Star Wars: Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith

[Daryl Fletcher]

...

[funkcicle]

Who is seeing it in Digital Picture and Sound?

I saw EpII in digital and regularly, and definitely preferred the non-digital by far.. This was pretty much the general consensus of most people I know who saw both.. I even recall seeing a news segment a few months later about how movie-goers in NYC consistently rated analog showings higher than the digital counterparts.

I think it's sort of like the whole tube vs. solid state issue... solid state is neat, and was impressive for a while(because it was new), and can sound really really really really good... but nobody can seriously argue that it sounds better than tubes.

When holographic 3D cinema comes around, THEN i'll be impressed!

[CJ Krause]

***

[ThomasDodd]

Digital DLP theater list
http://www.dlpmovies.com/7101.html

Cool list. Cloasets DLP to me is 2.5 hours (140 miles) away.
Next closest is 3hours (180 miles)

We saw reg first then digital 2nd on Ep II and liked digital better. Alot more smaller detail.

Digital can be done well, or poorly. Poor/excessive compression on MPEG is a real issue. I've seen it on DVDs, and Satellite. I suspect digital cable suffers too.

Poorly maintained equipment is a problem too. Digital sound is still only as good as the speakers and amps used, just like an analog setup.

I do like the sound of old analog technology, and non-semiconductor amps. The imperfections aren't all bad, and can give character. Like the smooth overdrive of a tube v/s the harsh clipping of a transistor. Then again, the whole :metal" sound is based on the transistor clipping effects, so each has it's use.

[Shockwave]

I saw episode 1 in a DLP theater, and while the color, detail, smoothness of motion, and lack of black splotches was nice, the picture was fairly dim and didn't even cover the entire fierly small screen. When they can make a chip that can withstand the full brunt of a 30,000 watt xenon projection lamp, film will be dead. Film survives because it is only exposed to that light for 1/20 of a second, but the projector chip is exposed for hours. My father works for a company that is developing an ultra fast high resolution color printer. I was joking with him that its so fast it could print the film as it streams into a movie projector...he's still thinking about that.

Cinema sound equipment can sound really good if it is adjusted properly, but more often than not the actors sound as though they're talking through megaphones and the orchestral strings sound like Mantovani on the AM radio. Not only is the tone quality bad, but usually when I leave a theater my ears ring so badly that I can't hear the sound "ssss". This is caused by excessive boosting of the lower treble from the faulty way the speakers are calibrated, and most professional sound systems are adjusted the same way with bleeding ears being the typical result. Instead of adjusting the speakers so that they reproduce all frequencies equally in the direct sound that travels from the speaker to the listener, these idiots set the speakers to the inverse of what the room absorbs. If the walls of the room absorb 15 decibels of midrange and lower treble, then the sound from the speakers is boosted 15 decibels in those ranges. Since the direct sound is all that matters, the audience gets an earful of honking midrange and searing treble.

SDDS theaters typically sound the best.

-Eric

[ThomasDodd]

Ya'll have fun next month. I'll get my long awaited fix this weekend.

The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Or, if you prefer, the official movie site.
The U.K. site as a better trailer though.

42
You now know the answer, but do you know the question:?:

Don't Panic!

[ThomasDodd]

When they can make a chip that can withstand the full brunt of a 30,000 watt xenon projection lamp

The Grating Light Valve (GLV), made here will probably be the best bet. Forget DLP.
If Sony would just get it to market already.. I've been waiting 5 years to buy one

film will be dead.

And transistors have killed the vacuum tube

[ThomasDodd]

You know, the reviews are really bad for this movie. Here's a sample of an entertaining bad review by MJ Simpson.

I haven't read all of it yet, but a few point to consider:

#1) DNA wrote this script.

2) Just as the books didn't follow the radio series, the movie is not going to follow book(s).

3) Any thing's got to be better than the TV version they did.

Seriously, What I've seen if classic Doug, and the Guide. Have you seen the Whale scene? Beautiful work. The bit's with the dozers at Authur's house look spot on. Magrathea looks impressive, and the mice are great.

[Doug@GT]

The bit's with the dozers at Authur's house look spot on. Magrathea looks impressive, and the mice are great.

They did a pretty good job on Magrathea. Slartibartfast is done perfectly, and the mice are funny, if underused. But the bit with the bulldozers is bad. Just plain bad.

For starters, Arthur's house is supposed to be a red brick house with four windows of a size and proportion that fails to please the eye. In the film, the house is white siding and it's rather nice-looking.

