saw a few great movies this last past weekend at the Virginia Film Festival – from what I can tell, this is an all ‘digital’ theater now – only one theater had a problem with a DCP and a DVD screener was shown instead – (ick! and boy was it obvious in terms of resolution). Interestingly, since the new Regal is opening over at the Stonefield Mall – the movies here at the downtown location will all be foreign, indie releases. [Thumbs up!] This is great since the screens tend to be placed high on the walls of the auditoriums, and viewing subtitles unobstructed is non-problematic.
was there this last past weekend for the annual Virginia Film Festival – and it looks like they are attempting to change over to digital: selling t-shirts, tote bags and coffee mugs
so if you saw it in DP, you obviously didn’t see it here at the AFI, personally I wasn’t wow’d by the story or the movie on the whole, but in supporting 70mm releases, sometimes you just got to suck it up and give your money to the cause, and support.
so I saw Disney’s ‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’ on the XD screen yesterday – and I was a bit underwhelmed by it, mind you it was great to see this where it supposed to be seen – on the big screen… but. The image I though seemed soft and not as sharp as I hoped since a recent 4K restoration was done on the film (and has been making the rounds to select L.A theaters).
according to their website – the BTX screen is debuting this Friday with ‘Cloud Atlas’ and since AMC did not book this at the Uptown, I’m thinking of trekking out to check out the new screen here.
the 3D systems are Dolby systems – the glasses are thicker and heavier than what I am accustomed to, but the image and 3D pop of ‘Dial M for Murder’ was really really good.
so the screen can change between 1.78/1.85 and 2.35 – with no black borders above or below the image for the latter? That’s too bad the Atmos system won’t be up and running for ‘Chasing Mavericks’ (Oct 26th) – I don’t think I’ve read any news that ‘Skyfall’ will be released in 7.1, let alone remixed in Atmos :( On the plus side ‘Skyfall’ (the entire feature, like the trailer) will be released in 4K DCP
not to digress, but the 7.1 mix for ‘The Lion King’ (on the ETX screen) really DID suck – agree with you there. Even the 7.1 mix of ‘Finding Nemo’ was completely lackluster, my DTS-ES 6.1 DVD of the movie had better surround sound mixing than what I heard on the big screen.
nice theaters, the digital projection of ‘Looper’ was sharp as a tack and looked great. What was odd is that before the movie one of the employees came in and introduced the film and would check the image and sound, well he didn’t stay around for the feature film because the sound notably the dialogue was very very quiet – I couldn’t get up and complain as missing any of the movie would render the plot incomprehensible.
I was personally shocked over the tix price, which for the first (morning) screening of the day was a whopping $12.50 – ouch… If Arclight thinks they can charge that amount (and higher for their evening screenings) for their features at the 2014 opening on the East Coast at the Montgomery Mall Bethesda Maryland location, think again
any screen can give the ETX screen a run for it’s money IMO, recently ‘Finding Nemo’ in 3D looked terrible. I’m sick of the two projector’s not being correctly aligned. Is the BTX screen a single projector? You should have seen all the speakers if it’s BTX (above the standard surrounds speakers and the one’s in the ceiling) That’s very exciting news!
yes, the print was stunning, but the sound I thought sounded too strident and overly loud at times – all in all though, thank you P.T. Anderson and the Weisteins for actually releasing a ‘new’ movie in 70mm – let’s the floodgates open now [okay it’s a pipedream, but I hope some director’s take note and realize the potential 70mm still has (I want to hear what a modern soundtrack can sound like in five front channel mag sound)]
saw the 1pm screening of ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ on Screen 1 (hooray!) and in 4K DCP – it was truly amazing – it’s not 70mm, but the transfer team who created the DCP for this Fathom Event left no stone unturned – the clarity, the sharpness, the colors were truly outstanding – I’m still floored by it.
All screens have Barco DLP digital projectors, auditorium #2 can playback in 4K resolution. Likewise all the screens feature horizontal masking.
All the auditorium’s sound systems can playback in digital 7.1 surround sound. Screen 2 is the only auditorium to feature ceiling ‘voice of god’ speakers.
Screens 2, 3 and 4 can present movies in 35mm.
Auditoriums 1 and 2 are the complexes largest with the seating up to 299.
not to be a broken record about this, but if and when the Silver gets around to doing another 70mm film fest – I really hope they get a clue and showcase the films in the evenings – the weekend (and weekday) screenings were TOO early. The missing of ‘Those Magnificent Men’ was a bitter disappointment.
saw ‘Chicken with Plums’ (screen #6) this afternoon and the DLP presentation was outstanding – the cinematography without the glaze of 35mm grain looked meticulous and three dimensional at times, the shot of the snow looked vivid and tactile. The use of sound was equally impressive, some scenes were so quiet you could hear a pin drop, and when music was played, it created an airy and powerful impact.
wish I had known you were there Jodar, I would have said hi – I had to unfortunately fly out of there right at the end of the cast end title crawl – was meeting some friends over at Landmark Bethesda for a screening of ‘Chicken with Plums’ – they had the longest trailer I’ve seen for ‘The Master’ – can’t wait!
