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Randal Feemster

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  • Occupation
    Camera Operator
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    Los Angeles, Tucson, Telluride
  1. EDIT: It would seem obvious that laser light engines hold great promise. I don't know where technology is for that in the commercial cinema. I have experienced the JVC HT ($36K) laser projector, and it's black levels are more like that of commercial cinemas, despite the expected benefit. The lamp-based HT models from JVC are far superior to their laser model with regards to black levels. Hopefully, the commercial cinema laser models are getting where we need to be...but how many houses will we see that have those...for at least quite a while?
  2. Gentlemen, I've targeted the two of you as active on this particular discussion, and therefore likely to be motivated to re-engage. I think your perspectives would be useful to have in what I am to cite. It seems that this site and most others lack a forum subject that is one that needs to exist...as it is the product of several others that we have embraced and grappled with our entire careers on the "front end." Exhibition is changing drastically and greatly affecting what is experienced of our work. Tyler, you hit on it almost immediately in your discussion and reflection of the limited 70mm release of Murder, but also touching on general comparative qualities of both photo-chemical prints and digital cinema. David, you also forwarded the worthy qualities of digital capture, but the classic benefits of negative. Of course, the two worlds coexist now from capture through post-production. The discussion point I want to bring up is exhibition, primarily the "big screen." I will leave the merits of story, script, and directing to others, but I think that this remake of Murder on the Orient Express is an excellent example to use in the discussion. Like you, I regard 5/65 film as good a capture as we can possibly get at this time. Yes, wonderful images are possible from digital; I love tons of them, but...there are some intangibles that make film attractive, and the expansive negative area of 65 immensely so. We are fortunate to have experienced 70mm features in well-maintained and calibrated cinemas. The qualities of photo-chemical prints with proper lamp house luminance provide us with the incredible dynamic range and color depth we never forget. We have all also experienced such artifacts as gate weave and the many other things that degrade a projected film image. I contend that the current digital commercial cinema projection technologies (whether 2K, 4K, or Dolby Vision) have serious technical shortcomings that make it impossible to emulate the best qualities of a 70mm film print. The vast majority of these are DLP-based technologies since DLP is the technology that can cast such a large video image with any level of descent brightness. The Achilles heel of DLP is how poor black levels are. Yes, infra-scene contrast is excellent, but much of our work lives in the zone of low APL high contrast (lighting). There we need native high sequential contrast. DLP struggles mightily to deliver this...and that drives me nuts because it robs us of not only the quality and character of our work, but the dynamic range overall. How does one grade for such a hamstrung environment? Along comes HDR to try to help us. But if the cinema projectors can't dig down there into the blacks, we are only left with benefits in bright areas. Of course, grading for HDR is another difficult subject. I contend that there is recent front projection technology that is superior to what we see in the best digital cinemas that does emulate the best of a 70mm film print and, in some respects, surpasses it. To my utter surprise, that is in the home theater front projection field. I know, that's heresy coming from a comrade/veteran of the photo-chemical era, but I recently experienced this with this Murder On the Orient Express, and I was simply blown away. Let me provide details. I did not see this feature at a commercial cinema. I first saw it via streaming 1080p via Vudu. Although I was not blown away by the movie itself, I thought the cinematography quite good, and highly detailed. Knowing it was shot 65mm, I was not surprised. I then had the opportunity to see it again in a high performance home theater setting on a 10' wide acoustically transparent scope aspect ratio screen, viewing from 15' away. This time the source was the 4K UHD/HDR Blu-ray. The projector is calibrated to the HDR-10 specs, and shows detail up to 1000 nits and almost down to 0% (using UHD test pattern), and reference white luminance at 16 ftL. An HDR-flagged scene shifts the projector to a brighter mode that can reach the HDR 1000 nits and HDR gamma curve. I have been extremely leery of UHD HDR due to the apparent sloppy porting to UHD, 2K DI, or sloppy shooting. It has seemed that too many titles were just porting over to UHD HDR with a global gamma setting. This often rendered our work terribly. A face against a bright sky that is nicely balanced in capture and grading for non-HDR often was almost silhouette on some UHD HDR Blu-rays. Clearly, a new scene to scene grade is necessary. Only recently have I seen a change that gives me hope not only for seeing our work in that environment, but also in the commercial cinema. Murder On the Orient Express is absolutely stunning in that HT setting! Two factors stand out to me as a "cinematographer." First, the detail of the 65mm capture is insane! Secondly, the dynamic range is not gimmicky; it's just bloody huge in a good way. Blacks/shadows are amazingly deep and detailed. There is no visible projection gimmickry such as dynamic iris detectable, although it's in use. The projector's native black level is extremely low, but I tried the dynamic iris. It's invisible in adjustment...which was a big surprise. So, detail and all the lighting had a quality that was just amazing. Ironically, the director's other 65mm endeavor, Hamlet, on blu-ray is renowned for being a poor transfer. They certainly got it right for Murder! Some research revealed that other titles are being prepared properly (or remastered) for UHD HDR. Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy has been remastered for UHD/HDR. I also sat down to take a look at Batman Begins...and couldn't stop. Wally Pfister's work is just stunning! I dare say it never looked as good in any commercial cinema. I know; heresy! In this home theater environment, we have some examples of great sources, a format that is finally maturing a little (HDR-10), and a projector manufacturer in this case who is doing a rather spectacular job of rendering it. But this is a niche market, and not an inexpensive one. Such a projector goes for $5K to $8K. So, how do we get that level of image quality in the commercial cinema? I'm not sure yet. The home projector technology I described is transmissive (JVC D-ILA and Sony's similar). I think that the heat of the commercial cinema lamp house is a limiting factor to those technologies. I hear that projection in Dolby Cinemas (presuming nominal source material) is capable. I've also heard that the JVC HT projectors equal or exceed those, too. Their dynamic range for 1080p or UHD HDR certainly greatly exceed that of DLP digital cinema. My point is that these recent HT viewings have really made me re-focus on where we are in commercial cinema...which I often find depressing...even in fine cinemas such as the Arclight. Seeing these astounding HT images on a cinema-like screen have given me hope. Seek these out, if you have not already. I suspect some readers may have experienced these. Finding a truly good front projection "demo" is tough these days unless you are in a major market. If you get near me, I can see that you see it. I'd love to know what you think of where this is all headed and what it means to our field. Cheers.
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