ALmost all of the dialogue (my favorite lines in the whole series) about the plans for the bypass being on display are cut. Arthur yelling "They were in the cellar!" is not funny.

I disagree with the reviewer on one point, though. Marvin is spot on. I did not have high hopes after seeing still shots, but the way he hangs his head is hilarious.

The best line in the film is when Zaphod sees Ford and yells, "Hey, Ix--err-Ford!"

Those who have not read the book will scratch their heads at that one.

[Leland]

#1) DNA wrote this script.

I'm not so sure how much of Adams's script made it onto the screen. The screenwriter says that he took out very little, and worked with Adams's last draft with the novels & radio scripts as his sources.
http://hitchhikers.movies.go.com/hitchb ... erview.htm

Seriously, What I've seen if classic Doug, and the Guide.

I really hope so. I cringe whenever I see that damned Disney logo attached to a known story that I want to see on the big screen.

[Chuck(G)]

Unfortunately, not until the last film projector breaks down. Infrastructure is everything!
.

I'll bet that there are still a fair number of old 35mm 1930's-era projectors in use in backwater houses--perhaps with new Xenon-arc cans instead of carbon arc, but the guts of the old machines were almost indestructible.

Always made me wonder why fullerenes took so long to be discovered. Think of the tons of them that went right up the exhaust vent for decades without even being noticed. It finally took someone with an idea and a little benzene to examine the schmutz that had been wiped off of projector mirrors for so long.

[Leland]

Looking again at the Hitchhiker's Guide screenwriter's interview --

So he did Chicken Run? And did it while keeping those Aardman sensibilities intact?

I feel better now -- I'm probably going to like the movie.

[Doug@GT]

I feel better now -- I'm probably going to like the movie.

I bet you will. It's a good movie--with some funny moments. But the book it is not.

Doug "enjoyed the film but would gladly have sat through a 5-hour feature to see a word-for-word adaptation of the book"

[ThomasDodd]

I bet you will. It's a good movie--with some funny moments. But the book it is not.

I enjoyed it. As a long time fan (first book I remember reading because I wanted to, was Resturant) I though it was better than the TV vesion. My wife, who only knows a few lines quoted over the years by me and other fans she's known, also liked it. I'm sure my 10 r. old will bust a gut.

True, it's not the book. Which is good in many way. Now each can stand on it's own. The radio scripts, the books and the movie.

Doug "enjoyed the film but would gladly have sat through a 5-hour feature to see a word-for-word adaptation of the book"

Agreed. I wonder how the audio books are. I'm not going to spend much money on them to find out though. If I find a uses copy cheap, or can borrow one, I'll listen.

[ThomasDodd]

The Grating Light Valve (GLV), made here will probably be the best bet. Forget DLP.

That GLV requires a laser to diffract and reflect off the grating. It will only be good for monochromatic applications.

Sony has done some large screen work like this.


It looks about 4.5 ft high and 8 ft wide.

DLP seams problematic with the intricate moving parts. But I don't know how they are actually made. I do know that GLV is made using (basically) standard Si processing eqipment.

I think it's Sony dropping the ball here. Why aren't the displays available yet?
Time will tell though. I agree DLP is good, and probably the bet on the market today.

[Leland]

I saw Hitchhiker's Guide on Wednesday, and while it didn't include absolutely everything from the books, it was still a kick. Slartibartfast was hilarious, and Magrathea was almost exactly as I could imagine it to be.

Now I need to snag a ticket for the midnight Ep III showing here at Union Station. It seems like all the fans at work are going to the same theater, and it's definitely a bonus that I live two blocks away.

[ThomasDodd]

I wish this topic were on my board...

Feel free to start it there, and send me a link to the thread.
I'll follow

[Doug@GT]

I never got the impression that people would or were cheering for darth vader

Reaction at advance screenings was effusive, with festival-goers, critics and journalists at Cannes applauding at the moment the infamous Darth Vader came into being.

http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=ne ... &id=337337

Mm-hmm....

[tubajoe]

yeah I saw it -- 12:01 am

It kicks A$$.

[Doug@GT]

yeah I saw it -- 12:01 am

It kicks A$$.

Ian McDiarmid single-handedly saved this film. I had wondered why he played Palpatine so stiffly in the first two--clearly he did it so that his transformation would be even more striking. And he succeeded.

Still too much CGI for my taste. And I doubt the screenplay will win any awards (Lucas really should have let a pro do the writing).

I would be satisfied if Lucas went back and brought ep 1 & 2 up to the level of this film. Not thrilled, but satisfied.



Doug "saw it at midnight too and will now be sleepy all day"