Projection

IAC General Discussions
Post Reply
User avatar
Stephen
Posts: 223
Joined: Wed Feb 14, 2007 3:36 pm
Location: Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
Contact:

Projection

Post by Stephen »

The wisdom of the list is required !

Having been in my local club for just over 12 months I thought it about time I got my hands dirty and started to muck in a bit more!

I'm a little concerned that I may not do justice to the task I have taken on which is the projection of films !!!!

eeeeeek......!!


Other experienced members are giving most excellent advice and I'm not being left to my own devices.... yet !!


The equipment with the many dials, knobs etc is not a problem.... but the calibration of what is being projected does concern me...


Getting the colour balance, contrast, brightness etc is of course self evident .. ... ... or is it??


I think it could be most detrimental in a competition if entries are not projected fairly ... and from what I have seen so far entries can come in a variety of media these days !!!!



I know of Colour bars, and various test screens that are available to aid setup .....are they of any real use ... and on what media would you use to do this ?.....




prior preparation to the 'live' projection will hopefully enhance members viewing of the event



How do other clubs do this ?
Stephen

Film making is not a matter of Life and Death
It's much more important than that.
User avatar
Dave Watterson
Posts: 1872
Joined: Sun Jan 28, 2007 11:11 pm
Location: Bath, England
Contact:

Post by Dave Watterson »

Stephen - bless you for even thinking about projection quality! So many places seem to think that just getting an image roughly on or near the screen is enough.

If you want to get the very best results you will need two hours at least in the club rooms with the projector and a test disc. The one I use is "The AVIA Guide to Home Theater" which www.amazon.co.uk lists at £20.43 in the UK. A few small bits of that relate only to NTSC but the vast majority of its test patterns, test tones and information is worldwide and works well for PAL. One or two bits relate specifically to cathode-ray tv sets rather than projectors.

On the plus side it allows you to set up almost every aspect of the projector and the sound system to perfection.

Be slightly wary because the setup to get the best from commercial movies on DVD is less bright than most amateurs expect for their work. For home cinema use you want to emulate the way a film appears in a professional 35mm cinema - which is surprisingly dim !!! Most amateur productions, however, are shot and edited to the standards of broadcast television which go for a brighter image.

BUT having said that ...

The practical approach is simply to be sure you know how:

1. to turn the projector on and off safely. (i.e. how long it takes to warm up, how long you have to leave it after switching-off before moving it.)

2. to zoom the picture to fit the screen.

3. to focus - just like film projection, there is a "grain" in video images which you can focus on - forget the pictures themselves, who knows whether they were sharp to start with!

4. to switch from 4x3 to 16x9 projection and back again.

Tips:

Make up a simple lens cover which you stand in front of the projector at shows while it is warming up, but which does not touch the lens. This stops the light getting onto the screen but will not upset your carefully pre-set focus and zoom settings.

If the club screen does not already have a black border on it, make one! If necessary use strips of matt-black cardboard cut out and fixed temporarily to the edges. No other single change will make the pictures seem better than having a hard black border round them!!!

Make up a short movie with random colour patterns, or shots of clouds in a blue sky, or waves on the beach ... anything bland and repetitious ... with occasional appearances of the club name and logo in a corner. Repeat that clip several times to make a 40-minute "movie" which can be run during intervals, while announcements are being made etc. - It worked well in the mini-cinemas at BIAFF this year.

Most important of all ... keep watching the image, listening to the sound and being aware of the audience reaction throughout every film. It is far too easy to start sorting out the next movie and not noticing that the sound has got too quiet for the audience, or that there is a picture glitch of some kind. I've even known projectionist fail to notice that the table has been bumped and the image is part-way off the screen!

Cheers

Dave
User avatar
stingman
Posts: 442
Joined: Mon Jan 29, 2007 10:37 am
Location: Isle of Wight
Contact:

Post by stingman »

Alot of usefull advice there Dave. I don`t think any thing more needs to be said!
I didn`t know that there was a dvd available with test charts and things on. Me be your club should buy a copy.
I add to Dave`s advice as that I would also do a test MiniDV tape with testcards, flowers, clouds, close up of peoples faces, trees etc. This would give you the colour etc to ajust for tones and also with MiniDV, they tend to have a different quality then DVD`s. The picture can look a bit different.
Ian Gardner
Film Maker
User avatar
Stephen
Posts: 223
Joined: Wed Feb 14, 2007 3:36 pm
Location: Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
Contact:

Post by Stephen »

Great stuff Dave.... even more info than expected !!!!!