I liked how the overture/movie just started, sometimes the trailers diminish the effect of a movie- particularly musicals.
saw ‘South Pacific’ this afternoon – impressed, but not completely wowed by the print – ‘Lord Jim’ looked the most mint in condition of the four 70mm films I saw. The sound was gorgeous, aside from a smidgen of the dialogue echoing into the surrounds, was this mag sound? Decent turn out of folk too!
I won’t see an IMAX feature over at the Majestic due to the expensive ticket price (and the fact that they don’t discount it to matinee prices). My fave is definitely Tysons, with one of the largest IMAX-Digital screens I’ve seen (and enjoyed). For a new theater and specifically a new IMAX-Digital auditorium, not to be as large (or larger) than the XD screen at the Egyptian is baffling. (I can’t stand the screen sizes of the IMAX-D screens at Columbia Mall or the Rio)
the severe color tinting of ‘South Pacific’ is also a tad distracting if you ask me. Fox did a boffo hidef transfer and the bluray is sharp as a tack, so I guess I should expect the print to not look as good then :(
saw a few great movies this last past weekend at the Virginia Film Festival – from what I can tell, this is an all ‘digital’ theater now – only one theater had a problem with a DCP and a DVD screener was shown instead – (ick! and boy was it obvious in terms of resolution). Interestingly, since the new Regal is opening over at the Stonefield Mall – the movies here at the downtown location will all be foreign, indie releases. [Thumbs up!] This is great since the screens tend to be placed high on the walls of the auditoriums, and viewing subtitles unobstructed is non-problematic.
was there this last past weekend for the annual Virginia Film Festival – and it looks like they are attempting to change over to digital: selling t-shirts, tote bags and coffee mugs
so if you saw it in DP, you obviously didn’t see it here at the AFI, personally I wasn’t wow’d by the story or the movie on the whole, but in supporting 70mm releases, sometimes you just got to suck it up and give your money to the cause, and support.
so I saw Disney’s ‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’ on the XD screen yesterday – and I was a bit underwhelmed by it, mind you it was great to see this where it supposed to be seen – on the big screen… but. The image I though seemed soft and not as sharp as I hoped since a recent 4K restoration was done on the film (and has been making the rounds to select L.A theaters).
according to their website – the BTX screen is debuting this Friday with ‘Cloud Atlas’ and since AMC did not book this at the Uptown, I’m thinking of trekking out to check out the new screen here.
the 3D systems are Dolby systems – the glasses are thicker and heavier than what I am accustomed to, but the image and 3D pop of ‘Dial M for Murder’ was really really good.
so the screen can change between 1.78/1.85 and 2.35 – with no black borders above or below the image for the latter? That’s too bad the Atmos system won’t be up and running for ‘Chasing Mavericks’ (Oct 26th) – I don’t think I’ve read any news that ‘Skyfall’ will be released in 7.1, let alone remixed in Atmos :( On the plus side ‘Skyfall’ (the entire feature, like the trailer) will be released in 4K DCP
not to digress, but the 7.1 mix for ‘The Lion King’ (on the ETX screen) really DID suck – agree with you there. Even the 7.1 mix of ‘Finding Nemo’ was completely lackluster, my DTS-ES 6.1 DVD of the movie had better surround sound mixing than what I heard on the big screen.
tix are available for a 3D presentation of Hitchcock’s ‘Dial M for Murder’ – thumbs up!
Sunday 10/21 @ 11:00AM
Wednesday 10/24 @ 7:15PM.
nice theaters, the digital projection of ‘Looper’ was sharp as a tack and looked great. What was odd is that before the movie one of the employees came in and introduced the film and would check the image and sound, well he didn’t stay around for the feature film because the sound notably the dialogue was very very quiet – I couldn’t get up and complain as missing any of the movie would render the plot incomprehensible.
