Terrence Malick’s Letter Of Instruction To Every Projectionist Showing ‘The Tree of Life’
The San Diego Reader reports that Malick has written a letter / fraternal salute, for the attention of every projectionist who’ll show his latest feature The Tree of Life, requesting they take certain steps to properly show his film. Malick begins by pointing out the obvious: “Proper theatre projection is fast becoming a forgotten art.”
He asks projectionists to take into consideration the following points:
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1- Project the film in it’s proper 1.85:1 aspect ratio.
2- The correct fader setting on Dolby and DTS systems is 7. Malick asks that faders be kept at 7.5 or even 7.7, system permitting.
3- The film has no opening credits, and the booth operator is asked to make sure the “lights down cue is well before the opening frame of reel 1.”
4- With all the recent talk of “darkier, lousier” images, operators are asked that lamps are at “proper standard (5400 Kelvin)” and that the “foot Lambert level is at Standard 14.”
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We recently reviewed the Tree Of Life on episode 273 of the Sound On Sight podcast and gave it raving reviews. We will follow this up with a Terrence Mallick special next week, in which we will continue to discuss his latest as well as Days of Heaven, Thin Red Line and The New World. Take a listen if you haven’t already. It was a great show.
Kyle prefers to remain mysterious to the rest of the Sound On Sight team. His parents are rumored to have worked in Hollywood in the 80's and were clearly fans of James Cameron's 'Terminator' series. Kyle contributes to the blog section of our site and every so often submits a review. His favorite films are 'Evil Dead 2', 'The Thing', 'The Shining', 'Blade Runner' and 'The Road Warrior'. His favorite filmmakers are Sam Raimi, Danny Boyle, Darren Aronofsky, Brian De Palma and Martin Scorsese. 
