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Topic: BV Announces Cyan Track for "Mr. 3000"

Jack Ondracek
Film God

Posts: 2348
From: Port Orchard, WA, USA
Registered: Oct 2002

posted 07-16-2004 03:41 PM

PDF Notice Here

Question: If you don't have a red reader when this comes out, how can your head film buyer help? Hmmmmm?

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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 07-16-2004 03:49 PM

Maybe by not booking the film?

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John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 07-16-2004 03:57 PM

Disney's conversion to cyan dye analog tracks was announced at ShoWest in March:

http://www.dyetracks.org/press/pr_Disney_0304.html

quote:
BURBANK, Calif., March 22, 2004, PR Newswire—Starting this fall, Buena Vista Pictures Distribution will begin issuing 35mm prints of Walt Disney Pictures and Touchstone Pictures releases with environmentally friendly pure-dye cyan soundtracks, it was announced today (3/22/04) by Chuck Viane, president of Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, and Jeff Miller, executive vice president, Worldwide Post Production and Operations for The Walt Disney Studios. This new soundtrack technology represents a significant environmental advance for the motion pictures industry, and eliminates the use of traditional silver- applicated tracks and the caustic chemicals involved in that process. Buena Vista plans to switch entirely to cyan soundtracks on all of its worldwide release prints by January, 2005.

To accomplish this goal, the Disney distribution arm is working closely with Dolby, Kodak, Technicolor and NATO to perfect the technology and encourage theater owners to install RED LED soundtrack readers on their projectors. RED LED readers, which are now standard in all US manufactured projectors, are currently installed in the vast majority of projectors in use in this country. MGM has also announced that they will be issuing pure-dye cyan soundtracks on all release prints beginning this May.

Commenting on the announcement, Viane said, "Our industry is striving to eliminate sources of environmental harm, improve lab productivity and theatrical efficiency, and Buena Vista is proud to be taking a cutting edge position in this worthy effort. Most theater projectors are now equipped with the RED LED readers and we expect the others to convert to this technology by 2005. I'm sure that other distributors will soon be supporting this movement to cyan soundtracks and that together we can all do our part to make this a cleaner planet."

Jeff Miller added, "Dolby, Kodak, Technicolor, NATO, and our Studio have been working hard to perfect the new cyan soundtrack technology so that audiences will enjoy the sound reproduction for analog tracks on RED LED readers as the filmmakers intended. Buena Vista will release one of its major fall titles with this type of soundtrack as we move forward with our plans for complete conversion by January, 2005. This is a major advance for our industry and something we can all be very proud of."

The Disney film shipper insert is also on the Dyetracks.org website:

http://www.dyetracks.org/BV-DisneyCanFlyer_July%202004.pdf

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 07-16-2004 03:59 PM

I'd say by alerting the booker to the fact that you haven't upgraded so you can be sent a regular print, since to date no one has done 100% cyan on a major release. (Yes that's right, that Woody Allen film doesn't count. [Razz]

)

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Frank Angel
Film God

Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 07-17-2004 08:32 AM

And unless the film industry has decided to write off the entire Third World market, there will be cyan tracks and white tracks living for every release for years to come. The foreign market represents a huge amount of profit that would be lost if the distribs went 100% cyan. As altruistic a persona Disney would like to portray for itself, when it comes to making profit or protecting the environment, we all know which one corporate America is going to choose. [evil]

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Richard Fowler
Film God

Posts: 2392
From: Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA
Registered: Jun 2001

posted 07-17-2004 09:50 AM

The Third world is more advanced than you know and besides there is always E-cinema [Wink]

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 07-17-2004 10:39 AM

Richard is correct!
At the SMPTE meeting at Showest they mentioned something like 80% conversion to Red Readers already for third world countries(excluding China and Russia). Europe is at a slightly higher rate than the U.S. which is around 85% right now. ALL but one of our customers have converted over to red so we're running 99.5% in the Rocky Mountain States. Not to worry!

Mark @ CLACO

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Thomas Procyk
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1842
From: Royal Palm Beach, FL, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 07-17-2004 05:31 PM

We still have all white readers. When we got our Cyan print of Soul Plane, it wasn't marked as Cyan in any way --- not on the cans, not on the leaders (well, except for the obvious cyan track itself). So if we called for a replacement, how would they know at the depot which one is a "regular" white-light compatible print? They're sure as hell not going to pop open every can until they stumble upon one. Especially for second run.

I never got to see how Soul Plane performed in our mono house since the powers-that-be decided it would be easier to drop the film than to drive their butt over with the red reader they supposedly bought months ago.

