With Theaters Barely Digital, Studios Push 3-D

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/movies/13show.html?_r=1&em&ex=1205467200&en=c2101d8da69b7ee9&ei=5087%0A&oref=slogin

 

March 13, 2008

 

By DAVID M. HALBFINGER

LAS VEGAS — Coming soon, and coming straight at you: houseflies in astronaut suits, Brendan Fraser boldly exploring the earth’s core and an animated, nearly 50-foot-tall she-monster with Reese Witherspoon’s voice.

Energized by impressive profits from the pioneering “Polar Express” (2004) and last year’s “Meet the Robinsons” — not to mention the phenomenally successful “Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour” — Hollywood is finally starting to bring 3-D movies to market, and in bunches. Theater owners are spending heavily to be ready with new projectors, screens, eyeglasses and higher ticket prices when those films start to arrive in multiplexes.

Here at ShoWest — the annual gathering of theater owners and vendors, which concludes on Thursday — bulky 3-D eyewear is almost as omnipresent as overfed conventioneers with name tags. And studios promoting their slates for this year and next have shined the brightest spotlight on their 3-D titles.

New Line Cinema and Walden Media are screening “Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D,” a live-action adventure with Mr. Fraser as the hero of their adaptation of the Jules Verne novel. Summit Entertainment is showing bits of “Fly Me to the Moon,” an animated comedy about youthful bugs that sneak aboard the Apollo 11 mission.

And DreamWorks Animation’s chief executive, Jeffrey Katzenberg, chose a prime slot at the opening ceremony on Tuesday to unveil a sequence from “Monsters vs. Aliens,” his studio’s spoof of 1950s science-fiction movies. Ms. Witherspoon stars in the film, set for release just over a year from now. (The clip featured Stephen Colbert as a characteristically swaggering president leading the Army against an unfriendly alien visitor.)

Industrywide, there could be as many as 10 movies released in 3-D in 2009, said Mr. Katzenberg, who has become the format’s biggest missionary. But so far, fewer than 900 theater screens nationwide have had the costly 3-D systems installed. And until that number reaches 5,000, Mr. Katzenberg and other distribution executives say, 3-D movies will also need to be released in the 2-D format. (By comparison, the 2-D movie “Shrek the Third” opened on about 10,000 screens.)

In the short term, the slow rollout of 3-D projection systems raises the specter of a competitive bloodbath, as too many movies overwhelm the available outlets. That’s what happened, for example, when the “Hannah Montana” film quickly knocked out “U2 3D,” a U2 concert film that had opened on 3-D screens a week earlier.

Always leery of leaving money on the table, the studios are jockeying for dates free of 3-D competition. “Monsters vs. Aliens” at first was set for release on May 15, 2009, the same day as James Cameron’s highly anticipated 3-D action movie, “Avatar.” But Mr. Katzenberg blinked, pushing up his film’s release by two months. “Avatar” was subsequently pushed back to Dec. 18 for production reasons. Mr. Katzenberg then delayed a December 2009 DreamWorks release, “How to Train Your Dragon,” to March 2010, to avoid being squeezed between “A Christmas Carol,” starring Jim Carrey, set for release by Disney on Nov. 6, 2009, and “Avatar.”

For the most part the 2009 calendar has been smoothed out, but one bottleneck remains, according to Rentrak, which collects industry data. Two 3-D films are currently set for release on July 24, 2009: “Piranha,” a horror remake from Dimension, and Disney’s “G-Force,” about a squad of guinea pigs sent to stop an evil billionaire from taking over the world.

While studios have been readying their 3-D products, theater owners haven’t embraced the new technology quite as fast. The biggest brake on the 3-D rollout has been the slow expansion of digital projection systems, which are steadily replacing film projectors at multiplexes nationwide. So far, just 4,600 out of about 37,000 movie screens have been converted to digital.

Studios have been subsidizing the conversions, which cost theaters about $75,000 for each auditorium, with “virtual print fees” approximating their savings from not having to print and ship hundreds of film reels for each release. But Michael Karagosian, a technology consultant to the National Association of Theater Owners, said film companies like Kodak and Agfa had responded to the threat of digital cinema by lowering their prices for film prints, reducing studios’ appetite for big digital subsidies. (A deal announced here on Tuesday to help convert up to 10,000 screens to digital included an $800 subsidy, down from $1,000 in an earlier round.)

Even with the subsidies, theater owners have to pay about 1.7 times as much for digital systems over time as they do for projectors, because of high maintenance costs and short equipment life spans, Mr. Karagosian said. Film projectors, by contrast, are much like Cadillacs in Cuba, kept humming for decades with cheap replacement parts.

“It’s a big expense,” said Larry Allen, owner of the 94-screen Allen Theater chain in New Mexico. An early adopter, he has converted all but 10 of his screens to digital projection. “But it’s not always as good as they say it is,” he added, describing the picture quality. “And I’m not so sure our customer even knows we have it.”

Mr. Allen was here shopping for 3-D gear — it runs about $20,000 per screen or more — but said he was not sure how many of his theaters to equip. And he lamented that the leading vendor of that technology, Real D, which says it operates about 97 percent of the existing 3-D screens, wielded too much clout. “It’s a seller’s market,” he said.

On the positive side for theater owners, they have been able to charge as much as $5 more per ticket for 3-D movies like “Hannah Montana,” and Mr. Karagosian said even poorly received movies like “Beowulf” have grossed twice as much on 3-D screens as in the 2-D format.

With that as bait, Mr. Katzenberg said, he was confident that enough theaters would be ready to show “Monsters vs. Aliens” in 3-D to justify what he estimated as $15 million in added costs for making the movie in that format.

The studios, it’s clear, are not waiting for theater owners anymore. “Two years ago, we were hoping — if we build this platform, will people show up?” said Michael Lewis, chief executive of Real D. “Now there’s a title announced almost every week. The switch has been flipped.”

