It’s no secret that the era of 35-mm film is coming to an end. The victim of new technology, the huge, hot movie projectors, standard issue in over 5000 theaters nationwide, are on their way to the dump.
For large multiplexes, it’s just part of doing business, but for single-screen movie-houses like The Harbor Theatre in Boothbay Harbor, keeping up with the Jones’s is a costly endeavor.
The new technology is costly, and thus far, Sheckley has raised $10,000 in private donations.
“It’s [the new technology] not going to bring in one more dollar,” said owner/operator of The Harbor Theatre, W. Jason Sheckley, which is another reason why coming up with the approximately $65,000 sticker price to change over to D-Cinema is a challenge.
Sheckley has been running vintage projectors for 40 years. He started as a projectionist in 1972 in New York, and learned his trade from an NYC projectionist who worked in the Golden Age of film, in the 1930s and ’40s.
The projector currently delivering film to Harbor Theatre audiences is a circa 1950s model, and though Sheckley admits, “it’s not the most efficient, is it certainly more fun,” to operate.
Sheckley purchased the movie house in 2002, previously known as Harbor Light Cinema, which was a summer-only film venue.
That operation had a “platter system,” or automated system for continuously running 35-mm films, requiring one screen and one operator.
In 2002, Sheckley brought back the vintage, carbon arc equipment; along with the complete projection booth he found in Connecticut. The system needed constant attention, not just to make the film experience flawless, but the film was the highly flammable, cellulose nitrate film that according to Sheckley, “shares components with gunpowder.”
“Originally projection rooms had to have two inches of concrete on the floor and everything was asbestos clad; there were fire rollers,” he said.
Luckily audiences can be assured that “they haven’t made flammable film since the early 1950s” when the industry changed to a safety film, which also easily snapped and broke, requiring projectionists like Sheckley to become masters at splicing film.
Fast forwarding to today, Sheckley said the new D-Cinema equipment is manufactured by a few companies, Sony, ChristieDigital, NEC and Barco.
“They are the main players producing equipment; creating proprietary products to film industry specifications for security and quality. We are a playback system as every theatre is and it all has to conform to SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) standards,” Sheckley said.
Digital cinema uses digital technology to capture, distribute and project motion pictures.
According to information on the web, a film can be distributed on hard drives, optical disks (DVDs and Blu-ray) or satellite and projected using a digital projector instead of the conventional film projectors.
SMPTE started working on the technology in 2000 and now, according to Sheckley, almost all of the multiplex cinema companies have already converted, and it is the single-screen houses that are still using film.
“For the most part, there’s going to be a learning curve on the new equipment and certain installation requirements. The problem is, in most cases, you pay high prices for new technology until further research and development is done and then the price goes down,” said Sheckley.
He doesn’t, however, expect the prices to plunge since there are only four companies producing the equipment.
“D-cinema, as a total package is a little under $60,000 and that includes the digital projector for $35,000 to $40,000; the projector lens of about $5000, and server and various other requirements, and software, and installation is about $5000, requiring an electrician, and all the other particulars….I’m just hoping to keep the 35-mm in place,” [until canned film is no longer available], Sheckley said.
Sheckley believes without community support to raise the needed funds, he’s looking at closure.
The demise of 35-mm has already cost his industry jobs.
“They [multiplexes] started converting some time ago, but when the Regal in Augusta and Cooks Corner digitized about five months ago, Boston Film Transport went out of business. Bob’s [of Boston Film] gone because he no longer had accounts to service. This is putting a lot of peripheral people out of business,” he said.
In fact, there is only one lab left in the entire country making 35 mm film, according to Sheckley.
The recent Harbor Theatre offering, “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” in 35-mm film was especially made for the “Maine circuit,” the few last remaining single-screen movie houses: The Harbor Theatre, Lincoln Theater in Damariscotta, Reel Pizza Cinerama in Bar Harbor and the Leavitt Theater in Ogunquit.
Sheckley has it down to a science how many movie-goers, on average, he needs to keep the place open. “That’s 38 people (on average) per show, but getting them in involves lots of variables, and we run way below 37 per show off season, so that is the problem,” he said.
“The theatre has traditionally lost $15,000-$20,000 off season, and if I don’t have a plan to convert to digital, I’m afraid to go into next winter. I don’t want to be losing money and the only way would be to get out, and leave at the end of the season,” Sheckley said.
All the number crunching is the reality of running The Harbor Theatre. Considering the approximately $65,000 sticker price for digital conversion is just the cost of doing business, Sheckley is looking to the public for the help.
He’s considered self-financing, but it doesn’t make sense at this time. He’s hoping appealing to the community for support will help the theatre remain open.
“If they do, we’ll forge on.” he said,
For more information visit www.harbortheatre.net, or call 633-0438. Harbor Theatre is at the intersection of Rts. 27 and 96 in Boothbay Harbor.
