably could buy that file size for a few hundred quid. The storage of physical film makes me think of my dad saying his local cinema when he was a boy in Rishton Lancashire and the films were awful in quality, so the end of the run. He said they had loads of scrap film reels round the back dumped in a yard. When I was nipper in the late 70’s/early 80’s I wanted to be the projectionist in my local cinema so I could watch the films for free! Kind regards, Dave
I can only ever remember seeing two knackered film prints in cinemas but only one was of a recent release and that had been out for about two months at the time so at the end of a run and had probably been through a few other cinemas. The other print was a screening of JAWS at the NFT and it was the only 35mm print they knew about or had access to. That was the worst ever but still great fun to see JAWS on their fairly huge screen in spite of all the missing frames and other damage. John.
Very nicely done John. That answers a few questions doesn't it? I definitely want to be able to watch some Film presentations instead of DCP's Thank you for this video. Trev
One of the chaps seen briefly in the auditorium is Paul Vanezis so I had a bit of a talk with him about transfers and mastering. I said I'd probably have to telephone him before we do a video all about the subject as he's one of the people who do this sort of work. He's working on something particularly interesting right now rather than yet another Doctor Who Blu-ray release. John.
Fascinating, you really are getting very good at these John, I reckon pro! I was waiting for Simon to put on those fancy red Director's glasses and wonder where he got them. I hope Simon passes on all that knowledge down to as many possible, which is an incredible hard drive in his head! 😅 Was that a real cat sitting on a toasty component of the projection system?
Simon's glasses are great Mubai. I tried them on once but I don't think they suited me so wall. He is passing his knowledge on so the Courtyard look like they'll continue for many years as a real cinema rather than a screening area with a few seats that project an image onto a white area! They're not real cats. Battery operated things that purr and breathe so quite a good little gag to have lying on top of projector lamphouses. John.
Brilliant video I found your really helpful information and so interesting some like who loves movies. The cinema l go to , swall cinema the Hailsham Pavilions show new films and old movies .your video gave me real appreciation what happens at new cinemas these days. Thank you for this video John .
So satisfying when cinemas do masking for Academy ratio. Sure it's no where near as common, but there are still a fair amount of releases in 4:3, plus it's useful for alot of retrospective screenings. Wish it was a standard option for theatres everywhere.
Academy ratio black masking was a rare thing in the 1990's Nathan. I always remember seeing a re-release of THE JUNGLE BOOK in the early 90's with white areas showing at the side of the screen. It didn't completely destroy the film but it certainly didn't help. I screen that on Super 8 at home and close the masking right up to envelop the image. It makes a big difference. John.
Thank you very much for taking the time to share this, it’s such a shame this type of learning and insight is so inaccessible. The title of the video is very apt - such a simple point but one that’s really hard to “see” normally.
Thank you Jeremy. Simon suggested we show the whole DCP rigmarole which was something that had never occurred to me previously. I thought it would prove to be of interest but it seems there is much more interest out there than I considered. I suppose a lot of us thought the process of getting movies on screen in most cinemas today was simply the press of a button or two. How wrong I was. John.
Thanks John, that was a treet to go behind the scenes of a modern projector set up, I recently bought a new laser projector and I am very happy with its quality, luckily I only have to hit play😂 Thanks again.
I'm trying to get to the point where I only have to press PLAY too Colum. Getting wifey trained up to put the disc in the player is the stumbling block though! John.
This is great, John.. Thank you.. Really nice to see the Audio side of these smaller theaters.. From electronics, and sources.. I hope you could show the Loudspeakers used too one day..
I was tempted to see if I could pull all that black masking material out of the way to get the left hand speaker fully on camera Rick but thought better of it! There's always a screen and masking covering them so it's not really possible to get at them. John.
If your grandad was projecting more than 13 years ago then he'd have been dealing with 35mm films so he'd have been ideal for a cinema like The Courtyard where they are still able to screen film. What a wonderful occupation it much have been. John.
Seeing this was wonderful! I almost feel like it was too short. Brilliant. I was hoping for a shot or two of a film starting up, but still enjoyed it very much. Thank you for all this, capturing it must have been hard work.
Thank you Timothy. Simon is very good and easy going on camera which always makes the job of filming and asking questions easier for me. I was aware that I didn't show a film starting up so that was why in included that short sequence of him starting up his own 35mm in his home cinema from last year's video. Probably should have shown more of that but that's the benefit of hindsight. John.
@@simonnichollsfilm Next time we'll have to arrange a 35mm film just for the benefit of the RU-vid video Simon. As for OPPENHEIMER at the US Academy Awards Timothy, it's unusual these days for the people who do the voting over there to get much right and to then pull off a ceremony without too many twits going up to receive an award and talking about politics... or giving a colleague a slap in the face... or giving the best picture award to the wrong film. I think you can probably tell that I don't take the Oscars seriously any longer. The right film won though so maybe they're coming to their senses. John.
@moviecollector5920 I don't take them seriously anymore either. I haven't even seen a broadcast in quite a few years. I do get curious enough to look at highlights though, and I agree that the right film won, particularly for Best score and cinematography.