But what about movies opening this summer? Cary Granat, chief executive of Walden Media, said its 3-D “Journey to the Center of the Earth” cost less than $70 million, but will still need to open a lot wider than is now possible to make the difference “between profitable and very profitable.”

“Our hope — our hope — is that there’ll be somewhere between 1,250 and 1,400 screens,” Mr. Granat said.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: March 17, 2008
An article in The Arts on Thursday about Hollywood’s plans for several 3-D movies referred incorrectly to one planned for release in 2009, “G-Force,” from Disney, about a squad of guinea pigs sent to stop an evil billionaire from taking over the world. While it has computer-generated guinea pigs, it is a live-action movie, not animated.

 

Digital Theaters (Finally) Coming Soon? Don't Hold Your Breath

http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/03/can-3d-help-yan.html

 

By Jason Silverman March 14, 2008 | 5:44:00 pm 

 

Can 3-D help push digital projection into your multiplex? Jeffrey Katzenberg thinks so. At ShoWest -- the movie exhibitors' biggest confab of the year -- the DreamWorks' chief used a sneak of footage from his 2009 animation blockbuster Monsters vs. Aliens to praise 3-D.

 

"It is nothing less than the greatest innovation that has happened for all of us in the movie business since the advent of color 70 years ago," he said. "Now is our chance to deliver something that is far superior than anything that can be done in the home."

 

Of course, we've been promised digital multiplexes for years ... and years. Billions will be saved, some estimate, on making and shipping 35mm prints, and the problems associated with playing those prints -- which tend to take a beating over the course of a run -- will disappear. By digitally delivering movies, theaters will gain increased flexibility. They can shift films from one hall to another, tweak their schedules and show concerts, lectures and sporting events.

 

Sounds good, right? So what's taking so long? The main sticking point has been the cost of transferring theaters from the 35mm standard, which has been in place for 75 years, to a digital one (the studios, via their Digital Cinema Initiatives consortium, have agreed upon a standard digital architecture for theaters). Setup can run $75,000 per screen, making conversion of a multiplex a major financial gamble. The theaters aren't willing to pay for an upgrade so studios can save money.

 

Still, recent successes in 3-D and large-format films (including the surprising Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus) and fear of a Netflixing nation have got the studios pumping out 3-D fare. A New York Times article predicted that as many as 10 big-budget 3-D films will be released in 2009, including James Cameron's Avatar. London's Guardian also trumpeted a new era of cinema.

 

The problem remains: where to play these new-form 3-D films? Fewer than 1,000 of the nation's 38,000 screens are ready for digital and, thus, digital 3-D. And though AccessIT announced a deal with four studios to help equip 10,000 more screens, read the fine print and you'll see that their roll out takes place over the next three years -- not nearly enough time to accommodate films like Aliens vs. Monsters, Avatar, Disney's G-Force and the horror film Piranha. So, though the goods might be available in 3-D and digitally, most of us might end up watching these 3-Ders the old-fashioned way: in 35mm, with the action as flat as ever.

 

Olswang acts on EU rollout of film studios' digital cinema

http://www.thelawyer.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=131740&d=415&h=417&f=416

 

Date: 17-Mar-2008

Source: The Lawyer

 

Olswang has advised new client Arts Alliance Media on five long-term deals to secure the rollout of digital cinema for five studios across Europe.

 

The client has entered into agreements with Twentieth Century?Fox,?Universal Pictures International, Paramount, Sony Pictures and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International.

 

The deals will see digital cinema - already available in the US - offered in 7,000 screens across Europe. The technology allows for higher definition and 3D images, as well as the potential for exhibitors to show the same film on multiple screens simultaneously.

 

According to Olswang partner Clive Gringras, who led the team acting on the deal, the 3D technology on offer is unparalleled. "It is to current film what colour was to black and white," he said. "It's a totally new genre - it's not cinema but it's not theatre either."

 

The firm pitched for the role more than two years ago, but the time-consuming nature of the work meant that the last of the five transactions - that involving Disney - closed only last month. The reason for this was that it was not possible to run deals in parallel.

 

"It's so complicated because the industry has been moving in a particular way for so long," said Gringras. "You need to understand how it would work with exhibitors, which studio would be most interested in doing it first, to propel it all forward."

 

In the end it was Twentieth Century Fox that took up the baton - closing the first of the five deals in May 2007. Allen & Overy partner Ian Ferguson, who advised long-standing client Fox together with associate Faraaz Samadi, said that the film studio's interest was piqued because commercially it made sense and it had not been done before in this part of the world.

 

Sony was advised by Adel Bebawy, a partner at Latham & Watkins, while Universal, Paramount and Disney used in-house counsel.

 

 

 

 Section: Lawyer2B: News, TL News, The Law

 

All Digital, All the Time

http://www.filmjournal.com/filmjournal/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003722045

 

Source: Film Journal International

 

This ShoWest 2008 marks approximately two years since the first serious rollout of DCI-capable digital-cinema systems in the U.S. Enough time has passed for us to look back at a few of the deployments to see what issues have been raised, how they have been resolved and, in general, how exhibitors are using the systems. We talked to a number of exhibitors and system integrators who have installed “all-digital” multiplexes and have come up with several views on how their deployments are going.

 

UltraStar Cinemas of Carlsbad, CA, made an early jump into digital in the fall of 2005 with the commitment to equip their entire 114 screens with digital projection through the AccessIT/Christie deployment plan. John Ellison, co-founder of UltraStar, has been a proponent of digital since 2002 when he was the first in California to install six 1.3K pre-DCI Boeing Digital Cinema systems for Star Wars: Episode I.

 

Ellison, a true believer in the power of marketing cinema amenities, was the first in the area to use THX certification and saw digital cinema as the next high-value attraction. As a result, in 2001 UltraStar developed their own “Pure Digital Cinema” marketing campaign to increase audience awareness. With the 2002 Star Wars release, Ellison found that his cinemas that were equipped and marketed as digital were earning up to twice the box office of his 35mm houses. Focused on maximizing his investment, and with marketing support from DLP Cinema and equipment vendors, Ellison was able to create a premium attraction that continues to pay off.

