Final Words From the Editor

Two final issues of The 70mm Newsletter, a tired editor and a bottle of red wine

What does he mean by "Final"? Well, this is the second to last issue of "..in 70mm - The 70mm Newsletter". I have, regretfully, decided to take a break from publishing the paper version of this newsletter. The principle reason is because there are no stories about new 70mm films to be told! Evolution of distribution politics and policies, and the technology of exhibition over the past 10 years has made the 70mm format an anachronism. That's quite clear and I honestly don't think that situation will change in the foreseeable future.

70mm also seems to face a "conspiracy of silence" in the trade press, such as "Variety". Never did they do any stories of the superior performance of the 70mm prints of "Titanic", nor is there now any coverage of the strong results of the new prints of "2001:A Space Odyssey"! I cannot single-handedly beat my head against the wall for a cause - no matter how well-intended - that is consistently ignored by the shortsightness of 99,9% of the industry.

I'd like to say "thank you" to all subscribers and sponsors for the encouragement, enthusiasm, help and support.

I would like to acknowledge and thank Mr. Paul Rayton in Hollywood, USA especially for his outstanding help with the production of the newsletter. Paul has always worked tirelessly "behind the scenes" proofreading everything and thereby kept the "typos" to a minimum, to enhance the clarity of the articles...and your reading pleasure. Thank you Paul.

And many thanks to the "cast" of writers who have given their time to share their wealth of knowledge with the readers. The newsletter only became what it has become thanks to you. Looking back on all the articles, I'd like to think I have come fairly close to the goal of "..in 70mm" and I'm very proud of the accomplishment. It has been great fun to edit this newsletter, which I hope has pleased you just a little bit.

I have faced a dilemma, however: what to do with the finished articles planned for the next several issues of 2002? The solution seems to be to publish all remaining articles as text-only in one single giant issue. You will get the benefit of reading them (in small print), but you will have to look for the illustrations on the ..in 70mm web site sometime next year. You actually get 4 issues of text squeezed into one issue! In order to cover the printing costs of Issue 67 I ask you kindly to mail me USD 10.00 for 2002, please.

Should the 5 perf 70mm format return in a larger scale I would consider re-activating the paper version of the magazine. Until then, the "..in 70mm" web site will continue to be the voice of "..in 70mm - The 70mm Newsletter" and the "home" of 70mm and 6-track magnetic stereo.

Best of wishes to everyone in the 70mm film community.
Thomas, editor