I was personally shocked over the tix price, which for the first (morning) screening of the day was a whopping $12.50 – ouch… If Arclight thinks they can charge that amount (and higher for their evening screenings) for their features at the 2014 opening on the East Coast at the Montgomery Mall Bethesda Maryland location, think again
select Landmark Theaters are also showing this:
ATLANTA, GA: at 9:00pm at the Midtown Art Cinema
BOSTON, MA: at 9:00pm at the Kendall Square Cinema
CHICAGO, IL: at 9:00pm at Landmark’s Century Centre Cinema
DENVER, CO: at 9:00pm at the Esquire Theatre
LOS ANGELES, CA: at 9:00pm at the Regent Theatre
MINNEAPOLIS, MN: at 9:00pm at the Lagoon Cinema
SAN DIEGO, CA: at 9:00pm at the Hillcrest Cinemas
SAN FRANCISCO, CA: at 9:00pm at the Embarcadero Center Cinema
SEATTLE, WA: at 9:00pm at the Harvard Exit Theatre
WASHINGTON, DC: at 9:00pm at the E Street Cinema
any screen can give the ETX screen a run for it’s money IMO, recently ‘Finding Nemo’ in 3D looked terrible. I’m sick of the two projector’s not being correctly aligned. Is the BTX screen a single projector? You should have seen all the speakers if it’s BTX (above the standard surrounds speakers and the one’s in the ceiling) That’s very exciting news!
yes, the print was stunning, but the sound I thought sounded too strident and overly loud at times – all in all though, thank you P.T. Anderson and the Weisteins for actually releasing a ‘new’ movie in 70mm – let’s the floodgates open now [okay it’s a pipedream, but I hope some director’s take note and realize the potential 70mm still has (I want to hear what a modern soundtrack can sound like in five front channel mag sound)]
saw the 1pm screening of ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ on Screen 1 (hooray!) and in 4K DCP – it was truly amazing – it’s not 70mm, but the transfer team who created the DCP for this Fathom Event left no stone unturned – the clarity, the sharpness, the colors were truly outstanding – I’m still floored by it.
did they upgrade any of the auditoriums to 7.1 audio ? I know that at least one auditorium used to feature 8-channel SDDS.
oh, the theater which is featured on the Faithless ‘Sunday 8pm’ album
what’s the point of non-use of surrounds when the mixers could (but didn’t) use the traditional five-across stage channel configurement?
here’s a photo of the complex, not quite sure what the developers are doing in the foreground area though.
http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa283/Dubstar28/101_3628.jpg
here are some details about the Film Center:
All screens have Barco DLP digital projectors, auditorium #2 can playback in 4K resolution. Likewise all the screens feature horizontal masking.
All the auditorium’s sound systems can playback in digital 7.1 surround sound. Screen 2 is the only auditorium to feature ceiling ‘voice of god’ speakers.
Screens 2, 3 and 4 can present movies in 35mm.
Auditoriums 1 and 2 are the complexes largest with the seating up to 299.
3D features will be presented on screens 3 and 7.
not to be a broken record about this, but if and when the Silver gets around to doing another 70mm film fest – I really hope they get a clue and showcase the films in the evenings – the weekend (and weekday) screenings were TOO early. The missing of ‘Those Magnificent Men’ was a bitter disappointment.
saw ‘Chicken with Plums’ (screen #6) this afternoon and the DLP presentation was outstanding – the cinematography without the glaze of 35mm grain looked meticulous and three dimensional at times, the shot of the snow looked vivid and tactile. The use of sound was equally impressive, some scenes were so quiet you could hear a pin drop, and when music was played, it created an airy and powerful impact.
wish I had known you were there Jodar, I would have said hi – I had to unfortunately fly out of there right at the end of the cast end title crawl – was meeting some friends over at Landmark Bethesda for a screening of ‘Chicken with Plums’ – they had the longest trailer I’ve seen for ‘The Master’ – can’t wait!
I liked how the overture/movie just started, sometimes the trailers diminish the effect of a movie- particularly musicals.
saw ‘South Pacific’ this afternoon – impressed, but not completely wowed by the print – ‘Lord Jim’ looked the most mint in condition of the four 70mm films I saw. The sound was gorgeous, aside from a smidgen of the dialogue echoing into the surrounds, was this mag sound? Decent turn out of folk too!
let the resurgence of ‘new’ 70mm shot films begin … NOW !!
I won’t see an IMAX feature over at the Majestic due to the expensive ticket price (and the fact that they don’t discount it to matinee prices). My fave is definitely Tysons, with one of the largest IMAX-Digital screens I’ve seen (and enjoyed). For a new theater and specifically a new IMAX-Digital auditorium, not to be as large (or larger) than the XD screen at the Egyptian is baffling. (I can’t stand the screen sizes of the IMAX-D screens at Columbia Mall or the Rio)
the severe color tinting of ‘South Pacific’ is also a tad distracting if you ask me. Fox did a boffo hidef transfer and the bluray is sharp as a tack, so I guess I should expect the print to not look as good then :(