Hello to everyone... (especially in an around Toronto Area)

We all enjoy watching Desi movies and at times when there are blockbusters like K3G, TAAL, Company, Aankhen, Aks etc, we wish we had good cinemas with excellent screen and projection facilities, great sound with DOLBY, DTS etc.

The fact is that the theatres in Toronto, Woodside and Albion, are the worst places to be. Absolutely no quality in sound or picture. I think all of us agree on that.

We only have 3 choices :

1) Leave it
2) Live with it
3) Change it.

I think "changing it" is a better approach. How can we, the patrons, change these theatres. Can we act as a group to contact these cinema owners and provide suggestions etc?

Just a thought, let me know if this can go any where further.

SUNISH.

P.S.:
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Since the time we all immigrated to Canada, Toronto precisely, we have been wanting to keep up with Indian movies. We all watch movies here, pirated or original, DVDs or VHS, good ones and absolutely bad ones too. Some movies we watch here are never heard of by relatives in India, how embarassing

Sunish, consider a trip to Ottawa if it is known in advance that the screening will be in DTS or Dolby Digital.

The theatre, most often used here is MAYFAIR theatre, which has a decent screen size of 30 x 15 ft and has excellent DTS sound (No Dolby Digital though). Theater is old but is second to none in screen and audio department. Unfortunately, we have never, so far, seen DTS sound in Indian movies here, for one reason or other. Film prints that arrive are DD, by default, and as the theatre is not DD we get the inferior backup audio track.

It’s going to change. The exhibitor who usually screens Indian movies here, told me that he will get the proper prints in the future and hence in future the movies will be shown with DTS CD audio.

In the meanwhile, this weekend, someone else is screening COMPANY. I don’t know if it will have DTS sound??

$ Wise, I think it costs aprox $500 for the theatre rent per show and another $1500 or so for the Film rental for the weekend (a week or two after the initial release). I doubt if a limited theatre and film rental concept will work in Toronto. Albion Woodside will never allow it.

Rana



Edited By rana on April 26 2002 at 11:17

we could get mhafner to move here and go to his house!

My biggest gripe with the Toronto theaters is the lack of Digital sound!! The poor projection system I can live with, but where is the Dolby Digital or DTS sound!!!?

What I hate the most about Woodside cinemas doesn't have to do with quality (even though it is a problem) - it's the utter lack of professionalism and decency. They ask you to abide by the seat numbers, but they don't even turn on the fucking lights on in the cinema hall before the film starts. Pray, tell me how the f*** we're supposed to find our seats in the dark? And it doesn't help that the seats are broken and are a hazard to walk pass in the dark - I've hurt my leg really badly on two seperate occassions due to their stupidity (I'm now careful, but I shouldn't have to be!). Ugh... sorry about the rant, but I can't help it. Nowadays, I only go to the cinemas when there's something really important to see (ex - Lagaan, Fiza, Zubeidaa, etc). The last film I watched there was K3G and the next will be DEVDAS (unless it plays on IMAX!!!!!)

I don't know if you guys know this or not. But Woodside is owned by Afgani's. And I've had a two or so minute conversation with a level of management of Woodside a few years back about theater advancement. And the guy told me, that they are planning advacement to the theater at the moment (which was like back in 2000) and said that you would see some improvments in a few years for sure. And its that time, and nothing has changed as far as I know.

I'm not sure about Woodside, cuz I haven't been there in a while.

But I have a bone to pick with Albion. They made the screen bigger, but now the fuckin frame of the film doesn't fit on to the screen! what they actually did was increase the height of the screen, leaving the length the same, meaning they have to make the image larger to fill the screen, but the sides run off onto the walls. and the sound is shit.

albion cinemas sucks large.

wtf happend to IMAX? i heard they're on strike or some shit. I just hope we get to see Devdas on the IMax

well that opseu is still on strike bloody 7 weeks now... till they come off that no movies at the cinespehere which sucks big time....

