Digital Cinema Blog: Reinventing the Experience

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Reinventing the Experience

http://digitalcinemareport.com/thebigpicture_129.html

Reinventing the Experience

By Nick Dager

June 15, 2008 | Issue #129

The central challenge for movie theatre operators in these early years of the 21st century is to understand the changing landscape of entertainment production, distribution and exhibition. While he is admittedly not an objective observer, Michael Lewis, one of the founders of RealD 3D, strongly believes that 3D will be an important part of that new landscape.

He has backed that belief with action, including a recently announced multi-screen deal. As we detailed in our last Report, Regal Entertainment Group and RealD 3D will partner to convert some 1,500 screens to 3D. The deal, when completed, would bring the total number of 3D screens in the US to well over 3,000. The deal will take effect once the major studios and the Digital Cinema Implementation Partners come to terms.

Lewis, who is RealD’s chairman and CEO seems confident that deal will be made sooner than later. In fact when he and I spoke recently he predicted that there will be 2000 RealD 3D screens worldwide by the end of the year. “We’ve exceeded the expectations,” he said. He further predicted that there will be 5000 3D screens worldwide “in a short while.” He prefers not to be pinned down on what exactly “a short while” might be.

Lewis said the motivator that drove the formation of RealD was to answer the question, “Could we solve the 3D problems?”

Lewis learned some of those problems on the job as a producer. Prior to forming RealD he was the CEO and co-founder of L-Squared Entertainment. The company specialized in using technology to create new entertainment experiences, including being the first to utilize PC computers in the creation of digital effects for the motion picture Virtuosity. While at L-Squared, he served as producer on the 3D IMAX film The Magic Box, and as co-producer on the (at that time) highest grossing 3D IMAX film in history: T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous. According to Lewis T Rex made more than $100 million.

In addition to their understanding of the movie business they recognized that “3D was being used in a lot of other sectors,” he said, so they considered developments in other places where the technology was gaining a foothold such as airplane and car design. He said they concluded that, “3D had to happen on the projector side.”

Lewis said that when he and co-founder Joshua Greer started RealD their goal was to see 3D on thousands of screens. “And it had to be digital,” he said. Today reaching that goal seems closer than ever. For Lewis the turning point of digital 3D was the 2005 release of Disney’s Chicken Little 3D. “That was the breakthrough,” he said.

RealD’s challenge now is to work with all segments of the business – producers, distributors, exhibitors – to help educate people about all the nuances of digital 3D. “Nobody really knows how this works yet,” Lewis said. “We’re all experimenting.”

While Lewis said exhibitors are a main area of focus for the company he said RealD also has a vested interest in helping the production community understand all the possibilities – and limitations – of 3D. “We want there to be great 3D content,” he said.

Even today when he watches otherwise excellent movies Lewis said that he occasionally still sees filmmakers who don’t understand the three taboos of shooting 3D. They are:

White on a black background

Low light shots

Quick cuts

Fortunately, he said, as more filmmakers gain experience these mistakes are disappearing.

As for exhibitors, he said the challenge now is for movie theatre executives to adapt to the new realities of the business and embrace change. “If exhibitors don’t continue to reinvent the experience they will fail,” Lewis said.

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