{"id":124,"date":"2011-10-01T00:27:32","date_gmt":"2011-10-01T04:27:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/?p=124"},"modified":"2020-12-06T21:34:23","modified_gmt":"2020-12-07T02:34:23","slug":"news-flash-i-don%e2%80%99t-hate-everything-digital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/?p=124","title":{"rendered":"News Flash: I Don\u2019t Hate Everything Digital"},"content":{"rendered":"

I keep getting asked this question, so I suppose I have to answer it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy is it that you hate everything digital?\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the short answer:\u00a0 I don\u2019t.\u00a0 What follows is the longer answer.<\/p>\n

Before I start, I know that I\u2019ll be called on the carpet as a luddite, anti-digital idiot.\u00a0 This is inaccurate.\u00a0 The Dr. Film <\/em>pilot was shot and edited digitally, right on a hard drive… only a few seconds of it was ever on digital tape.\u00a0 My background is in Electrical Engineering, and I used to write digital imaging programs that would make your eyes glaze over.\u00a0 I welcome digital technology, but I use film, too.\u00a0 They both have strengths and weaknesses, and I think that throwing out film is a mistake.<\/p>\n

I can best describe my reaction to the digital revolution with an analogy.\u00a0 A good friend of mine once refused to go to a fast-food Mexican restaurant with me.\u00a0 \u201cI hate that stuff,\u201d he said.\u00a0 A few months later, he suggested going to a Mexican restaurant.\u00a0 \u201cI thought you hated that stuff,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cI just hate cheap <\/em>Mexican food, especially when it\u2019s passed off as the real thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

I was just in attendance at a premiere showing of a DVD.\u00a0 This was supposed to be a high-class, dress-up affair.\u00a0 The projection was inexcusable.\u00a0 It was set the way that 95% of all DVD projectors are set, with maximum brightness, so that the white levels bloom and clip, leaving anything bright looking like either hopelessly angelic or like a rejected effect from Star Trek: The Motion Picture.<\/em><\/p>\n

I sat calmly and gritted my teeth as I watched the projector\u2019s brightness overload.\u00a0 Fortunately, most of the footage was shot indoors, because all of the outdoor stuff looked awful.\u00a0 It made me sit and stew for an hour as I watched a good documentary be marred by guy who set up the projector and didn\u2019t know what he was doing.<\/p>\n

This is the digital that I do hate, and I hate it not because it\u2019s digital, but because it looks bad.\u00a0 We\u2019re sold this bunkum about its being state-of-the-art, and yet it would look better on a TV screen. Now, mind you, I\u2019m talking about a standard-resolution DVD, not a Blu-Ray.\u00a0 And I am in a good position to complain because I have run film in that very venue and it looked a whale of a lot better than their presentation did tonight.<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll make a few points here and then back away:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Standard-resolution DVDs aren\u2019t intended for large screen projection and seldom look good unless projected on the very best equipment.\u00a0 It\u2019s easy to mis-adjust the projectors and blow out the whites on it.\u00a0 They have just 525 lines of resolution.\u00a0 (Sorry about the math, but more lines = sharper picture.\u00a0 That\u2019s all you need to know.)<\/li>\n
  2. Projected Blu-Ray (1080 lines) can look very good, and if it was sourced from good materials (usually film elements), it can look better than many 16mm prints and some 35mm prints.<\/li>\n
  3. Many proud Blu-Ray owners tell me that their images are always<\/em> better (or at least as good) as 35mm film. I can\u2019t argue with your perception.\u00a0 What I will do is cite a measurable statistic: Blu-Ray uses 1080 lines.\u00a0 In theaters, the high-end digital projectors that will replace 35mm film are 4000 lines (actually 4096 in most cases, but let\u2019s not haggle).\u00a0 That\u2019s right.\u00a0 Cost-conscious Hollywood studios think they need 4000 lines to replace 35mm.\u00a0 Don\u2019t you think they would all use cheaper 1080-line Blu-ray projection if they thought they could get by with it?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Even though it\u2019s demonstrably not true, people tell me that a standard DVD is \u201cjust as good as film.\u201d\u00a0 I heard those very words this weekend.<\/p>\n

    People are serving me Taco Bell projection and telling me it\u2019s just as good as authentic Mexican.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t.\u00a0 Good digital is fine.\u00a0 Third-rate digital is not only annoying, but it also makes good films look bad.<\/p>\n

    If good digital is out there, then why do I tirelessly advocate film? Well, for starters, a lot of really great material isn\u2019t on Blu-Ray, DVD, or 4000-line digital.\u00a0 Much of it never will be.\u00a0 I also think projected film has a beautiful, rich quality missing in all but the best digital presentations.\u00a0 If you\u2019re careful and picky about prints (and few are pickier than I am), then you can find nice, sharp materials that are sometimes better than what was used as a source for the DVDs.<\/p>\n

    Much of the point of the Dr. Film <\/em>show is to give people an opportunity to see rare materials that are not easy to find in the marketplace.\u00a0 My live shows are intended as way to see rare films in a theatrical venue, with an audience, as they were intended to be seen.<\/p>\n

    I am fully aware that film projection will eventually go the way of the steam engine.\u00a0 It won\u2019t be as fast as some say, because most movies are still shot on 35mm, and archival preservation still takes place on 35mm.\u00a0 I don\u2019t mind being compared with a guy who fixes a steam engine.\u00a0 Diesel engines have no romance.\u00a0 I think we need to be able to see movies shown on film for as long as we can.\u00a0 I am not in a rush, as most places are, to throw out all my film and replace it with digital copies (partly because I can\u2019t!)<\/p>\n

    I know lots of theaters that are gleefully ripping out their 35mm projectors and then running only third-rate DVDs, mis-adjusted, at sizes never intended for that use.\u00a0 They all say the same thing:\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s just as good.\u201d\u00a0 I will continue to rail against this, because it\u2019s wrong.<\/p>\n

    It isn\u2019t \u201cjust as good.\u201d\u00a0 It isn\u2019t even good. \u00a0In the mad rush to get cheaper and easier projection, we’ve thrown quality out the window. \u00a0I hope I’m not the only one who notices it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I keep getting asked this question, so I suppose I have to answer it. \u201cWhy is it that you hate everything digital?\u201d Here\u2019s the short answer:\u00a0 I don\u2019t.\u00a0 What follows is the longer answer. Before I start, I know that I\u2019ll be called on the carpet as a luddite, anti-digital idiot.\u00a0 This is inaccurate.\u00a0 The … Continue reading “News Flash: I Don\u2019t Hate Everything Digital”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"powered_cache_disable_cache":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[207,4],"tags":[52,53,54],"class_list":["post-124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film","category-views-and-reviews","tag-digital","tag-film-projection","tag-quality"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=124"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127,"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions\/127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}