Hi, my name is Garrick Cameron and I'm the manager of Cinema Paradiso in Wanaka.
I am in charge of managing the digital projection system and programming movies.
I've been here for almost 13 years. I'm the longest serving employee.
Even though I've been here a long time, it's a fun place to work.
It started in about 1992. The owner is Scottish, grew up in Inverness in Scotland.
It's a very small town. Cinema was always the entertainment because there was nothing else.
People would go to the cinema to watch a movie, but also to see their friends.
Then he moved to Wanaka and met a New Zealand girl.
Wanaka at the time was very small, maybe 3,000 people population.
There was no entertainment, maybe one or two bars at night.
Callum thought that it would be a nice place to live.
Him and Andrea set up Cinema Paradiso and it was really just very rough.
It was in the old town hall. We started with two 35mm projectors,
brought down on the back of a trailer from Auckland.
Just a small oven for cooking hot cookies and people brought their own chairs.
And that was the first Cinema Paradiso.
And then we moved after a few years to an old electrical warehouse.
And because it was two projectors, it was very easy to have a break after a reel of film.
So we'd generally always have an intermission.
And that gave an opportunity for people to talk about the movie,
but also to talk about what's happening with their lives,
just like the original Cinema in Venice.
And the intermission became just what we did.
And then three years ago we moved to this building.
We're in an old church here. The building is quite unique.
We use old posters for wallpaper and the timber.
It gives it a nice warm feel. It's not all clean and we don't have LCD screens everywhere.
There's always a wow factor.
You have airline seats and you can sit in a car and it looks like a house.
So it's comfortable and people feel comfortable.
We have things like this, which we made for the Hobbit.
I used to use this as a photo studio and people could come and have a photo.
Behind here with studio lights and that was quite quirky.
It doesn't guarantee you a good seat.
Yeah, you've got to know which one is good.
It depends on your body, you know.
Some couches are great. If there's no one in there you can lie on them.
But if you have to sit straight up next to a bunch of other people,
sometimes they can be really uncomfortable.
We still have the same technology as the big theaters.
We have the top digital projection system and the acoustics are very good.
The newest cinema has Peter Jackson's personal stereo system that he installed
in the theatre in Wellington for the Lord of the Rings world premiere.
So it is a very good sound system designed for 700 people,
but only 50 people using that space. So it's good.
We have high frame rate 3D.
So the technology is the same.
It's just the more personal experience and the hot cookies are world famous.
We make our own ice cream, make our own pizza bases,
so all the sauces and dips.
Literally the entire menu is made here and people like it.
I was a projectionist, so using the 35mm projectors
and we have one in the lobby.
And so that was a very manual job.
The light was a carbon arc like a welder,
so very manual adjustment constantly
and changing the projectors every 15 to 20 minutes,
rewinding the film.
And I did that for maybe eight years and then we had to go digital.
The industry changed and now so my job changed.
The job is a little different.
I program the automation for all the movies,
so I still choose the intermission,
so I still maintain some degree of a projectionist job,
but make coffee and sell tickets.
I watch digital movies on the screen and they look good,
but on the television they look absolutely terrible.
Well, it's very convenient, but yeah.
The picture is probably not quite as nice
as the technology that we used many years ago.
I think it's close, but carbon arc produces a beautiful light,
very romantic, soft light,
and it's a beautiful light.
It's close, but carbon arc produces a beautiful light,
very romantic, soft light,
and it really worked beautifully with film.
After carbon arc they introduced light bulbs,
which were still quite lovely,
but the digital light is different.
I kind of do miss the...
Some movies are very visually quite beautiful
and I watch the way that the director
and the cinematographer create the light,
and so some modern films would look much better
with carbon arc on 35mm film,
more tonality, more tone gradation,
but as far as the ease of use of digital is fantastic.
I still think people like the atmosphere of the big screen
and people around them,
and the pictures do look fantastic on a big screen,
and the sound, the cinema is still going to be a place to visit.
People can watch a movie on their computer,
but the experience of going with your friends
to a room with other people,
and the technology will evolve, I would imagine.
The next step is laser projection systems for 3D,
so the 3D picture is as bright as 2D,
and then perhaps the next future will be a holographic display,
and the technology will not be available to people at home,
so the cinema will still be a good place to watch a movie.
We're still very busy.
The reason we chose Cinema Paradiso as the name
is because in the original Italian movie,
the cinema was very much like this,
it was a hub of the community,
and it was where people came to have a social experience
with other people as well as watching a movie,
so we think we are the same.
Generally, the reaction from people is amazement
because it is small but comfortable,
the technology is excellent,
so people maybe don't expect to have a good picture
in a small cinema,
and then at the end of many movies,
people say it is the best cinema they've been to,
so it's always lovely when people say that.
Yeah, it's amazing.
