Mission Impossible #8 Advance Preview

[Jim Cassedy]

Earlier tonight, I was the tech-guy for an exclusive advance preview screening of the new
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE flick at my venue here in SF. Tom Cruise was there to do a live intro:
I had my hands full running the show, but here's a couple of quick pix I was able to grab:
TomCruise_1.jpg

s
TomCruse_2.jpg

[Frank Angel]

Jim, are those working curtains?! But do you use them? You know the axiom -- an audience should never be subjected to seeing a naked screen. Well, at least that's what I was taught in the Golden Years of Film Presentation...you know, before the Rise of the Megaplex, where in multimillion dollar builds, curtains and a motor were just too costly an addition. So was the new reiteration of that worn-out franchise worth 2 hours? How many times did Mr. Cruise tell the audience that he does his own stunts? I think I jumped ship on MI at maybe the 4th installation. The only way I'd pay money again to see a new one is if they made it 3D, but we know THAT's not gonna happen. Ok, sorry I'm a bit snarky...haven't had my first cup of coffee.

[Jim Cassedy]

. . You know the axiom -- an audience should never be subjected to seeing a naked screen. .

Yes, the curtains work. That also happens to be one my number one rules too. This was
actually a private event sponsored ICONIQ, whose logo you see on the screen. If you look
them up, you'll see that they are a multi-billion dollar financial investment company. (Basically
they are the people who loan money to the people who then loan that money to other people
to invest in many of the hi-tech businesses and start-up's here in Silicon Valley, and then help
them manage their portfolios... or something like that. )
The first logo they sent was black lettering on a white background, which quite frankly, looked
horrible. IMO the peak whiteness was visually overwhelming when projected on our new
screen by our new high-power Barco HDR laser projector. At first they insisted they wanted
me to use the logo they sent. But, I went ahead and made a 'reversed' version of it, with white
letters on a black screen. When the sponsor's advance team arrived early Wed morning, I
showed them both versions, and they went with the "white-on-black" logo I created. So, that
image you see on screen IS actually white lettering on a black background. It looks white-ish
in the photos, because the auto exposure in my camera-phone has made it look a bit washed
out, and also, the footlights were brought up a bit when the guests walked on stage, further
washing out the image a bit. But in reality, the screen WAS black, AND I had even created
a 2nd version of their logo for the end of the show, which was timed to fade out as the curtain
closed. (and if you want to be really picky, you'll see that the logo is 'cheated' slightly upwards
off center screen. It makes for slightly better visual composition when people are on stage)

[Martin McCaffery]

Was everyone comped popcorn? Looks like it was loaded on the table before the show.

[Frank Angel]

Glad to hear you use the curtains, Jim! I have learned to wear it as a badge of honor when they call me "old school." I love that they went with your reworking of their logo. Can't tell the number of times techies have suggested (gently, but strongly) something that radically improves what the "creative" people insist they want...that is until we show them what they REALLY want and then let them claim it was their idea.

[Ryan Gallagher]

We just got our curtain controller repaired yesterday... it's been a long saga. *face palm* In theory just in time for summer films.

Still one bug lingering though, while closing it gets about half way and then slows way down (but it does finish). I wonder if they got enough idler pulley tension for the friction clutch to do it's business.

I often make custom slides for QAs and other faff too... sometimes I'll do a gradient fade in the bottom 3rd if it works with the content. But this one was easy, just invert! (and hope they aren't picky about their text color).

I did something real custom for an approaching tribute bumper... will share after the screening. ;-)

I know Tom is short, but your screen is huge. Ours might be that tall but only when in Flat, wish we had a constant height screen.

[Frank Angel]

Common width: Ya can't call it "wide screen" if the picture stays the same width and just gets shorter, damn it.
Common height: Be still my heart.