Peter Apruzzese
Senior HTF Member
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- Dec 20, 1999
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- Peter Apruzzese
When we played the New Jersey sneak preview of E.T. in 1982 (it was a Sunday night, and it followed a show of Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid), we received a letter from Spielberg about two weeks prior. It stressed that the film was 1.85 (as opposed to his previous films) but still contained a Dolby Stereo track (at that time many 1.85 flat films were still mono). I think it also mentioned to make sure we had sufficient light levels as the film had numerous dark scenes. I remember an addendum that was attached from someone at Dolby Labs also mentioning the stereo track and suggesting that if the side curtain masking for 1.85 wasn't acoustically transparent, that it *not* be used so as not to muffle the left and right speakers and that we file new aperture plates with "clean" left and right edges instead. I think there were also instructions how to create temporary AT 1.85 masking just for the show using thin black fabric and wooden slats. I should check my files and see if I still have the letter.Charles Smith said:I kid you not, I could read an entire book consisting of notes to theater managers and projectionists. But I'm wondering -- besides road show presentations -- how many other movies would such things have been created for? Maybe not a lot? Were instructions regarding elements of presentation other than overtures and intermissions, etc., very common?