 

UltraStar completed its digital installations in all its screens in early 2006, but still has a few side-by-side film projectors for the occasional title not available in digital, but this is becoming rare. Ellison says, “In 2007, only two or three titles were not available to us in digital.” UltraStar has also added 3D and has six locations equipped with the Real D system. Looking back, Ellison declares, “I could not be more pleased with the way things have turned out. The AccessIT and Christie people have been excellent in making sure our transition to digital has been as smooth and painless as possible.”

 

Premiere Theaters, an independent ten-screen multiplex in Melbourne, FL, has also completely converted to digital. Getting started by converting a single screen to digital 3D with Disney's Chicken Little in the fall of 2005, Premiere's president Rob Kurrus quickly realized that he needed to transition the multiplex to fully digital as quickly as possible. Kurrus says, "It's all about enhancing the customer experience and we saw that digital, with its higher quality and flexibility, was the way to go."

 

After researching the various plans being offered, Kurrus selected the Dolby plan and their servers along with Barco projectors. Over a six-month period in mid-2006, Kurrus added digital systems until all his screens were equipped. Along with the original Real D 3D system, Kurrus has also recently added two Dolby 3D systems. "In hindsight, we probably left too many 35mm projectors in place, as we've found we really don't need them. Based on our experience, you only need 35mm in a few—at the most one-third—of the screens," Kurrus notes.

 

Kurrus admits the transition was not without its issues, particularly when he only had a few digital screens and had to move shows between auditoriums. During the transition, there were times when box-office revenues suffered because Premiere was not able to keep some popular titles in digital throughout the run. "There was a collective sigh of relief from the staff as the last Barco projector was installed," Kurrus recalls. "We have had virtually no problems getting our staff to understand the operation of the systems, as most our staff are fairly technically savvy. In fact, if anything, operating the 35mm projectors is a bigger challenge.”

 

Delivery of the security keys seemed to be an ongoing issue during the transition, but this smoothed out after a few months. An occasional problem still pops up. Most studios are still figuring out how to store and distribute digital content for repertoire titles. For example, after the digital run of one popular title, Premiere needed to bring back the title for a special-event showing. Although they still had the original digital file on the server, for some unknown reason the distributor could not reissue a valid key and had to send in a 35mm print for their event.

 

Rob Kurrus also feels a breakthrough in the simplification of their day-to-day screen operation came after Premiere installed the Dolby Library Server. Previously, titles had to be loaded into the individual players at each screen. The library server provides a single point for loading the titles used throughout the site. Shows can be scheduled, titles can be moved between screens, and the entire system monitored from a central point, or even remotely using a web browser.

 

Kurrus feels the remaining issues to be worked out are in the area of content and key delivery, and is looking forward to the day when all content arrives via satellite delivery and the keys are transparently loaded. He predicts, "Then the only reason to go into the booth will be to change the bulb.” Kurrus goes on to add, "The xenon bulb is the weakest link in the digital system. I would like to see some improvements there."

 

Megaplex Theatre of Sandy, UT, has converted 53 of its 69 screens at five sites to digital, with all digital projectors at its Gateway, Thanksgiving Point and Jordan Commons sites. Being in the Salt Lake City area, home of the Sundance Film Festival, Megaplex’s digital-cinema specialist Mike Renlund found that there is still a need for some 35mm equipment to accommodate titles from independent filmmakers, and he has converted several auditoriums to run both film and digital. Also, because of decreasing costs in mastering digital content, more and more independent filmmakers are making the switch to digital.

 

Renlund is pleased with the digital equipment and feels that most of the earlier transitional issues have been ironed out. “There were occasional problems in getting the right security keys,” Renlund notes. “Since we have both the Dolby 3D and Real D 3D systems, we initially had a few issues getting the right 3D files. Now that the distributors are supplying keys to all auditoriums, for the most part this seems to have been resolved.”

 

Megaplex has been aggressively using their new digital capability to attract new audiences by hosting business events, concerts and video-gaming events. For example, in conjunction with the Hannah Montana 3D release, Megaplex hosted a separate dress-up “Red Carpet Rock Star Event,” with a separate $15 ticket, that used the digital projectors to present live karaoke. Also, Megaplex has been using the digital auditoriums after hours to host X-Box Halo contests, according to Dave Bollard, Megaplex’s marketing manager. Megaplex has been able to fill auditoriums between midnight and 6 a.m. with teams competing between screens.

 

Malco Theaters of Memphis TN, also another early pioneer going back to the 2002 Star Wars deployment, has jumped into digital cinema in a big way. Partnered with Dolby as the system provider and server manufacturer, and with Barco projectors, Malco has approximately 60 digital systems installed of its expected 350-screen deployment. Mike Thomson, Malco’s VP of operations and technology, has been their driving force in making sure that each system is installed to deliver the best possible picture and sound.

 

Malco started by installing the new digital systems in its best-performing houses and intends to continue the upgrades at a manageable pace until all their screens are equipped. Thomson has developed an in-house technical staff of six who have been extensively trained by the manufactures in maintenance and operation of their equipment. Thomson admits that “digital is not as mature as film and still has a way to go. It’s not a cakewalk. However, we have a good operational record and have been able to deal with and learn from the issues as they come up.”

 

Malco has installed a few Dolby Digital 3D systems, and is impressed with the image quality of Dolby’s 3D process. Thomson likes the Dolby 3D system because of its conventional white screen and he feels their 3D image quality is the best in the market.

 

Thomson believes Malco’s success with digital is largely due to the strong relationships he has built with Dolby, Barco and other vendors and the investments made by Malco in developing the in-house staff to deal with installations, routine maintenance, and any unexpected issues. Thomson believes that the smaller exhibitors need to be prepared by either building up a strong in-house team, or working with service providers that can deliver the required support.

