Cinema in Germany is very similar to the United
States; the same movies brought to theaters near you are being shown all
around the world. On September 12, 2012, the film class ventured to a
local movie theater and discovered the similarities in broadcasting.
Kinopolis is the name of the theater located in Bad Godesburg just south
of Bonn. We were met with the tour guide who barely spoke English so
our cinematography professor had to translate.
We were lead to the projector room and had a personal tour of the
machinery. They had an analog machine as well as a digital. The analog
machine worked completely mechanically; the projectionist had to glue
additional material to the film, which was responsible for telling the
projector what type of aspect ratio and the type of lens needed for the
film. The sound was actually separate from the projector and worked
synchronized with the video. The job of a projectionist was to make sure
the projector had the specific settings in order for the film to be
played back correctly. This was used before digital projectors and is
still used at Kinopolis for particular films.For this theater in Germany, changing from analog to digital was quite difficult and costly. The theater had to re-wire the entire projector room in order to compensate for the digital machines. The screens had to be changed for the new 3D wave and took a couple of years. At Kinopolis the digital projector has the ability to broadcast live. They are connected to satellites and are able to show films from other countries over wireless Internet; including television, operas’, news, etc. To help the projectionist work efficiently, the digital projector contains programs that automatically detect the correct settings for the film, unlike analog. At Kinopolis there is only two projectionists working the theater: one to bring the film in from the server, the other to start the film with the correct settings.
It’s difficult for each cinema to determine whether to invest in the newest technology or to stick with their original machinery. The reason that the prices of tickets have drastically increased is because of this new equipment. If a theater invests in 3D technology and a year later, 3D is no longer popular, the theater looses all that money. The current dispute for the Kinopolis cinema is whether to change to 4K digital projectors or to wait for the next hot thing on the market. Currently, the theater contains 2K projectors with the option of 4K depending on the screen. Most theaters wait behind technology advancement to save money and determine what will be the most popular option.
After the projection room, the students were invited into on of the theaters and shown two trailers of upcoming films in 3D. We experienced the beauty and crisp pictures of 3D at Kinopolis and were finally able to understand the technology behind projecting films. After discovering the workings of the cinema, many students have decided to go back to the theater and watch upcoming movies from the states. It was a pleasant and learned experience.
Written by: Kate Remsen
