James Berardinelli's "ReelThought" About Movie Theater Quality Control

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 12/20/05 at 7:47am

http://movie-reviews.colossus.net/reelthoughts.html

Read his December 19th entry. Quite the food for thought. If theaters really want to stop piracy, they're going to have to up the ante a little, especially the more commercial theaters. Ugh. I remember when I saw Cinderella Man a few months back only to discover that the projector lamps were being turned down so low that making out the images in the already dimly-lit film was a chore. So, I called customer service to complain and they had no idea what I was talking about. Sad.

[RobbO]

Posted: 12/20/05 at 8:51am

they probably had no idea what you're talking about because it is not possible. the weird thing about the projection bulbs (which cost thousands of dollars) is that you don't know they're gonna go out until they actually just go out.

most theaters track the hours they are run vs. their life expectancy and replace accordingly. a good theatre will replace the bulbs when they notice that the images on the screen get dimmer but there is not a way to "dim" the bulbs.

[RobbO]

Posted: 12/20/05 at 8:54am

"Calibrate sound and video properly. Don't turn down the projector bulbs. Make sure someone with experience is in the projection booth at the beginning of the film (to verify focus and framing), then have him/her check back every 10-15 minutes to make sure everything's still okay."

a good projectionist should do these things already. again, it's not possible to "turn down" a projector bulb. like any job, though, you have people who are good at what they do and some that are not.