 

Rave Motion Pictures of Dallas, TX, has gone 100% digital in its 445 screens, with 37 equipped with Real D 3D. Rave partnered with AccessIT, using Christie projectors and Doremi servers in its digital rollout. At this point, Rave does not have any 35mm equipment and feels quite confident that there is enough mainstream content to support their exclusive “everything in digital” position.

 

Rave has also been an early adopter of 3D, with at least one Real D 3D installation in every complex. Of the 683 Hannah Montana play sites, Rave was able to capture almost five percent of the opening-weekend total box-office gross with its 28 3D screens. Jeremy Devine, VP of marketing, attributes the increase to an “intensive grassroots marketing campaign,” along with Disney’s phenomenal pre-release marketing to increase awareness of digital 3D. Devine has also been “shocked” by how successful the opera events have been, and is also experimenting with sporting events and other forms of alternative content. Rave has been attentive to scheduling the special events for afternoons and the relatively weak Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Overall, the success of Hannah Montana and other alternative content has affirmed Rave’s decision to be at the forefront of the digital and 3D rollout.

 

Brad Wardlow, Rave’s VP of operations, comments, “Rave made the digital transition over an 18-month period beginning in early 2005. We equipped in several ‘waves,’ initially starting with the higher-performing screens where we had booked the titles that we knew would be available in digital. By mid-2006, almost every title we were playing was available in the DCI format, so we decided to go ahead and replace the 35mm projectors on a site-wide basis. Having the building fully digital simplifies operation tremendously when compared to a split 35mm-digital site.

 

“We have certainly changed our staffing interview process since going digital,” Wardlow continues. “Previously, we would look for candidates that showed an aptitude for mechanical skills. Now, we focus on those that have an interest in computers and are familiar with software and menu-driven systems.” The next step in Rave’s digital implementation will be to integrate it with the box-office point-of-sale system, so there will be no need for manual show starts. This will eventually reduce staffing costs. Wardlow feels that while the digital projector’s operating costs may be higher than the conventional 35mm projector, the overall savings on a circuit-wide basis will be in the positive, after taking into consideration the savings in theatre operations.

 

In conclusion, all the exhibitors we spoke to were enthusiastic about their digital systems. All admitted they had been through a somewhat challenging learning process, but all said they had overcome any serious show-stopping issues, and felt they were delivering superior presentations. Common to all was the tremendous popularity of digital 3D, and all had developed innovative uses of alternative programming to raise attendance in off-hours. And finally, all seemed to emphasize the need to be prepared with either a well-trained in-house technical team or have a capable systems integrator working closely with them during the transition period."

 

By Bill Mead, Film Journal International

2008 HPA Tech Retreat: The Future is 3D

http://fullres.blogspot.com/

Source: StudioDaily

"Is the current 3D renaissance poised to leverage a full-blown transformation of movie-making technology? That was the story coming out of this week's Hollywood Post Alliance Tech Retreat in Rancho Mirage, CA, where hundreds of the proverbial brightest minds in the business gathered to get a jump on the future of the industry.

Speaking at the 3D "super session" that opened the conference, Iridas COO Patrick J. Palmer said that increased numbers of 3D projects were likely to drive an entirely new category of post-production tools in the coming years. “All manufacturers have to jump on this,” he told attendees, predicting that compositing and animation tools will one day be available in special stereo-ready versions that will allow artists to view their work in 3D as they make changes. “I don't know any sound editors working in 5.1 and listening to their work one track at a time,” he said.

The Math Starts to Make Sense
The HPA Retreat took place with two groundbreaking new 3D concert films in theaters — U23D doing solid business in a few dozen theaters, and Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour doing absolutely phenomenal numbers in a few hundred. And while those two releases may seem like an anomaly in 2008, 3D will be a common multiplex technology by 2010, Disney's Chuck Viane underscored that point by showing a list of upcoming 3D films with release dates, including the Toy Story trilogy (reissues of the first two films in '09 and '10 leading up to the release of what may well be titled Toy Story 3D). "3D shifts the filmmaking process more toward post," Viane observed, noting that 3D introduces numerous opportunities to manipulate the way depth is perceived by audiences after the fact of principal photography.

The 3D "super session" that opened the HPA Retreat took place at a local multiplex with stadium seating and a generously proportioned, 60-foot screen lit to a little more than four foot-lamberts by a single projector. That's still a small fraction — just about 30 percent — of the brightness generally specified for 2D exhibition (14 foot-lamberts) but for 3D on a screen of that size, it's a breakthrough. The installation of a new "light doubler" from Real D made the difference — but not without introducing some new potential issues for 3D post-production. H. Loren Nielsen, co-founder and president of Entertainment Technology Consultants, noted almost as an aside that, as screens get bigger, so does the actual parallax between projected left-eye and right-eye images that provides the illusion of depth. "That implies that ... we have to master for different screen sizes," she said.

One limitation for 3D's expansion, according to Millard Ochs, president of Warner Bros. International Cinemas, is that the perception within the studios themselves is that 3D movies are necessarily animated films. But he said the fast-approaching golden years of the baby-boomer generation represents an unmissable opportunity to reissue live-action films in 3D. "There's a lot of archive material in there. Start taking a look at it," he urged. The point was underscored by a brief demo reel shown by David Seigle from In-Three, which has in years past exhibited compelling "dimensionalized" footage from the original Star Wars film (although an announced theatrical release never materialized). This year, In-Three showed footage from Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith and the 1978 zombie classic Dawn of the Dead. (For more information, see Seigle's white paper on "depth-grading.")

Max Penner, a co-founder of Paradise FX, also underscored the importance of broadening 3D's appeal away from kid flicks and special-interest documentaries. He described the tapeless 3D workflow for Dark Country, a low-budget thriller directed by Thomas Jane, which relied on Final Cut Pro, After Effects, and Iridas products. “I applaud all the higher-end philosophies, but we have to have that lower-end content,” Penner said.

