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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Contagion 4k -WOW!!!!!!!

Mark Toia

Mark Toia

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I've just walked out of the movies watching 2 films. (movie night with the family)

The first was a robot fight film with Hugh Jackman... It was ok... but it was grainy, soft... 35mm projection.... not sure what it was shot on.

Then walked straight into a 4k Digital projected movie called Contagion, which I'm quite sure was shot on REDs by the man himself Steven Soderbergh.

One word... F%#K!. It left 3d movies for dead. For the first part of the film I was just memorised by the clarity of it. It was like I was in the room with them... It depth and sharpness made it so personal and intimate..
It was not just a spectacular film from a story telling perspective, it was wonderfully shot as well.

I'm planing to shoot our film very soon and one thing I'm going to do Monday morning is tell everyone we are mastering out in 4k !.... 2k is nothing! It's like VHS for me now.

Congrats to RED and Soderbergh... What a great film!
 
Are there any 4K theaters in So Cal USA?
 
Real Steel (2011) More at IMDbPro »


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Camera

Sony CineAlta F35, Cooke S4 and Angenieux Optimo Lenses

Laboratory

Modern VideoFilm, Burbank (CA), USA (digital intermediate)

Film negative format (mm/video inches)

Video (HDTV)

Cinematographic process

Digital Intermediate (2K) (master format)
HDCAM SR (1080p/24) (source format)

Printed film format

35 mm (anamorphic) (Kodak Vision 2383)
70 mm (horizontal) (IMAX DMR blow-up) (Kodak Vision 2383)
D-Cinema

Aspect ratio

2.35 : 1
 
Real Steel was shot on F35 log out to Codex Boxes.

It was super sharp and actually looked very nice in the projection i saw. Not a fantastic film but was a good representation of a well shot F35 show.

I really need to see Contagion in 4K. I've seen 4K projection at RED Studios as well as my own 4K work projected there, and it still blows me away every time I see it.

Jason
 
One thing about 35mm Prints...or some 35mm projectors... they tend to look soft. Even my kids commented on it... So Im not going to say the camera was crap. i did however think it was shot on Film though.

And yes... 4k ! did blow me away... I havent seen anything this impressive since I went to a RED presentation at NAB.
Great to see it finally in a real cinema.
 
Doesn't the condition of the print make a difference? Some prints are pretty beat up by the time you see them at the theater.

It's not happening very quickly, but I'd like to see the end of film projectors in Theaters. the reason being the cost of prints, which leads to limited releases.

It's very costly to gamble on an indie and make a lot of prints for a wide release. With digital projection, the cost is minimal. Even if an indie does end up making the rounds, often you have to wait on your local theater to get a print, which might be a while if you're not in a big city.
 
I just saw Real Steel and it was soft. Not bad, but if you went looking for things to be sharp, nothing was.

The problem I had was so much of it was over exposed. The fight scene at the zoo was nuclear in my viewing. Not sure if it was the theater I saw it in or what. In lots of the day exteriors Jackman's face was so over exposed the hot side was just a glowing blob. The zoo scene was really bad though. They walk out of the dark tunnel to super bright ext without adjusting iris and then the rest of the scene was several stops over exposed. Did anyone else experience that or was it my theater?

The projector did not seem too bright.


Dusty
 
All VFX heavy films are soft it seems....as its a great way to blend the CGI into the medium. Not to say I like it. but it sure seems to be the "method of choice" in most ALL the latest VFX spectacle films.
 
wow... as they say : "this planet is beautiful because there are different opinions "...

i saw reel steel in ROW at the AMC , both on 2K DLP

reel steel looked great , really really great
contagion (i liked the movie and the content (soderberg is the man) ) looked like crap ,
one of the worse digital red looking movie out there
Lighting is basically not existing , backgrounds blown out all the time (i an digital hard way )

I think that pirates of the carabbean 4 is the best example ever how RED looks amazing (cinematic , good enough to replace film , or whatever you want to call it )
Contagion is probably one of the worse example (no attention to lighting as well as color grading )

g
 
Mark Toia said:
Then walked straight into a 4k Digital projected movie called Contagion, which I'm quite sure was shot on REDs by the man himself Steven Soderbergh.
Click to expand...

