I know Fox had down some 4K restoration/transfers of ‘The Sound of Music’ early on, I’m expecting the eventual bluray to look great. I hope the recently struck 70mm print of ‘West Side Story’ makes it to cities on the East Coast.
As much as I like ‘South Pacific’ (the songs in particular) – I saw a great stage production of it here in DC at Arena Stage – the film isn’t as bad as I’m making it out to be, but the color scheme really irked me. I’m surprised Fox hasn’t restored the Roadshow version for this presentation, that’d be the version I like to see on the big screen.
well AMC didn’t book ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ to any of the three IMAX digital screens, at least it was just announced that ‘Eagle Eye’ is getting released in September from Paramount, let’s hope this go around IMAX digital screens will get this.
‘Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince’ has been bounced to next year (July) – shucks!
for awhile they were listing ‘Iron Man’ after it left the Uptown as being a DLP presentation at Mazza, but I never confirmed if that was truly the case though.
Saw ‘Sisterhood’ over at Cinema De Lux in DLP over the weekend and wow, the couple of scenes that took place in Greece – the cinematography was top notch – made me want to go there, more than ‘Mamma Mia!’ did
‘The Dark Crystal’ looked great – the pic seemed overmmatted, the image looked wider than what it’s supposed to be (2.35), but the sound and music score in particular seemed really restrained.
This coming Saturday and Monday’s showing of ‘Ryan’s Daughter’ will be in digital projection – which may or might not be a bad thing. Going to check it out Monday night.
I need to realize that complaining to the manager is always the best route, because one it lets that person know first hand what the problem(s) is/are. He said he’d look into why films weren’t being played back in 5.1 since the auditorium should in fact be decoding it in Dolby Digtial. He said the missing cup holders are replaced regularily since some of the larger sized cups actually pull up/off when the drinks are removed. Not really much of a response to the wearing arm rests, I might have to go one up and complain to corporate. I asked tangentily about future DLP at Mazza, and he gave some rather lame explanation, “certain AMC’s are testing the technology/audience response”, I almost wanted to say, well if you had at least two systems here,you could rotate/book at two films at the same time – it’s not THAT impossible. I didn’t say, well AMC’s relunctance, slow roll out of DLP/LCoS systems isn’t helping one bit, I still have to trek out to National Amusement in Fairfax Virginia to see something in digital, because they have six systems – oh well, time will tell.
Thankfully it was only the first show of the day (a Saturday 11am) for $6 – but regardless, yes, for an auditorium that is supposed to be comfortable and nice, it’s looking ratty – I’d be livid if I had to pay the higher evening ‘Club’ price and I got stuck in one of the seats that had no cup holder.
I should have complained while I was there, but I had to fly out of the movie to meet a friend for lunch. I’ll definately check out THX' website – thanks.
Auditorium #7 is looking worse for wear – plastic cup holders are missing from quite a few chairs, scratch marks on the wooden arm rests are becoming prevailent – the upkeep of the theatre is embarrassing to say the least. ‘The Mummy 3’ looked great (for 35mm) but the sound was terribly lacking – it wasn’t even in 5.1 surround sound, I honestly can’t think of the last film I’ve seen/heard in this auditorium that was 5.1 Dolby Digital sound.
but it’s much more affordable for the studio to convert film to digital, than it is the opposite, film distribution is very costly – the point of installing Digital projection systems was to cut that cost and process out.
As to Kram’s comment, film prints ARE very inconsistent. Compared to digital projection, every imperfection is gone, reel changes, theater indicator dots, random screen length white horizontal lines, grain.
as for the conversion of AMC screens, it’s been slow as molasses. Granted the technology is swaying to 4K, AMC’s very select theatres that feature Sony 4K is non-existent in print and advertising. ‘Hancock’ was screened in 4K, the next supposedly is ‘Quantum of Solace’.
It was great to see a nearly sold out audience at ‘Mamma Mia!’ (I wanted to stand up and personally thank the entire crowd from not seeing this over at Mazza – support the independent theatre NOT AMC, that’s my motto). Except for one print flaw, it was a great presentation, scope (2.35) films always look fantastic on the Avalon’s wide screen and the Dolby Digtial soundmix (while not as aggressive as I expected, not the Avalon’s fault more so on the film’s soundmixers creative decision)
why Warner’s simply couldnt front the price of shooting the entire film in IMAX is beyond me – the changing aspect ratio seems so gimicky. Sure shooting IMAX is costly but Warner weren’t totally in the dark in knowing that this film’s BO intake wouldn’t pay for that option.
oh no… the screen is no where as immense as any of the other area museum IMAX screens – that was one question that I completely forgot to ask the IMAX techie I was talking to – yes I know, an obvious question. The expanded screen takes up more the wall (ceiling to floor) – It also appears not to be the same aspect ratio of the typical IMAX screen – it’s more 1.78 than the standard 1.34 For the first show of the day – 10:45am it was me and a lady – TWO! The IMAX guy wasn’t all that pleased with how AMC is marketing this. In the Washington Post, the IMAX denoted films are at the bottom of the theatre’s listing. The system is definately a digital system, can you believe 4K, I thought I would have been higher… my complaint of ‘Space Station 3D’ was that for a film to digital conversion the master was not from a completely flawless source, those apparent film flaws just gave you the impression you were watching film.
