The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo...

[Don V. Stephens III]

I tried to see it on a digital screen last night... I looked up a Tulsa, OK location from the link mentioned by Brian and went to buy my ticket. The teen at the ticket booth said "Yes" when I asked if both screens were Sony 4K digital screens, so I got my ticket. However, he actually sold me a seat to a 35mm film screening, so I chatted with the manager and will be going back this week to see it in 2K or 4K or whatever they actually have at the AMC here.

 

[Andrew Walker]

I saw "Girl with a Dragon Tattoo" on Christmas Day in 4K out in Bozeman, MT and it looked amazing. If anyone had any doubts as to the look of RED MX or Epic this movie should put all that to rest. Really liked the movie as well. I'm sure I'll see it again when I get back to the LA area.

 

[Gabriele Turchi]

I saw "Girl with a Dragon Tattoo" on Christmas Day in 4K out in Bozeman, MT and it looked amazing. If anyone had any doubts as to the look of RED MX or Epic this movie should put all that to rest. Really liked the movie as well. I'm sure I'll see it again when I get back to the LA area.

people please stop to say that you have seen it in 4K ,
the all discussion is about if the DCP master is 2K or 4K ,

there are PLENTY of movies projected on sony 4K projection everyday (probably 100 everyday in new york)

the all news /debate here is if this movie has been anywhere distributed as 4K DCP MASTER , so only the projectionist or the responsible of the cinema can tell that
(BUT IS ABOUT THE RESOLUTION OF MASTER NOT THE RESOLUTION OF THE PROJECTOR )

sorry if used the upper case , but here every 5 posts people are keep not understanding that a 4K projector does not make a True 4K movie experience (and 99.9 % of the 4K projections are 2K upscaled to 4K) (like SD upscaled to HD)

g

 

[Steve Wake]

I saw 4K DCP MASTER earlier today at the AMC in Emeryville, CA. Before I went, I called and spoke to someone in management that knew what I meant when I asked if it was a 4K master, and he said, "yes, all our projectors are 4 k and the digital package for GWTDT is 4 k." So he did understand exactly what I was asking.

The movie has a variety of lighting and shooting setups, some of which show off the resolution and some of which don't. The scene that convinced me this had to be a 4K master was in the London coffee shop, daylight coming through windows, bright lights inside. Mikael had a wool fisherman's sweater on - the kind with a lot of coarse, long fuzz. In an over-the shoulder shot, not very close since it showed his head and shoulders and some of the table, every curled hair of the fuzz on his sweater was clearly visible - very sharp and smoothly curved; absolutely no jaggies.

An engaging story well told (though compressing the story line toward the end made that part seem Mission-Impossible-ish) and beautifully shot with some absolutely amazing cameras.

I do have one technical question. The opening outdoor scenes seemed to have some juddering to me. Were these shot at a narrower shutter angle, or did my eyes just need some time to readjust after that super-smooth and glossy CGI opening?

 

[Steve Sherrick]

I finally got to see the film today. I saw it at a fairly new Showcase Cinema in Massachusetts. Although the advertising said presented in Sony 4K, I had a manager with knowledge of the DCP files confirm that it was a 4K file (hopefully he wasn't lying). The opening credit sequence of the movie looked incredible, nicely done. The first few scenes seemed a bit soft to me, but I do wonder if it did have something to do with that opening credit sequence. Maybe the eyes did have to make an adjustment. There were other shots/scenes that looked a bit sharper/more detailed and if I had to guess I was probably spotting some of the Epic shots. Having worked with a decent amount of Epic footage at this point, I feel like I can spot it when compared to R1, although the two cameras did cut together well enough that it really doesn't affect the movie. And to be honest, like TSN after a while I really wasn't thinking much about the cameras, as I was more engrossed in the story. Overall, I think the movie was very well done, and congrats to Light Iron for their work on the film. The grade by Ian was excellent.

Congrats to Trent Reznor as well. He's found himself a nice partnership with Fincher. The score worked well for me. I like the nod to NIN on the computer dude's t-shirt as well.

The cinematography was excellent, and some cool shots in there.

In a nutshell, I enjoyed the movie.

 

[Michael Cioni]

4K...

