We watched a film in the second screen on the first floor, called The last Projectionist which is a film about the cinema itself. After this we watched the film we went to the first screen on the ground floor for a Q&A session with the man behind the film; Tom Lawes.
The film told a tale about the history of cinema and how it has changed over the years. We heard about news reels and news cinemas which linked with my radio technology unit covered with Mr Crawford. A theme which was strongly covered in the film was how multiplex cinemas really dominate the industry but as well how independent cinemas can still thrive and sometimes benefit over potential changes to the industry which would affect multiplex cinemas.
Another main topic in the film was about the introduction of new technologies where we learnt about how cinemas are becoming digital and projectors are becoming less used. We was able to link this topic of the film with the Q&A session afterwards where the producer of the film, also the owner of The Electric Cinema had told us about his plans to add a digital projector to the first screen and spoken about why the second screen was digital.
The film itself spoken about how different projectionists felt about the introduction of digital projectors rather than 35mm negative projectors. From this topic in the film I noticed how the older generation are less in-favour of change and would prefer things to stay how they are, where younger projectionists and new-comers can see the benefits to not only the quality of digital screens but also in storage, transportation and costs.
Some of the benefits I found that digital screens may have include:
- Storage of Media
Using 35mm projectors mean the film has to be bought in reels, this is very costly. Digital projectors use a hard drive to store the media and are about the size of a book. - Cost
In transport the cost is significantly cut as the media is smaller. The cost of the film itself in terms of the media used to show the film would be a lot lower, rather than relying on printing the film. - Training
This was discussed in the Q&A session with Tom Lawes, he said that training somebody to use a digital projector would take about thirty minutes, where as it would take about three weeks to train somebody to use a 35mm projector correctly. - Viewing
Whilst some older projectionists said that the quality is better on 35mm, most projectionists say that digital is much better, including Tom Lawes in the Q&A.
The idea of keeping 35mm is becoming more of a nostalgic thing as everybody reacts to change in different ways. Personally, I see this change as evolution and it is things like this that make the entertainment film industry better for everybody.
A subject covered in the Q&A session was the effects of film in our immediate local area. IMAX, Birmingha, we found out no longer exists. This was added to the film in April and shortly after this the IMAX cinema turned in to a usual cinema as the costs if running under the IMAX title as well as the film costs were too much.
I really enjoyed the film and I liked being able to see how film has changed so drastically, especially in the immediate are of where I live. It was interesting to see where the cinema entertainment industry was going, and with our Academy being the first group of students to see the film was excellent, especially that we had a Q&A with the producer of the film, in his own cinema.
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