Cost Analysis
So you want to shoot 3D. It'll cost you — but maybe not as much as you think. Buzz Hays of Sony Pictures Imageworks offered a cost analysis of 3D production. For a CG animation project, Hays said, 3D will add between 8 and 15 percent to your below-the-line costs. The first three projects done by Imageworks came in on the high end of that scale mainly because they weren't created with 3D in mind; Beowulf, which was produced in 2D and 3D simultaneously, came in at about an 8 to 10 percent premium, Hays said. (Later in the day, Jim Mainard from DreamWorks Animation expanded a little, noting that rendering becomes about 30 percent more costly on a 3D film, adding something like $2 million to $3 million to rendering costs on a typical DreamWorks animated project.)

On a live-action shoot, the production premium jumps to anywhere between 15 and 25 percent of below-the-line costs, although that's expected to drop, Hays said. "The real cost is the impact on your shooting schedule," he noted.

Finally, creating a 3D version of an existing 2D production will run somewhere between $75,000 and $125,000 per minute, Hays said. Obviously, this tactic will make sense for some types of content, but not for all of it.

Once you know how much it all costs, how do you figure your chances of recouping? Well, the market is still nascent, so even though there are finally enough 3D-capable digital cinemas in the U.S. (about 1000) for a given 3D project to make money without a 2D version released in parallel, don't expect miracles in the short term. "Does the business model work?" asked Peter Dobson, CEO of Mann Theaters, thinking about the investments required by exhibitors to keep these movies on 3D screens — which tend to be larger auditoriums — even as admissions drop steadily following strong opening weekends. "So far, no." The release of 10 3D movies in a single year's time, Dobson said, "would just about make it work."

But as long as the exhibitors can figure out how to show the movies, studios are starting to get excited about making more of them. Don Tannenbaum of Warner Bros. noted that $35 million of Beowulf's $82 million domestic box-office haul came from 3D engagements, representing 3.9 million admissions. The studio reaped $7.8 million from increased ticket prices for the 3D version, and estimates that it generated about $22.5 million in incremental revenue — that is, money from patrons who would not have seen the film at all if it were released only in 2D. That's a lot of money to leave on the proverbial table, so expect 3D production to ramp up over the next few years. Hays said "the floodgates will open" in 2009, when a new release is scheduled roughly every six to eight weeks.

Behind the Scenes for Hannah Montana
Representatives from Quantel and Fotokem were on hand to show clips from the Hannah Montana film, which was captured with 14 cameras on seven stereo camera rigs. Fotokem relied on Quantel's juiced-up, 3D-enabled Pablo for immediate playback of stereo footage as well as the ability to work on both left-eye and right-eye footage simultaneously. “Being able to lift, cut, trim, slip and slide whilst you've got the glasses on is huge,” said Quantel's Milton Adamou. For Hannah Montana, Adamou said, it was still necessary to ingest one eye, then the other eye, and then marry the two in the Pablo. But the latest version of Quantel's product allows reading both eyes in 4:2:2 via dual-stream output from HDCAM SR tape. In the future, it should be possible to ingest camera metadata along with the footage. "There's no standard for this," Adamou warned. "We're still wrestling with where to embed this in the DPX header."

Fotokem started work on Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus on November 1, according to Senior VP of Technology Paul Chapman, with a goal of DCP delivery in January. He stressed a few lessons learned from Fotokem's experience in those 3D trenches: it's important to look at all your material for both eyes to see any problems early in the process. 3D convergence — the term generally refers to tweaking the image to move objects forward and backward on the Z axis — needs to be reviewed in the context of the edit to make sure the shot-to-shot flow is pleasing to viewers. It's important to work live — to be able to see the effect of changes in 3D as you make them. And, if possible, it's a very good idea to test your DCP in a real venue to avoid unpleasant surprises later.

Making the Grade in 3D
In the HPA demo room, Palmer was manning a demonstration showing Iridas Speedgrade DI working in full 3D mode with footage from Dark Country (shot with cameras from Red and Silicon Imaging) playing back on a 120 Hz Samsung LCD screen.

Much grading work can happen in 2D, but the difference in the image once you put on a pair of active stereo glasses is dramatic. For one thing, the amount of light that you see through the glasses is reduced, meaning that a color-grade that looks overly harsh or washed-out in two dimensions suddenly looks moody and dramatic when you pop on the glasses. It's easy to imagine colorists making decisions to bring color saturation up or down depending on a particular object's position in Z-space.

Too Much Too Soon?
Is there any downside to 3D exuberance? Wade Hanniball, VP of cinema technology at Universal Pictures, took a more cautious tack than most, arguing that managing a comprehensive move to digital cinema, of which 3D is only a subset, is still the most critical task. If the industry swoons for 3D in the coming years, Hanniball warned it could take its collective eye off the more pressing issue — a complete, rather than piecemeal, digital transition. "Stop saying 3D will be the savior of the theatrical business," Hanniball urged. "Fundamentally, it isn't in need of saving. Theaters need to compete on long-term quality of service, not on the temporary uplift 3D may grant. ... Let's not let 3D distract us and take the focus away from the advantages of 100 percent digital-cinema conversion."

Universal plans digital releases of its entire 2008 theatrical line-up, save In Bruges, Hanniball said."

By Bryant Frazer, StudioDaily

 

Figuring out live-action 3-D a 'Journey' for all involved

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i0e7d8449d58e7ec1ea39688cc8110bfd

 

Source: Hollywood Reporter                                      

By Carolyn Giardina

 

March 13, 2008

 

"Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D"

 

CORRECTED 12:13 p.m. PT March 13

 

LAS VEGAS -- On Wednesday at ShoWest, Walden Media and New Line presented an advance screening of "Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D," which looks poised to be the first live-action narrative feature to be lensed and released in digital stereoscopic 3-D. It's slated for a July 11 release, though that could change as Warner Bros. takes over at New Line.

