I went to see Frederick Wiseman's Crazy Horse last night and am hoping that I did not witness the future of digital projection. I've read that Wiseman abandoned film for the shoot and instead shot it in HD. I don't know if the problem was with the "print" Sundance had, their projection system, the source material, or who but it was one of the worst looking movies I've seen in a long time. I expect a less than optimal picture at the cheap seats where the prints are worn, the projector's bulb is either the wrong wattage or is on its last legs, etc. I am paying $3 and I get what I pay for.
But this was at Sundance where I pay a premium price for admission and expect quality. For starters, the movie was filled with pixelation. the subjects of Crazy Horse are mostly women and yet many of their curves were jagged and blocky. Plus posterization was common as well when there were sources of red light. There was no gradation between them and objects. The color went from red to blotches of dark grey. It was like watching a VHS tape on an analog TV with its low contrast ratio. This was really annoying as there was a lot of red in the movie. Red lights on the stage, red LEDs on equipment, and the furniture for patrons was all red.
Again, I don't know if it was Sundance's digital projection system or the file that they received but it was just bad.
Did anyone else who saw it notice the artifacts?
No comments:
Post a Comment