SPLICE HERE: A PROJECTED ODYSSEY
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Director: Rob Murphy
Screenplay: Rob Murphy
Principal cast:
Rob Murphy
Dennis Bartok
Douglas Trumbull
David Strohmaier
Leonard Maltin
Randy Gitsch
Lawrence Johnston
Quentin Tarantino
Country: Australia
Classification: CTC
Runtime: 118 mins.
Australian release date: Limited release from November 25.
Splice Here: A Projected Odyssey is a charming love letter to film as a means for capturing and sharing the moving image. It argues that it is a medium we are in danger of losing, given that almost all cinemas now ‘project’ movies digitally, that is, recorded by a series of zeros and ones. The documentary is made with passion by Australian filmmaker, projectionist and film lover Rob Murphy, who also appears on camera as he ventures from Melbourne to the USA and England talking to fellow ‘projies’, enthusiasts, collectors and film historians. He says, “It’s hard for a projectionist to convey - it’s hard for me to convey - the feelings of continuity felt when running a film print. The way it feels in my hands. The way it smells. The way my heart skips a beat when I open the dowser to the light and all those dancing little pictures combine to create a perfect illusion of reality. It’s magic and I’m the gatekeeper.” See what I mean about made with passion?
Murphy doesn’t go back to film’s origins in Splice Here. Rather, he starts his thesis in 1952 when Hollywood was concerned about losing audiences to the relatively new medium of television. As a response, the industry looked for new ways to draw people into cinemas and the development of wider theatre screens was seen as something that TV couldn’t emulate. Thus, Cinerama was born, a complicated combination of three projectors simultaneously throwing their images onto an extremely large, curved screen, accompanied by surround sound. The dramatic result astounded viewers and was the precursor to the arrival of CinemaScope, VistaVision, and wide-screen formats such as 70mm. These were so successful that by the end of the following year, films shot in the traditional, square ‘Academy ratio’ had all but ceased to be made. Murphy surmises that this was when the projectionists’ art flowered, because their work in the bio box became much more complex. It was a period when theatre presentation mattered - it was part of the entertainment. The next big change covered in Splice Here is the invention of digital projection and how that led to mass sackings and resignations of projectionists because all that was needed now, more or less, was someone to flick the ‘on’ switch. What it’s fascinating to learn is that some of these ardent operators saved many of the redundant movie projectors and equipment, plus a good number of 35mm. films; it turns out there’s a global projectionists’ underground, keeping the old skills alive and film projectors running. And preserving ‘lost’ films. Who knew?
Murphy is an amiable host (he also edited the doco) and he and his cinematographer, Joanne Donahoe-Beckwith, have come up with some novel ways of bringing his film to life. Dull, it is not. Even when he starts to ramble a bit, letting his enthusiasm for his subject carry him away a little (like when he tells the story of his search for a 70mm. projector for screenings of Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight at Yarraville’s Sun Theatre), he’s never less than engaging. Splice Here: A Projected Odyssey is a well-made, absorbing documentary that has important points to make about film culture and preservation. It concludes that, ultimately, film and digital are different media and should be treated accordingly; both have their place in the world of cinema but film, especially, needs to be conserved or something very precious will be lost.
Screenplay: Rob Murphy
Principal cast:
Rob Murphy
Dennis Bartok
Douglas Trumbull
David Strohmaier
Leonard Maltin
Randy Gitsch
Lawrence Johnston
Quentin Tarantino
Country: Australia
Classification: CTC
Runtime: 118 mins.
Australian release date: Limited release from November 25.
Splice Here: A Projected Odyssey is a charming love letter to film as a means for capturing and sharing the moving image. It argues that it is a medium we are in danger of losing, given that almost all cinemas now ‘project’ movies digitally, that is, recorded by a series of zeros and ones. The documentary is made with passion by Australian filmmaker, projectionist and film lover Rob Murphy, who also appears on camera as he ventures from Melbourne to the USA and England talking to fellow ‘projies’, enthusiasts, collectors and film historians. He says, “It’s hard for a projectionist to convey - it’s hard for me to convey - the feelings of continuity felt when running a film print. The way it feels in my hands. The way it smells. The way my heart skips a beat when I open the dowser to the light and all those dancing little pictures combine to create a perfect illusion of reality. It’s magic and I’m the gatekeeper.” See what I mean about made with passion?
Murphy doesn’t go back to film’s origins in Splice Here. Rather, he starts his thesis in 1952 when Hollywood was concerned about losing audiences to the relatively new medium of television. As a response, the industry looked for new ways to draw people into cinemas and the development of wider theatre screens was seen as something that TV couldn’t emulate. Thus, Cinerama was born, a complicated combination of three projectors simultaneously throwing their images onto an extremely large, curved screen, accompanied by surround sound. The dramatic result astounded viewers and was the precursor to the arrival of CinemaScope, VistaVision, and wide-screen formats such as 70mm. These were so successful that by the end of the following year, films shot in the traditional, square ‘Academy ratio’ had all but ceased to be made. Murphy surmises that this was when the projectionists’ art flowered, because their work in the bio box became much more complex. It was a period when theatre presentation mattered - it was part of the entertainment. The next big change covered in Splice Here is the invention of digital projection and how that led to mass sackings and resignations of projectionists because all that was needed now, more or less, was someone to flick the ‘on’ switch. What it’s fascinating to learn is that some of these ardent operators saved many of the redundant movie projectors and equipment, plus a good number of 35mm. films; it turns out there’s a global projectionists’ underground, keeping the old skills alive and film projectors running. And preserving ‘lost’ films. Who knew?
Murphy is an amiable host (he also edited the doco) and he and his cinematographer, Joanne Donahoe-Beckwith, have come up with some novel ways of bringing his film to life. Dull, it is not. Even when he starts to ramble a bit, letting his enthusiasm for his subject carry him away a little (like when he tells the story of his search for a 70mm. projector for screenings of Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight at Yarraville’s Sun Theatre), he’s never less than engaging. Splice Here: A Projected Odyssey is a well-made, absorbing documentary that has important points to make about film culture and preservation. It concludes that, ultimately, film and digital are different media and should be treated accordingly; both have their place in the world of cinema but film, especially, needs to be conserved or something very precious will be lost.