Presentation is Key

In my last post, I talked about all of the screenings in LA. It's true, we get a lot of great movies here. But are they always shown properly? Seeing a movie presented properly can sometimes be a challenge. One of the theaters I wrote about was the New Beverly. They try to show 35mm film whenever possible. I only just saw my first digital showing there, but as it was a new movie that may not have had a 35mm print made, this was acceptable.

It was a double feature of "Jodorowsky's Dune" and "ALIEN" in honor of Swiss surrealist, H.R. Giger who recently passed away. "ALIEN" was shown on film, the New Beverly's preferred format. For a theater that loves to show film, one would think they'd be better at it.

35mm prints come on reels, each about 20 minutes long. The previous generation of multiplexes put these reels together to make one long continuous print. If the person assembling those reels did the job properly, you should never be aware of the changeover between reels. The New Beverly doesn't use this system. Instead they use two projectors.

This is the way things were done before multiplexes and "platters", and it's a skill for sure. The timing has to be perfect, and back when there were actual projectionists, a good changeover was the sign of a competent projectionist. The New Beverly rarely has seamless changeovers and I can't figure out why. "ALIEN" started out of frame. That means the top of the screen was actually the bottom of the image and vice versa. Reel 2 started out of focus. And reel 7 had an issue with a plate inside the projector so an extraneous part of the film, one never meant to be projected, was showing up on the scrim to the left of the image. That means there was a distraction during the climax of the movie. This was not the sign of a good presentation. The digital showing of "Jodorowsky's Dune" was perfect.

This would seem to indicate that digital must be superior to film. I won't get into that debate here. Both have their advantages, but I'm more inclined to see a movie if I learn that a print is being shown. And I've seen bad digital presentations. In fact, I experienced one last week in an unexpected place! We went to one of the tiny screening rooms on the Sony lot. I've been to these screens numerous times and they are top-notch. They have spectacular sound and usually look great. However, for this showing of "Neighbors" I sensed something was wrong with the presentation. After the movie was over I found the projectionist and I mentioned to him that the image seemed a little dim in the theater. He went on to tell me that they were having a 3D show the next day and the special attachment for that was still in place. So instead of a good looking bright image, we were treated to a muddy dim mess. I will admit it was refreshing to get an honest answer from the projectionist. Usually, when you have a complaint about something technical, people look at you like you're crazy.

I once saw "Superman II" with Ilya Salkind, the producer, in attendance and the left speaker and center speaker wires were crossed. This meant for the entire show, the dialogue came out of the left speaker, instead of the center channel, as it's supposed to. I may have been the only one to notice this. I spoke with the projectionist about it afterwards but I don't know if anything was done to fix it and I'm not sure I was believed. I suspect that when it comes to movie sound, people are not as observant as they are with the picture. If you've never thought about where the sound comes from, you're not going to notice when it's wrong. But everyone can see when a movie is out of focus or improperly framed. And some of us can tell when it's too dim!

My hope is that the presentation and showmanship improves at all of these theaters. We're not just watching images flicker away on a white sheet with multiple speakers blasting around us. A well shown movie will transport the audience and make the movie come alive. It can be a magical experience and that's why I love going to the movies.