70mm reprint of “Close Encounters”

[Ryan Gallagher]

Also, if you are a changeover house, expect to have to deal with cans and cores from Sony. We DID NOT have a heads up on that aspect... thankfully we have a couple of serviceable 70mm split reels.

Note the loose wind and core shift (5 out of 8 had that issue) on Print No.2 from whence they came, several lids popped cause only 2 tabs of tape used, but thankfully adequate tape on the heads to avoid further disasters.


IMG_6611.jpgIMG_6565.jpgIMG_6562.jpgIMG_6578.jpg

[Ryan Gallagher]

We screened Close Encouters this summer in Bologna piazza Maggiore during Il cinema ritrovato festival (some pictures of the screening here: https://festival.ilcinemaritrovato.i...allery-2025-2/). Unfortunately I haven't compared the frame with BL&S film test. But I asked for 2 small test reels to file aperture plates and Sony provided them.

Thanks to Elia's tip, we were able to also get testing material from Sony to help facilitate confirming our efforts filing new scope plates etc without putting extra runs on feature reels. Which unfortunately due to our busy live schedule, I have exactly 2 half shifts starting tomorrow morning to accomplish. Assuming they can even manage to fly the screen in with a full band worth of gear on stage overnight. Wish me luck there!

In classic timing I also woke up with a sore throat this morning... will have to see how I feel tomorrow!

IMG_6640.jpg

If there was any doubt, it's printed as 2.39:1 (confirmed by the focus/framing chart included on the silent final test reel), but about 2.5% to 3% undersized by Fotokem relative to SMPTE width comparison by my eyes.

IMG_6641.jpg

If you don't have severe keystone you can probably get away with existing 2.20 plates and mask to the vertical matte lines. That is not us unfortunately, we'll see if the time available permits our proper 2.39 plates. If we had 2.20 plates that were already filed for our keystone with 2.5% under sizing... we'd also be in business.

[Mathew Bailey]

Someone ought to rerelease Oklahoma in DTS 70mm.

[Ryan Gallagher]

Alas the cards were not in my favor, probably for the best, take a couple days to ditch these cold symptoms.

Crew just informed me the stage is not going to be able to be cleared enough overnight to accommodate the film screen, and i'm on all the other live shows up until the screening.

Day of has become the everything day, but not holding my breath on getting new plates done, will plan to use our oversized 2:20:1 plates and masking, if I finish some plates cool, if not I can finish them by the 2nd show. My hope was the test reels would have beaten the print to us, but they arrived later and all our screen time windows had closed. If I had good starter plates it would be easier, but our only two appropriate ones right now are actual blanks. Need to source some undersized starter plates from Film-Tech for next time.

[Jim Cassedy]

<edited> If you are a changeover house, expect to have to deal
with cans and cores from Sony.

Thanks for the heads-up. Last time I got a 70mm feature on cores I wasn't expecting it either. We
had a couple of 1k/ft 70mm splitt reels, but only one large 70mm split reel at the theater. Fortunately,
I had another one at home that I brought in for a few days which made things easier. -jc-