One of the most immense changes in filmmaking in the digital age is the demise of the traditional Hollywood motion picture screening room. Out in front of the film labs filmmakers would congregate, waiting for their screening time and their room to become available. In the eighties, FotoKem in Burbank had a couple of much-in-demand screening rooms and the only place to wait was one cramped, narrow hallway. Frequently you’d run into indie filmmaker friends there, sometimes even major Hollywood stars waiting for their screening room to open up. Now you can watch your films right on your laptop or home TV or stream them to friends over the Web to get comments.
In fact, the entire nature of theatrical projection has changed dramatically. At the zenith of the multiplex cinema, a visit to the projection booth would be mind-boggling. A dozen large projectors would be whirring, manned by a staff of three projectionists—each with a six-foot platter system feeding thousands of feet of film per minute through these huge clattering beasts. But now? The projection booths are empty. And silent. A visit to a major multiplex theater projection booth today is eye-opening. No one runs the show. Just a single computer. And on Thursday night the theater manager alone loads no film, just the files of the new films into the server and everything else is automated—trailers, the feature itself, lights, and the curtains.
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I received a call from Quentin Tarantino. He had booked a screening room to run the rough cut of his first film, Reservoir Dogs. There were just a dozen people in the audience, including Roberto and Roger, as Quentin gave a hilarious and heartfelt introduction about how happy he was to be there sharing his first film with us. Throughout the screening I kept wondering how a first-time filmmaker could make a film so accomplished and assured. It was simply stunning. Afterward we had to clear out of the screening room as another group was coming in. Out in the hallway with Roberto, Roger, Quentin, his producer Lawrence Bender, and editor Sally Menke, Quentin asked me what I thought. Of course I told him how much I liked it and how great the unconventional structure was. As a friend, and being the experienced director there, I felt obligated to give him some kind of constructive criticism since he was not finished with his cut. So, I had the temerity to ask Quentin if maybe he might think about trimming down some of that opening sequence dialog in the diner scene about Madonna and tipping and get on with the story. Maybe even lose it entirely and just get the story going? (Shows what I know. Those scenes are now considered by film critics worldwide to be some of the finest moments in the film.) Quentin politely declined my advice.
A year and a half later I was back in a screening room over at Raleigh Studios to watch the rough cut of Roger Avary’s first film, Killing Zoe. Quentin had executive produced and helped secure the funding for the project, a brilliant, tough, and hard-edged little movie about a French bank robbery gone wrong. The entire South Bay Film Pack was there to watch another of their members’ first feature directorial effort. Watching the film unfold, I couldn’t help but wonder again how these two guys did it. Their very first films were so polished and made with such confidence. I was used to sitting through first films that were loaded with flaws and barely watchable. Quentin, and now Roger, made it look so easy!
And just a couple of months after that I was back in a screening room with Quentin and Roger again, only this time over at the Goldwyn Studios on Santa Monica Boulevard to watch the rough cut of Quentin’s second film. Roger had cowritten the screenplay. This time there were some luminaries in attendance including Quentin’s producer, Danny DeVito, and the great actor Dennis Hopper. Quentin and Roger were making the rounds, greeting all their friends and the luminaries. One thing I observed that night that I found really touching: As the lights went down, when it came time for the movie to start, Quentin and Roger didn’t sit with the big shots. They went down to the very front row of the theater, off to the side, and sat together. I watched them. Even though they had now scaled the heights of Hollywood, they were still two fast friends from the South Bay Film Pack joking and laughing and filled with excitement as the screening of their new movie was about to begin.
Even though the cut was about twenty minutes longer than the ultimately released movie, Pulp Fiction was an even better movie than Reservoir Dogs. The structure was not only more audacious; the movie was funny as hell and had some extremely intense suspense sequences. Afterward, when Quentin asked me what I thought, remembering the Reservoir Dogs screening, I demurred and bit my tongue. I didn’t want to make a casual comment that might inadvertently influence this great movie. Even though a scene or two might have been tightened I just told him how much I loved it, which was true.
As I was walking to my car I looked over and was surprised to find Dennis Hopper walking beside me. Usually I try to give celebrities their space and not bother them in public, but Hopper’s Easy Rider had made a huge impact on me at a very young age and it was hard to contain myself. I decided to keep it simple and just said, “I really loved Quentin’s film.” Hopper stopped in his tracks and suddenly it was like I was standing beside Francis Ford Coppola’s character the “photojournalist,” right out of his Apocalypse Now. Just him and me. “Yeah, man. Quentin really did it, man. I mean really. He really did it.” We both stood there in silent contemplation for a long moment, then wished each other good night and that was that.
The next day Quentin called and we spent an hour on the phone discussing Pulp Fiction. I went into specific detail about all the great moments in the film. Quentin averred that he was under pressure from the producers and Miramax to cut some scenes and asked for my opinion. He had been advised to remove a long sequence with actress Julia Sweeney. She was a friend of his and he was reluctant to cut it, but he felt that if any scene had to go, that one did. Even though a bit gun-shy after my “advice” about Reservoir Dogs, I did finally open up and told him I agreed that he could lose the scene and it would probably not be missed.
Pulp Fiction went on to become a huge critical and box office smash. In 1995, Quentin and Roger received the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Roger Avary went on to write and direct some amazing films, including The Rules of Attraction and Mr. Stitch. And Quentin’s career is, of course, legendary. It’s interesting that Quentin always stayed true to film and always shot on film and, as of this writing, never strayed into digital territory. Quentin even personally funded one of the best revival movie theaters in Los Angeles, the New Beverly Cinema, which to this day bucks the trends and still shows movies the old-fashioned way … on 35 mm film.