=TMP=

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Richard Fowler
Film God

Posts: 2392
From: Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA
Registered: Jun 2001

posted 07-17-2004 05:53 PM

So they have that "one red reader" locked up at the home office...do you have to sign for it when your location is using it [Big Grin]

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Greg Routenburg
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 178
From: Toronto, ON, Canada
Registered: May 2003

posted 07-18-2004 01:36 AM

OK, maybe I'm just speaking from ignorance and sincerely appologize if that's the case but it's not like we're asking everyone to replace their entire projection system here. If people can't commit to a small upgrade like this every say, 50 years!!!, then there's a real problem. If this is inaccurate then please correct me. From my limited experience it might just take a major push to get all those slow pokes rear ends in gear. Anyone that's not willing to make and investment into the future of their business should ask themselves why they are in business.

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Mike Perju
Film Handler

Posts: 90
From: Toronto, Canada
Registered: Nov 2002

posted 07-18-2004 02:13 AM

Greg, the only people saving money are the distribution companies. There is no advantage to red LED readers for the exhibitors. Also, red LED readers are way more costly to buy and operate versus exiter lamps and solar cells. Most exhibitors are willing to invest in the "future" of their business, and they already have to carry the burden of buying every thing from xenon bulbs to ticket paper. Adding little costs like a $90 LED every 6000 hours or so per screen, (when the same job could be accomplished by a $5 exiter lamp) will really add up in the end.

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Greg Routenburg
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 178
From: Toronto, ON, Canada
Registered: May 2003

posted 07-18-2004 03:07 AM

I'm no "tree hugger" by any means, infact one of my favorite passtimes is to snooze infront of a wood burning fireplace. It's high time we start to take responsibility for the environment and if this is the theatre industries contribution then I believe John Pytlak said it best when he said, (and I'm paraphrasing) lets all raise a toast with a nice clean glass of water to the new era of cyan sound tracks. The distributors and the labratories have already decided that this is the future so lets stop draging our feet about it and move on. Besides, I think they (cyan tracks) look really cool.

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Jack Ondracek
Film God

Posts: 2348
From: Port Orchard, WA, USA
Registered: Oct 2002

posted 07-18-2004 05:13 AM

With all due respect here:...

I don't know what the percentage is here of owners versus operators and other interested people. As a technically-inclined owner, I admit to not having the depth of knowledge on this subject that John has. However, I do know that by monitoring LED current per Component Engineering's suggestions, I have put well over 6,000 hours on my readers. As for how they're doing, I judge that simply by how the Dolby tone alignment looks when I run my loops periodically through the machines. Aside from the benefits that may accrue to the studios and labs, I find the red readers MUCH more consistent in their performance than any exciter system I've ever been around. One such system has been in service for over 6 years. I looped it last year, found the alignment right on the nose and didn't touch it. It's set exactly where it started, over 6 years ago. Try that with your $5 exciter lamp.

The overall long-term performance of red readers with cyan tracks may not be proven yet. However, my own personal time savings and consistency of operation has resulted in a dollar value to me and consistency of quality for my customers that I think far exceeds the so-called $90 for a replacement array that I have yet to buy, or the $400 I spent on the reader. At this point, I am faced with the periodic expense for xenon bulbs far more often than anything that relates to what's in my sound heads.

This argument, while intriguing on this board, is an issue that is fast heading toward management's doorstep. It's really their problem... not the projectionist's, so why stress so much over it? Load the film and run the darn stuff. If the owner is too cheap to upgrade his machines, it'll get his attention soon enough.

... and these are the people who are eventually expected to shell out kiloBucks for DLP?

HA!

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Greg Routenburg
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 178
From: Toronto, ON, Canada
Registered: May 2003

posted 07-18-2004 07:35 AM

Bravo!

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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 07-18-2004 08:55 AM

What Mike said.

There are two issues here. Issue #1 is that theatre owners are being asked to subsidize a cost-saving effort which will benefit the film distributors. As one might imagine, this does not sit well with many theatre owners. Sure, there may be some minor benefits to the theatres (see Jack's post), but there are also downsides (see any of Steve Guttag's rants on the subject). While it may be fairly easy to justify the expense of the conversion in a theatrical venue which runs film every day, it becomes far more difficult to justify the conversion in a venue which may run film only a few times per year. And many such venues aren't getting the information about the conversion through mailings (they don't get them) and probably don't subscribe to Boxoffice, read Film-Tech, etc. This issue #1 would be a nonissue if the conversion costs were covered by the film distributors in some way, but that isn't going to happen.

Issue #2 is that conversion kits are not available for all soundheads. Sure, if you have Century, Simplex, RCA, or some other common brand of soundhead, it's not a big deal (assuming that the theatre owner can cough up ~$1000 per soundhead for the conversion), but what about theatres with older or unusual equipment? Most will have to come up with some sort of homebuilt system which sound bad and/or is not reliable.

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