 

A fair number of animated films already have entered or gone through a 3-D stereoscopic pipeline. But the challenges of 3-D production in live-action filmmaking are still quite new and have been a frequent topic of discussion in the community.

 

"Journey" is the directorial debut of VFX veteran Eric Brevig, who shared a special achievement Academy Award for the visual effects on "Total Recall" and was Oscar-nominated for "Pearl Harbor" and "Hook."

 

"(3-D) is no more challenging that any other new technology," he says. "Whether it's visual effects, motion capture -- all of those things require the use of specialized equipment."

 

Brevig says "Journey" was planned as a 3-D feature from the start, and the action was designed to take advantage of the format. There were two clear messages: Filmmakers need to do their homework before starting production, and viewing work as the audience will see it is critical.

 

The adventure was shot on location and on stages in Montreal and Iceland. Brevig turned to Burbank-based Pace to use its stereoscopic HD digital studio camera system, developed by Vince Pace -- a veteran underwater and special effects cinematographer who founded the company -- and partner James Cameron. Brevig says that after a lot of early testing, "we knew the smartest ways to work with the cameras on set."

 

He says it is important for filmmakers to view dailies in the theatrical environment. For "Journey," a 30-foot screen and two projectors for right eye/left eye were installed on set.

 

"We had to pioneer a path for our image data so we could view it in 3-D when needed," Brevig says, moving to the subject of postproduction. "We cut in 2-D, then conformed in 3-D and (checked the shots), then we made adjustments. ... What we did, which we think is going to prove desirable, is color grading and adjustments of depth in real time in a theater environment."

 

He adds: "Part of the editing is just to make sure (3-D) is a comfortable experience for the viewer. You can have a wonderful off-the-screen 3-D moment, but you also want to allow the viewer to enjoy the movie without having to do eye calisthenics. That's something you can't judge on a small screen."

 

Visual effects, meanwhile, posed some unique challenges.

 

One was in the area of compositing, which is the process of combining separate visual elements (i.e., live action with animation) into a single image.

 

"You have to do two composites, a right eye and a left eye," Brevig says. "And, when viewed together in stereo, the layers of the composites (need to be) in the proper Z space (a term used to describe distance from the viewer). ... Cheats that you can do in 2-D you can't in 3-D."

 

Therefore, he says, everything has to be rendered twice, taking twice as long.

 

Most of the visual effects work on “Journey” was done by Canadian houses Meteor Studios, Hybride and Frantic.

 

GREAT HALLS OF CHINA - GDC Leads Massive Digital Rollout

http://www.filmjournal.com/filmjournal/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003723180

 

Source: Film Journal

 

by Bill Mead, Digital Cinema Editor

 

GDC Technology of Singapore has been a driving force behind Asian digital cinema for the past seven years. We recently spoke with GDC’s founder, Dr. Man-Nang Chong, about China’s ongoing 2,000-screen deployment and the Asian digital-cinema business in general.

 

FJI: With over 1,000 installations worldwide and now with the recent deployments in China, GDC is positioned as the world’s second-largest integrator of digital systems. Can you give us an overview of GDC’s business strategy?

Dr. Chong: First, we continue to allocate our resources on research, technology and manufacturing. I like to believe GDC prevails by taking feedback from our customers and building cost-effective solutions that meet their needs. By listening to the exhibitors and supporting them, GDC continues to grow its market share through trust and respect. In China, we have grown our market size from almost zero to more than 95% today. Our market share in Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Korea is more than 60% combined. Our customers realize that they could count on GDC for the past seven years and they can continue to rely on us for many years to come.

 

FJI: China has committed to installing 2,000 DCI-capable digital-cinema systems in the next two years. Can you give us an overview of GDC’s role in the deployment and how the partnership came about?

Dr. Chong: In 2006, the Institute of Digital Media Technology Limited [IDMT] entered into a cooperation agreement with China Film Group Corporation [CFGC] for a term of ten years, whereby IDMT and CFGC agreed to jointly promote digital-cinema business in China. GDC is engaged to supply, install, maintain and network-manage the digital-cinema systems at the top 100 cinemas in China.

 

FJI: What is the status of the deployment today and is it going as expected?

Dr. Chong: We have retrofitted close to 500 cinema theatres with our DCI-2000 Integrated Projection System so far. Recently, Sony Pictures’ Pursuit of Happyness was released in China in digital only with more than 500 digital copies. That said, the number of installations falls short of our year-end goal of 700 installations due to the unavailability of projectors and delivery delays caused by China’s severe winter weather.

 

FJI: Mr. Cheng Yang, CFGC manager of digital cinemas, gave us an impressive presentation at CineAsia explaining how they have arranged their theatres into several tiers of quality. Can you give us an overview of how China has segmented the digital-cinema market?

Dr. Chong: We believe that almost all commercial cinemas in China cities will eventually install DCI-compliant systems, although some second-run cinemas may choose to install non-compliant systems for showing local content. For non-commercial cinemas in smaller towns and rural areas, China’s SARFT [State Administration of Radio, Film and TV] is promoting low-cost digital systems as an alternative to their existing 16mm projectors.

 

FJI: I understand that GDC is also managing the distribution of feature content, including pre-show and advertising. Can you give us an overview of the network GDC is building to support distribution to the cinemas?

Dr. Chong: GDC provides the network operations center [NOC] service to customers such as CFGC, Dadi and Golden Harvest cinema chains via modem and ADSL. With the NOC, we can deliver the KDM keys, pre-show content, onscreen advertisements and in-foyer advertisements. Today, some of these cinema multiplexes’ foyers feature LED panels, all connected to a GDC SDM4000 Display Maestro that is capable of delivering multiple HD streams. All the displays in the foyer are connected to our Theater Management System (TMS), which is linked to the cinema’s ticketing system for scheduling. Using our TMS, cinema operators can now display the full array of trailers, advertisements and other pre-show content on both the in-foyer displays and in-theatre screens from a central point of control.