I mentioned this over on the AMC Hoffman’s theatre thread – but I was very impressed audio wise with the upgrade – the image though… I still have to see a couple of other DMR’d/true IMAX films mastered to IMAX-Digital specs. Don’t get me wrong, ‘Space Station 3D’ while filmed with IMAX cameras did look great, I was able to see some very minor imperfections with the source element – not digital artifacts par se. The real star was the system’s 12-channel sound system – one word: WOW
actually it did debut yesterday – I saw “Space Station 3D” and while the image wasn’t 100% pristine, the 65mm print sourced had a some very minor ticks and spots, the sound and the installation of a 12-channel souund system: 8 behind the screen, two above and two to the rear – the sound was obviousily the best part. I’m going to have to go back and see (and hear) ‘Kung Fu Panda’ – oh and the auditorium they retrofitted was #5
considering Warner Bros. is currently converting all of it’s titles via 4K technology a release here and there of these “classics” would be a grand idea.
really rhett39, since 2002 – come on down to the AFI Silver they show ‘Lawrence’ in 70mm at the drop of a hat – an upcoming showing of it, is part of a David Lean retrospective (early to mid August)
yes that would be the more ideal way to experience this film.
is the upcoming engagement of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ digital projection or 35mm?
I know Fox had down some 4K restoration/transfers of ‘The Sound of Music’ early on, I’m expecting the eventual bluray to look great. I hope the recently struck 70mm print of ‘West Side Story’ makes it to cities on the East Coast.
As much as I like ‘South Pacific’ (the songs in particular) – I saw a great stage production of it here in DC at Arena Stage – the film isn’t as bad as I’m making it out to be, but the color scheme really irked me. I’m surprised Fox hasn’t restored the Roadshow version for this presentation, that’d be the version I like to see on the big screen.
well AMC didn’t book ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ to any of the three IMAX digital screens, at least it was just announced that ‘Eagle Eye’ is getting released in September from Paramount, let’s hope this go around IMAX digital screens will get this.
‘Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince’ has been bounced to next year (July) – shucks!
for awhile they were listing ‘Iron Man’ after it left the Uptown as being a DLP presentation at Mazza, but I never confirmed if that was truly the case though.
Saw ‘Sisterhood’ over at Cinema De Lux in DLP over the weekend and wow, the couple of scenes that took place in Greece – the cinematography was top notch – made me want to go there, more than ‘Mamma Mia!’ did
‘The Dark Crystal’ looked great – the pic seemed overmmatted, the image looked wider than what it’s supposed to be (2.35), but the sound and music score in particular seemed really restrained.
This coming Saturday and Monday’s showing of ‘Ryan’s Daughter’ will be in digital projection – which may or might not be a bad thing. Going to check it out Monday night.
I need to realize that complaining to the manager is always the best route, because one it lets that person know first hand what the problem(s) is/are. He said he’d look into why films weren’t being played back in 5.1 since the auditorium should in fact be decoding it in Dolby Digtial. He said the missing cup holders are replaced regularily since some of the larger sized cups actually pull up/off when the drinks are removed. Not really much of a response to the wearing arm rests, I might have to go one up and complain to corporate. I asked tangentily about future DLP at Mazza, and he gave some rather lame explanation, “certain AMC’s are testing the technology/audience response”, I almost wanted to say, well if you had at least two systems here,you could rotate/book at two films at the same time – it’s not THAT impossible. I didn’t say, well AMC’s relunctance, slow roll out of DLP/LCoS systems isn’t helping one bit, I still have to trek out to National Amusement in Fairfax Virginia to see something in digital, because they have six systems – oh well, time will tell.
Thankfully it was only the first show of the day (a Saturday 11am) for $6 – but regardless, yes, for an auditorium that is supposed to be comfortable and nice, it’s looking ratty – I’d be livid if I had to pay the higher evening ‘Club’ price and I got stuck in one of the seats that had no cup holder.
