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http://www.digitalcinemareport.com/node/1081
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When, if ever, will Hollywood agree to expand the digital cinema specifications to allow for DCI-compliant 1K systems? There has been a lot of conversation this summer about the differences between 2K and 4K digital cinema for movie theatres. Invariably, however, many, if not most exhibitors are still faced with prices that are higher than they can legitimately afford. This is true for theatre owners around the world. Given the current state of the industry, as Wendy Grossman illustrated nicely in a recent article in the UK’s Guardian News, some independent theatres and independent filmmakers are testing alternatives.
In her report she told the story of independent filmmakers Michael Bergmann and Doug Underdahl who, at Wahington Theatre in Washington, New Jersey, screened their movie Tied to a Chair using a high-end Leica business projector powered by a Macbook Pro running QuickTime Pro. The result was a 1920x1080 image that was thrown 100 feet at 24 frames per second that even impressed emissaries from Leica.
Bergmann's latest film, Tied to a Chair, for which Underdahl was director of photography, and which recently won the best in festival prize at the Heart of England International Film Festival, “is caught in two traps, like many independent films,” wrote Grossman. “First: the transition from film to digital. Second: shrinking distribution for independent and art films. Bergmann's movie has been digitally produced but the Washington theatre in New Jersey, which wants to show it, only has film projectors. Buying a digital projector costs $60,000. A good 35mm transfer about the same. Neither filmmaker nor cinema can afford it.”
According to Grossman, Bergmann read about Leica's Pradovit D-1200, which sells for roughly a quarter of the price of a 2K-projector and thought its specifications might suffice. “To compensate, Bergmann and Underdahl placed their system in the 10th row of the theatre, blocking off about 20 seats,” Grossman’s article continued. “Underdahl, who co-designed and fabricated the remote-controlled pan/tilt head for the deep-dive segment of Titanic, has built a box to hold the projector and laptop. For a commercial cineplex with a projectionist who services six or seven screens at once, it wouldn't work. But for an independent cinema or a film festival, it may change the game.”
As Grossman correctly notes in her article, “venues such as the Washington Theatre (which also shows first-run Hollywood films) are dying everywhere. [Owner/operator] Marco Matteo, who grew up watching movies in this 1927 theatre, wants to restore it and turn it into a multipurpose community resource that shows movies, stages concerts and gives local students hands-on facilities.”
But as things stand today he can’t.
Tied to a Chair stars Mario Van Peebles and Bonnie Loren. The film begins on the last day of Naomi Holbroke's marriage to a high-ranking British government official. Seeming to be a failure as a housewife, Naomi sets off to reclaim the acting career she gave up “for him” twenty-five years ago. In France at a film festival, she meets film director Billy Rust and falls in love with…his script, particularly with the sequence in which the girl gets tied to a chair. Alas, the part calls for a “name or a much younger woman” but Naomi perseveres and extracts a promise of a screen test in New York. Naomi arrives in New York and gets to her screen test at the last minute but only after getting involved with a terrorist suspect, stealing a taxi and discovering what appears to be Billy Rust's dead body.
In addition to making a string of successful independent films Bergmann is no stranger to movie technology. He has appeared as a lecturer and panelist at independent film conferences, speaking on the latest trends in state-of-the-art technology. He believes that the use of the latest digital technology enhances cinematic creativity by enabling filmmakers to do much more on budgets, which restrict them much less.
Now he and hundreds of talented – and proven – filmmakers just like him would like the opportunity to get their work seen in mainstream theatres. And, as with the Washington Theatre, there are many exhibitors who would like the opportunity to at least consider showing those independent movies on their screens.
But an affordable DCI-compliant 1K system is something Hollywood continues to reject. The technology is in place. All of the current projector and server manufacturers already make viable 1K systems that could easily and at reasonable prices be adapted to DCI specifications. Independent theatres and many smaller screens in larger cineplexes would benefit from such an option. Hollywood is the only hurdle. The question remains: When, if ever, will Hollywood agree to expand the digital cinema specifications to allow for DCI-compliant 1K systems?
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