New Kaleidoscopic Poster For ‘The Master' Debuts

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‘The Master’ Premieres At A Secret Screening In LA; Reactions Rolling In

So, it looks like we're not going to be able to sleep for the next month if we're going to get through this because shortly after signing off last night we got word that Paul had brought along a little surprise last night for the moviegoers at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica. In Contention was first to report that before a 7:30pm screening of "The Shining," theatre staff announced there would be a "secret screening" afterwards and anyone who wanted to stay was welcome. Afterwards guests were treated to the first public screening anywhere in the world of "The Master," projected, yes, in 70mm. Paul and Maya were in attendance for the film which reportedly plays roughly 2 hours and 10 minutes long.

The Playlist rounded up some initial reactions most of which were very, very positive:

Help PTA Show ‘The Master' In 70mm In Your City

Earlier this week, we came across a story in TimeOut Chicago where writer Ben Kenigsberg put out a plea to secure the Music Box Theatre in Chicago as a venue for "The Master." The article stated that Paul was "eager" to show the film in 70mm wherever possible and that venue is one of the few places in Chicago that is "70mm capable," not to mention just being a beautiful old movie house in its own right. TimeOut spoke to the programmer at the Music Box who said that he hadn't been contacted about showing the film and had already committed to another film during the week of September 21 (when the film opens in Chicago).

Today, TimeOut Chicago posted a follow-up piece wherein some new information has come to light. Apparently The Weinstein Company "passed on the opportunity" to play the film in 70mm at the Music Box and have made other arrangements in that city. A disappointment to be sure, but the issue might be much bigger than that. The article also states that, "Paul Thomas Anderson really does want to show The Master in 70mm as widely as possible. But it’s not entirely up to him."

19 Brand New Stills From ‘The Master'

This morning The Weinstein Co. has dropped 19 brand new stills from 'The Master" which you can check out over at our Facebook page. They're all pretty gorgeous and contain scenes/shots in present in any of the previously released teasers (via our buddies at The Film Stage). Update 8/7: Photos removed at the request of The Weinstein Company.

And thanks again to The Film Stage for the 90(!) high resolution stills from the full-length trailer that dropped a few weeks back which we've also posted over at Facebook. Perfect for your desktop wallpaper/Facebook cover photo/Twitter icon/etc. We've definitely come a long way from the Stellar Spa days, haven't we? If you haven't already you should really check out Cigarettes & Red Vines presents: A Guide To 70mm which should clear up a lot of questions we've been getting from readers. And for those still counting with us, there are just 43 days until September 14th. Still no official confirmation from Venice or TIFF despite being outed by Variety and The Wrap. We'll keep you updated as soon as we hear something.

FYI, we're a lot more active on Twitter than Facebook so if you like your news up-to-the-moment, that's where you want to be.

A Guide To 70mm: Part Three

Ever since we first heard that PTA would be shooting “The Master” (at least partially) in 70mm, we’ve gotten a lot of questions on what exactly that means for the film. We spoke to Datasat Vice President Daniel Schulz (who worked with PTA's team and The Weinstein Co. on mastering the 70mm sound for the film) to get all the answers you might need. 

In years past, 70mm was played back using magnetic striping on the print itself; in fact, one of the major advantages of 70mm was that the increased physical size of the film meant you could include up to 6 discrete tracks of magnetic sound, rather than 2 or 4 as was common with 35mm.  So, the first releases with fancy mixes such as 5 screen channels plus surrounds, or early 5.1 style soundtracks, were always done with 70mm.  Even after the waning of the great era of 70mm, studio pictures that were shot and released mostly on 35mm would have 70mm blowups made for the premiere and coastal cities, in part because of the better soundtrack achievable with 6-channel sound.

That era began to wane with the advent of Dolby Stereo in 1977 with Star Wars, which enabled low-cost, high quality 4-track sound with optical tracks on the 35mm film (mag striping is expensive and technically tricky).  Things really came to head in 1993, when DTS launched with Jurassic Park, enabling superb quality 5.1 digital sound with 35mm film.  Dolby countered with Dolby Digital, also playing back 5.1 digital tracks read off the 35mm film print.  This meant studios could provide superb surround sound tracks in a digital format, with 35mm film prints, eliminating one more reason why 70mm was preferred for high profile screenings, and in fact Dolby used this as one of their marketing reasons for studios to adopt Dolby Digital.

The DTS system was film-size agnostic: it plays back from a CD-ROM, synchronized to the film print using a timecode track printed on the film.  From the very beginning, DTS adapted their system to print timecode on both 35mm and 70mm film, and manufactured readers to read timecode from either film gauge.  Meanwhile, Dolby never did engineer a 70mm version of Dolby Digital.

Fast forwarding to today, there are no labs left that can do mag striping: the process was environmentally troublesome, and as demand fell off to zero the equipment fell out of use.  Fortunately, DTS has kept the torch alive, and has been instrumental in providing soundtracks for a whole host of 70mm restorations done by the major studios and the Academy Film Archive.  In 2008, DTS sold their movie business to a company called Datasat, but under the re-branded name of Datasat Digital Sound, we have continued to support digital surround sound for both 35mm (pretty much all Hollywood movies come with Datasat Digital Sound tracks for the 35mm prints) as well as 70mm restoration work.  Some of the titles that have been exhibited in 70mm with Datasat sound are Lawrence of Arabia, Spartacus, The Sound of Music, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Baraka.

