8mm Forum: Digital Cinema

This is topic Digital Cinema in forum General Yak at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on May 13, 2007, 03:04 PM:

I know we have discussed this before, but out of curiosity I just counted up the number of cinema screens in the greater Orlando area, there are 375. As of today, not one is using digital projection for its feature films.
Looks like DP is a non-starter in my neck of the woods!

Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on May 13, 2007, 03:41 PM:

Paul
Recently I was reading an article on this subject, and noted that when Paramount screened Clint Eastwood's film "Flags Of Our Fathers" in digital prior to its release, the director balked, the following quote in from the vice-president of Paramount operations! "They just didn,t think it gave the same visceral feeling" also stating "We're always going to listen to the filmmakers"

Here is another statment from a chap who runs independant theatres in Wyoming and Montana.

I'm still using film projectors that were built in the 1950s and I can fix them myself. What if your digital server goes down? Dark screens are death to the theatre industry.

Interesting times,

Graham.

Posted by David Kilderry (Member # 549) on May 13, 2007, 07:17 PM:

Almost 450 cinema screens around greater Melbourne, six of them are Digital DCI compliant 2k projectors.

Whilst the expansion continues in the US and elswhere, many major exhibitors have realised that there is NO extra $ in running digital compared to 35mm, the boxoffice remains the same yet the costs go up! The saving is for the distrutor, not the exhibitor.

Don't believe for one moment that digital projection is flawless. There have been sessions where it has ground to a halt part way through and even started to break up during projection! Some sessions could not even start. Think about the reliability of your ticketing system; that will be the reliability of digital projection.

David

Posted by Hugh McCullough (Member # 696) on May 14, 2007, 06:33 AM:

I have run three digital prints during the last six weeks.
Digital is good.
Digital is reliable etc., etc.
This is what we are told by the experts who want to sell their projectors.

Film 1. Panning shots, and scrolling credits very jerky.
Film 2. The left side of the picture went a beautiful red colour just after starting the film. To cure it we had to shut everything digital down, and reboot. Time taken about ten minutes.
Film 3. No problems.
To date a one in three success rate.
We also have to leave the server switched on 24 hours a day, seven days a week, using up quite a lot of extra electricity.
At the end of the day we have to wait 15 minutes for the colour engine to cool down before we can switch off the machine. This is very popular with us at 11pm.

Another cinema had the picture lock up halfway through the film. They had to give the audience their money back.

During this six weeks I have shown about ten 35mm films with no trouble at all.
Yes, digital is good etc.

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