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kinjitsu wrote:THR Poll: Young People Want Texting in Movies

Finally saw Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy today (yes, still running twice daily at the locally owned eight-screen). Some idiot behind me was texting and left the sound on. Constant ding noises when he got replies. Someone beat me to it and walked up to him and said "turn that fucking thing off!". Idiot.

Uh, that poll is saying that people want to see other people texting within movies, not that texting be allowed in the theater, correct

I can't tell if you forgot your [sarcasm] tags, but

The poll found that a majority of 18-to-34-year-olds believe using social media while watching a movie in a theater would add to their experience, and nearly half would be interested in going to theaters that allowed texting and web surfing.

goddamnit don't burst my bubble here, I need it

Another new poll shows that people prefer to chew popcorn with their mouths open during movies and endlessly dig around in the plastic shopping bags full of random shit that they brought with them.

If I owned a movie theatre, I'd install a signal jammer in every screen though, for some reason, that appears to be illegal.

Calvin wrote:If I owned a movie theatre, I'd install a signal jammer in every screen though, for some reason, that appears to be illegal.

You'd be better off building a cinema in an underground concrete bunker. I read an interview with the manager of London's Renoir cinema in which he said that he doesn't have problems with people using mobile phones because the building's architecture effectively (if unintentionally) blocks any signals.

domino harvey wrote:I can't tell if you forgot your [sarcasm] tags, but

The poll found that a majority of 18-to-34-year-olds believe using social media while watching a movie in a theater would add to their experience, and nearly half would be interested in going to theaters that allowed texting and web surfing.

It is indeed much a much better experience when you miss half of it on your cellphone. :-k

I would watch a movie in an underground concrete bunker.

I do everyday.

Despite my Blu-ray arriving a few days earlier, I went to see the excellent restoration of La grande illusion at the art house theatre on campus but I was a bit surprised by the projection. Are all digital projections 16:9 like HD video on Blu-ray, with the image windowboxed or pillarboxed as necessary? This film was projected exactly like you were watching a Blu-ray on a giant TV with the screen masked for 16:9 with the 4:3 image projected with black bars on the side. Surely the screen should have been masked for 4:3 and the pillarboxes either shouldn't have been projected or they should have just disappeared into the black masking? It just looked very strange with all this unnecessary black light being projected. The StudioCanal logo beforehand was 16:9 though.

TMDaines wrote:Despite my Blu-ray arriving a few days earlier, I went to see the excellent restoration of La grande illusion at the art house theatre on campus but I was a bit surprised by the projection. Are all digital projections 16:9 like HD video on Blu-ray, with the image windowboxed or pillarboxed as necessary?

Yes. The screen should've been masked for Academy ratio, provided the theater is set up to do so. This would've messed up the Studio Canal logo, but that's Canal's problem -- using a 16:9 logo on the DCP of a 1.37:1 film is just incompetence (assuming it was in fact a DCP and not a Blu-ray projection).

TMDaines wrote:Despite my Blu-ray arriving a few days earlier, I went to see the excellent restoration of La grande illusion at the art house theatre on campus but I was a bit surprised by the projection. Are all digital projections 16:9 like HD video on Blu-ray, with the image windowboxed or pillarboxed as necessary? This film was projected exactly like you were watching a Blu-ray on a giant TV with the screen masked for 16:9 with the 4:3 image projected with black bars on the side. Surely the screen should have been masked for 4:3 and the pillarboxes either shouldn't have been projected or they should have just disappeared into the black masking? It just looked very strange with all this unnecessary black light being projected. The StudioCanal logo beforehand was 16:9 though.

The Fanciful Norwegian is absolutely right, but the "provided the theater is set up to do so" factor is pretty crucial here. The sad fact is that most cinemas - even arthouse ones - can't show films in Academy any more, and while the great thing about digital restorations is that the aspect ratio is framed within the native 16:9 frame (so there should be next to no chance of getting it wrong at the projection stage), they may not have screen masking in the right shape.

Pretty sure this theatre can mask for Academy though as they regularly show classics when they make their UK tours and I went to see a live performance of Caligari there a couple of years ago, which was projected with film, and definitely masked for Academy.

TMDaines wrote:Pretty sure this theatre can mask for Academy though as they regularly show classics when they make their UK tours and I went to see a live performance of Caligari there a couple of years ago, which was projected with film, and definitely masked for Academy.

In which case they must simply have taken their cue from the 16:9 aspect ratio.

Watching J. Edgar with my homophobic brother was quite a delight for me, mostly because he had no idea of Hoover's sexuality which I thought was something he would have known.

APRIL FOOLS

*looks at calendar*

*dies*

So this really real? Really?

I think that's the most perfect "which Onion is this?" moment I've yet come across. And yes, it's absolutely horrific.

I guess I'm glad I don't watch movies surrounded by the "Lincoln Center crowd." I mean, even if there was "giggling" at some screenings, how is that necessarily a sign of any problem with the film? I've heard nervous and inappropriate laughter at a lot of different films, and the only thing I can really conclude from it is that I should go out to the movies even less.
Edit: typo

I saw it in a packed house in maybe the largest arthouse movie theater auditorium in Philadelphia (the gorgeous Ritz East rear auditorium), and there wasn't a single giggle, snort, or chortle for the entirety of that [or any] sex scene.

If only Barmy were here to give an authoritative audience report.

The tonier the audience, the worse they usually are. They giggle at everything because they're "too cool" to respond in any other way. The worst movie theater crowds I've ever experienced were at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Cinematheque and the Walker Art Center.

Matt wrote:The tonier the audience, the worse they usually are. They giggle at everything because they're "too cool" to respond in any other way. The worst movie theater crowds I've ever experienced were at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Cinematheque and the Walker Art Center.

Have you ever been to a movie with an urban audience? It's an interactive experience. I would love to see this play multiplexes. Most arthouses I've been to are deadly silent.