AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center

Okay, Steve. I hear you. Its just that my memories of 70mm from the 80s is so entrenched because of the sound more so than the picture. ‘2001,’ ‘Lifeforce’ and maybe a few others aside, what they’ve shown at AFI should have exceeded my experiences from way back then given the fact this venue is state of the art and is THX-certified.
Maybe the projectionist having come across a movie with no projection instructions should just err on the side of caution and hit the surround button. :) Dialog from LC/RC can’t be so bad as long as the character is on the right of the screen or left. Just my 2c.

Aww Howard, you’re so kind. I’ll periodically check the AFI website… :-D I make that statement cheekily as a veiled threat. In a good way.

The Powerball is up again this week. If I win, maybe I’ll buy the AFI Silver, myself. :)

You know this site is full of cinephiles (is there such a word?), like most of us on the site, who are passionate about movies and the experience, who know which venues have curtains and who doesn’t use them and are aware of what makes a good presentation, its just that when things are not right, you just want to go fix/run the operation yourself.

For example, when they run these special event movies, at least have some kind of introduction. How difficult is it to have a staffer google or IMDB some info about say, Cleopatra. I can remember off the top of my head that that movie was, at the time, one of the most expensive movies ever and probably still is accounting for inflation. Trivia like that that most people don’t know that would gain some appreciation from a film.

I’ll surrender my soapbox, for now, to check out whats showing at Landmark.. :)

Jodar…I can assure you, the surrounds are calibrated to the proper level in all three theatres. They only play what is recorded on the film/video. Most home systems have the surrounds goosed up because people love to hear them but that doesn’t make it right.

As to the films coming with instructions…sadly no. One has to do a bit of investigation in order to decide what NR and format to use. A possible mistake is to play a mono-surround movie in stereo surround. For 70mm magnetic, this would have the surrounds seem like they are off or very muffled as only the frequencies below 500Hz play. For a DTS-70 movie, it is up to the soundtrack supplied and matching the format. Typically they have done a standard 5.1 mix and/or a traditional “Todd-Ao” mix with 5-screen channels and mono surrounds. If a DTS-70 had the wrong format selected…you’d hear dialog out of the surrounds or the reverse, surrounds out of LC/RC.

The inspection sheet they fill out when a print is checked in should really reduce that chance though. They really do try to get the format correct and don’t just guess.

As nice as 70mm and DP is, unless the audio is heard with surrounds when they are supposed to be there, then I’m not so enthused. I could care less if its 4K and up front sound :P

I suppose I should have said something when ‘Lifeforce’ was played but I assumed it was just the print and maybe hoped it would get better, but it didn’t. And if the projector hit the wrong sound format, as Steve points out, then shame on him.

Don’t these films come with instructions on what format it is so that the film is properly set up and played the right away? This irks me. Maybe I should apply to be a projectionist..do they train on the job? Heck, I’d do it for free..almost ;–) . I would make sure the curtain would be used and make my own entrance music before the show and write my own introductions. Also, every film would have the THX sound trailer blasting before, right before the main film is played whether there are 500 people in the audience or just 1.

Maybe I’m assuming wrong, but do all the auditoriums share the same projection booth? If so, is it possible to wheel the 70mm projector to #2? Plug in the necessary sound jacks or whatever. Just curious. To be honest, I think the sight lines in 2 are better than #1. Yeah..I know..the Historic Auditorium is what it is and the architecture is nice to look at but if you sit way in the back and watch a movie its almost like tunnel vision with the way the walls close in to the screen.

Its funny but the old KB Fine Arts reminds me a little of the Silver, although the descending seats to the screen was different. Perhaps they were the same size.. 40' but heck, when they had 70mm..i.e. ‘Aliens,’ ‘Star Trek III’ ..those were decent films to experience.

Of the upcoming classic films, only ‘Cleopatra’ looks interesting even though its in DP. Since I wasn’t even alive when it first came out, the ‘roadshow’ version supposedly being shown should be good despite its long running time with intermission.

I saw ‘Hello Dolly’ the last time around.

so wait, I’m confused – are not the other two auditoriums STILL not upgraded? Was that why ‘Samsara’ was not on auditorium #1’s screen?

@ sguttag: is the audio upgraded to playback 7.1 audio on all three screens?

Yes, I’ve seen movies there, included all screen sizes in my Intro above, and am not ruling it out BUT if a Blu ray was subbed for one Samsara screening, I don’t know they won’t do that to keep Hello Dolly! in aud 1 (if digital isn’t to be ready as expected in aud 1). And, I’m not interested in a Blu ray.

I didn’t notice the missing words on the masking but I wasn’t looking there. I probably would’ve seen if that was the issue, but I’m not 100% sure I would have. The other customer that I spoke with after the film was also upset. I am concerned as to whether Hello Dolly! is going to be in auditorium 1 next Saturday, and if so what format (35? 70? blu ray?) or if a DCP is going to be shown in auditorium 2. Auditorium 2 is a very nice auditorium & I am not sure, but probably not willing to travel from Philly for aud 2. Aud 1 in 35, yes & I’d jump at the chance for 70mm.

Peter, that makes sense. I spoke with a fellow customer who told me the projectionist insisted the print arrived that way, but perhaps that wasn’t correct. Giles, I noticed Samsara was being shown in aud 3. I haven’t seen Samsara but thought the whole point was its 70mm quality so I don’t know why it is being shown in any other format.

Sounds like they ran The Dirty Dozen with the wrong aperture plate and/or lens. A print would not have things cropped off of it.

As for DTS transfers of older titles…If it was there in the original mix, it will be there in the DTS version. Now, with DTS, they have often tried to preserve the original 6-track mix and that may require re patching the tracks at the theater to get everything to come out of the right channels. Typically,Ls/Rs channels become LC/RC the SW becomes the Surround channel. The AFI can do this by patching or by format selection on the CP200.

On magnetic 70mm, if format 43 was selected for a format 42 movie, one would loose all of the HF of the surrounds.

That said, surrounds were used MUCH more sparingly, back in the day.

As stated, Patton in DTS had some though little surround sound. Cleopatra, I said had no surround sound in its DCP screening at UA King of Prussia, but you remind me JodarMovieFan, it was DTS & a movie theater operator friend of mine suggests that was the problem because perhaps DTS is a dying sound format so the equipment perhaps was at fault.

I haven’t noticed the echo chambers but I’m grateful to the AFI Silver & Balt Senator for showing such wonderful classics.

as far as I am concerned, Fox is one of the prime studios that SHOULD be encoding it’s DCP’s with the original 5 screen channel mixes.

Sound of Music will be 35mm this go around. The new DCinema systems will not be in in time. As for the mix, the only proper one is the 70mm mix.You really can’t do panned dialog on the big screen without 5 screen channels. The space between the speakers is too great with just 3. The Sound of Music was very much mixed for 5.

I set up both the Ambler and the AFI/Silver and both are set to the same level balance…which is to say they are calibrated as precisely as I can do using THX certified equipment (the AFI remains THX certified). If there are not enough surrounds, it wasn’t in the mix or the wrong format was chosen on the sound processor. If it is a DTS-70mm, the odds are much less likely though.

The AFI’s Historic theatre does have some odd acoustics that can affect one’s interpretation of the sound. In fact, some mono movies have been accused of having surrounds!