4K...

please let us know if they answer ..

ps: a 4K DCP version would no be 55 TB... (probably not even 1TB ...(it's Jpeg2000 compression )

DI is 55TBs.

at this point i would that has not .... it seems hard to believe that there is no trace online of any dock about it... no one in any theater seems to confirm etc....
Red did not say a word about it ...

so i guess sis a myth ...(hope not , but seems like it )

Far from a myth. It's been mentioned in numerous places and publications. This film was delivered in 4K, and underwent a rare but worth-while 4K film scanning for the prints. But as I discussed; we are in a transition period to which GDT marks an important turning point in the rapid development of 4K distribution.
m

 

[Timothy Kotthoff]

I just saw it tonight. Congrats to RED, Fincher and Co., and Light Iron.

Oh and the movie was awesome

 

[David Mullen ASC]

So I read both the AC and ICG articles, and neither mention how they got the occasional fake anamorphic lens flares -- they looked almost too organic for a blue streak filter, or a post effect, it almost reminded me of the simple trick of putting a microfilament line behind the lens.

 

[Tom Lowe]

This film was not an ideal vehicle to really show off 4K. It's very dark, gritty, monochromatic, with a lot of shallow DOF. Something like Tin-Tin, Muppets or Mission Impossible would have shown off the 4K sharpness better, IMO, but alas, this is just the first of many, many 4K films to come.

 

[Bruce Allen]

So I read both the AC and ICG articles, and neither mention how they got the occasional fake anamorphic lens flares -- they looked almost too organic for a blue streak filter, or a post effect, it almost reminded me of the simple trick of putting a microfilament line behind the lens.

Haha, David - I took one look at them and thought "that's the one thing that stands out as a post effect to me" Some of them were very good, while others, like some of the ones the bike shots, looked like obvious post effects to my eyes... but then, adding post lens flares is my day job!

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com

 

[PatrickFaith]

I talked to the manager of our local theater and he said the version they had was a 2K on a hard drive distributed by Technicolor (!). That was a Regal Cinema theater outfitted with Sony 4K projectors. I called Technicolor to see if there is some sort of list or something of where the 4K versions went in the US but no response just yet. Like everyone here, I am dying to see it in 4K.

I did the same thing with a theater in Dublin,CA ... they said the same thing. At one level just going to the theater asking if a movie is in 4k, and not getting the tickets if it's not ... is a gentle nudge. All the projectors at the theater i go to are sony 4k, and with jpeg ... it's really not that much more from a disk stand point(4x max, but often less).

 

[Steve Sherrick]

Haha, David - I took one look at them and thought "that's the one thing that stands out as a post effect to me" Some of them were very good, while others, like some of the ones the bike shots, looked like obvious post effects to my eyes... but then, adding post lens flares is my day job!

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com

Since I knew they shot the whole film with Masters, I guess it was even more obvious to me that they were post effects. Well that and the other obvious tell tale signs that it wasn't anamorphic.

 

[Andrew Huse]

Since I knew they shot the whole film with Masters, I guess it was even more obvious to me that they were post effects. Well that and the other obvious tell tale signs that it wasn't anamorphic.

My thoughts exactly. I knew they were added in post the moment I saw them. I love the flawless look of the masters with epic.

 

[zak forrest]

he's been doin post anamorphic flares since panic room right.

where in LA is it playing in 4k

 

[David Kurvers]

[COLOR=#FFFFFF !important]My wife and I saw GWDT a two days ago at the 5th Avenue theatre in Vancouver. I'm not certain if the digital projection was a 4K file but it was an AMAZING digital projection experience none the less. How the images of this movie made it to the screen, from capture, post, DI and presentation, is as integral to the impact and success of this movie as are the direction, acting and screenplay. Yup. The original GWDT had some pretty big shoes to fill too.

Michael's blog was a fantastic read too. That most of the movie was shot on an MX shows the robustness of an R3D file in an evolving post process that seems to make these files look better and better. [/COLOR]

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

Just spoke with the projectionist at AMC Fashion Valley in San Diego - Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is being projected in 4K for all showtimes. He recommended watching the film with 2D projectors since 3D projectors are not as bright and have a longer throw. 2D projectors are in houses 6, 8 and 12 for AMC Fashion Valley. He mentioned he watched the first 20 minutes of the film and it was visually stunning

Please tell us about your experience seeing the film at AMC Fashion Valley. Did the projectionist confirm a 4K DCP, or just 4K projection?

