There’s a lot of talk about cinema quality, whether you shoot 2K or 4K, and is 1920 × 1080 good enough for the big screen. I’m not so interested in talk, I’m interested in action. What is the truth about putting images on the big screen. Only one way to tell and that’s to do some tests.
It took a bit of organising – I come armed to the cinema with a laptop and DVI adapter. The cinema is letting me do the tests, they suggested plugging the laptop straight in or using BluRay (I’ve brought 2 red laser BluRay discs with me.) The other option is a 2K DCP file – that’s not something I know how to create.
We plug the laptop straight in. The projector is a monster. I’m not going to give model numbers or specs, let’s just say it’s almost as big as a small car. From the booth I can see the images on the big screen. I walk downstairs into the theatre.
The images I’ve edited together is a selection of footage I have filmed with the Blackmagic Cinema Camera, Blackmagic Pocket Camera, and Sony PMW-F3. The results are fantastic!
Without doubt everything I’m watching is good enough for the big screen. Nice colours, nice depth to the colours, sharp images, deep blacks. And this is 1920 × 1080 ProRes.
Just for the test we swap over to the BluRays I’ve burnt and these look fantastic too. No problem with the images or audio – looks and sounds great. If I’d paid to see this as a feature film the results, certainly technically, are up to standard. No complaints, just good looking pictures!
I quiz the projectionist about 2K DCP files, which is the format cinemas throughout the world use to show feature films. The projectionist says 2K DCP would look better than the 1920 × 1080 which we are projecting. They also comment on the look of film being projected and how great that can look with a good print, and how terrible it can look with a print which is old and scratched to pieces.
So I’ve proved to myself that cinema quality is truly within our grasp, for each and everyone of us. All this talk of cinema cameras is real! Not just sales and marketing, the real deal. Buy yourself a Blackmagic Cinema Camera and you are shooting cinema standard. Buy yourself a Sony F5 or F55 and you are there. A Canon C500 would also do the job nicely. Red, Alexa, there’s a lot of choice out there. I’m also a believer in 1920 × 1080 – the XDCAM EX files I was looking at were shot at 8 bit 4:2:0. To my eyes – the results looked excellent. I have no doubt 2K and 4K would look better, though with nothing to judge my images against, except for the 1920 × 1080 files I provided, I have to say once again, the results looked truly excellent.
For the record this wasn’t some backwater, out of town, low budget cinema with half the seating of a proper cinema; this was bang in the centre of London in Leicester Square. Not only that – I wasn’t on my own. A friend, fellow editor, and motion graphics artist was with me for the tests. We had lunch afterwards and discussed what we had seen, and we agreed unequivocally, that what we had seen projected, direct off a Macbook Pro and also BluRay, was without any doubt up to cinema standard.
It took a bit of organising – I come armed to the cinema with a laptop and DVI adapter. The cinema is letting me do the tests, they suggested plugging the laptop straight in or using BluRay (I’ve brought 2 red laser BluRay discs with me.) The other option is a 2K DCP file – that’s not something I know how to create.
We plug the laptop straight in. The projector is a monster. I’m not going to give model numbers or specs, let’s just say it’s almost as big as a small car. From the booth I can see the images on the big screen. I walk downstairs into the theatre.
The images I’ve edited together is a selection of footage I have filmed with the Blackmagic Cinema Camera, Blackmagic Pocket Camera, and Sony PMW-F3. The results are fantastic!
Without doubt everything I’m watching is good enough for the big screen. Nice colours, nice depth to the colours, sharp images, deep blacks. And this is 1920 × 1080 ProRes.
Just for the test we swap over to the BluRays I’ve burnt and these look fantastic too. No problem with the images or audio – looks and sounds great. If I’d paid to see this as a feature film the results, certainly technically, are up to standard. No complaints, just good looking pictures!
I quiz the projectionist about 2K DCP files, which is the format cinemas throughout the world use to show feature films. The projectionist says 2K DCP would look better than the 1920 × 1080 which we are projecting. They also comment on the look of film being projected and how great that can look with a good print, and how terrible it can look with a print which is old and scratched to pieces.
So I’ve proved to myself that cinema quality is truly within our grasp, for each and everyone of us. All this talk of cinema cameras is real! Not just sales and marketing, the real deal. Buy yourself a Blackmagic Cinema Camera and you are shooting cinema standard. Buy yourself a Sony F5 or F55 and you are there. A Canon C500 would also do the job nicely. Red, Alexa, there’s a lot of choice out there. I’m also a believer in 1920 × 1080 – the XDCAM EX files I was looking at were shot at 8 bit 4:2:0. To my eyes – the results looked excellent. I have no doubt 2K and 4K would look better, though with nothing to judge my images against, except for the 1920 × 1080 files I provided, I have to say once again, the results looked truly excellent.
For the record this wasn’t some backwater, out of town, low budget cinema with half the seating of a proper cinema; this was bang in the centre of London in Leicester Square. Not only that – I wasn’t on my own. A friend, fellow editor, and motion graphics artist was with me for the tests. We had lunch afterwards and discussed what we had seen, and we agreed unequivocally, that what we had seen projected, direct off a Macbook Pro and also BluRay, was without any doubt up to cinema standard.
