Not to be a shrill male harpie- I’ve posted about focus at this theater before- I always find this theater fascinating and I attended several films here several years ago like Great Escape, Patton, Godfather 2, American Graffiti, Mad Mad World. Unfortunately they did tend to be a little or more than a bit out of focus, I politely told the lobby volunteers a number of times but the focus never improved. I also find this to be a problem at the Ziegfeld. After noticing focus in the last 5 or 10 yrs I’ve come to the conclusion that most projectionists in the NY area, or maybe everywhere, either can’t tell or aren’t bothered that they’re projecting at least slightly out of focus. (true also at Suffern’s Lafayette when they showed The Haunting a year ago). BAM Cinematek is the worst imo. Most people are just blessed that they don’t notice (audience members that is). Also, more often than not the prints I saw at the Jersey were faded or beat up, no offense intended.
I was interested by the comment some way up that this theater cannot show a 70mm film well; any further explanation would be welcome, as i might make a trip to their 70mm fest at some point. Thanks!
re BATMAN Mon. night: As happens more often than not at the Z. in my opinion, print was not correctly focused and a polite request at the concession stand for adjustment of the focus produced no change. Print had some kind of sound problem so that the dialog didn’t come out loud and strong, as if some speakers were out or some of the frequencies on the soundtrack weren’t playing. Only a couple of instances of surround sound. Tram lines if that’s the term on the print off and on.
It was for a fashion shoot that the Ziegfeld was closed on Wednesday- I was a block away and dropped by.
Was it a good print of GWTW? Just curious. I couldn’t believe how horrible and out of register the rerelease print was that I saw 8 or 9 years ago at the Sutton.
Did anyone else have issues with how the films were FOCUSED during the last festival of classics? Some of them were really in sharp focus but both the Indiana Jones films I saw were a little off, to the point of being a distraction for me. My worst experience during the festival was one of the last evening showings of Dr. Zhivago, which was REALLY off focus. No, I don’t mean the pictures were indistinguishable blobs. I mean that in actual fact it was far from sharp, the knob was not turned to where it would have been sharp, and anyone watching the credits should have been able to see that. (After the credits, which have words on screen that are easy to see if they’re sharp or not, it can be a lost cause in many theaters to get someone to see that there is a problem with the focus. But in this showing, it should have been evident throughout the screening that it wasn’t in focus). I talked to the lady manager twice about it and she said that it was fine, she had looked on her walk thru the theater after my first complaint and there was no problem. And that the projectionist had looked and he or she said there was no problem. Whoever that projectionist was should use binoculars to focus, get better glasses, or get out of the business.
Seriously. PLEASE show the movies in reasonably sharp focus and have employees who are able to do so! And no, most audience members will not notice a film being even significantly out of focus, but that is not a good reason to show films that way.
Well, I just typed out a long comment but I didn’t log in first so I think it’s gone. Suffice to say, most of the film tonight (Graffiti) was not in very good focus despite my mentioning this to 2 volunteers after half an hour. The first half of the credits were sharp, then the image went soft, so that is human error, not just equipment. The sound was muffled. The top of the screen was showing the bottom of the frame for almost half an hour till I mentioned it and the focus- but the focus was not corrected. Sorry guys.
Not to be a shrill male harpie- I’ve posted about focus at this theater before- I always find this theater fascinating and I attended several films here several years ago like Great Escape, Patton, Godfather 2, American Graffiti, Mad Mad World. Unfortunately they did tend to be a little or more than a bit out of focus, I politely told the lobby volunteers a number of times but the focus never improved. I also find this to be a problem at the Ziegfeld. After noticing focus in the last 5 or 10 yrs I’ve come to the conclusion that most projectionists in the NY area, or maybe everywhere, either can’t tell or aren’t bothered that they’re projecting at least slightly out of focus. (true also at Suffern’s Lafayette when they showed The Haunting a year ago). BAM Cinematek is the worst imo. Most people are just blessed that they don’t notice (audience members that is). Also, more often than not the prints I saw at the Jersey were faded or beat up, no offense intended.
I was interested by the comment some way up that this theater cannot show a 70mm film well; any further explanation would be welcome, as i might make a trip to their 70mm fest at some point. Thanks!
Any news on print quality of Mad World would be greatly appreciated!
re BATMAN Mon. night: As happens more often than not at the Z. in my opinion, print was not correctly focused and a polite request at the concession stand for adjustment of the focus produced no change. Print had some kind of sound problem so that the dialog didn’t come out loud and strong, as if some speakers were out or some of the frequencies on the soundtrack weren’t playing. Only a couple of instances of surround sound. Tram lines if that’s the term on the print off and on.
It was for a fashion shoot that the Ziegfeld was closed on Wednesday- I was a block away and dropped by.
Was it a good print of GWTW? Just curious. I couldn’t believe how horrible and out of register the rerelease print was that I saw 8 or 9 years ago at the Sutton.
Anyone seen Good+Bad+Ugly? How was/is the print?
Did anyone else have issues with how the films were FOCUSED during the last festival of classics? Some of them were really in sharp focus but both the Indiana Jones films I saw were a little off, to the point of being a distraction for me. My worst experience during the festival was one of the last evening showings of Dr. Zhivago, which was REALLY off focus. No, I don’t mean the pictures were indistinguishable blobs. I mean that in actual fact it was far from sharp, the knob was not turned to where it would have been sharp, and anyone watching the credits should have been able to see that. (After the credits, which have words on screen that are easy to see if they’re sharp or not, it can be a lost cause in many theaters to get someone to see that there is a problem with the focus. But in this showing, it should have been evident throughout the screening that it wasn’t in focus). I talked to the lady manager twice about it and she said that it was fine, she had looked on her walk thru the theater after my first complaint and there was no problem. And that the projectionist had looked and he or she said there was no problem. Whoever that projectionist was should use binoculars to focus, get better glasses, or get out of the business.
Seriously. PLEASE show the movies in reasonably sharp focus and have employees who are able to do so! And no, most audience members will not notice a film being even significantly out of focus, but that is not a good reason to show films that way.
Well, I just typed out a long comment but I didn’t log in first so I think it’s gone. Suffice to say, most of the film tonight (Graffiti) was not in very good focus despite my mentioning this to 2 volunteers after half an hour. The first half of the credits were sharp, then the image went soft, so that is human error, not just equipment. The sound was muffled. The top of the screen was showing the bottom of the frame for almost half an hour till I mentioned it and the focus- but the focus was not corrected. Sorry guys.
Any news on how the prints are for this wknd? Especially Graffiti and Jaws.