In Praise of 70mm 

Wonderful now that's an experience.

WOW

Did you get to choose your seat? 😁

It's not just a film, it's an experience. To experience it like you did, you were very, very lucky.

That’s awesome!

I find it interesting he shot it on 35 and blew it up, rather than with Hateful Eight.

@@davidjames579 can you explain that?

@@celiaguillen7338 Don't know why. Maybe's it's a trope he wanted to copy. Paul Thomas Anderson shot The Master on 70mm, then Inherent Vice and Phantom Thread, he's shot in 35mm, and done 70mm blowup releases of.

@@davidjames579 I think QT did this deliberately to give his movie a contemporary 1969 look which would indeed be 35mm rather than 70. Large format was already on the decline then.

@@davidjames579 They don't film in 70. They film on 65 and then print it out on 70 for projection.

+Matthew Law The did not go cheap because they wanted to make more money they went cheap because they were loosing money. In the 1980s and 1990s the cinema industry suffered because the stand of films went down hill. The industry was obcessed with indie film nonsense. With the occational speilberg big production with nothing inbetween. People blame video but that makes no sense because cinema did not suffer when TV bad its big impact. 50% of all houses in 1950s America had a TV and audiences still flocked to see the big experience. There was nothing in the 1980s or 1990s that compared to the likes of Rear window or Ben-Her. Hitchcock in the 1950s released 11 films and no director today can even come close with that. With many making a film once every 5 years on average.

@@bighands69 I would actually argue that industry expansion and increasing options (like HBO) broadened the spectrum of available content and fractured the audience into subgroups. This is much more exaggerated now, with online streaming and a vast content boom. Inevitably, when production scales up, quality control is sacrificed...so there are definitely tons more mediocre films (though they were always around, just not in the quantity and availability of today's market) but there are also more high quality films made now. It used to be that in a given calendar year, you'd have perhaps a handful of must see blockbusters and masterpieces. Now, they're a lot more common because of the glut of funding from the sea of content distributors.

@@HububkiFilms Cinema was in decline before the streaming options came along. TV and streaming now is producing shows that people want to watch. People do not want to watch gay cowboy movies, political activist films or just disgusting art house films that do horrible things and I have seen some disgusting films. Cinema is not making films anymore because it is controlled by political activists and that will happen to streaming in the not so distant future.

@@bighands69 Your own personal shortcomings aside, you're flat out wrong. People consume far more films and television than ever before. There are tons of people who watched and thoroughly enjoyed Brokeback Mountain. It made a domestic profit (over it's $15 Million budget) of nearly $70 million, and a global box office of nearly $180 million. You probably prefer Birth of a Nation (1915), Triumph of the Will (1935) or Reefer Madness (1936), other (good) people like genuinely well made films that don't promote hate and that require an audience with a functional brain. Now, for you, there's films like Breakthrough or Overcomer and Fox News, Nascar and Duck Dynasty. There's plenty of room for everyone 😉

bighand69 “Wah politics wah” Many of the greatest films of all time deal with politics (and that’s not including the films that people also flock to).

I saw it last week! It was breathtaking.

I saw it last Weekend. Absolutely unbelievable!

Same here! It was one of the best movie experiences ever in my fucking life!

I may be one voice, but i am sure there are many more that envy your experience.

Yep. Saw it last week and it rocked my world!

That's crazy, I watched interstellar in liemax and I was blown away. Now I can't wait to watch oppenheimer in 70mm.

watched 2001 on sunday in 70mm with overture, intermission and exit in vienna at the gartenbaukino - my favourite cinema! Amazing experience

we see it here in Seattle every year at the CINERAMA. probably the best movie theatre in the U.S.

I've seen Lawrence of Arabia in 70 mm at the Virginia Theater in Champaign-Urbana, IL.

Michael Stuart first time I saw that marvelous film was in the mid-80s when they restruck prints and sent it out in a limited release, including the overture, and the intermission. It blew me away. And I saw that new 2001 print here in SF about a month ago with intermission and everything. Very cool, although I had forgotten just how long we hang out with the proto-humans and how absolutely insane the last reel is.

I just wanna say you guys are incredibly lucky to have seen all these amazing films in 70mm with the whole experience.I watched classics like Lawrence of Arabia, 2001 etc on my fucking 16 inch laptop with mediocre sound.Its also great that you often get screenings of classic films, in my country folks watch movies to pass their time on weekends

You are absolutely right! I hope film school is going well for you mate 🙏🏼

@gnilttbs Funny, that is actually something you could say about 35mm in Oliver Stone's "Natural Born Killers". The Mix of Super8, 16mm and 35mm makes the whole 35mm segments seem like they are pristine clean and clear as a mountain sea.

