Supermallet

Supposedly the laser system will allow them to fill the large-size screens, but if we're just talking about 4k (or two 4k's) then it still won't look great.

Matthew Chmiel

I've only seen two films that I personally know were projected in 4K. Kick-Ass and The Social Network.

Kick-Ass was during a special occasion during ShoWest where they converted the Paris Theatre, which holds up to 1500 people, into a gigantic movie theater. You know what? It looked awesome. I don't know what projectors they used or how large the screen was (it was big), but 4K projection could look spectacular.

I'm still skeptical if even 2 4K projectors will compare to 70mm IMAX, but we will see.

islandclaws

I know this is going to majorly hurt one of my favorite theaters, the New Beverly in Hollywood. Nothing compares to seeing classics in 35mm with a packed house, and replacing those prints with digital will lose a lot of the charm that comes with seeing those vintage films. I wonder how they'll react given that QT owns the property.

Why So Blu?

If you read closely in that article, New Beverly does have a digital projector. I doubt QT follows their day-to-day operations. Unless he's programming for the night or week then he leaves to management.

I love that theater, btw.

Supermallet

I've seen three 4k presentations, Sunshine and restorations of Dr. Strangelove and Blade Runner. Dr. Strangelove was indistinguishable from 35mm. Blade Runner looked almost as good. I think Sunshine was a 2k file being played on a 4k because it didn't look great.

I think 4k can look very good. It can't look 70mm IMAX good, though.

Giles

interestingly quite a few movies at this year's TCM Classic Film Festival were digital projection.

TCM Classic Film Festival: Films

the Landmark theater chain has been the one hold out in keeping the digital conversion at bay - supposedly the Washington DC theaters: E Street and Bethesda were rumoured to get converted this spring - yet I have not seen any further claims or news regarding this.

Matthew Chmiel

Only to update the thread based upon past discussion:

Astrofan

On a different note, I don't understand the title of the article. "Hollywood" is either a name for a non-existent town, or slang for the conglomerate of movie studios that aren't even in LA anymore.

Going with the commonly accepted second usage the article's name would be, "Movie Studios Are Forcing Movie Studios to Abandon 35mm Film." Or I guess it could be, "Movie Studios Are Forcing Residents of the Hollywood Section of Los Angeles to Abandon 35mm Film."

Mabuse

"Movie studios" are movie stuidos. "Hollywood" is the people who work in the industry (even if they don't live in Hollywood). Hollywood is a neighborhood of Los Angeles. It's not a distinct city (like Beverly Hills) but it is a place, like Brentwood, Westwood, Bel Aire, etc. There's also a North Hollywood and a West Hollywood (which IS it's own city). Crazy.

Matthew Chmiel

If I had an unlimited amount of money, I'd live in West Hollywood as the gays keep it in tip-top shape compared to the rest of Los Angeles.

Labor

Wow, thats like a who's who of utterly mediocre and disposable directors.

No surprise these are the people that are on Nolan's side. Hacks attract other hacks I suppose.

Solid Snake

That article doesn't mention they are on Nolan's side. Also you forgot to mention Wright. Where'd you get that they were on his side?

Singer used the Red EPIC, digital camera, for Jack The Giant Killer. Bay has used digital as well for TF3, part of it was still 35mm. Jones also has worked w/ Digital. Daldry used an Arri Alexa for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Not sure on Faverau or Wright, I'd swear it was 35mm for the both of them on their last films. So if anything some of these people would be the progression in not being on Nolan's side.

Looks like someone's got some blind hate.

gp1086

Pardon my complete ignorance on this topic, but can you all (or most people) tell the difference between watching movies that are film vs. digital? Personally, I could never tell / never noticed any difference up until reading this article a couple weeks ago. Only exception is the obvious difference of watching movies filmed in IMAX (i.e. Dark Knight action scenes) in the actual IMAX theater because the whole screen fills up, which looks amazing obviously. For watching at home though or normal non-IMAX screen, I don't really notice the difference.

bluetoast

Plus people "on Nolan's side" would include Tarantino and Spielberg.

Solid Snake

Talking about those two. Has Nolan ever met them? Or has any one of them met each other? You'd think w/ this coming they'd want to meet up and talk at some point.

I can't imagine Tarantino and Nolan in a room together. Spielberg would be a great in between for the both of them.

Mabuse

With early digital features I (and most people) could definately tell the difference. A film like Colatoral is obviously video and looks very different than film. Nowadays it's getting very hard to tell. Social Network and Girl w/ Dragon Tatoo are hard to tell it's video. A good way to tell is if nighttime or indoor dark scenes are underlit and yet still look sharp and have deep focus. 35 mm can't do that. Other than that I really can't tell and have been fooled a few times.

I actually prefer the look of early video (like Colatoral), when it was used to give a movie a look that was discernably different. Today's video is TRYING to look just like 35 mm. If you want to look just like 35 then use 35.

bluetoast

I don't know about any of them meeting, but there was a director's roundtable with Bigelow, Cameron, Tarantino, the dude who directed Precious and Reitman. Tarantino and Cameron were of course on opposite ends of the spectrum when it came to digital vs. film. It was all friendly, but cool to see those two together.

Strevlac

Probably because it's a modern DI production and only finished in 2K, like way too many films produced in the 00's.

Supermallet

There are ways to tell if a movie is shown in digital or film. Digital will have pixels, although with modern projectors you'd have to get into the first rows to notice them (if the projectors are correctly calibrated and maintained). Also, there's no jitter in the image and there will never be any scratches.

Film does have jitter, and can have scratches and/or dirt.

Solid Snake

I remember it. And I enjoyed it a lot as well. Tarantino twitched a bit w/ Cameron kept saying that film would be gone and etc.