Director Terry Gilliam's Letter to Premier Brad Wall

March 27, 2012

Dear Mr. Wall,

As a film director who has filmed in Saskatchewan I am quite shocked to be hear that The Saskatchewan Film Employment Tax Credit has been cancelled.

In 2004 our company shot Tideland, starring Jeff Bridges, Jennifer Tilly, Janet McTeer, Jodelle Ferland and Brendan Fletcher in Regina and the Qu'Appelle Valley. We were there for many months. We provided considerable employment for local professionals. We brought in many skilled people from Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal to work with and train the local crews who were keen to learn new skills and improve their old ones. We left behind new talent that had been given a chance to enter the industry. We spent large sums of money renting studios and living quarters, buying supplies, hiring equipment, and dining in some fine restaurants. All of this added considerably to the local economy and brought a fresh vibrancy to the communities we worked in.

And, please, let's not forget the taxes that the government received from all this increased activity and employment.

It was a wonderful experience for all of us, one I will remember for a long time. I continue hunting for other projects that will provide a chance to return.

But, beside the beautiful country and hardworking crews, the reason we chose Saskatchewan, rather than other possibilities, was the tax credit offered to us. Without that encouragement, very simply, we would not have shot in Saskatchewan.

I have watched over the years other cities and countries that have made the mistake of reducing or eliminating tax credits. After a few years they are usually reinstated by the next government. Not only does film making provide work and taxes but, films are a tremendous advertisement for the locations where the film was shot. There are an awful lot of tourists who want to walk where the stars roamed.

I hope you will reconsider the decision and not wait until the next government gets the credit for doing so.

Yours,

Terry Gilliam

Director: Monty Python and The Holy Grail, Time Bandits, Brazil, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The Fisher King, Twelve Monkeys, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Brothers Grimm, Tideland, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

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Galaxy Cinemas Regina

The fourth in a series of Classic Film Nights featured One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest last night at the Galaxy Cinemas in Regina. All four nights have been fraught with serious technical issues. Last night's could not be ignored by the audience, who mostly left early on.

The theatre couldn't figure out how to hook up their all-important front center channel (dialogue channel) to their system which was playing the movie off of Blu-ray. The only dialogue you could hear came through the LFE (subwoofer) channel. I was praying they'd turn on the English subtitles because I couldn't understand a word.

I've been told by friends that the ENTIRE run of Avatar at the Galaxy had no Left front channel audio. IT PLAYED FOR SIX MONTHS practically. James Cameron would have rolled over in his money if he knew this. Cineplex Odeon simply doesn't care.

To add insult to injury, the left and right channels were reversed (when a helicopter flew on the left of the screen, it was heard on the right, for example.)

In this day and age when home theatre systems are ubiquitous, why can't a real theatre get it right, let alone even realize their films are sometimes unwatchable?

I'm yearning for an excuse to go to the theatre instead of watching these films at home, which would be a technically-superior experience even on my modest system.

Cineplex Canada: "Classic Movie Series" (an unfortunate and unnecessary FAIL)

The Galaxy in Regina played their second monthly classic film (Wednesday and Sunday, the middle of every month, $5.) This was my first try at their classic cinema night, which is a classic film played off a Blu-ray player through their high end digital projectors (mostly used for 3D films.) (Spartacus, which plays in July, is the only film that isn't from a Blu-ray, it's full 2K digital cinema.)

It was a horribly disappointing and frustrating experience.

The image was garbled and terrible yet no one seemed to care. Although I haven't seen Dr. Zhivago before, I knew that, in its restored state, it should look like it was shot yesterday (almost.) The 35 mm film stock it was shot on, and the lens that captured it, really haven't changed THAT much all these years later. To talk to the managers at the cinema, you'd think it had.

"Oh it's all pixelly because it's an old movie," was one response I got. PIXELS WEREN'T INVENTED IN 1965!!!

I told them it should look like it was shot this year, just with weird clothes and hairstyles. And then there was the subtitles. They were showing French subtitles off the Blu-ray because of a directive from Toronto's head office. Huh? Less than 2% of Saskatchewanians are Francophone.

The reason you go to the theater is to have a better experience than you could at home. Below I've tried to replicate the solarized video (think bad music video effect from the early 80s). The picture I degraded in Photoshop greatly flatters what I paid to see tonight at The Galaxy in Regina.

ABOVE: my simulation of what the screen looked like at the Galaxy in Regina. The faces of people had "stair-stepping" in the colours, and it only seemed like there were a couple dozen colors instead of thousands (as there should be.)

WHAT IT SHOULD HAVE LOOKED LIKE

A screen grab I found on the Internet, taken from the DVD or Blu-ray.

My issue is: no one cares! Not the theater goers, not the staff nor management. If the Toronto showing was like this, I'm sure there would have been people burning down the theater. If this is what passes for a theatre, I could buy a $300 video projector at an office store and start my own theatre.

The Classic Film Series is a great idea, made possible by digital cinemas. I'd like to see more of it but someone has to be hired at each theatre who knows how to operate the equipment and who has a high enough IQ to know when something looks terribly wrong. I'll give Sparticus a try in 2K this July. Hopefully they can get that right.

---

And to make matters worse, I had to have a talker behind me: (in full voice, sometimes a shout, competing with the music) :

"Oh look at all those poor people! They're starving!"

"It's winter now."

"Wolves."

"There's that table I remember."

"Oh look at all the flowers. They're in bloom!"

"I wonder what that herb is she's holding."

Their popcorn is slightly better than what I can make at home. And their screen is bigger. But playing the Blue-ray (or even a VHS, for crying out loud) of Dr Zhivago at home would have been a much better experience. Isn't the point of going to the multiplex to have a better experience than you can at home?

It's too bad. Using digital cinemas to play classic movies isn't a bad idea.