So it appears that we cannot do anything to change these theatres. Partly because there is no interest on the parts of the owners to do so and partly there is no initiative from the patrons. I was hoping that if some of us could draft a letter (polite to start with) and get many many signs on it, wouldn't that get any attention from the owners?

I completely agree with all of above, the seats being bad, lights being off, projection being blurry and off screen, sound being awful.

It is simply a big big pain to watch your favorite movie with great songs being played at sub standard theatres.

I guess it all depends on management. As far as I'm concerned, I think they lack good business ethics. They don't provide good service, they don't take customer considerations seriously. They might just find stable profit with business as the way it is, and might find it risky to advance anything forward.

Hi sachin99,
I saw Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam this weekend at Albion Cinemas.

I was in the west wing cinema and the picture was 2.35 : 1. In the past I had noticed picture cropped from the sides but that was in the east wing.

Watching HTHS in the west wing:
Picture was 2.35 :1. There were very annoying cracking noises (spark type) throughout the movie. I checked in the east wing and I didn't notice this, very annoying, crackling. I am not sure but I think the picture was much bigger (height) but was less wide as you noticed.

They offered me that I could watch this film in the second theatre (east) if I like, but others in my group didn't want to spend an extra hour for this movie to finish in the second theatre.

Rana



Edited By rana on May 29 2002 at 11:48

hey Rana,

I was in the east wing man, and trust me you don't want to see the movie in there!! It was practically the worst movie-going experience ever (aside from the movie!). The sound was obviously mono, made to kind of sound like stereo (but fake). Most of the sound came from the centre, with no bass or oomph to it, and it sounded muffled at times. Then the video was SO BAD, I thought I was going blind in certain scenes. The images were really really blurry. And ofcourse since it was cropped, the film looked awkward as well (with certain characters being projected in the curtains - with curved proportions aswell).

Trust me, next time, it's better to go to Woodside - the screen may be small but atleast you'll be able to see the film!!! ( I would have gone there, but it was sold out for 3-4 hours prior to the 9pm screening on Saturday night).



Edited By darius25 on May 29 2002 at 14:44

Rana and Darius25, the Cinesphere is back open !!!!!!!

It's showing Hum tumhare hain sanam this coming weekend, check out ontarioplace.com, then select Imax cinesphere.

I can't wait till Devdas! But I think I'll have to come very early to get seats in the back or I'll go blind.

later boys

Hi darius25,

The picture was very bad as if the film had been screened 200 times or even more (note it was second day of its release). Many a times, the picture did not looked focused and the colours were not correct. Often the colors looked washed out and lots and lots of scratches. They told me, which may very well be the reason, that the film has been in cans for 4 years or more and hence the picture quality is that bad.

Has anyone noticed this bad state of the print in Cinema??

Rana

For Congress:
Can a Film print be this bad in its 9th or 10th screening??

i completely agree with you Rana but you know what I don't think it was the state of the film that made it look that bad. I know it's an old film, but I've seen some recent films at Albion (like Rehna Hai Terre Dil Mein and Maa Tujhe Salaam) which looked almost as bad. I agree I haven't seen this bad a projection since Haan Maine Bhi Pyaar Kiya at Cinesphere. That film and this one made me feel as I was going blind, seriously!!

Thanks sachin for the info - I knew it was open but I don't think it's worth the extra money (there's 4 of us so $40 compared to $32) to watch HTHS at the Cinesphere. Although it was sold out so it might have been fun - but I'll definately see Devdas at the cinesphere and Kaante as well. I would have gone to see Hum Kisise Kum Nahin but it's not playing there this weekend.

Here's a test though - i remember that on the Haan Maine Bhi Pyar Kiya DVD discussion, we heard from someone (maybe Arsh) that these Indian films look worse on the Imax screen like the one at Cinesphere. So if you guys go to Ontario Place and notice that the picture is bad (fuzzy, washed out, blurry, etc.) on 3-4 consecutive films then THERE IS something wrong with their projection system. Albion already has a bad projection system.

One thing for sure though - Ontario place has a KILLER sound system so be sure and watch a good action film (like Kaante) over there!!