 

FJI: Security is a large part of the DCI specification. How is security being managed and how are the keys distributed?

Dr. Chong: GDC’s EN2000 encoder has been deployed in China and Hong Kong, where the DCI encoding is performed in faster than real-time. The encoder also provides DCI-compliant KDM key management for the distribution of the content. Depending on the distributors, the KDM keys can be delivered to the cinemas via e-mail, NOC or physical delivery.

 

FJI: How is the supply of digital titles in China? How much from Hollywood and what is available from Chinese distributors?

Dr. Chong: Since the first installation in May 2002, the digital screens in China never go dark. There has always been a strong supply of content competing for the digital screens, whether it is from Hollywood, China, Hong Kong or other markets. There are reasons for such demand: 1) the digital-cinema theatres are the top-grossing cinemas in China, 2) the huge savings in distribution cost, and 3) the limited number of digital-cinema theatres in China. We observed in quite a few instances that the distributors were competing for the same digital screens in China.

 

FJI: At the theatres, how have the Chinese exhibitors accepted the transition to digital? Have there been any unexpected obstacles in getting the theatres to accept the technology?

Dr. Chong: Most of the deployment work is being done by CFGC. GDC plays the role of supplying, installing and maintaining the network. Judging from the high number of installations within a few months, I believe the Chinese exhibitors must be comfortable with the digital systems. In fact, one province has almost been completely retrofitted. Since the availability of the installed digital systems is approximately 99.8%, their ease of use certainly prevails over the legacy 35mm projectors.

 

FJI: What is the status of 3D in the Chinese and Asian markets?

Dr. Chong: 3D digital cinema only recently began to receive attention in Asian markets with the exception of Korean exhibitors, where GDC shares more than 60% of the Korean 3D market. In Hong Kong, three out of four 3D digital-cinema installations use GDC servers. We also have a strong presence in Taiwan and Singapore for 3D digital cinema.

 

In China, there is no digital 3D yet, but certainly the wave will catch on when the 3D content is available. China is evaluating the 3D technology and the business terms with the current providers. Most exhibitors in these regions would like to avoid trapping themselves with a proprietary technology that depends upon a single supplier of glasses and services. The Asian moviegoers seem to prefer large-screen 3D presentations than the smaller screens required when using existing 3D technologies. The disadvantage of the existing 3D solutions is their low light levels. Whether the 3D is based on polarization or legacy color-separation technology, a single projector can only offer so much light.

 

We believe a non-proprietary 3D process that drives two digital-cinema projectors is an attractive alternative considering the declining price of projectors. Besides, you will get considerably more light output and more color information by having the server driving two projectors compared with the single-projector 3D presentations.

 

We invited delegates to view GDC’s True 3D Digital Cinema™ server at work and they were amazed with the brightness and vivid color presentation. Our server is currently the only one in the market that provides two streams of synchronized 12-bit 4:4:4 images and is agnostic to 3D technologies. It also supports dual-projector as well as various single-projector 3D systems.

 

FJI: Aside from feature titles, has alternative content been used?

Dr. Chong: In Singapore, the digital-cinema theatres have successfully played opera in the theatres for more than a month and I was told the response was quite good. We are not aware of any alternative content plan for China digital-cinema theatres. I like to think China must build enough digital-cinema theatres to avoid competing for the digital screens before planning for alternative content.

 

FJI: What has been the audience reaction to digital cinema in China?

Dr. Chong: The majority of moviegoers do not differentiate the traditional 35mm from digital cinema and there is no specific effort to promote digital cinema in China. I believe it is best to leave the moviegoers to enjoy the movies.

 

FJI: You have been a leader in the Asian digital cinema business since 2000. As a final question, I would like to hear your thoughts on where GDC and the industry are going and what may be in store for the next few years.

Dr. Chong: We constantly face the predicament between innovation and following the rule. Although the DCI specifications have leveled the playing field for server manufacturers, GDC avoids making a commodity server that is no different from others.

 

The debate on 4K versus 2K is an interesting issue. The 2K projectors have been delivering bright and vibrant images that meet today’s needs. Besides, the wide installed base of 2K systems over a long period of time has proven its technology and reliability. Perhaps super-bright 4K projectors could be used in very large-screen cinemas for special-venue applications.

 

I still hate to answer the question “when the transition from analog to digital will be complete,” but at least now no one asks the question “when the transition will begin” anymore. I believe the impasse between the distributors and the exhibitors is really about how to share the cost in the transition, and this is slowly being resolved. With regard to China, the transition from 35mm to digital is continuing and it should take approximately three years for all the top-tier cinema multiplexes to convert to digital.

 

Live events coming to theaters - Next wave of 3-D business so close you can touch it

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/business/news/e3i9b4549028bac41ba0d024004f287434d

 

By Carolyn Giardina

 

March 10, 2008

 

Get ready for a radical change in thinking about theatrical entertainment.

 

Alternative content is not a new concept, but the next new thing to enter the dialogue are events broadcast live to theaters in 3-D. That could mean fans will head to their local theaters for a group 3-D viewing of the NBA Finals or the Super Bowl, stadium concerts and the like.

 

And it is closer than many realize.

 

"I think the public can expect to see a live 3-D broadcast in a theater in 2008," said Vince Pace, founder of 3-D production innovator Pace in Burbank. "(It is) possible today with existing technology."

 

Pace and others are encouraged to see stakeholders getting involved in these discussions.

 

"About 12 live events are being discussed; which ones will actually make it is hard to say," Real D president Joshua Greer said.

 

The issues that need to be overcome include a variety of business and deployment factors.

 

"It's not the technology that is holding up a live broadcast to the theaters. It's rights and business case -- putting together something that make sense from a financial point of view," 3ality Digital founder and CEO Steve Schklair said. "If you were to do a live sports broadcast, you would want it to be an event of some stature because that is what would bring people to theaters. (But) rights to any events of stature -- the Super Bowl, World Cup -- are pretty well sewn up by the broadcasters. That has to be dealt with."

