"Club Penton" - Ask questions to Hollywood insider "Penton-Man"

[WickyWoo]

And speaking of Lions, I’ll be attending a wedding during the spring in Chicago, where I’ve got relatives.
Does anyone know if the lions from The Ghost and the Darkness are still on exhibit in some museum there? Is that in downtown Chicago or where?
I’ve always wanted to see how big they really were.

Penton, make sure you check out the Museum of Science and Technology, they have the only surviving WW2 U-Boat

My ex-gf was a projectionist for a while back when I was in school, lots of fun in that cramped, hot projection room...

Now we know why he's called Max Power

[Cruyff14]

Originally Posted by Josh

Abused Film + Teenage Projectionist + Old Bulb + Worn-down Projectors + Sticky Floors + Expensive Tickets + Even More Expensive Food = Stay at home and watch Blu-rays!

I still remember the times when showmanship was part of the vocabulary of a projectionist and going to the movies was something special. The sensation of the lights dimming, the curtains slowly opening and the film filling that huge huge screen. Nothing will beat that.

[edgebsl]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Advantages of Digital:

Better looking esp. in real world applications, copying, changing, controlling, delivering.

Perhaps the digital presentations I've seen have not been on cutting edge machines.

The ones I saw were poor. Bad black levels, week color. Odd color reproduction with not very naturla skin tones. Very sharp though.

There's a new cinema opening this spring. All digital. I hope they get some nice machines in., and get people to set it up properly.

Of course, if I want to watch a 2k digital projector, I can easily watch 1920x1080 24p @ home with a blu ray. Something about paying $8 a ticket to see a movie on digital pj just doesnt seem right.Unless it is one baddass pj.

My feeling is many cinemas will skimp.

[Agent Cooper]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

Penton, make sure you check out the Museum of Science and Technology, they have the only surviving WW2 U-Boat

There's actually a German WWII sub , U-534, on display in England as well. It was reclaimed from the bottom of the sea in 1993 by a Dane, who eventually sold it to the Brits. I visited it when it was on display in Denmark since I'm quite fascinated with naval warfare - very fascinating. The HMS Victory in Portsmouth, UK is pretty impressive as well.

Of course, if the sub in the US is the only surviving one that was never sunk, it might be unique from that point of view - I honestly don't know...

Sorry to be off-topic.

[Cruyff14]

Originally Posted by Agent Cooper

There's actually a German WWII sub , U-534, on display in England as well. It was reclaimed from the bottom of the sea in 1993 by a Dane, who eventually sold it to the Brits. I visited it when it was on display in Denmark since I'm quite fascinated with naval warfare - very fascinating. The HMS Victory in Portsmouth, UK is pretty impressive as well.

Of course, if the sub in the US is the only surviving one that was never sunk, it might be unique from that point of view - I honestly don't know...

Sorry to be off-topic.

There's also a couple of them in German museums. The U-995 was never sunk and was used by Norway after the war. It was given back to Germany when it was decommisioned in 1971. And there is the U-2540 which was scuttled in May 1945 but raised 12 years later by the East Germans and used as a training vessel until 1980.

[Shadowself]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

4K seems to be the sweet spot for human vision.
There’s a limit to what a human being can see, and 4K is at the high end of that limit.

If you ever get the chance see one of those 8K systems do so. Under the right conditions it can be one of those "grab your chair to keep from falling out" type experiences.

As for 4K being the sweet spot... That is definitely true for many years to come. I doubt we'll see anything more than 4K even in theatres for a couple decades or more. For home use, even videophiles and other enthusiasts, I believe the step beyond 4K will be some version of true 3D that you can walk around and view the scene from different points of view -- in development now but still extremely rudimentary.

As for 4K being the high end of human vision... if the imagery were to some how track the point of interest (some systems do track eye movement over the field of view but it's not realistic in a multiviewer environment) and scaled resolution out from that point of interest to the edge of field as human vision angular resolution actually scales (non linearly) from center to edge then 4K edge to edge with a higher pixel density at the point of interest (higher than "4K density" at the point of interest and significantly lower than "1K density" at the edge) would indeed be enough -- actually more than enough. However, if you scale everything from the resolution at the point of interest and keep that same scale across the entire frame so that any point in the frame can give maximum resolution to any viewer looking at any point then the limit of what *can* be seen is significantly higher -- on the order of 10K or more.

