Digital May Be the Future of Cinema.

By Annlee Ellingson

October 30, 2007 2:18 PM Permalink Comments (1)

but a DMX demo only serves to show the visual superiority of 70mm

Several years ago, I had the pleasure of being invited to a demonstration of Super Dimension-70 (SDS-70). The 70mm format is shot at 48 frames per second (fps) and projected at 96 hertz (Hz) for a viewing experience stunning in its clarity. What I remember most from that screening at Harmony Gold on Sunset Blvd. is the red drapes drawn across the stage. When the show began, the curtains pulled aside, and I realized for the first time that they were not actually curtains at all but a projected image of curtains—they looked that real.

The Walter Cronkite-narrated demo reel that followed continued to startle with bright colors, clear images and smooth moving shots in a variety of footage that included both intimate and action moments. Robert Weisgerber, developer of SDS-70, hoped that both studios and exhibitors would adopt the format for a specialized viewing experience.

That was back in 2002. Digital cinema hadn’t yet taken hold, but its inevitability perhaps already had been accepted. So in the half-decade since, Weisberger has turned his attention to bringing the same spectacular picture quality to digital technology. The Super Vista Corp. president and CEO invited industryites to a demonstration of his latest project last week at the Mann National Theatre in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles.

The programming began with the same SDS-70 presentation that I saw five years ago. I missed the red curtains, which weren’t a part of the show this time, but the footage is just as stunning now as it was then. In fact, it only served to point out the limitations of current digital cinema technology.

Weisgerber had gathered leading technology gurus to demonstrate his latest development, Dimensional Movie Experience (DMX), a digital cinema-based process that aims to do for 2K-resolution d-cinema what SDS-70 did for film. To my eyes, his original presentation on a film-based 70mm system still looked better.

When the picture alternated between 35mm and DMX, yes the difference was compelling, but this crowd didn’t need to be convinced that digital offered better image quality that 35mm film. It was a comparison that I and they’d already seen many times before. A better demonstration would have been between 2K digital cinema and 2K DMX digital cinema to show what exactly Weisgerber is bringing to the table.

One part of the presentation that did impress was an upconversion done by post-production house Digital Jungle of The Searchers. Repurposed at 48 fps from an HD DVD transfer, the 1956 John Wayne Western did look, as DMX’s materials claim, like 3D without glasses.

That the process could be used as a marketing tool, however, seems optimistic. It’s been proven that moviegoers are not inclined to pay more for the better viewing experience of digital cinema. They are, however, willing to pay a premium price for the giant screen of IMAX or 3D. It wasn’t clear from last week’s demonstrations that DMX offers a degree of difference that could demand a ticket price that would make it cost-effective.

http://boxoffice.com/blogs/annlee-ellingson/2007/10/welcome-to-your-blog-page-at-b.php