Beyond that, I would love to see the 4K DCP on the Sony SXRD projector and the Barco DLP back to back. I agree with the poster who believes that the DLP tech looks sharper but that like many HD cameras some of that is false detail created by aliasing artifacts.

I gathered from articles about the DI that Micheal and Ian used a 4K Barco as their 4K test bed along the way. Due to the close proximity to RSH, I would guess that screenings on Jim's Sony T-420 4K SXRD were also done. If so:

Were the test screenings done with DCPs? In a mezzanine codec like Cineform? DPX stacks off the in house SAN at LightIRON for the Barco and brought over in a shoebox (Li's updated "sneaker net") for the Sony at RSH?

For those of us who have been pimping 4K there is a natural desire to "wow" the skeptics with razor sharp imagery. That said, I think the real power and beauty of 4K is a rounder, smoother, more natural looking image. My analogy would be why the Leica-C lenses are so fantastic, and, IMHO, superior to the Master Primes - they manage to deliver extremely high resolution without ever being the least bit harsh.

Cheers - #19

 

[Tim Hole]

I talked to the manager of our local theater and he said the version they had was a 2K on a hard drive distributed by Technicolor (!). That was a Regal Cinema theater outfitted with Sony 4K projectors. I called Technicolor to see if there is some sort of list or something of where the 4K versions went in the US but no response just yet. Like everyone here, I am dying to see it in 4K.

So my question is this....if it was shot by Fincher on 4/5K and goes to a theater with a 4K projector, why are so many people seeing the 2K version? If the capability is there, why not use it? Does it have something to do with the number and cost of the hard drives containing the 55 terabytes that Michael mentions on his blog?

Anyone out there have direct experience with this?

And BTW great post Michael. Thanks for the unique perspective.

Sadly I can't say that it surprises me. Technicolor/Deluxe/MPS etc don't just send drives out to one cinema chain, and then those drives are shared within that company. The cinema will receive the drive, ingest it into their TMS (Theatre Management System) and return the drive, that same drive will be sent between companies-a lot of which are not 4K. The odds are that they only mastered a certain amount of 4K drives which are being shared between certain cinemas, and the film bookers within that company are only paying for a certain amount of screens. There isn't enough 4K screens out there yet is the problem I am guessing.

I can't say that I have seen enough 4K drives to know the average but consider that the average 2K 2D feature is around 65-100GB and the average 2K 3D feature is 120-160GB you should have a good idea about the file size on the 4K drives. For a 4K 2D I wouldn't expect it to be over 200GB. These drives are nothing special either, they are just standard 500GB caddy style hard drives.

Just spoke with the projectionist at AMC Fashion Valley in San Diego - Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is being projected in 4K for all showtimes. He recommended watching the film with 2D projectors since 3D projectors are not as bright and have a longer throw. 2D projectors are in houses 6, 8 and 12 for AMC Fashion Valley. He mentioned he watched the first 20 minutes of the film and it was visually stunning

My understanding is counter to this. Providing the Z-screen (polariser) is not across the lens of the projector it should be the opposite. The lamps that tend to be rated for 3D are not bright enough is true but this is only the case when the polariser is drawn across the lens and the 3D glasses are worn. Lamps in 3D screens tend to be rated higher than in 2D only screens. The silver screen used in 3D screen holds two purposes it is meant to return the light in a more direct way as well as attempting to reflect more than light than a standard 2D screen (which is meant to compensate for the light loss from the aforementioned polariser and glasses. I am open to be corrected though. Your best bet is to go and see it in a big screen which has a larger projector thus will have something like a 6K lamp instead of a 3K lamp which you might get in a smaller screen.

 

[Tom Lowe]

It's my understanding that a 4K DCP is exactly the same size a 2K DCP, because they have a locked maximum bitrate. Is that correct?

 

[Martin H]

Just saw it in 4K here in Copenhagen, denmark. Must say what a great piece of film. Really great story, great acting and excelent picture. I'm loving the detail in the closeup's, 4K must really push the makeup artists to do a great job.

 

[Joel Fleurent]

I liked it better than the original, though I must admit I'm biased because Fincher is one of my favorites. There's just something about Rooney Mara, her innocence/vulnerability really came across much stronger in this version.