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I never noticed that, but I haven't gone to theaters after the pandemic hit. If that's happening widely, that's a shame. The tickets to see a film aren't cheap. I've been enjoying watching movies from the comfort of my home, especially because I can eat what I want, sit in a comfy chair, not be distracted by loud, talkative people (like me lol), fall asleep comfortably, put on subtitles because modern movies don't invest in their sound designs as much and understand what's going on, etc. My biggest horror story was when I watched the Silent Hill adaptation in theaters way back. There were a lot of loud people talking over the film, and it was upsetting for me because I'm a big SH fan, so the experience was quite unpleasant for me.

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Apr 14, 2023Liked by Mikhail Skoptsov

(Saw this post on Notes, so...good job Notes, I guess!)

In my experience, projection actually got a little more reliable in the digital era. I had way more bad experiences in the celluloid era.

This is not to say you're wrong, though. Digital projection should be almost foolproof, but all it can manage is to be slightly better than the previous, fully mechanical process. As another commenter noted, your safest bet is to go to a prestige cinema, if there is such a thing near you.

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Apr 13, 2023Liked by Mikhail Skoptsov

I remember plenty of issues back in the 35mm days — scratches even on new prints, things misframed, etc. When I saw Adaptation, the last reel was misframed so that boom mics were present in every other shot (though at the time I wasn’t sure if that was intentional or not given how heightened the climax of that film is). Ebert used to write regularly about dim projection and other issues. Back in the '90s and early '00s I had a few theaters I avoided as much as possible because they were constantly screwing it up. So I don't know if exhibition issues are new.

But probably one thing that has changed has been the rise of more luxury theaters (at least in big cities) and premium formats like AMC's Dolby Cinema. I see everything I can in a Dolby Cinema auditorium and have never had a bad experience at one. Could just be I'm lucky and the AMC near me has high standards. But I hear good stuff about Alamo (none near me, alas) and I've had good luck at some other smaller high-end chains.

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Apr 13, 2023Liked by Mikhail Skoptsov

The previews were fine. But when the 3D picture came up it was just not right. My eyes tried to click focus on the blurred image but it wasn't happening. One of the 3D projections was just a nauseating step off sharp. Half-full house and others are also trying to adjust to this unnatural image. After 5m I went to get someone. The house manager said she'd fix it. But she didn't or couldn't. She didn't stop the picture. We're 20m in now and giant furry robots are fighting. She said it was fine enough for the audience still sitting in the room. Of course, NO REFUNDS. Now, no audience.

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