I expect most of us on here prefer film Raymond but it's not likely to come back en masse. An occasional screening of special releases and some of the greatest classics in cinema history will keep it going and ensure we get to see the best possible quality on occasion. Tabs are a part of cinema for me but they are so rare today. I'm pleased to see motorized masking because that is even more vital but some of the morons in charge of cinemas don't appreciate the value it brings which illustrates what they know about their chosen career. John.
Morning Rob. Just imagine what Simon used to have to do for the film festival before digital video came about. Reels of film everywhere and virtually unmanageable I would have thought. John.
I love masking we not longer have it in our movie theater in the us. I have it at home so I usualy just watch all my movies at home in scope no black bars for me
I'm hearing from people all over the world that their local cinemas no longer mask the image to correctly frame it. No wonder cinema is in terminal decline. Better to watch a movie at home. At least anyone could put some black card or material around the projected image at home.... or even to frame a large television image. John.
I wonder why the movie size is 180gb? Typical 4k Remux (i.e. The movie ripped and lossless with zero movie special features - Although you might get director commentary or other sound types) is anywhere from 50gb to 85gb (e.g Apocalypse Now Final Cut 87gb, Clockwork Orange 54gb etc). Naturally there are exceptions to that size guide with something like Lord Of The Rings, which are the biggest i've seen and coming in at a colossal size around 110-130gb depending which movie. Turns out i've got more space than a cinema lol 76tb! nah-nah 😛 - About 12tb being internal gen4 NVME (Games/Operating system) and the remainder 64tb external USB3 (HD and UHD movies/series) - Then an additional 11tb split between PS4 and PS5 on a mixture of internal NVME and Samsung T7 external SSD's (picked up a load super cheap at a liquidation auction!). I am aware its an absolutely stupid amount of space and to think I made do back in the year 2000 on my first PC with 1.8gb total space, which held the operating system and a tiny amount of games/music - Always having to uninstall an old game to install something new. Quick note, to anyone buying hard drives or thinking about putting together a media server, avoid "Seagate 16TB ST16000NM001G Exos X16 SATA 6Gb/s" (The same model but different capacity Seagates will also have the same issue). While the drive was very reasonably priced (2 years ago I got it for £220), the Seagate I found with 4k lossless movies being so large the hard drive seeking does a loud churn every 2 seconds as it performs the read/buffers the file to memory. This would potentially be fine if your media server is in another room/cupboard (albeit it was so loud you still might hear it), but it is a massive issue if your media PC sits next to the TV as the noise is very loud and constant, running for the duration of the movie. Personally I found the Western Digital MyBook drives excellent (they go up to 22tb) and very quiet/no noticeable seek noise when playing a 4k movie (its basically silent compared to my Seagate - My Seagate I use for HD TV series i.e. smaller video files and functions fine in that respect) - The MyBooks are also priced very fair, not to mention they can be shunted if you want to convert them to internal drives.
I don't suppose many people would run a RAID5 SAN or NAS and just watch the movies on a telly Bob so it's probably not a consideration to be worth worrying about a bit of disc noise. Usually a projector and other equipment will be isolated from the room. But as for the sizes of the videos, this is DCP which is the top quality only available to cinemas. 4K discs are a different format and have to go through a conversion process which will inevitably mean lower quality even if there's little chance of perceptibly spotting it on our comparatively tiny home screens. John.
I might be able to if we were able to do a comparison on a huge cinema screen but otherwise I think it's unlikely on a smaller screen and impossible on any telly. John.
Maybe we'll challenge Simon to do that once The Courtyard start to make greater use of real film now it's back in vogue and generating audiences around the world once more. John.
Excellent vid John, my mate is the projectionist at my local cinema for nearly 30 years,I've seen first had the change from film reels to digital film,was fascinating 😊
You ought to do a video with your friend in his cinema Marty. This one seems to be popular so something similar on your channel might help to set you apart, John.
Still here Timothy and normal service will be resumed very soon. Just a bit too knackered right now as things have been a little abnormally busy lately. John.
Don't know Gary. I did watch ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD for a 4K review a couple of weeks ago but haven't had any time. I ran the first 45 minutes or so again last night to compare it to the Blu-ray which is poor by comparison so eventually I'll probably get it done. John.
Cheers John for this, it reminded me of the Phoenix in Leicester especially that auditorium with the black tabs. Every cinema should have a projection booth like this one where they can run digital and 35mm side by side without any issues!!
We're on the same hymn sheet yet again Dark. The Courtyard does have similarities to The Phoenix and I think Simon and the team do correspond with them at times. Maybe Simon will see this and clarify that for us. John.
It's understandable there's no masking in a genuine IMAX Rhu because the screens are so huge but for all other cinemas it should be mandatory. Indicative of the interest the people running a lot of cinemas have that they simply have something white to project onto and sod the showmanship. John.
If it's not the same Victor then it's got to be very similar. I would imagine it was a worldwide collaboration because the big downgrade in 2011 had taken some time to get to so surely all the interested parties would have worked it out together. John.
Thank you Rob. It's nice to do something different occasionally but this one was Simon's suggestion and as we were going over there to check The Courtyard out as a suitable venue for a Film Is Fabulous it was a great idea. John.