@gnilttbs Well i think the smooth look of 35mm in "Natural Born Killers" as also enhanced through filters as a style element to separate the different looks from each other. So in this regard 35mm did have that heavenly pure, almost healing, kind of look. Personally i like the look of todays Black and White 16mm because it reminds me a lot of the Black and White 35mm productions of the 20s and 30s, without the shallow DoF that 35mm has of course, due to the optical nature of being a bigger smaller format than 35mm. But i like that imperfections that leaves more to dream. I would love to shoot 35mm both colour and black and white. When it comes to 16mm i'd probably wanna do both too. But Super 8.... i'm kinda done with this format. Especially after Kodak's amateurish Vaporware Hipstercrap that was their Super8 Plans during the last few years with absolutely nothing that can be actually used.

@gnilttbs Well, I'd prefer 70mm for certain shots where lights are visible. Doesn't matter if it's candles or a combination of that and additional tungsten lights. Or with a visible Sun at the sky. Or streetlights. Because Lights are something that just NEVER look good on digital. It always becomes a blown out flat mess that just looks unnatural and disgusting. But on Film you always have those fuzzy and beautiful soft halos and fine gradients from dark to bright. So on 70mm i'd love to have that extra fine resolution of such light halos. No matter if foreground or background or both. At Daylight i think 35mm works just fine. Also i'd only use 70mm for large shots where a lot of details have to be captured. Landscapes, mass scenes or just scenes where you want a little bit of more details (maybe close ups). But not for every shot. It REALLY has to be used for a certain purpose where you get the benefit of that extra resolution. Otherwise it just wears of too much and doesn't have the same impact. I would not wanna shoot a whole film like that. Also those scenes should not have too much motion. Preferably tripod only and if possible no pans. Zooms maybe but only slow. Like those nice slow Zooms in "Barry Lyndon".

@gnilttbs When it comes to digital shots of today i'm pretty disgusted by the ever same boring colour grading that seem to be the same presets with little to no variation at all. There are only few movies that are shot digital that i think are absolutely gorgeous. One prominent example is "Tron Legacy" which actually a perfect digitally shot film because after all we are following our characters in a digital world. So the digital look actually fits here and it also for the most part looks well done and because of the films environment you don't get nonstop reminded that you are watching something shot with video cameras. Another Film that is shot digitally is "Festen - Dogme#1" which has a reason. They used Sony MiniDV camcorders that came with a remarjably good Megapixel image sensor and those sensors delivered wonderful pictures in lowlight environments with soft fuzzy lights and a nice sharp image. However what actually adds to the whole films esthetic is the fact that they did a blow up to 35mm and that drastically changed the films look, making it look like a handheld 16mm production where the whole videolook is pretty much gone. It became a kind of hybrid that, when i saw it for the first time, was hard to describe but i fell in love with it. Not only does it fit to the whole films story and acting but it also shows what film adds to digital. It really gives the video something that the digital picture lacked. Some kind of patina. it boosted the colours, made the lights more fuzzy and soft and took away the harshness. And i actually find it sad that this kind of process wasn't done more often. I know Lars von Trier did it too for "Idioterne" but it was done sloppier there with badly adjusted video, resulting in ghosting and making the picture look like it's still interlaced. Would I shoot something digital with HD video cameras or DSLRs i would always rather want to blow up the final cut to 35mm and scan it from that again. If i only had a limited budget that would make shooting everything on 35mm too expensive. But at the end i would always want to have a final film mastered on film.

@gnilttbs yeah i agree with you on that amateur porn bit. It doesn't have to be overproduced DSLR or prosumer-camcorder recordings. And yeah amateurs really don't shoot 35mm like that. And Super8 and 16mm is kinda not the same and is also pointless in that nieche. It would be just totally overproduced. Amateurs better look amateurish. Otherwise it just seems pretentious and like the industry behind it being involved. And yeah, when it comes to good digital film making… there really aren't many i can think where it's just perfect as it is. With some films you kinda accept it but it just always swings with it and reminds you that they had the money and capacity and yet chosen the easy way out with digital video. It is always funny. Those who WANT to shoot film cannot afford it and those who CAN rather go digital. And it always shows one way or another.

Making a big deal of the show with full presentation is just the best. I am so glad we still have the option. Convenience means nothing to me. A grand night out is still the best!

Cool, thanks for sharing

4K Blu-Rays bring you incredibly close to the theatrical experience.

Great to hear. Sorry to miss it.

You know what I miss? The sound. There's something very particular about film reel audio that I can't put my finger on, but really absorbs you into a film.

Agreed.

