Last night Variety‘s David S. Cohen and Anne Thompson posted a story about the digital projection snafu that ruined last Thursday evening’s Benjamin Button screening at L.A.’s DGA theatre. Three days after the incident feels like a long reporting, writing and editing period to me; they couldn’t have posted something by Friday afternoon? Hubba hubba.
And why didn’t they identify the manufacturer of the digital projection system that failed, “which Par rented for the occasion”? It seems as if editorial political pressure might have been brought to bear upon Cohen and Thompson with the rationale that it wasn’t the hardware but some error by the DNA projectionist. This scenario is indicated by a one-word graph stating that such incidents “raise questions about screening room hardware and projection-room expertise in operating new d-cinema projectors.”
I want names and specific explanations, dammit. Bad guys were at fault and I want the guilty punished. If I was David Fincher I would have had a frank conversation with the manufacturer of the digital projector and with the DGA’s projection staff manager, and I would have gone all Rahm Emanuel once the responsible parties were identified.