NEW: PROJECTIONIST REPORTS TO BE PLACED AT CASHIER'S TABLE
Our first week was plagued with some bad prints. If we get a bad print well in advance of our screening date, we can always try to replace it (if there are enough copies). But, sometimes, as in the case of LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, the print gets to us just hours before the screening - so the only person who can relay to us what kind of condition the print is in is the projectionist.
To this end, I'm going to instruct the projectionists to provide a sheet of paper that will be visible to all buying tickets at the cashier's desk. This will let people know what shape the print is in for that night. For example, this Wednesday, for THE LAST MAN ON EARTH, the print report reads as follows:
ORIGINAL PRINT FROM 1964 IN GREAT SHAPE FOR ITS AGE. DOESN’T LOOK SCRATCHED, BUT IT’S BRITTLE, WITH SOME SPLICES (NOTHING TOO JARRING).
MGM ASSURES US THAT IT’S THE BEST PRINT THEY HAVE.
(Postscript: It is ironic to me that older prints we show are often in better shape than the new prints we get stuck with. Ironic, but not surprising given how many films are now sent to platter-houses where everything is automated and there is no print condition oversight.)
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This is a great idea. I was about to get up and leave just as the green/yellow line started disappearing.
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of too bad the best projection systems are in those small rooms in ATLAS.
Politics: the principals involved in designing ATLAS shut out the IFS early on under the position that ATLAS would only be serving academic interests. The result: a booth with a half-million dollars worth of equipment that only serves a theater with 75 seats. It's crazy.
ReplyDeleteBUT: Take Heart! The new Visual Arts Complex (being built alongside ATLAS) will have a great new auditorium with 200 seats. And everyone involved has taken great pains to learn from the ATLAS mistakes.