Are projectors still used in conference rooms or is that old technology now?

[harmonica44]

It's for a conference room scene I am writing, and all the people in the room have to look at a screen as the director character is showing footage, explaining what is happening.

I was thinking that the footage could be displayed through a digital projector. The main reason is because you can make the image really big on the wall, compared to a TV and the lighting.

With a projector, the room will logically be much darker, which can allow for that cinematic projector lighting you see in older movies that have it, if you know what I mean.

But you never see people use projectors any more in offices. It's always TV now, even on shows like 24. What do you think? Is it too old of technology to get away with in a script that is suppose to be set in modern times?

 

[sfoster]

yes people still use projectors.

 

[FilmmakerJ]

It's for a conference room scene I am writing, and all the people in the room have to look at a screen as the director character is showing footage, explaining what is happening.

I was thinking that the footage could be displayed through a digital projector. The main reason is because you can make the image really big on the wall, compared to a TV and the lighting.

With a projector, the room will logically be much darker, which can allow for that cinematic projector lighting you see in older movies that have it, if you know what I mean.

But you never see people use projectors any more in offices. It's always TV now, even on shows like 24. What do you think? Is it too old of technology to get away with in a script that is suppose to be set in modern times?

I can tell you from experience that using a television instead of a projector has been terrible in the college classroom setting.

The higherups who made the transition at my college may think it was a good decision to change to enormous televisions, but the problem is that although the TVs are like 75-80 inches up close, they look like 22 inches when you're 10 feet away, which most classrooms are 18 feet long or more. So using a TV for rooms of that size just looks stupid.

The projectors could at least be able to let someone in the far back see what the heck's on the screen. But I guess my college was tired of changing projector bulbs or something, cause I'll admit, we had a lot of trouble with projectors going wonky all the while I was there too.

But projectors are still an important, and now even a very portable option. So there's no reason to not still use one, you might just still need to create a digital enhancement or overlay (in post) of what the projector is showing so that it doesn't look too faded.

 

[Cryogenic]

I work desktop in a Fortune (225-250) company they have a mix of large screen lcd via hdmi in their smaller conf rooms to projectors in their larger conf rooms (one has 4/5 which will work independatnly at the same time or combined) with little wirless pucks that allow attendees to also share their laptop screens to the large projection. This facility was just built in the last 2 years.

 

[harmonica44]

Okay thanks. It's just I haven't seen a projector used in a movie that I recall, in probably the last 10 years. So I was wondering if they are still used at all.

My sister has one which I can use for mine scene. Is it really necessary to do an overlay in post though, because I think that can look kind of fake. I mean did movies from the 70s that used projectors in their scenes do this as well?

 

[FilmmakerJ]

Okay thanks. It's just I haven't seen a projector used in a movie that I recall, in probably the last 10 years. So I was wondering if they are still used at all.

My sister has one which I can use for mine scene. Is it really necessary to do an overlay in post though, because I think that can look kind of fake. I mean did movies from the 70s that used projectors in their scenes do this as well?

Overhead projectors that used transparencies were the things being used in the 70s. They didn't have projectors like we do now except for film reels. And usually no. When it was a film projector they used the live image.

But almost every time a monitor or television screen is seen in a 70s film or before then, it is a post-process overlay effect so that the image doesn't have ugly scan-lines and is visible to the audience.

 

[harmonica44]

Oh okay, I thought they shot it at a different shutter speed, since I have noticed that different shutter speeds can cut down on that as well.

 

[FilmmakerJ]

Oh okay, I thought they shot it at a different shutter speed, since I have noticed that different shutter speeds can cut down on that as well.

Sure, they can. But I don't think they had that capability back then. Panovision cameras likely weren't built with that option. But if they were, I'm sure they didn't do it just because the visuals would have still looked a tad washed out. And it's also easier to time the reactions of actors to the visuals on a particular screen if you can place it in post exactly where necessary.

But some films, like The Zero Theorem have recently taken advantage of the "actor controlling the visuals" scenario, where they create visuals that work just like video-games, use them live, and then allow the actors to control what we see so that their action and reaction is in the moment and practically improv. Although that doesn't relate to actors speaking to actors, more so for digital graphics.

 

[harmonica44]

Okay thanks, it's very good to know that. Well I can either shoot at a different shutter speed, although audiences may tell that the motion blur looks different as a result. I cannot tell that the visuals are washed out, just that the motion blur is changed.

As far the actors reacting to the visuals, do you mean in OTS shots, with the camera behind them as they are looking at the screen? Cause most of the reaction shots would be separate shots I figure.