The new Sony 4K projection system makes everything digital. That means no more film strips. Movies come on hard drives which are inserted into a computer and someone sitting at a desk programs in which theater and at what time the film will be shown.
When I first did this story, I was a little sad to see the filmstrip disappear. With all of the latest technology, it was kind of nice to know that there was still a little of the old left. It is comforting to picture, as you are sitting in a dark theater waiting for the feature presentation to begin, that someone in that mysterious little window at the back of the theater is carefully loading the film onto the reel and feeding it into the projector.
I spoke with the crew from Sony as they installed the new technology. The large black box does not look nearly as cool as the rotating table that once wound and rewound the film strip. They praised the latest technology, telling me how it would change my movie-viewing experience. They spoke of how the colors would be more vibrant, the outlines of buildings will be more crisp, something about more pixels and higher resolutions.
Still, I was skeptical. How different would the experience be for the average movie-goer just there for some quality entertainment? Would I really be more likely to notice the outline of a building? Would the blood look more vibrant and if so, do I really want the blood to look more vibrant?
So yes, I was a skeptic. Even after I saw my first couple of films on the newer technology I was not entirely convinced. Then, it happened. I recently went to see a film at a theater that does not have the latest technology. Wow. There is such a difference in the quality of the picture.
The installers were right. The colors are more vibrant. The images are more crisp. And, the biggest selling point for me, there are no scratches, no random black lines that appear in the middle of a scene. As I sat watching this film at the other theater, I noticed every hairline scratch that crossed the screen.
I am officially a digital convert. Mount Airy is lucky to have this new technology at its fingertips, especially when you consider that some of the larger cities are still watching films on the older versions. There is nothing wrong with the filmstrips, but when something better is available, why not embrace it?
Newer is not always better, I still cringe when I think about the re-animated Care Bears or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but sometimes it can make all the difference.
Morgan Wall is a staff reporter for The Mount Airy News. She can be reached at mwall@mtairynews.com or 719-1929.
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