Classic Movie on Film Purchase

[Mustafa Umut Sarac]

I always wanted to own the copies of classical movies on film. May be Tarkovsky , Eisenstein or Kane .

Is it possible and what about the costs ?

Umut

 

[AgX]

You mean release prints as projected in cinemas?

 

[Mustafa Umut Sarac]

Yes AgX.

 

[MartinP]

They would be interesting artefacts indeed. Release prints have a limited life, so they will have usually been destroyed when they are no longer able to be projected without obvious flaws. How and where one might be able to obtain one of those prints I have no idea. Of course, I am assuming that you don't want pristine prints for projecting yourself!

In the near future (a couple of years is planned), the big studios will no longer ship any movies on film - instead using encrypted hard-drives. This means that most commercial cinemas must change to digital projectors, if they have not already done so, which have a relatively short lifespan (4k will soon be ubiquitous, replacing 2k), both technically and physically, and frequently licensing conditions will often mean that a cinema will have to dispose of all optical projectors, even if they had the space to keep dual-source screening rooms (as optical projection will imply prints which are not in control of the studio). That in turn means that there will soon be even fewer release-prints in circulation, and hence available as worn-out prints.

For the classic movies this may be survivable, as they will be transferred to 4k digital, but the majority of older movies will have their venues removed except, perhaps, as being projected in DVD (low) quality. In smaller venues throughout the world, where the costs of digitalisation are too high (even with the current, temporary, offers of support from studios), expect to see fewer cinemas and even those will be using ancient release-prints and/or low quality cheap digital projection.

Not a happy scenario for cinemas, or film-lovers. Also this is not mentioning the halting of contracts for cine negative-film production coming soon, and the effect that will have on the production of release-print materials which are (or once were) the largest proportion of film production.

 

[darkosaric]

I would try to find some Russian forum - it is possible that somewhere on Russian market it is possible to buy what you want.
@APUGers from Russia: in Russia ebay is best know auction site, or you have some local one?

Since I lived in Poland - I know that on www.allegro.pl you can find full length films on 35mm format, but last time when I searched I did not found classic ones like Tarkovsky, Eisenstein ...

 

[Mustafa Umut Sarac]

Thank you Martin,
I read an article about hyperspectral chip made from 100 strips of different narrow band filters.
I think % 50 of them cover visible spectrum. If each strip can be recorded with 20 mb quality , 1 frame makes 1 gigabytes of information.
If it records 1 hour , it makes 3600 gigabytes , 3 hour movie makes 10000 gigabytes. If in this time range when achiving to record that in single DVD , it would increase to record 2000 bands. That makes 72000 gigabytes.
It would take 50 years to achive to playback the Stalker movie on a pc with all details.

I have sent a mail to Pathe and waiting their answer.

Umut

 

[Mustafa Umut Sarac]

Thank you Darko , let me surf on these options.

Thank you,
Umut

 

[JohnRichard]

ACtually, it's quite easy to find 16mm and 35mm release prints in both scope and flat format (spherical and anamorphic projection). You have to be careful of prices because as always some people are stupid.

There are many choices on Ebay. I did a quick search and some of the old websites I use to frequent are gone, new sites pop up all the time.

There are many more classic films to be had in 16mm. There are many uninformed folks who say that you can not get 35mm release prints no matter what - they are just wrong.
You can, if you want, even obtain 70mm prints, but THOSE projectors are a) hard to come by, and 2) take much electricity and cooling to run.

Good luck! There are about 30 preview trailers at the local second-hand store right now. The theatre I grew up with would routeenly throw away into the dumpster, 35mm prints or preview material that was "past its' life" .

 

[ww12345]

Yeah, 16mm prints of pretty much anything can be had all day, 35mm, while rarer, can still be obtained.

As a film enthusiast, I would suggest getting your feet wet with a 16mm projector and some prints before trying 35mm. A good 16mm projector is a Kodak Pageant 250 - gentle as all else and quiet machines to boot.

By the way, need I tell you that the picture quality if 16mm surpasses most DVDs?