LAist: Sin City: Digital or 35 MM?

Michelle

Wed, 06 Apr 2005 10:37:14 -0800

I don't think they have any digital theaters here in Indianapolis so I'm obviously just missing out. I just wanted to say though that I think both the trailer and the one-sheet for Episode 3 look pretty cheesy. That's not to say I won't be seeing the film. I'm just pointing it out.

sean bonner

Mon, 04 Apr 2005 14:42:06 -0800

I'm going to see digital today so I'll report back for sure..

chris ullrich

Mon, 04 Apr 2005 14:23:39 -0800

saw it friday, 4:00pm show at the arclight. digital projection. fantastic looking film. as someone who has spent many years working with film, this movie has almost completely sold me on all digital production. did anyone else notice during the trailer for "revenge of the sith" that a couple of the shots looked very "video"? if that kind of look could be eliminated then i think i would be completely sold on digital. i guess i will have to wait for the movie to see how it really looks. i have to disagree with michael on his bit at the end of his comment. i think the switch to digial will happen when the studios realize that they can spend far less money shooting and distributing digitally than they can with film. even now, very few (under ten) major studio releases this year were shot digitally. the decision to switch will be purely an economic one. until then, digital will still be a niche player.

Michael

Mon, 04 Apr 2005 13:11:00 -0800

I saw it with my wife on Sunday. We missed the 1PM show in the digital room due to subway delay. We moved our tickets to the 2PM showing in the Dome. You could see the gate weave of film if you really look, but the picture was superb. If it's recorded digitally, it will look best on the digital screen. If it's recorded on film, the film projector will look best (if you are at the technically sound Arclight). Digital projection has a bit of trouble with the graininess of film. So when you go film -> view digital, there can be issues. As more filmmakers switch to digital recording, the clean look will take over the traditional grainy 'film look' that people are used to.

Jason T.

Mon, 04 Apr 2005 11:49:56 -0800

You're totally right, Sean. This is what 3 hours sleep gets me. Time to find a digital version to compare.

sean bonner

Mon, 04 Apr 2005 11:43:40 -0800

Just to clairify something here - you saw it at Arclight (I'm going today) but did you see it IN the dome, or in one of the other theaters? Because the dome is NOT digital last I checked, so if you saw it in the dome you probably saw the 35mm version. That said, a few film producing friends have told me that with a movie like Sin City, there's so much digital post production being done that the digital is actually closer to perfect, and the 35mm is just a copy from the final digital version.