I could be wrong, but I'd be very surprised if what you watched was being shown from a 4K DCP. Sony has distributed some pictures in that format, but to my knowledge, Warner Bros. pictures go out as 2K DCP's worldwide.

As I said, I could be wrong. If someone from Warners is reading this, please feel free to correct.
 
it is true that it could potentially be a 2k dcp on a 4k projector, which is still gonna be better than a 2k projector, and there could be some sharpening going on, i dunno. can't wait til we start seeing more 4k @ 4k though...
 
Is there any way right now to find out which theaters and movies in my area might be screening in 4K?

If not, someone should build a website for it!
 
M Most said:
I could be wrong, but I'd be very surprised if what you watched was being shown from a 4K DCP. Sony has distributed some pictures in that format, but to my knowledge, Warner Bros. pictures go out as 2K DCP's worldwide.

As I said, I could be wrong. If someone from Warners is reading this, please feel free to correct.
Click to expand...


A 4k grade/output was done for the Imax outpu but I'm not sure about the DCP.
 
Tom Lowe said:
Is there any way right now to find out which theaters and movies in my area might be screening in 4K?

If not, someone should build a website for it!
Click to expand...

Cross-reference the Sony 4K projector installation database with your local theater and then make visual confirmation at the theater with your eyeballs after talking to management. That is THE ONLY WAY to do it outside of getting the information from someone who may or may not be making an accurate statement about what they saw. Theater chains that have jumped on the 4K bandwagon aren't even advertising it like they were supposed to and being that those theaters are (more than likely) all digital, they may have a hodgepodge of 2K with one or two 4K. Some are all 4K and they may not even be playing anything 4K. Your mileage will vary.
 
It's way too hard to find out which theaters are 4K.

It's way too hard to find out which theaters are 4K.

Tom Lowe said:
Is there any way right now to find out which theaters and movies in my area might be screening in 4K?
If not, someone should build a website for it!
Click to expand...

AMC actually did have some space on their website devoted to 4K screenings for the re-release of Taxi Driver, but it was not well executed.

Like many industries, the exhibitors are always looking to promote the new hotness. For the last few years that has been 3D. I suspect the next push might be 4K. First they will have to milk 3D a bit more, get more 4K projectors in place and then develop the marketing plan. They could start noting 4K in their ads, but my guess is they think 99% of moviegoers wouldn't even know what that meant - as it stands today they're probably right, which leads me back the marketing having to come first.

As Mike M suggested, most 4K projectors are actually fed 2K DCPs with the exception of a few Sony Pictures titles. I have no doubt that will change, just a matter of time.

I would love to see a database maintained that gave specs on technical properties of every theater. Perhaps Sony, Christie or some other company would fund it in exchange for banner ads, click through promotional links, etc. The swapping out of 35mm projectors for digital is big business so there should be motivation. Creating and maintaining such a database shouldn't be all that expensive and it could include viewer reviews gushing over the sponsors products that they can use to market to exhibitors...

Perhaps James T. Mathers over at the Digital Cinema Society would be interested in something like this, or know someone who is...

Cheers - #19
 
i am used to go at the AMC in NYC and because i like the least row i always check the projector :)

90% of the time is the sony 4K

i am wondering : when a 2K DCP is feed to that sony (basically all the time) is the projector upscaling to 4K , or it does work i 2K ?

thanks
g
 
The digital projectors are often very poorly set up and calibrated in my experience - yes, they are set up well at some point, but then it seems like the high school kids push some buttons, someone messes with this and that and presto, crappo. As with 35mm projectors, but at least they could not f*& up the color space, black and white levels of film.
 
Just FYI,
From my Experience , the AMC theater (any of them in NYC ) the digital projection is always outstanding and properly calibrated (i calibrate my 2 monitors every month with a 3D lut and i kind of notice when something is "too" off...)

g
 
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