LaborBerlin: State-of-the-Art 16mm Projector

>16mm/35mm is already fading, with a finite population of prints that dwindles every year as film deteriorates or reels are lost/destroyed.

They are still publishing films in 35mm and at least in popular US cities the format has a following. For example in 2021, Last Night In Soho was printed in 35mm. To be fair the 35mm print was only exhibited in some select locations and only for special screenings. But then we also have 70mm IMAX that despite only has X number of screens left, still manages to attracts sold out screenings for weeks whenever a film (Like Oppenheimer) appears. I also spoke to the people running the Barrymore Film Center in Fort Lee, NJ (They screen 16mm, 35mm and 70mm and they promote Fort Lee as the birthplace of the American Motion Picture Industry). They told me that you can order up thousands of different 35mm films from studio's storage centers (I think there are only two left in the country) and the main issue is delivery costs make it usually not worth it to screen most films.

I am closer to middle age but I have met a lot of youngins who are die hard film people.

Silent films were inconsistent on frame rate, especially early on. The cameras were hand cranked and so the frame rate was determined by the operator. It wasn't unusual to speed up and slow down the frame rate within a scene to achieve a desired effect. The person cranking the projector, in the early days, had to make a similar judgment. As hand cranked projectors have way to electrically powered ones, handling abnormal speeds became difficult, which lead to standardization. Early silent films almost always run too fast when projected on modern projectors. As a result, variable speed has always been a desirable feature for projectors used for historic films. Film preservationists would often modify projectors to provide it.

It can similarly be very difficult to find aperture masks to fit the unusual aspect ratios of older films, so a projectionist might have to fabricate one. Fortunately that's pretty easy with a file.

I agree, this seems really odd. The solution should not be a modern projector with 1kW electrical power converted into heat.

The Cob array of leds is the problematic choice, while on paper you get a lot of light, you don't get a point source.

If you look at the large theater projectors, I remember laser sources (but no speckle, is this pumped phosphor?) or expensive xenon bulbs. At least 10years ago...

I remember a solution (car headlights?) of decoupling the phosphor (for converting uv to while light) from the UV Led. So you have multiple diodes pumping a small piece of phosphor for a nice bright point source. Not sure how this can be replicated open source.

Another approach (studio led lights) wasomething with glass mixing rods? You insert the light of multiple leds into a glass rod, and a uniform beam emerges. But I guess this was more to improve CRI, rather than to increase brightness/point source.

> As hand cranked projectors have way

Did you mean "gave" way? Took me a few reads to remember that g is next to h.

(I've been struggling with a Das keyboard for a few years... Brings back the feeling of learning to drive stick.)

I personally find virtual film effects distracting.

Personally, I've seen old silent films projected from original filmstock, in a theater that considers itself a museum. It's different enough from a scan that I wouldn't want someone to try to "emulate" film for me. Otherwise, I might as well just find the film on bluray or streaming and watch it at home, with all the cleanup and pretty soundtracks that come with home releases.

That being said: Very old film is flammable and can only be projected in flameproof projection rooms. (If you've ever seen a "safety film only" sign, this is why.) Due to the fire risk, scanning the film might be the only practical option.