Jump to content

TENET 70MM FILM SCREENINGS


Recommended Posts

 Here is a list a theaters screening 70mm prints of Christopher Nolan's TENET.

5perf 70mm

Plaza – Atlanta GA

Music Box – Chicago IL

Willow Creek – Plymouth MN

Gateway Center – Columbus OH

Highland – Austin TX

 

70mm (IMAX format)

Wild River IMAX – Indianapolis IN

Autonation IMAX – Fort Lauderdale FL

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

I saw it in 70mm at the Picturehouse Central in Piccadilly.

Observations specific to the 70mm projection are that when it gets that good, that sharp and free of grain, it starts looking basically like digital, only with flicker, weave and cue dots.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's interesting Phil. Because when I see 70mm film projection, as good as that, I see flicker occasionally, a little bit of weave at times if I notice it, and just simply beautiful 'optical' photography and projection that is so much more magical than digital. But then that's what I see. It seems you don't see that. I see something that looks, to me, nothing like digital. Nothing like it. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I use the word 'optical' in a non-scientific, vague sense. Because really I don't know how else to define in words something so beautiful as photography made and projected on film. I see the difference between film and digital. I see it. How else can I say it. It's not the idea of it that attracts me. It's literally the look I like. If people can't see that difference I don't know how to respond. I'm not trying to one up you. I'm trying to communicate an important truth.

Edited by Jon O'Brien
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

Well, it's not like a micromirror array firing light through a lens isn't an optical device. If people start using big LED video walls in cinemas - which I predict they will, once the cost and maintainability issues are overcome, then that is a very different thing, capable of excursions of brightness and contrast that projected light of any sort struggles to match. For the moment, though, the colour capability, brightness, and contrast of DLP and film projection are not wildly different, given that one was largely specified to match the other. The digital will be more stable and probably rather lower in noise and it will flicker less but it's not night and day. The 70mm print is probably capable of more resolution than a 2K DCP but that won't be realised in most real world use cases.

To seriously discuss the differences we need to be a bit more specific than "magic." I'm interested in understanding and I'm not adverse to the idea, but can you be more specific?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

I saw the print yesterday and I thought it looked outstanding. It had a lot of dynamic range, no grading issues what so ever, crisp image and not a scratch or single piece of dirt outside of the 2 frames around the splices. To me, seeing film projected to rival digital is what I like to see. They played trailers digitally at this particular theater and when they turned the digital projector off, the screen went black and I mean straight black. Then the WB logo came up in the black and I was like, holy shit that's some deep blacks. Normally with film projection, you see a rise in brightness when the film comes on, but not at this theater. I attributed that to being a less powerful lamp housing than I normally see, as it wasn't one of my regular 70mm theater. I'll say this much, the shitty digital screening I first saw the movie in, was nothing compared to the film version. 

My screening however was ruined by a horrible low-end 3D screen, which had a big bright spot in the middle which altered the color balance so much, I had to wear my sunglasses to bring it back to normalcy. It was infuriating, but I've seen it before at other film screenings at theaters which don't have the proper screen for film projection. It was annoying, but the sides of the screen were perfect, so I know the print was fine and I know that it DID look good. 

I was also sadly dismayed it was a CRT recorded image, rather than a photochemical finish. I didn't really notice anything wrong, but Nolan is such a photochemical finish guy that I was sad it was a recording. 

I can't wait to see it at a real theater, hopefully when things re-open. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

One problem today with IMAX is the use of silver screens -- this is one reason why I'd rather see a 4K Dolby Cinema presentation than a 4K digital IMAX presentation. Now with digital IMAX going to laser projection, there's no reason to keep the silver screens just to make the 3D showings look brighter.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If this film was a digital intermediate and filmed out via film digital printer, I wonder if this was because of the problems with Dunkirk with 5 perf looking so different then 15 perf? I wonder if that is why they went this route this time? I wonder what rez they did the film outs? I know they can print out to 8K with their 70mm unit, but it is expensive. It would certainly add cost to the film budget doing this, but at least they will have a decent file for the 4K disc when it comes out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member
1 hour ago, Scott Pickering said:

If this film was a digital intermediate and filmed out via film digital printer, I wonder if this was because of the problems with Dunkirk with 5 perf looking so different then 15 perf? I wonder if that is why they went this route this time? I wonder what rez they did the film outs? I know they can print out to 8K with their 70mm unit, but it is expensive. It would certainly add cost to the film budget doing this, but at least they will have a decent file for the 4K disc when it comes out.

They had finished the film, but due to covid, they decided to re-cut. They simply ran out of time. So they decided to do a record-out and meet the September deadline. They use a CRT recorder, which scan lines and it works good. They can be high resolution, I believe the IMAX CRT recorder can be 8k but the 5 perf one I believe is only 4k. I'm not 100% on that, but it makes sense. I mean honestly a 4k record on 70mm is not much lower resolution then 5 perf done a photochemical way. 

The IMAX version MAYBE photochemical. Not sure, hasn't seen it yet. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...