One Six Right
Watch this awesome trailer for a new film about Van Nuys general aviation airport, the busiest in the world.
WHAT IT'S ABOUT AND HOW IT WORKS
Free The Animal is an eclectic writing project about everything since November 2003. 23 years, 5,500 posts, 5 million words.
It's a paid membership blog. Most posts are free and public, but only paid members can comment. What determines whether it's free or paid is when I publish. Monday through Friday, free and public. Saturday and Sunday, for paid members. That's it. Membership info here.
That's one hell of a steady cam. What kind of chase plane did they use for that work? Looks like some very close flying.
and definitely non-archival – medium
Indeed. Me? I still lament the passing of storyboards cut into stone on the walls of primitive caves. Now that's archiving.
Seriously, how do you mean? How is it non-archival? It's digital. It can be archived a million places in digital form.
I've seen a few digital films in digital theaters and it's clearly the future. Perhaps they were too "bleeding edge," here, but there lots of logic in going digital.
Obviously, distribution costs will be dramatically reduced. But I think there's two other reasons, off the top of my head, that call for digitizing this industry.
1. Re-runs. If a theater is able to just download a film from satellite or over the optic cable, then they can have a far more diverse offering. They may choose to run the new release on the weekends, but them some other hugely popular film from the past on the weekdays. Multiplied by however many screens, of course. Gives theaters a lot more options to generate revenue. 'Course, there are contractual obligations that need to be considered, but those will evolve, too.
2. Many more an smaller theaters. Digital cameras and projectors will keep coming down in cost. I recently looked a buying a condo in a rather substantial development (300+ units). In addition to a very nice gym and general recreation room, they actually had a theater on site. Seats about 30, and of course it had a digital projector. Now, imagine they could pipe in or get films via satellite in HD?
I have two HD sets at home. A 55" Sony LCD projection (only 17" deep) and a 37" LCD flat screen hanging on the wall in the bedroom.
HD is simply awesome. I can just sit and watch whatever happens to be on HDnet or Discovery HD Theater, the images are so breathtaking. It often literally strikes me as better than real life. How do they do that?
Unfortunately, since it was shot on some wretched high-definition video format instead of actual film, I will, of course, never see it. I refuse to knowingly watch anything shot on HD video that should have been shot on 35 or 16mm film.
With all the work and expense involved in the actual shooting, why did they choose to record their work on an inferior – and definitely non-archival – medium?
Looking at their website, I note that they suddenly discovered that the cost of transferring their HD footage to 35mm film was prohibitively expensive, thus resticting their theatrical big-screen showings to the tiny handful of "digital theatres". Oops. All that magnificent aerial cinematography will only be seen on TV sets by the vast majority of their audience, because someone got hyp-mo-tised by "cutting edge" technology.
The fact (seen in production photos) that Panavision is plastering their once-proud name on video cameras is simply disgusting.
Rich,
*nuthin* is better than real life. :-)
I finally got to watch the trailer when I got home last night. The shots of the Christensen Eagle and the (gorgeous!) P51 Mustang make me absolutely melt.
Someone around here (San Jose) has a P51… very occasionally I'll see him come by low and fast, doing rolls. It's always a joy.
If any of you ever come across a 1928/1929 TravelAir that needs a good home… let me know. :-)
— DW