Digital Cinema to Replace 35mm Film Projectors

[Titan76]

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-studios2-2008oct02,0,6640938.story
Digital cinema took a major leap forward as five Hollywood studios pledged their support -- and their cash -- to a $1-billion plan to convert old-fashioned 35-mm film projectors to more modern technology in thousands of theaters throughout North America.

A consortium of major theater chains announced the deal Wednesday, signaling an end to the protracted squabbling over who would pay to convert 20,000 screens to digital projection. The deal announcement was timed to coincide with ShowEast, a major trade show for theater owners and the studios that opens Oct. 13 in Orlando, Fla.

The studios have pushed for the change for nearly a decade. Digital projection would eventually save the industry as much as an estimated $3 billion a year on the cost of making and distributing films, a process that is little changed since the days of silent-film stars Mary Pickford and Buster Keaton.

Digital projection would also hasten the deployment of 3-D in theaters.

Studio executives have embraced the technology, saying it offers a new viewing experience that's compelling enough to coax people out of their living rooms and staunch declining theater attendance. Indeed, Walt Disney Co., 20th Century Fox and DreamWorks Animation SKG each have committed to releasing upcoming animated films in 3-D.

Will you actually see any new changes in terms of quality with digital when compare with the old fashion film projectors?

[The Batman]

I'm not sure. I imagine it might get rid of some of the pops and scratches that can still show up on traditional film projectors but I'm not sure. In all likelihood it'll just come with a its own set of short comings and bugs.

I am excited about the 3D though. I wonder if this is what Lucas is waiting for before he redoes all the Star Wars films as 3D.

[Ontir]

There IS a difference between traditional film projection and 2K digital projection, but for most people, many of whom can't tell the difference between HD and VHS-C, the change will be of no consequence. In a few years, when they upgrade to 4K or higher, it will be very difficult for even the purists to tell the difference.

What does it mean for the movie going audience?

The current, most popular form of projection is the platter system. The print is assembled on a large rotating platform or platter. In the center of the platter is a "brain." It's a tension arm device which feeds the print out to "the tree," carrying it under tension, to the projector where it's passed in front of a very hot bulb, throwing the image across a dark room.

In the past, this was seen to by a Union Projectionist, who was highly trained and could fix any problem on the fly. In the 80's, the Projectionists' Union was broken, and the job became one that was done by mostly high school kids, with very little training at all. When I worked at one cinema, we received a print that had been so badly treated that we could tell what size and brand of sneaker the kid was wearing when he or she walked across it, creasing 3 and a half yards of the print! It took a lot of clean up, and the print had to be watched every time that reel began, to make sure it fed through properly.

This will be replaced by a system similar to the DVD playback you're used to at home, but with a far more powerful projector and a much larger screen, more costly than most will ever be willing to pay for, in terms of a home theatre. In terms of 3-D, it means that it's easier to show them as the digital system handles that better and with less extraneous equipment. (I wish I could give more detail here, but 3-D isn't really an area of expertise. I do know I'm looking forward to more 3-D films though!) Essentially there is less that can easily go wrong in the digital system. When something does go wrong though, it's less likely that a projectionist can get it back up in under 10 minutes, which is about the industry standard now. Ultimately, it's not a question of one being better or worse, they're just different.

[Agent Helix]

Will you actually see any new changes in terms of quality with digital when compare with the old fashion film projectors?

BIG difference. I've only seen a couple of films in digital projection, and it's so much better in picture quality than a standard projector.

[Ontir]

It's funny you say that, since you're actually getting a lower quality picture from a digital projector.

[Sabrina_Fried]

I worked as a projectionist one summer in my university days. We had the platter system in all of the theatres since this was about 10 years ago and no one could afford to install the digital projection systems as a permanent fixture. (This was also the LAST time they said that digital had made the 35mm system obsolete)

Now 35mm systems are a pain to take care of. Too dry in the booth, the film sticks and jams. Too humid, it starts doing other wierd things. Projectors have to be cleaned and re-calibrated constantly, etc. And it is THE cardinal sin to have so much as a speck of dust on the floor, becase if it's on the floor, it WILL end up on your print eventually.

So when Episode I came out, the theatre across the street got it first. And went to the trouble of having special screenings of it to show off this shiny digital technology. Imagine an industrial-strength DVD player. No platters to worry about, not much to clean, etc.

Problem is, the screening looked like a YouTube video uploaded from someone's cellphone blown up to fill the screen. Because no one had bothered to calibrate the lens properley.

The only other time I have knowingly watched a digital projection show was when I saw the Clone Wars theatrical pilot in August. The show looked nice enough, but the kid behind the concession stand forgot to push play or something. The show started half an hour late and no one noticed.

Sabrina