C'mon, admit it! You've had some questions picking at the back of your mind about what really goes on at your local cineplex. Well, if you aren't going to ask them, I'll answer them for you anyway!
Some cool questions you should be asking!
Where do all the films go after they play at the theatre?
A special delivery service via a pickup van comes every week and delivers the cans, and, later, picks them back up again. All I know is that they are taken to a special warehouse for storage. I even asked our pick-up guy and this is all he even knew.
How big is a movie at the theatre compared to a video tape?
Well, a lot bigger as you can imagine! A film usually weighs approx. 50 pounds, with longer films like any of the "Lord of the Rings" movies weighing in at a bit more! Quite a difference from a videotape or especially a DVD!
Why are the previews so much louder than the movie?
That's very simple. The previews (or trailers as we call them in the biz) are recorded at a louder level than the movie itself. The studios behind those films do this to get your attention better, although from my experience it more like irritates an audience.
What are these "cigarette burns" Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) explained about in the movie Fight Club?
At the end of each reel you have two sets of a series of dots on the film which appear for the duration of four frames up in the right hand corner of the frame. The first set lets the projectionist know a reel change is about to occur. The second set tells the projectionist it is now time to switch to the next reel.
While we're on Fight Club, does a booth really look like the one shown in the movie? And is that kind of system involving switching reels manually like that still in use today?
Only if the projectionist is really messy! And as far as that system goes, the platter system which I explained about is primarily used today. There are very few (if any) theatres left which use the reel-to-reel style. That is the old way.
Can I go into a theatre late and ask them to rewind the film if it hasn't gotten too far into it?
If the theatre has the platter system predominately in use today then it cannot be rewound because once the film starts playing, it has to keep going forward until it's over. It is possible, however, to wait until a splice in the film starts to go through, stop the projector there, break the splice, take the played portion off the take-up platter, set it back carefully into the rest of the film, resplice it, then thread and run the film again. However, this takes very careful handling and I don't recommend it, but it is possible. Of course if it's the old-style dual projector system, then it's simply a matter of stopping the projector, rewinding the film, reloading it, then starting again.
Why does it cost so much to go the movies?
Ah, one of the most common, and old, questions still around. It's very simple. Films costs a LOT of money to make and advertise (and huge actor's salaries like Arnold Schwarzenegger's $30 million for Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines doesn't help either) and so the studios have to charge a lot to try to make their investment back. Ironically enough, very few films in any entire year actually turn a decent profit (hence causing what I call "sequelitis.") So, you the moviegoer pay the price at the box office. The studios make their money at the box office, while the concession stand pays for the particular theatre's operations like staff salaries and so forth.
Can a movie be videotaped right off the screen?
Only if you want a really bad version of the movie. You see, films are shot at 24 frames per second, meaning for every second of screen time 24 individual film frames pass by to create the illusion of movement. The video frame rate in America is 30 f.p.s., or actually more like 29.97. As you can figure here there are 6 frames per second missing in transferring to video. Therefore, if you try to videotape a movie (which I highly don't recommend because such action is a lawful offense) the picture will have a bad strobing effect. Definitely not worth watching. Best to wait until the video release.
Since video runs at 30 frames per second (29.97 to be more exact) and film obviously runs at 24 fps, then how do they transfer movies over to video with no problems?
There is a process known as 2:3 pulldown (or you can even call it 3:2 pulldown) which allows every other film frame during the video transfer to be exposed to the video camera for a tiny fraction of a second longer than the other frames. During every second of transfer, the extra time given to the other frames produces the equivalence of the needed 6 extra frames, hence the needed full amount for video.
What exactly is digital cinema I keep hearing about?
This is a new type of movie-going experience George Lucas (the creator of the Star Wars series of course) wants to have in the near (and probably not soon enough) future. The process involves theatre auditoriums being outfitted with the newly developed digital projectors. These projectors don't run traditional film stock, but rather show the movie as an electronic signal. In essence it's rather much like a video projection system. This way the movie stays clean and sharp show after show and doesn't acculumate dust and dirt which film prints gather over several showings. Unfortunately, this process is still very expensive and it will be quite some time before digital projection becomes widespread.
I hear George Lucas shot Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith using digital cameras. How did he go about doing this?
The camera he used was developed by Sony and Panavision and involves shooting High Definition and capturing images composed of 1920 pixels by 1080 lines. The tapes used for recording are Beta-size, last for about 50 minutes, and cost about $68 each (a considerable savings over film, wouldn't you agree? Since film costs over $100 for about 11 minutes of stock). For ease in transfer to film the camera also shoots at 24 frames per second, the same speed as film. This current movie of his was shot with the newest generation of the 24P. It allows the digital data to NOT have to be compressed at all!
Are there currently any films being shown in local movie theatres which were shot digitally?
The last one I know of was Michael Mann's Miami Vice. Robert Rodriquez also shot his Sin City digitally . Rodriguez has sworn to never shoot on film again, further stating that directors who continue to shoot on film are "shooting in the dark." His upcoming movie in the Grindhouse feature called Planet Terror is also digital. Look for it in April.
If your email address is [email protected], I assume then you are a filmmaker. Have you made any films? Are you currently working on anything?
As a matter I have worked on three features: Major Payne, The Shadow Conspiracy, and That Darn Cat as an apprentice editor and projectionist (surprise there, haha). They were fun, of course. Some friends of mine and I finished back in late 2002 a digital movie of our own. We used a 3-chip digital XL-1 camera. For more information on our project, go to:
I have finished writing a small movie which I intend to shoot with my Canon GL2 mini-DV camera later this year 2007. I'll let you know more about it as we closer to the shoot date!
More questions?
Then simply write to me here
