Theater Projection

[Saarijas]

I wasn't exactly sure of where to put this, but this seemed most appropriate.

There is a small theater near my house, that tries to sell itself as art house, which is hardly an applicable term, but it does have better selection then the local multiplex. The problem is, they have two screen sizes, 1.85:1 and 1.77:1 - yet they show movies like No Country for Old Men at 1.85:1. Now, I had known they were showing 1.85:1 movies at 1.77:1 screens for a while, but I wasn't going to complain about that, but to miss project at 2.35 movie at 1.85 I think is outrageous. So I approached the theater owner about, and inquired whether when they get There Will Be Blood next week, if they would be projecting properly or not. The owner was upset with me, told me there was nothing they could do about it, and said if I can't deal with it, see the movie somewhere else. My question is pertaining to the legality of projecting a movie at the wrong size, without anything saying "this has been formatted to fit this screen" type thing that goes before full screen DVDs. I just ask this out of curiosity - I'm not going to pursue it with the theater owner, just politely refuse to do business with the place from now on.

[redbill]

Why don't they just letterbox it by lowering/raising curtains? I'm not even sure how they could project at 1.85, don't 2.35 movies require special lenses? does the extra just runoff the screen? or do they somehow crop in the booth?

[Saarijas]

I asked - they crop it in the booth. They said projecting it at the proper size would be too much work for them, which also didn't make sense to me.

[Jeff]

It's not illegal, but it's certainly irresponsible. Studios ship projection instructions with their prints, and it sounds your theater is blatantly ignoring them. If the studio becomes aware of the situation, they could conceivably stop renting prints to that theater.

What are they projecting at 1.77? That's not even a theatrical aspect ratio.

[Saarijas]

It might be 1.66:1 - I am doing this by eye. But the theater was built just post WWII, and hasn't been renovated since. I just know it's smaller then 1.85:1, because it is definitely smaller then their other screen. They told me outright that they are projecting these movies at the wrong size to 1.85:1. So I know one screen is 1.85:1 and the other is just smaller.

[Via_Chicago]

To project a film in 2.35, you not only need proper lenses (which I take it your particular local cinema does not have), but you also need a screen big enough to accomodate said aspect ratio, as well as masking and curtains that can hide the width of the screen when films are projected in 1.85 or 1.66.

[redbill]

To project a film in 2.35, you not only need proper lenses (which I take it your particular local cinema does not have), but you also need a screen big enough to accomodate said aspect ratio, as well as masking and curtains that can hide the width of the screen when films are projected in 1.85 or 1.66.

I think they must have the lenses, because otherwise the image would be squished. Unless I'm mistaken, when they film in 2.35, their is a lens on the camera that squishes the image so it fits onto 35mm, and then the lens on the projector un-squishes so it goes back to 2.35...

[Oedipax]

Unless I'm mistaken, when they film in 2.35, their is a lens on the camera that squishes the image so it fits onto 35mm, and then the lens on the projector un-squishes so it goes back to 2.35...

This is basically correct, assuming they're shooting anamorphically (which is native 2.35:1, or more correctly 2.39:1, sometimes rounded off to 2.40:1). It's certainly also possible to shoot some other format with the 2.35:1 area marked off in the viewfinder and then crop it in editing. You can tell the difference between a true anamorphic 2.35:1 and a cropped 2.35:1 by looking at certain visual characteristics of anamorphic lenses that will show up in the film - circles of out of focus light (bokeh) appear tall and thin with an anamorphic lens whereas they remain circular when using spherical lenses. This manifests itself in lens flares and other things as well.

Anamorphic is a unique format that is often more difficult to shoot, so it takes some work on the part of the director and DP usually to convince a producer/studio that it's worth the hassle. But wow, the results!

Anyway, I would absolutely contact someone about films being improperly screened at your theater - if they can't project a 2.35:1 film correctly, they shouldn't be charging people money to see it, period.