Regal had a week long Oscar movie thing. Each movie was shown 2 or 3 times so you could pick what worked best for you and didn’t have to watch a million movies in a day.
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I don’t remember what chain it was through, but there was essentially a movie pass where you could see all the movies a few years back. It didn’t have all that kind of fanfare, and you could go whenever you wanted during voting season. It might have been what tabbaker described.
Even in the best year of Oscars, I would never want to see all the movies up, but that’s just me.
This was probably Regal’s answer to AMC’s thing. That sounds more doable for most people who otherwise have lives.
I went this past year and, notably, they only screened 9 films even though there were 10 nominees. Roma was not included because it is a Netflix film and I guess AMC’s deal is with the Hollywood studios only.
Are you talking about Movie Pass? That was a monthly sub you could buy for a flat cost and go to as many movies as you want. It wasn’t around long because they quickly discovered they were losing their asses on it
It was fkin sweet while it lasted. I saw so many movies on that thing. I’d run out of obvious picks and then go for something adventurous I’d otherwise never watch. I found a couple of unexpected delights that way.
Using MoviePass the whole time felt like I was grifting them, though. Even though I was just using the terms THEY had set. Must be how Republican grifters feel. “It can’t be this easy…?”
No definitely not Movie Pass. It might have been that you just got tickets at a particular time, but I can’t remember the mechanics of it anymore. I’m pretty sure it was what tabbaker was talking about.
In some ways I get what you’re saying but I felt that way more as a kid/teen. The theater seems underwhelming to me now. I enjoyed watching nature docufilms at OMNIMAX domes and would definitely do more of that if I had one close. Last few big box office flicks I saw in theater were annoying in the same way sitting between people laughing their heads off at a Dane Cook show is annoying. I have a really tough time doing BIG FILM because of the cringe-worthy dialogue and shallow plots/characters/jokes/canons.
FWIW I used to watch a fair bit of indie film before it was completely co-opted as a marketing gimmick. Slacker by Richard Linklater was one of the earliest modern indie films I liked. I never felt like that was something I needed to see in a theater though. Also really enjoy short films. I would almost say short films are the way to go now b/c ain’t nobody got time for that.
Pro Tip: Working on short films is among the worst things that can happen to a person in the industry. I remember that every time I’m asked and actually do the work. Then forget again by the next time I’m asked.
+1 to seeing stuff at Omni theaters in the old days. Loved the ones in Fort Worth and Boston.
Is there a reason other than there is no money in it?
Not familiar with those but the Cincinnati OMNI is in a sweet venue. I would definitely go to more films if they were being shown in amazing buildings.
The money is an issue. But it’s generally that the filmmakers are paying you so little and expecting you to help them win their little Oscar from what’s often a pile of shit. Most of them are not that talented, and often aren’t talented at all. But you wouldn’t know it from working with them.
Generally what tends to happen is that you get some tiny amount of money (the most I’ve ever gotten for a short film is $2k, and that wasn’t even close to equitable based on my time). You spend almost all of it just doing things like sound design on some films (I don’t own a sound effects library because I don’t do enough sound design to justify it). Then the director might not like the sound design, and then you have to buy more effects, etc. etc. On a real film/TV show, you have an extensive spotting session so you know most of the ideas of what they’re looking for so you don’t waste a ton of time and money.
On the only ‘decent’ experience short film I worked on for pay (had a couple of freebies that weren’t bad experiences because I’m not thinking about money), the director and I got on some kind system where we did a real spotting session remotely. I knew what he wanted, but it was a humongous amount of work (the $2k job). This particular director is very particular and note heavy (all good notes), so I knew it would be an extensive approval. So I spent several hundred dollars on sound effects, and then had my wife help me do probably 12 hours of foley.
I had told him in our initial spotting session, before pic was locked, that I needed about 2 weeks to do the movie properly. He gave me locked pic 6 days before delivery, and had me on a deal memo where I would get in trouble for not delivering on time. Needless to stay, I was not happy. I had to do numerous long days, and then an all nighter on the day I was doing the final mix. All of this for very little money.
Long story short is of course he had a million notes (said it was the least notes he’d ever given and he was so thrilled lol), and it was a very stressful project because of the time deadline. It went on to get lots of awards notice, so it was worth it for him. He’s actually a guy with real talent, so it’s better to work with him. Most of the others are like 20 to 30 percent of his talent.
That’s pretty much why working on short films sucks. No money, no time, and directors who think they’re big time running you into the ground despite really not knowing what they’re doing. I’ve worked on short films for people I’ve known for no money, but when I do that I do it because I believe in the person and the film. They’re just so not fun to work on, even good ones, and with people you like. If you have to work on a short film, double your rate when you talk about the budget and then don’t be surprised if you don’t get your rate for twice as much work as what the rate equates to in time with 10 times the headache.
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The IMAX is a co-opting of the technology at least visually and probably for sound dynamic range. It’s not the same feel as an old Omni/IMAX theater. I used to go all the time in Boston, maybe once every few weeks because the experience was so enjoyable.
Are you saying the latest OMNIMAX dome screens are a different technical specification than the ones of yesteryear? I haven’t actually been to one of these things in almost 20 years so can’t really comment on what’s happening now.
No I’m talking about the ones in movie theaters that have popped up everywhere.
Ah, yeah, fuck that. I’m talking about the full dome systems. I remember actually losing my balance a bit walking to my seat it was so weird. Total immersion back then and I’m sure it’s even better now. Would probably make for an amazing full feature sci-fi film but there aren’t enough screens in existence to be viable. I think there’s a better chance of seeing this format shot for consumer VR gear first which is still several generations away from just solving the screen door effect.
I think visually it’s a tough sell for VR, because the screen is extremely unforgiving, but it would probably be a good place to do experimental 8k or something. I actually have no idea how they even do the mixes for the old ones. It was way more than 5.1 before 5.1 was really a thing (I feel like it was 10.1 or something), as I remember them having Leonard Nimoy’s voice jumping across probably 10 speakers. It might be something worth researching if I can remember to do that. In the Boston one you could watch the projector from outside the theater. It was pretty crazy how enormous it was.
IIRC, pixelation will be visible on VR panels until at least 16k. I’m not sure of other quality issues that may arise that are common to most consumer displays like backlight uniformity, color uniformity, gamut capabilities, lens distortions, etc. And then there’s the audio problem. I’m super long on VR though unlike 3D.
What do you mean by ‘super long’? That you think it’s not a gimmick like 3D?
MoviePass was such a sweet grift for me. Purely by luck I got in at just the right time and bailed out at just the right time; I caught like $100 worth of free movies. What an absurd business model.
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Correct. I think it’s a transformative technology that’s maybe not even at the Atari stage of development yet.