Thanks for the info mate. Christopher Nolan would be proud. :) ;)

Don't worry man, your not the only one who noticed it. I'm there with you! :)

I just wanted to say that You are an awesome dude just for knowing all that stuff

Badass info drop.

@@foglias How do you know it's not Christopher Nolan with a fake account ;)

Funnily enough, the exact opposite is true (physically speaking). Or, at least, digital can be preserved with things like laser-etched glass, multi-site backups and applied information theory. Major studios are contracting new tech that promises to preserve their collections for hundreds of thousands of years.

@@atimholt No technology truly lasts forever, but at least with digital you can easily copy to a newer format without any loss in quality. Copying film will always lead to generational loss. The best practice is updating the digital master file to a newer carrier every few years or so and keep black and white color separation masters on film in a vault off-site. Like an old salt mine or similar, as is done today. The latter might come in useful, should the digital master file ever get destroyed (fire) or wiped out (mistakenly erased or even an EMP attack)

"Social media can alter people's value system." - Frederick Chopin

​@@atimholt Yeah Film only survives a limited amount of time (especially old silver nitrate stocks, but modern film stocks have similar problems) But digital can be copied with perfect reprodcution so assuming someone DOES preserve it, what we get 100 years from now will be identical to what it is today.

"Dude, where's my car?" - Marcel Proust

I feel sorry for you. Haven't seen a single film on 70mm?? I haven't seen it on Imax. But have seen many films on 70mm. Where are you from, my man?

I'd have to drive to another country hahaha

Lucky. I'd have to FLY 5 hours to see 70mm.

Well damn I thought I had it bad

Terrible Gamer It comes with living in the most isolated capital city in the world.

@@rafaelandrade7627 id have to fly to another continent

Its a life goal of mine to see that show there! I love that film. I don't live too far from the Cinerama but getting the time right has been hard.

@@SeanGatchell Unfortunately as of the day I’m writing this (21.07.21), the Seattle Cinerama location is permanently closed. I was devastated to find that out. I’m not sure if there are any Cinerama theatres left now.

Congrats, truly appreciate it man. Cos so few cinemas are still trying to do that now. because they face closure these days. Most indie theaters try to still do 70mm showings (The Prince Charles in London's Leicester Square?) but scale wise they're smaller cinemas in terms of size. so the experience just isn't the same unless its pacifically an IMAX theater instead mind you!

Yes, they did not promote it well. Didn't even know about, otherwise I would have seen it.

Really? In the UK people were aware of it thanks to RU-vid no less. 50th anniversary interviews n shit

This one, lindsay ellis, and?

sammelief1 he said last 3 days not third video, unless he edited it, but yeah that Lindsay Ellis one was a good dive into it and musicals lol

Karolis Jurevicius i thought there was no 70mm print of Samsara made

That's one of those films that have been shot entirely on 70mm film but the screening I went to might have 'projected' it via 8K system at BFI IMAX theatre. The visual quality was outstanding, it might as well have been stills, and that's what makes me believe it was 70mm film conversion into digital. However, I know that BFI cinemas are capable of projecting 70mm film as I've watched Dunkirk and Batman films over there, so I can't entirely say that Samsara was on film.

Karolis Jurevicius pretty sure it was digital as the makers deliberately did not make any prints. Stunning film though. I hope it’s released in 4K sometime soon.

The birthplace of HAL 9000.

Whenever they show 2001 at the Virginia Theater in Champaign-Urbana, when HAL says he was built in Urbana, IL, it always gets a standing ovation.

So lucky!

What's the name of the video?

NPA_ Astyr “Who Cares” !

@@Noirmirror Just saw it. You did a great job with it, really good use of the format.

NPA_ Astyr very kind of you! Thank you!

So you shot this video using the same process Tarantino shot the Hateful Eight ??

Indeed, but not just stereo (one of the goofs in his commentary). There were 6 channels of sound on 70mm film. Five screen channels (only three screen channels nowadays), plus a mono surround track.

Totally agree, you gotta have a director who will treat the format as the ideal way to watch the film, not an afterthought or a marketing boost. The problem with The Force Awakens is that even though most of it was shot on film, it's edited digitally at 2K (which is only slightly higher than 1080p). So you're looking at a 2K video's worth of pixels being printed onto 70mm film, which sort of defeats the purpose. Sadly this is pretty common, even for high-profile 70mm releases. Dunkirk and Nolan's other stuff looks so great because he'll shoot in 70mm and then keep an analog pipeline so that the detail in the film is maintained instead of digitized.

Egroj D I saw the "first" director's cut of Blade Runner there about 20 years ago now, when they first got their 70mm capability... So lovely!