I'll keep you informed on how things progress next season...

many thanks....
Stephen

Film making is not a matter of Life and Death
It's much more important than that.
User avatar
billyfromConsett
Posts: 489
Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2007 3:27 pm
Location: Consett

Post by billyfromConsett »

Upon playing with our gear at the club the other week we set up projecting a colour bar from black and white - to colur- to try and get the contrast and depth of colour right. And the setting that looked best had the contrast turned up near full.

Then we played a selction of movie samples to test the settings.

So it'll be interesting to see the changes we made with a real audience, though we won't tell them that we've played :roll: .

I used to set the processor dials all to about 12 o'clock and just assessed how the movies looked in front of the members.

Some movies did look a bit washed out -especially the old VHS movies. (the tapes ALWAYS took the blame :wink: )

But for budding projectionists a night spent playing with the gear and coolly analysing how things are best done must be good time management in the quest of striving for excellence.
User avatar
FILM THURSO
Posts: 241
Joined: Tue Feb 20, 2007 1:37 pm
Location: Thurso
Contact:

Post by FILM THURSO »

Isn't this great, who'd have thought we'd be discussing projection when amateur movie makers switched to video all those years ago. I always thought it would go this way. Anywhoo, for my tuppence worth (to the value of a half penny) A bright picture has a different focal point to a dark picture because light spreads out when it is bright. Blue on black has a totally different focal point again (see titles on our film "Micro Trip"). The trick in mainstream cinema is to set the focus for the feature on it's certificate rating card and leave it after that. You can give it a minor tweak if you really must but generally the certificate is a good marker.
Incidentally how many of you use 'certificate' cards. At Film Thurso we have a system of "Content Advisory" which tells the audience the key ellements in the picture which may cause them concern. We are usually over strict in our age limits but it helps prevent some worthy do-gooder finding fault in what we show.
User avatar
billyfromConsett
Posts: 489
Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2007 3:27 pm
Location: Consett

Post by billyfromConsett »

Has your film group got a website? I'm trying to work out what kind of group you are. You said you don't enter competitions (is that right?) so do you distribute your films etc?

A little blog would be useful if you would be so kind. (I'm new)
User avatar
FILM THURSO
Posts: 241
Joined: Tue Feb 20, 2007 1:37 pm
Location: Thurso
Contact:

Post by FILM THURSO »

Yikes, please don't try to pin us to a type. We don't like the 'type' thing. We have a broad spectrum of interests that go beyond anything to do with film making.
Have a look here: http://thursopicturehouse.piczo.com
We make films, we show films. We film things for archive, we record sounds, document places and write things, we explore old cinemas and derelict buildings, we go ghost hunting and love jumping into the harbour sometimes. We also moniter two ancient historic sites and organise arts events. Uch, and a whole pile of other things.
User avatar
stingman
Posts: 442
Joined: Mon Jan 29, 2007 10:37 am
Location: Isle of Wight
Contact:

Post by stingman »

It sounds like you don`t sleep at night or the other! You seem to have crammed so much in!
Ian Gardner
Film Maker
Brian Saberton
Posts: 355
Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2007 8:00 pm
Location: Scotland

Post by Brian Saberton »

I've included a brief mention of Film Thurso and their web address in the next Scottish Scene which will be in the IAC mag for September/October.
Brian Saberton
User avatar
billyfromConsett
Posts: 489
Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2007 3:27 pm
Location: Consett

Post by billyfromConsett »

Hey Brian- I contacted your friend re the projector lip synch issue- and I eventually got a Panasonic PT-AX100. It's a superb bit of kit, with no such gremlins.

Couldn't be happier. Cheers.
Brian Saberton
Posts: 355
Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2007 8:00 pm
Location: Scotland

Post by Brian Saberton »

That's great Billy, thanks for letting me know.
Brian Saberton
Post Reply