Apropos [log in to unmask] remarks: You can find good theatrical presentation, bad theatrical presentation, good DVD transfers and bad ones. It's impossible to make generalisations based on a single theatre or disc. A modern multiplex in the hands of a good projectionist and an operator who values presentation quality (i.e. one who invests in training projectionists and providing realistic technical staffing levels) is likely to offer high-quality presentation. These buildings are specifically designed to house cinema auditoria and nothing else, so acoustics, sight lines and so on will all be good. The equipment will all be reasonably new and high quality, because these people want to avoid expensive downtime and repair bills, and have as much routine maintenance as possible done by site staff (rather than bringing engineers in). There are drawbacks, though. Many operators cut corners by reducing staff levels (e.g. one projectionist to cover 20 screens), and because of the nature of these beasts the technical expertise available will not always be focused (excuse the pun) on high quality film handling and presentation. Simply put, your multiplex projectionist is likely to be far more of an expert on the air conditioning system than on winding film without scratching it, because a hot and stuffy auditorium will always elicit more complaints than a knackered print. And your average multiplex is very unlikely to have the lenses and aperture plates needed to show rare and obsolete film formats. With the US cinema exhibition industry in recession and one chain filing Chapter 11 after another, I can't see this situation getting any better on your side of the pond, somehow... City centre cinemas and rep houses start with a greater handicap. Very often the buildings are converted from ones originally designed for another purpose, or are large auditoria which have been 'twinned' or 'tripled', so the acoustics and sightlines may well be less than perfect. Without the backing of big business, the projection equipment probably won't be state of the art. I've worked both as a projectionist and a service technician in some of these places and some of the home made 'solutions' I've seen in them are amazing. The staffing situation can be even worse - quite often the projectionist is also the person who also sells the tickets, sells the ice cream and generally does everything. I remember advising one such person that a projector's intermittent unit needed its oil changed - three months later I came back to find a bottle of supermarket vegetable oil (the sort you'd fry eggs in) sitting on the porthole sill! The only thing I'd suggest is that if you are constantly subjected to bad presentation at a particular venue, meow and hiss at the manager to do something about it, and if that doesn't work, meow and hiss at his or her boss. Bad presentation will only be fixed if management believes it's costing them customers. L ------------------------------------ Dr. Leo Enticknap Director, Northern Region Film and Television Archive School of Law, Arts and Humanities Room M616, Middlesbrough Tower University of Teesside Middlesbrough TS1 3BA United Kingdom Tel. 01642 384022 Brainfryer: 07710 417383 ---- Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite http://www.tcf.ua.edu/ScreenSite