From a few weeks ago, a powerful essay about how theater film projection has become a neglected craft.
“Do you remember what a movie should look like? Do you notice when one doesn’t look right? Do you feel the vague sense that something is missing?.”
The culprit is the recent mania for 3D projection, which generally produces a visibly darker picture than traditional 2D projection. Worse, Ebert charges that many theater owners are leaving 3D lenses on even when projecting 2D films; though they serve no function in those instances, those 3D lenses are nevertheless absorbing fifty percent of the projected light.
This reminds me a bit of the quality of voice telephone calls. With the proliferation of mobile phones and VOIP it’s hard to remember now that voice calls carried over land lines used to much, much clearer.
Read Ebert’s full article here.
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