HTTYD in Massachusetts
Posted: 11 Mar 2024, 11:08
Was going to post this on the Dragon Chat, but then realised that a forum post may suit this even more!
So last week I went on a trip to Massachusetts, to do a real-life Grapevine meetup, where I'd show my 35mm copy of HTTYD1. I met Sparrowhawk, @Theotherunknown and @NightoftheFury, as well as someone who isn't on these forums.
If you don't know - films before 2012-ish were sent to cinemas not as hard drives or digital files, but on analog film, to be projected by shining a light through each frame in sequence, 24 times a second. I'm into old technology and film, and I have a copy (two, in fact!) of HTTYD1 on 35mm film - a copy that will have been used in a cinema to show the movie to an audience in 2010!
I have a projector at home, but it's always more fun to project in a proper cinema, with others watching too. I've taken my film to cinemas twice before (where I made this video before), but both times in the UK - this would be the first time in the US.
I've included some pics & descriptions below, so you can see what dragon-antics we got up to!
So last week I went on a trip to Massachusetts, to do a real-life Grapevine meetup, where I'd show my 35mm copy of HTTYD1. I met Sparrowhawk, @Theotherunknown and @NightoftheFury, as well as someone who isn't on these forums.
If you don't know - films before 2012-ish were sent to cinemas not as hard drives or digital files, but on analog film, to be projected by shining a light through each frame in sequence, 24 times a second. I'm into old technology and film, and I have a copy (two, in fact!) of HTTYD1 on 35mm film - a copy that will have been used in a cinema to show the movie to an audience in 2010!
I have a projector at home, but it's always more fun to project in a proper cinema, with others watching too. I've taken my film to cinemas twice before (where I made this video before), but both times in the UK - this would be the first time in the US.
I've included some pics & descriptions below, so you can see what dragon-antics we got up to!
- The film itself
- The projection booth
And here is the projection room (or "projection booth") of the cinema we showed it at! They have two projectors, this is needed to switch between the 5 reels. You start a reel running on one projector, and then as it ends, you start the next projector. If you time it right, the audience doesn't notice that there's been a change! This is known as "changeovers" in the projection world.
For the nerds like myself, these projectors are Philips DP70s - considered to be one of the best projectors ever made.
- Threading up the film
- Watching the movie
And once that was all done, we watched the movie! If you've not had the chance to see HTTYD1 in a cinema before, it's a treat, and worth doing if you get the chance. Everything is much better on the big screen. And the quality is far superior to the DVD, and even the BluRay.
Here are some shots of the film as we watched it. It looked stunning!
And of course, my favourite scene, Forbidden Friendship:
- The "lost" animation error
Did you know that when HTTYD1 was first animated, there was an error? You'll remember that when Hiccup first sketches Toothless in his notepad, he sees the missing fin and rubs it out. Later on we see the smudged fin when he places his notebook down on top of the dragon manual.
But - the original animated version of the film had a mistake - they used the wrong texture for this second scene, so the tail appears unsmudged! If you saw the movie in cinemas in 2010 you may have spotted this - but it was then fixed for the dvd/bluray editions, and has also been fixed in cinema re-releases. So watching a 35mm copy is really the only way to see this difference!
Below is a screenshot of the smudged fin that you'll be familiar with from the DVD, and then a picture from the cinema showing that it originally had the error!