I should have complained while I was there, but I had to fly out of the movie to meet a friend for lunch. I’ll definately check out THX' website – thanks.
Auditorium #7 is looking worse for wear – plastic cup holders are missing from quite a few chairs, scratch marks on the wooden arm rests are becoming prevailent – the upkeep of the theatre is embarrassing to say the least. ‘The Mummy 3’ looked great (for 35mm) but the sound was terribly lacking – it wasn’t even in 5.1 surround sound, I honestly can’t think of the last film I’ve seen/heard in this auditorium that was 5.1 Dolby Digital sound.
but it’s much more affordable for the studio to convert film to digital, than it is the opposite, film distribution is very costly – the point of installing Digital projection systems was to cut that cost and process out.
As to Kram’s comment, film prints ARE very inconsistent. Compared to digital projection, every imperfection is gone, reel changes, theater indicator dots, random screen length white horizontal lines, grain.
as for the conversion of AMC screens, it’s been slow as molasses. Granted the technology is swaying to 4K, AMC’s very select theatres that feature Sony 4K is non-existent in print and advertising. ‘Hancock’ was screened in 4K, the next supposedly is ‘Quantum of Solace’.
actually the next 70mm film is Ron (Baraka) Fricke’s ‘Samsara’ – coming out in 2009. (It will commercially be released in 35mm, DLP and 70mm)
what? no one wants to comment on the films at the 70mm fest? Other commitments preventing me from trekking cross country to attend this.
It was great to see a nearly sold out audience at ‘Mamma Mia!’ (I wanted to stand up and personally thank the entire crowd from not seeing this over at Mazza – support the independent theatre NOT AMC, that’s my motto). Except for one print flaw, it was a great presentation, scope (2.35) films always look fantastic on the Avalon’s wide screen and the Dolby Digtial soundmix (while not as aggressive as I expected, not the Avalon’s fault more so on the film’s soundmixers creative decision)
hmmm, I was a little miffed. I saw ‘The Muppet Movie’ yesterday, and the print was not OAR (1.85) it was a cropped print.
why Warner’s simply couldnt front the price of shooting the entire film in IMAX is beyond me – the changing aspect ratio seems so gimicky. Sure shooting IMAX is costly but Warner weren’t totally in the dark in knowing that this film’s BO intake wouldn’t pay for that option.
oh and I forgot to state this – I asked if the auditorium seating was changed in anyway – he said no.
oh no… the screen is no where as immense as any of the other area museum IMAX screens – that was one question that I completely forgot to ask the IMAX techie I was talking to – yes I know, an obvious question. The expanded screen takes up more the wall (ceiling to floor) – It also appears not to be the same aspect ratio of the typical IMAX screen – it’s more 1.78 than the standard 1.34 For the first show of the day – 10:45am it was me and a lady – TWO! The IMAX guy wasn’t all that pleased with how AMC is marketing this. In the Washington Post, the IMAX denoted films are at the bottom of the theatre’s listing. The system is definately a digital system, can you believe 4K, I thought I would have been higher… my complaint of ‘Space Station 3D’ was that for a film to digital conversion the master was not from a completely flawless source, those apparent film flaws just gave you the impression you were watching film.
I mentioned this over on the AMC Hoffman’s theatre thread – but I was very impressed audio wise with the upgrade – the image though… I still have to see a couple of other DMR’d/true IMAX films mastered to IMAX-Digital specs. Don’t get me wrong, ‘Space Station 3D’ while filmed with IMAX cameras did look great, I was able to see some very minor imperfections with the source element – not digital artifacts par se. The real star was the system’s 12-channel sound system – one word: WOW
actually it did debut yesterday – I saw “Space Station 3D” and while the image wasn’t 100% pristine, the 65mm print sourced had a some very minor ticks and spots, the sound and the installation of a 12-channel souund system: 8 behind the screen, two above and two to the rear – the sound was obviousily the best part. I’m going to have to go back and see (and hear) ‘Kung Fu Panda’ – oh and the auditorium they retrofitted was #5
well for some reason, the IMAX actually opens Saturday not Friday – go figure??
I’m going to check out the “Space Station 3D” tomorrow at 10:45am – will post back on my thoughts of the venue and ‘experience’
considering Warner Bros. is currently converting all of it’s titles via 4K technology a release here and there of these “classics” would be a grand idea.
really rhett39, since 2002 – come on down to the AFI Silver they show ‘Lawrence’ in 70mm at the drop of a hat – an upcoming showing of it, is part of a David Lean retrospective (early to mid August)
uh it’s called ‘The Dark Knight’ ;) word is that the six minute “IMAX” opener on the ‘Batman Begins’ bluray is amazing looking.