OTHER TECH

The biggest debate concerned the projector. At the last minute, after we'd decided on one manufacturer, several people suggested I check out the Sony Qualia 004. I drove into New York City and visited the Sony Concierge Qualia showroom, where I saw how incredible the projector is. It uses three 1,920 x 1,080-pixel SXRD (Silicon Crystal Reflective Display) panels and projects an extraordinary 1080p-resolution picture. The detail is crisp and sharp, and the contrast is easily controlled. I like to watch sports with lots of pop and color saturation, but use a slightly more muted setup for movies.

Ironically, the Qualia is very quiet, but having already built the room with ventilation in the soffit, and to keep it safe from the cigar smoke, we placed it in the soffit. If you're building a room knowing you're going to use this projector, don't go through the expense of enclosing and ventilating it. It's not only quiet but a beautiful piece of industrial design. (For more on SXRD technology, see May's "Object of Desire,".)

Although my background is in cinematography, having shot movies for the Coen brothers (Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing), Danny DeVito (Throw Momma from the Train), Rob Reiner (When Harry Met Sally, Misery), and Penny Marshall (Big), and although the films I have directed have a certain visual style, I'm equally concerned about sound. I believe the success of any movie is in proportion to the manly use of subwoofers. Comedies are no exception. I have two powerful Sunfire True Subwoofer EQ Signature subs. The rest of the speakers are made in Denmark by System Audio, and I'm happy with the clean, smooth sound.

The other big decision was the Sunfire Theater Grand IV preamp/processor/tuner and the Sunfire Cinema Grand 400 amplifier, which puts out more power than we need. I don't like overly complicated remote controls and wouldn't let Tamburello set up a Crestron or any of those cool things that make life complicated, especially when you buy a new piece of equipment and have to reprogram the remote. Instead I decided on a Home Theater Master MX-800 universal remote, which we use in all of our other media areas as well.

I wanted to make sure that our room was dead enough, soundwise. John and I talked about putting acoustic panels on the lower halves of the walls to dampen the sound, but with the plush furniture and deeply carpeted floor, we found that this wasn't necessary. And as a comedy director, I'm well aware of the imporance of not deadening a space so much that peals of hysterical laughter get swallowed up by the room. I once had a terrible premiere of Addams Family Values at Paramount's new theater in Los Angeles, which was so dead that the audience never heard itself laugh. Sherry Lansing, the head of the studio, promised me she'd never have another comedy premiere there again.

Unfortunately, just as the home theater was completed, with the Qualia tuned to perfection and the subs reverberating in my stomach, I was hired to direct a film in Vancouver with Robin Williams titled RV. I won't be back home until the fall.

My hunch has proved correct, however. Digital will be standard procedure on RV. This will be the first movie I direct where we won't even make film dailies. The lab is transferring the film negative directly to high-definition tape, which will be fed into Avid editing stations. We'll cut and preview the movie on high-def tape for those people who don't know how to spell, and I'll be able to use my home theater to view those cuts of it. The first time we'll see the movie on film is when we make a print off the digital intermediate. I just hope it doesn't hurt the comedy.