MOVING PICTURES
The technology, which replaces old 35mm film projectors with digital projectors powered by computers, will have a big impact on the picture quality that moviegoers enjoy. Gone will be the rope lines and green marks that plague film projection. Instead, audiences will be treated to a level of quality that will make the action on screen much clearer.
More importantly for the industry, though, is that digital theatres will save smaller filmmakers a fortune in production costs and make many local movies viable for the first time. Producing 35mm prints is expensive — about R15000/print. It’s also cumbersome — each print weighs 15kg. In digital format, movies can be distributed to theatres on hard-disk drives, DVDs or even via high-speed Internet connections at a fraction of the cost.
“There will be an immediate benefit for local movies because the cost is much more bearable,” says Ster-Kinekor Theatres CEO Fiaz Mahomed
Ster-Kinekor, which is owned by listed media group Primedia, has 60 digital projectors (out of 360 screens) and 40 of these will be upgraded to display higher-definition images. Johnnic Communications’ Nu Metro, in turn, says it will install 31 high-definition digital projectors. It will have one digital projector in each of its theatres. In all, Nu Metro has 220 screens.
Another big advantage of digital projection is that advertising can be added or removed on the fly. With 35mm film, advertisements have to be manually spliced into a feature presentation. This means that cinemas can’t change advertising between screenings. With digital, this is easy and, because it’s all managed from a computer, theatre operators can tell advertisers exactly when and how many times their material has been flighted to audiences.
Cinemas can then also be used to show sports and other live events.
SA’s upgraded cinemas won’t, however, comply with strict standards laid down by the big Hollywood studios, which means they can’t be used to show the latest blockbusters.
The studios have created a consortium called Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) to define a standard architecture for digital cinema systems in an effort to stop piracy and to control in-theatre picture and sound quality. For example, movies have to be projected at a minimum resolution of 2K (2048×1080 pixels), though 4K (4096×2160) is preferred.
If they want to show the blockbusters, local theatre operators will have to stump up the cash for DCI equipment. Meanwhile, though, noncompliant digital projectors will enable them to show more art films and content from the smaller studios. “There are smaller independent film studios that are happy to allow us to show digital movies,” says Mark Harris, national product manager at Nu Metro Theatres.
Nu Metro already has two digital cinemas: one screen is at Hyde Park, the other at Montecasino. Neither is DCI compliant.
It’s no surprise that Hollywood is insistent that theatres conform to the DCI spec. It enforces content protection mechanisms, such as secure encryption and forensic markings. Encryption will stop illegal copying, provided the encryption mechanism is not hacked and posted on the Internet, as was the case with DVDs. And forensic markings will enable the movie companies to determine the source of pirated material.
Hollywood is worried that digital distribution could open up a new avenue for pirates to source content. Digital content can be copied with no loss in quality and so DCI imposes strict digital rights management rules that define, for example, how many times a movie can be played.
Unfortunately, conforming to the DCI spec is expensive. Mahomed estimates that it would cost R1m/screen to upgrade to DCI equipment. Noncompliant equipment can be sourced for a fraction of this price. The systems being installed in SA range in quality from 1K to 2K. Most of the systems to be installed by Nu Metro and Ster-Kinekor are 1,3K projectors, which cost about R50000 each. By contrast, a 2K digital projector, which is the minimum required by DCI, costs about R350000.
Mahomed says upgrading all of Ster Kinekor’s screens to comply with DCI would not be affordable.
However, neither Ster-Kinekor nor Nu Metro can afford not to invest in digital cinema. Faced with competition from ever-cheaper home theatre systems, personal video recorders, high-definition television and even mobile television, theatre owners need to keep moviegoers interested. That means keeping pace with technology and offering an experience consumers feel they can’t get at home. Then there’s the piracy problem — DVD piracy, in particular, is endemic. The latest movies are available on many street corners, even before they have been shown on the big screen.
The good news is that the price of DCI-compliant equipment is likely to fall sharply in the next few years. Also, the big movie studios have conceded that they need to help theatre operators worldwide pay for the upgrades. Some have agreed to share the savings they expect to make in production costs as the industry moves to digital distribution with theatre operators. A “virtual print fee” model has been developed to manage the scheme.
Ster-Kinekor is already in discussions to acquire a DCI system. It wants to run a trial so that it can learn how the process works, especially as far as the virtual print fee model is concerned. “I’m confident that in the next financial year, which starts in July, we’ll get to trial a projector,” says Mahomed.
DCI is still in its infancy worldwide but it’s estimated there will be almost 10000 DCI projectors globally by 2010. That’s still a fraction of the 38000-odd screens in the US alone but Mahomed says digital cinema will grow exponentially as equipment prices fall. “It’s not a case of whether one should go digital, it’s a case of when,” he says.
Eventually, digital cinema will completely replace film, Mahomed believes.
It’s local moviemakers that stand to benefit the most from this shift. “The reduction in costs will make their break even a lot lower and they will be able to have a wider release,” Mahomed says. “At the moment they are limited by the number of 35mm prints they can afford to make.”
Filmmaker Ronnie Apteker is particularly excited about the changes. The producer of Crazy Monkey is shooting his new movie, Footskating 101, in high definition digital. It is being shot on a budget of just R1m, and Apteker hopes digital distribution will help the film make money despite the relatively small size of the SA market.
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