SCREEN-L Archives

May 2002, Week 3

SCREEN-L@LISTSERV.UA.EDU

Options: Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
Leo Enticknap <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 21 May 2002 13:31:45 +0100
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (71 lines)
'rgb' asserts that:

>Any theatre with a 35mm projector could project it with modification to
>the head only.

If you're talking about showing full-gate 35mm prints in a cinema, then
that statement is quite simply not true.  I don't know what you mean by the
'head', but to show full-gate, a projector needs to be equipped or modified
as follows:

1.  A three-blade shutter needs to be fitted for speeds below 24fps, and
the lamp output upgraded to take account of the additional light loss
caused by the shutter.

2.  A lens of the appropriate focal distance needs to be obtained.  If an
existing 'scope lens has a prime lens which is detachable from the
anamorph, the 'scope prime lens on its own will usually do but not always.

3.  The lens, lamphouse and reflector alignment needs to be offset to take
account of the different optical centre on a full-gate frame.  Remember
that the centre of a full-gate frame is in a different place to the centre
of a frame offset from the centre of the film by the width of an analogue
soundtrack.  Some lens turrets have adjusting screws that enable you to do
this without major engineering.  For those that don't, you can buy 70.6mm
steel milled barrels offset to compensate which slide into the lens holder:
you then place a 63mm lens inside that holder.  The lamp alignment has to
be done the hard way.

4.  For this MaxiVision business, the projector motor and/or drive train
needs to be modified to run the film at 48fps.  If you're planning on
running the print from a platter or tower, they'd have to be tweaked to
ensure that they're capable of feeding and taking up at double the usual
speed.  Some models are easier than others to adjust.

5.  What are you doing about sound?  Assuming your print will have
synchronised sound, none of the current off-the-shelf systems will
accommodate full-gate and 48fps.  Full-gate and 24fps would be fine - you
could use Dolby digital or SDDS, as both these systems store data
vertically between (Dolby) or outside (SDDS) the perforations.  DTS is no
good because the timecode sits between the analogue track and the picture,
which in your format would be slap bang in the middle of the frame.  But,
AFAIK, no off-the-shelf Dolby or Sony kit will deal with film running at
48fps.  It probably wouldn't be that difficult to modify (you might even be
able to print Dolby data blocks between every two perforations rather than
every one and thus fool the reader into thinking the film was running at
24, but there again the increased speed at which the data block passes the
reader might prevent the CCD from picking it up), but there would certainly
be research and development costs.

Unless, of course, you're planning to do reduction prints from MaxiVision
originals onto standard 35mm release prints - in which case they'd be
showable in virtually any cinema, assuming the aspect ratio is a standard
one - Jessica is quite right: these prints would not be showable in any
normal cinema without extensive modifications to the equipment there.

  Leo

Dr. Leo Enticknap
Director, Northern Region Film and Television Archive
School of Arts and Media
University of Teesside
Middlesbrough  TS1 3BA
United Kingdom
Tel. +44-(0)1642 384022
Fax. +44-(0)1642 384099
Brainfryer: +44-(0)7710 417383

----
Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite
http://www.tcf.ua.edu/ScreenSite

ATOM RSS1 RSS2