I should emphasize this is with regard to what *can* be seen. This is in an optimal environment, optimal viewing distances, "perfect" visual acuity (the so called 20/20 point or better), etc. Move off these optimal conditions and resolution requirements can rapidly degrade. Also, is any theatre going to implement 10K or better resolution in the foreseeable future? No.

[sj001]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

Now we know why he's called Max Power

Way too much info!

[TheLion]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

My ex-gf was a projectionist for a while back when I was in school, lots of fun in that cramped, hot projection room...

Strictly off-topic but I happen to know EXACTLY what you are talking about...

[The Big Blue]

Dang. I had no idea there was so much boinking going on in projection booths.

[groovyone]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

And speaking of Lions, I’ll be attending a wedding during the spring in Chicago, where I’ve got relatives.
Does anyone know if the lions from The Ghost and the Darkness are still on exhibit in some museum there? Is that in downtown Chicago or where?
I’ve always wanted to see how big they really were.

Last I was there, not very long ago, the lions were still at the Field Museum of Natural History, which is the one downtown on the Museum campus along with the Shedd Aquarium and Adler Planetarium.

I love going down to that area when I am visiting my parents:

[groovyone]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

Penton, make sure you check out the Museum of Science and Technology, they have the only surviving WW2 U-Boat

Science and Industry

Spent a lot of time there in my youth. The U-Boat is awesome, and very very small.

Speaking of Lions in Chicago, there is also the Art Institute. It has been far too long since I have been there.

[spicynacho]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Everyone runs to the restroom to see if Dennis Hopper still has some good stuff leftover.
Meanwhile, there are "seat warmers" (really, I’m not kidding you) that rush to fill the empty seats so, in case we all don’t make it back to our seats before the commercial break is over, it doesn’t appear that a lot of attendees are missing.

You always want that *full house* look for the TV audience.

That must be a rough job flying from coast to coast. Work the Oscar's one night, and have to go to Comcast's FCC meeting the next day in boston...

[Rob Tomlin]

..

[zipbags]

Can someone explain this 1k,2k, 4k thing?

Thanks!

[Knight-Errant]

I think we're hitting on the real issue here which is the degredation of film over time and the generational loss also.

I went to see a particular film 4 times over the course of about a month, perhaps a little more. The first time was at one of the first screenings on opening day and it was a great experience.

As time went on each time I saw it the print (presumably not the same one as this was a multiplex, but ya never know) became more unstable with more dirt and damage in evidence. Was a real eye opener.

[ottscay]

Originally Posted by The Big Blue

Dang. I had no idea there was so much boinking going on in projection booths.

I did. Awfully common...

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Agent Cooper

I think this might be what you are looking for:

TheTsavoLions

140 railroad workers dead - just unbelivable.

Field Museum, Chicago.

I kind of liked The Ghost And The Darkness, but I haven't seen it for ages...

Damn, the ones in the movie had more hair!
Thanks for the link though. I still plan to make an effort to see the real thing on display, if I get the opportunity.

I like the history stuff.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by The Big Blue

Dang. I had no idea there was so much boinking going on in projection booths.

Dude…….you don’t even have to be in the projectionist booth for such extra circular activities.
I’m embarrassed to admit that when I was a high-schooler and my girlfriend and I attended some shows where few people were in the auditorium, if she became bored with the motion picture that was playing, instead of giving it thumbs down like with Roger Ebert and other movie reviewers that use that system……..

She gave it a *heads-down* review…….if you know what I mean.
I particularly enjoyed taking her to movies that she found boring.

[DaViD Boulet]

Penton...

better get out the Siginficant-Other control and fast!

I'm sure you like taking your wife out to movies imeasurably more... right? (answer is "Yes!")

[Penton-Man]

I ventured into my PM box and I received a plethora of PM’s asking me “Penton, what the hell is the “StEM movie” that you referred to in your first post of the day”?

Answer – It is mini-movie about 20-30 min. in length that was created by the American Society of Cinematographers and the Digital Cinema Initiatives, LLC that includes stuff like confetti flying in the air, people’s faces, etc. - things to technically challenge the images. They shot the original footage with a 35mm camera. After scanning and color correction, it was saved out as 16 bit RGB TIFF files.
I’m not sure but you may still be able to purchase the 4K and 2K versions here if access is still viable (see right side of page –“ StEM Information”)…………………….
http://www.dcimovies.com/