Monday, January 04, 2016

UltraPanavision 70!! Film isn't dead! Temporarily!

Seeing "Hateful Eight" in UltraPanavision70 at Arclight Hollywood was awesome. Screw digital projectors. This reminds me how much better film is-- especially large format!


In addition to the picture, the Ennio Morricone score sounded awesome in that auditorium. Truly great score by one of the all-time masters.

The rest of the movie I'm not really a huge fan of, but it's visually stupendous to watch celluloid film displayed so large and beautiful on 70mm film. That's only at select locations across the country to see the 70mm, be sure to check.

With Spectre, Star Wars Force Awakens (35mm and some 70mm IMAX), Interstellar (35mm and a large amount of 70mm IMAX) shooting recently on film, maybe film isn't dead yet. This particular anamorphic widescreen 70mm format was last used on the 1966 film "Khartoum"!

But seeing it projected on film is critical. Yes, Star Wars Force Awakens has a great look by virtue of shooting on film, but almost nowhere can you see it projected on film (5 hours from LA, for example). Force Awakens only has digital projection, with a handful of exceptions (about 10? in the entire country) at fairly far-flung locations. Seeing the IMAX segments of Force Awakens at TCL Chinese, which was projected in Laser IMAX (digital), did not look as good as Interstellar which was projected in 70mm IMAX at that same location before they took out the film projector in favor of the Laser IMAX. Films shot natively and projected natively on film look better-- especially in large format.

From Indie Wire on Hateful Eight:
"Shot on 65mm film with classic Panavision lenses in the widest aspect ratio of 2.76:1, this marks the first anamorphic 70mm theatrical release in nearly 50 years. The two-week roadshow engagement—they're aiming for 100 theaters—would be the best holiday gift for cinephiles."
[...]
"And this is just the beginning, as Gareth Edwards' "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" is also reportedly being shot with Ultra Panavision 70 lenses. "
from:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/how-quentin-tarantino-resurrected-ultra-panavision-70-for-the-hateful-eight-roadshow-20150828