CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

Person99 · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 4901 Location: Flower Mound, TX

I just read an interview with John Gaeta (special effects supervisor and guru of The Matrix Trilogy and Speed Racer) and Speed Racer was done to whole handedly embrace DCI (digital cinema), to the point that they actually prefer you not see it on on film. Couple that with directors such as Tarantino and Rodriguez embracing digital.

The move will first be to digitally creating the whole work most likely targeting digital cinema display. Film will likely only be produced for the legacy theaters that have not converted.

So, how long before we see a mass conversion to digital film making and the practical death of film projection? Personally, I can't see film making it another decade.

ecrabb · Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 6:07 pm Post subject:

I'd say your guess of film not making it a decade is pretty safe. In fact, I'll be surprised if almost all major productions aren't shot digitally inside of 5 years. The theater switch will take longer because of the capital involved, but as the price of DCI projection equipment falls, they're going to switch to gain the convenience, immediacy, automation, and ease of operation (press play). No prints to damage or destroy, and the 1000th screening looks as good as the first screening. It will only be the smaller venues or theaters in smaller markets that will continue to use film and that will only be as long as it will be profitable for the studios to continue producing prints.

To give you an idea of the popularity of digital film-making, here's the list of dCinema cameras in use right now:
Arriflex D-20 (35mm sensor size, 1080p output)
Dalsa Origin (35mm sensor size, 4K output)
GS Vitec noX (1.2", 2K output)
Panavision Genesis (~35mm sensor, 1080p output)
RED ONE (35mm sensor size, 4K output)
Silicon Imaging SI-2K (16mm, 2K)
Thomson Viper FilmStream (2/3", 1080p output)
Sony F-23 (Sony CineAlta) (2/3", 1080p output)
Vision Research Phantom65 (65mm, 4K)
Vision Research PhantomHD (35mm, 2K)

Then, you have your intermediates, editing and post - that's been all digital for years.

So, this is being driven on all fronts. The film-makers and producers like that digital is cheaper to produce with than film. The DP's likes that they can get their dailies back for review almost instantly (or in minutes instead of hours or days). Then, footage can go into the production pipeline so much faster. Studios like digital because it's MUCH cheaper to distribute and harder to steal or lose. Theaters like it because of the immediacy, convenience, automation and ease of use. There's also the flexibility of a dCinema theater to be able to project special live events, too. They'll like it more and more as the cost of the equipment comes down.

The film wall is crumbling. Won't be long.

SC

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 6:09 pm Post subject:

MYoung · Joined: 24 Feb 2007 Posts: 369 Location: Madison, WI

Now if only they could make a 1080p camcorder that doesn't cost an arm and a leg that shoots 24fps and has the manual controls of virtually every motion picture camera ever made. Canon came close with the HF10 and HF100, which shoot to SDHC cards in 1920x1080p @ 24fps with a 17Mbps bitrate! But come on, focusing with a rinky dink joystick instead of a focus ring? LAME! Then there's the slick looking JVC GZ-HD7. Focus ring... CHECK! 1080p @ 24fps... FAIL! It makes me want to buy a 16mm Bolex.

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 1:28 am Post subject:

Person99 · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 4901 Location: Flower Mound, TX

outwest · Joined: 17 Dec 2006 Posts: 212 Location: Honolulu

I know this doesn't apply to the movies that we see at the local cinema, but I am curious. Does digital do slow motion? I am thinking back a couple of years when I was visiting a friend of mine that is a cameraman. He was working on a high speed 35MM film camera. The film transport motor was 1/3 HP. He showed me that there was no mechanical shutter as it was not possible to move, start, and stop the shutter parts fast enough. The shutter duties were handled by a rotating prism. He said that there was no effort to get the exposed film onto a take-up reel, instead, it was just shot into a big light controlled box and sorted out later. The camera construction was massive. It really took the two of us to move it easily. He made a comment to the effect, "This is nothing. You should see the 70MM version"

ecrabb · Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 7:13 am Post subject:

perisoft · Joined: 29 Aug 2007 Posts: 2920 Location: Ithaca, NY

It'll be interesting to see whether the switch to digital on the filmmaking (?!) side makes digitals a better proposition for movie watching, in terms of their lack of 'film-ness'. With movies shot on digital and displayed on digital, the way to see what the director intended will obviously be digital.

But that doesn't mean the other advantaged of CRT aren't there. I tend to think that video games look better on CRT, too, and they're obviously not targeting film output!

Also, digital display is probably done in 4k a lot.

It'll be interesting to see when the UBER high end HT people start using 4k projectors with the actual digital 'prints' instead of bluray.

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 2:31 pm Post subject:

Hmmm maybe the 35mm projector's will start to come up surplus and we can pick them up for our home theater's. Twisted Evil

ecrabb · Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 2:49 pm Post subject:

Yeah, that would be practical. Lessee... there's the 10x10 isolated room we need with ventilation. There's the power draw and noise. Optical head for DD and decoder, and most important, there's the big bucks it takes to buy or rent prints to have anything to watch. I know you were being facetious, though. Wink

Here's some entertainment. These guys are "keeping the dream alive" so to speak. Check out some of these awesome film-based non-commercial theaters. Some are home, some are corporate, etc. Be sure to check out Brad Miller's Film-Tech screening room. Look in the "SCREENING ROOMS" section. Whoah.

http://www.film-tech.com/warehouse/index.php?category=1

SC

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 2:53 pm Post subject:

perisoft · Joined: 29 Aug 2007 Posts: 2920 Location: Ithaca, NY

Person99 · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 4901 Location: Flower Mound, TX

Person99 · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 4901 Location: Flower Mound, TX

ecrabb · Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2008 10:30 pm Post subject:

perisoft · Joined: 29 Aug 2007 Posts: 2920 Location: Ithaca, NY