All of which is to say, when PTA decided he wanted his masterpiece exhibited in 70mm, Datasat was an integral part of that process, as we did the digital soundtrack encoding and have been providing technical support to all the venues playing the film in 70mm.  As you know from your process of documenting the 70mm projection side of things, there was a bit of a scramble to ensure that venues had the correct equipment, in good working order.  In our case, most of them had the necessary DTS or Datasat playback unit (since DTS was a pretty widely adopted format, with nearly 20,000 theaters in the US equipped with DTS players since 1993), but needed to be supplied with 70mm timecode readers.

Since Datasat is highest quality digital sound format available for film (due to its low data compression), it is a perfect match for the stunning visuals of 70mm.  We're proud to have been able to help Paul realize his vision with a soundtrack as compelling as his images.

Read Part One
Read Part Two

You can find out more information on Datasat Digital Entertainment on their site.

Cigarettes & Red Vines presents: A Guide To 70mm

Ever since we first heard that PTA would be shooting “The Master” (at least partially) in 70mm, we’ve gotten a lot of questions on what exactly that means for the film. We recently learned that “more than half” of the film was shot on 70mm and so, with the film’s release almost upon us, we’ve decided to provide a user’s guide to getting a basic understanding about the large format and hopefully clear up any confusion.

We spoke to in70mm.com editor Thomas Hauerslev as well as filmmaker Craig Whitney (who spent some time on the set of Terrence Malick's “The Tree Of Life,” portions of which were filmed in 70mm) to get all the answers you might need. Because we got such great information from both sources, we’ve decided to present two different ways to absorb the info: the first part is an brief history of the format while the second part is a more direct Q&A. Enjoy.

Part One

Part Two 

Part Three

You can find a full listing of all theatres showing "The Master" in 70mm here.

FYI, we're a lot more active on Twitter than Facebook so if you like your news up-to-the-moment, that's where you want to be.

A Guide To 70mm: Part Two

Ever since we first heard that PTA would be shooting “The Master” (at least partially) in 70mm, we’ve gotten a lot of questions on what exactly that means for the film. We spoke to in70mm.com editor Thomas Hauerslev to get all the answers you might need.

1. So what is 70mm film? And how does it differ from standard 35mm format? 

70mm is a standard motion picture format which is twice the width of 35mm. The image area is between 3 and 4 times the size of a 35mm frame (depending of if you are shooting flat or anamorphic). Shooting on 65/70mm film offers extremely high resolution images, that gives the audience a different sensation - it's much better in terms of color, sharpness, contrast - it's a life-like image, almost like a 3D sensation, but without the glasses. The 70mm image does not need to be enlarged as much as 35mm on a big screen - gives you razor sharp images. In layman's terms, it's "Motion Pictures HD." Shooting on 65mm is not done every day. "Samsara" which is released in a few weeks is also shot in 65mm film, but released only in 4K Digital format. Complete list of all 65mm films.

A Guide To 70mm: Part One

Ever since we first heard that PTA would be shooting “The Master” (at least partially) in 70mm, we’ve gotten a lot of questions on what exactly that means for the film. We spoke to filmmaker Craig Whitney (who spent some time on set of Terrence Malick's“The Tree Of Life,” portions of which were filmed in 70mm) to get all the answers you might need.

There have been films made in 70mm since the late 1890s. The Henley Regatta (the rowing race that was depicted in “The Social Network”) was filmed in 70mm around 1895. However, 70mm didn't come into widespread use until the 1950s when television began to compete with film for a share of the entertainment market. This was one of a number of strategies that producers tried to give moviegoers an experience that they couldn't possible hope to have in front of a television screen. Some of these strategies, like 3D or widescreen aspect ratio, are still with us today others, like “The Tingler” or Smell-O-Vision, were not as successful (although there was a very interesting Smell-O-Vision version of Terrence Malick's “The New World” released a few years ago).

More Than Half Of ‘The Master' Shot On 65mm; Film Will Be Shown In 1.85:1

We have a quick update this morning while we finish up a much bigger post for you guys. Reader of the site Justin reached out to Kodak asking what film stock was used for "The Master" and got a very helpful reply. Kodak, who are the only company still producing 65mm film stock, revealed that “More than half of ‘The Master’ was shot on 65mm 5207, 5201 and 5213 (the rest was 35mm).” See the exchange below:

We also spoke to In70mm editor Thomas Hauerslev who confirmed through the film’s post-production manager that it will be shown in 1.85:1, not PTA's usual anamorphic 2:35:1 aspect ratio. Much more from our interview with Hauerslev coming very soon...

In other news, The Playlist sat down with director William Friedkin ("The Exorcist") who had some kind words for PTA when discussing which films he's currently excited about.

When you watch current films...
I don't.

There's nothing out there that interests you?
Very few things. I'll definitely want to see Paul Thomas Anderson's film called "The Master," and whatever the Coen Brothers do I'd probably be interested in. Not too many others.

Stay tuned. We should have a very helpful/informative post in the near future. FYI, we're a lot more active on Twitter than Facebook so if you like your news up-to-the-moment, that's where you want to be.