A Few Words About While we wait for A few words about...™ Lawrence of Arabia -- in 4k/UHD Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Josh Steinberg]

I've never understood any debate where one side argues over something they've never experienced.

I've never been eaten by a shark before, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like it.

Ultimately, if you do not enjoying going out to the theater, it's unlikely in my view that a specific film will change your mind. HTF's own founder Ron Epstein is not a fan of going to the movies, and I doubt that his opinion would be changed by the best presentation possible in the best venue in the world - he just doesn't like going out to theaters anymore. Different strokes for different folks.

A version of this article appeared in the New York Times last week and I read it then. The person in favor of the theatrical experience no matter what makes some good points for what theaters at their best are capable. But the person writing in favor of home presentation makes several excellent points on why going to the theater is no longer ideal for many, and there really isn't a great counter-argument to his points. If your local theater, for instance, is one that routinely offers poor presentation and is plagued by poor audience behavior, it doesn't matter how good the ideal presentation is - what matters is that you can't get an ideal presentation.

 

[PMF]

I've never been eaten by a shark before, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like it.

I refuse to get swallowed into this.

 

[KeithDA]

See posts below - pictures now successfully included!

 

[KeithDA]

Last week in Jordan, on one of our tour days, we were taken by an archaeologist to the spot where Lawrence and his men had camped out overnight before attacking the nearby Hijaz railway - note the campfire ring of stones..

We then climbed up to the remains of a Turkish fort, built to protect and overlook the railway - see the straight line across the desert. This fort was also 'taken' in the same co-ordinated attack by Lawrence..

 

[KeithDA]

Finally, to a fortified station on the line. The colour of the sand was so like I remember from the film.
A great experience, but I'm still looking forward to the 4K release......

 

[DP 70]

Where is the 4K UHD ?

 

[KeithDA]

Where is the 4K UHD ?

Good question!

 

[TheSteig]

Its rumored to be happening - a UHD release

 

[Charles Smith]

RIP - Bill Gold, 97, movie poster designer extraordinaire

 

[titch]

RIP - Bill Gold, 97, movie poster designer extraordinaire

Amazing artist. But to be fair, let's not forget it was Howard Terpning who made this magnificent theatrical release poster for Lawrence.

 

[Charles Smith]

Right. It's just that there's a nice tradition of honoring all of the greats, without prejudice, in the While We Wait thread.

 

[Robert Harris]

http://www.indiewire.com/2018/05/so...rojection-problems-bradford-young-1201969989/

 

[Charles Smith]

Speechless.

 

[Mike Frezon]

The last 'graf pretty much says it all:

“I had one theater owner once tell me that a movie theater wasn’t a place to go to the movies, it was a place people came to eat and that the movie was just there to pull people past the concession stand,” said Cutler. “That happens to be, from my viewpoint, a particularly pessimistic way of looking at it, but if the theater experience is to the point you can’t understand the dialogue and the picture is so dark you can’t see what’s going on, it is going to be a perceptively ugly image and unpleasant experience. How is it going to compete with people inviting 10 friends over to watch something on their big-screen TV?”

 

[Mike2001]

I was at an AMC presentation where the popcorn machine caught on fire and the fire alarm went off part way through a screening. No one at the theater knew how to recover the presentations and get the projectors restarted. We left after 45 minutes of waiting. All the other theaters in the 18 screen multiplex were also still dark.

 

[DP 70]

I was at an AMC presentation where the popcorn machine caught on fire and the fire alarm went off part way through a screening. No one at the theater knew how to recover the presentations and get the projectors restarted. We left after 45 minutes of waiting. All the other theaters in the 18 screen multiplex were also still dark.

Modern Cinema just gets worse.

 

[richardburton84]

Modern Cinema just gets worse.

I quite agree. A few years ago, my sister and I went to a screening of Psycho (one of those TCM/Fathom Events screenings) and it was riddled with problems. First, it started 10-15 minutes late, and then when it finally did start, the sound wasn’t working properly. And to top things off, they eventually had to fast-forward through most of the coming attractions as though it were a DVR recording just so we could get to the movie. The management did give us a free movie coupon to make up for it, but I haven’t gone to another one of those screenings based on that experience.

 

[Joseph Goodman]

One of the worst phenomenon to afflict digital projection has been those damned Sony 3D adapter lenses, which have been used extensively by the AMC theaters in my area. They function by showing each eye in a quadrant of the 4k LcOS panel, and then the adapter lens projects each eye onto the screen a la the old over-under 3D film lenses. In these theaters, they've left the lens on the projector even for 2d showings, leaving you with an image using a quarter of the projector's panel, magnified far beyond the light levels the projector can actually project, far beyond the resolution the lens is capable of, far beyond the tolerances of the panel alignment in the projector, and, to add some candy sprinkles on top of this turd sandwich, they're almost never in perfect focus. I had the misfortune of seeing LoA shown on such a setup... I barely made it past the pan-down of St. Paul's before demanding a refund.

And don't get me started on what a joke Dolby Cinema has been...

 

[DavidJ]

And don't get me started on what a joke Dolby Cinema has been...

I know you said not to do this, but...why has Dolby Cinema been a joke in your view? I've had pretty good experiences with ours. Not perfect, but it provides a better experience than most theaters in our metro area.

 

[DavidJ]

I posted this in the Solo thread, but some of you may not have seen it and you might find it interesting:

Bradford Young talked about shooting on ARRI's DNA optics which are new lenses using vintage optics for their larger format Alexa. He speaks of having ARRI detune the optics and even references "like patina the images." I didn't find it necessarily too dark or murky, but it was dark and murky compared to most modern films. In this video he talks about working with the lenses and even wanting the film to feel inconsistent and messy in the cinematography: