Planetary Projection

November 17, 2013 9:40 AM

Planetary Projection: a collaborative online history of the (perhaps) disappearing art of film projection.
posted by goatdog (4 comments total)

Sad to say, there's no perhaps about it. Film projecting won't exist for much longer at all, and it's really quite sad to me because when you think about what it actually is, it's perfectly simple. Images printed on transparent strips and flashed in front of you. What a weird thing for people to do and then generate a gazillion dollar industry around.
posted by dogwalker at 11:16 AM on November 17, 2013

The "perhaps" is because it's not entirely true. Repertory houses and museums are still using film pretty regularly. And new ones are cropping up--for example, the Black Cinema House in Chicago just installed 16mm because there's a lot of stuff available on 16mm that will never get digitized. (Full disclosure: I was the director there when we decided the new venue needed 16mm.)
posted by goatdog at 11:47 AM on November 17, 2013

They might not be able to for much longer. Everything I've heard from the rep houses near me in LA is that the studios are growing more and more stingy with their back catalog's film leasings, almost to the point where they can't even keep their calendar filled with print screenings. They are effectively turning all prints into archive prints. And that will happen more and more as the few prints that are continually circulated degrade faster and faster.

MoMA might still be running the 16mm print of the eternal film in twenty years, but that is not a sound definition of film projection staying alive for me. Whatever, if you consider that enough to refrain from labeling film projection "disappeared" then that's great.
posted by dogwalker at 1:11 PM on November 17, 2013

big difference is between studios and collectors. where i program and project films, we borrow from private collectors as well. i think the biggest threat to celluloid projection might be the lack of technicians who can maintain the projectors. maybe even scarcity of replacement parts, since so many thoughtful multiplexes sent their 35mm projectors to the scrap yard. but 35mm and 16mm screenings will be around as long as someone owns a print and the projector is in working order.
posted by altersego at 10:41 PM on November 17, 2013 [1 favorite]