 

Schklair added that from a financial standpoint, a 3-D broadcast would involve production and theater costs "and in the middle, two rights-holders -- the league and the broadcasters -- that already have the rights."

 

Still, Marty Schindler, principal in consulting firm the Schindler Perspective, said, "There are deals to be had, but it requires a lot of effort on a lot of people's parts."

 

Mike Rokosa, the NBA's vp engineering, brings a different perspective to the discussion. "I don't think rights would be the holdup as much as, right now, the volume (of theaters) that have the connectivity to receive a live signal, which is quite limited," he said. "If there were a fair number of venues that were able to take a live feed, then we'd have something that we could at least start to talk about."

 

Greer had similar thoughts.

 

"We still haven't sent the large-scale rollout of satellite technology, so while (live broadcasts) can be done, the question is, where can you put it? ... Over the next six months you will see a multitude of tests with all different types of content. But if you are going to rent satellite time, you want to have thousands of theaters, and that is still going to take a little time."

 

From a technical standpoint, if a theater already is equipped with a digital-cinema system and 3-D capabilities, a satellite dish or some sort of bandwidth connection and a decoder also would be required. Rokosa said they are not an enormous additional expense, but there is a Catch-22: "If they are going to invest a couple grand to do this, where is the content?" he said. "It is a little bit of a quandary."

 

Said Greer, "To me, the much bigger issue is who is going to pay for the satellite transmission and the production."

 

Such companies as Pace and 3ality have been developing 3-D production and post techniques for the challenging shoots. Pace is one of a small number of companies that developed a 3-D broadcast news van.

 

Working with Pace, the NBA began testing in this arena a year ago, when the league and the 3-D innovator teamed to present invite-only live 3-D HD viewing parties at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas of the NBA's All-Star Saturday Night and the 56th All-Star Game. Additionally, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the NBA, along with Pace, offered a live 3-D HD screening in Cleveland of the NBA Finals from San Antonio. An estimated 14,000 turned out for the event.

 

A timely concert also could be a big attraction, as Disney proved last month when it opened "Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert" in digital 3-D on 683 screens. The feature opened No. 1 at the boxoffice and went on to earn a whopping $63 million.

 

The concert film opened Feb. 1, the day after the live tour wrapped (and after a breakneck 11-week postproduction schedule).

 

"Material that reaches the theater and has some time sensitivity to it is part of the draw," said Pace, who was an executive producer on "Hannah Montana." "I think that's where alternative content and films of that nature are going to head."

 

He said a driving force was to produce "Hannah Montana" quickly enough "to take advantage of the fact that this is something that people are aware of and were interested in. I think this was a complement to the concert rather than a byproduct."

 

The movement toward 2-D broadcasts have already started. Last month, for example, Walt Disney Studios, ESPN and digital-cinema provider Access Integrated Technologies delivered a live HD broadcast of college basketball -- the University of Texas vs. Texas A&M -- live on 15 digital-cinema screens in Texas. It marked the first event at which AccessIT's CineLive technology, which enables live 2-D and 3-D streaming of content to theaters, was employed for a major sports event since the technology was announced last fall.

 

Broadcasting live 2-D content is more manageable. "The challenge with 3-D is we need twice as much bandwidth to deliver the same amount of content," Greer said.

 

A final factor is the possibility of broadcasting live 3-D content to the home. The first 3-D-ready TV sets have been unveiled, but delivery standards (viewed as a critical issue), content availability, set penetration and a quantifiable audience are just a few of the challenges that must be addressed.

 

Some also believe that autostereo technology (enabling the viewing of 3-D without the use of special glasses) is needed for in-home 3-D to really happen. And again, a sort chicken-and-egg scenario will exist because there is no real installed base of viewers yet, nor is there a steady stream of content.

 

Meanwhile, broadcasters are focused on the analog shut-off, now less than a year away.

 

"I also think the quality of 3-D entertainment as it translates to the home is still one to two years away," Pace said. "That doesn't mean you'll not start to see material being presented prior to that."

 

 

Goodrich Quality Theaters Selects Kodak for Circuit-Wide Digital Conversion

http://www.uemedia.net/CPC/digitalcinemamag/articles/article_16876.shtml

 

By Staff Mar 16, 2008, 14:23

Hollywood -- Kodak has been chosen by Goodrich Quality Theaters to bring the power of digital cinema to this innovative family-owned circuit with sites throughout the upper Mid-west. Beginning with the new Hamilton 16 IMAX in Indianapolis, opening in early April, fully-networked Kodak Digital Cinema systems will be installed on Goodrich’s 280 screens in 32 sites, with a phased number of those installations taking place this year.

“The Kodak solution makes sense to us,” said Martin Betz, chief operating officer for the circuit. “We knew the reliability of their system and support in a busy working environment. The Kodak name stands out in the industry as being reputable and dependable. Ours is a company and a business that needs to trust those we work with and so we are careful about the partners we choose. For us, this is a long-term decision and we expect great things from our relationship with Kodak.”

“This is an exciting day for both of our companies,” said Jose Rosario, sales representative for Kodak Digital Cinema in the US and Canada. “In working with Martin and his team over the past months, we’ve developed a real appreciation for the way they do business and the very high standards they set for customer service and satisfaction. At Kodak, we take pride in working to the same standards and we look forward to living up to their expectations.”

Kodak digital systems are currently showing feature presentations on the screens of 32 exhibition chains in 14 countries worldwide. The technology is well-proven; now, customers are finding the Kodak Business Plan makes the system even more attractive.

“We designed the Kodak Business Plan with the same purpose as the rest of our solution â€" to make sense to our customers”, said Rosario. “Exhibitors have told us they can’t tolerate surprises, undefined costs, or hidden fees. The Kodak Plan includes a small upfront investment by the exhibitor and clear usage fees â€" including studio virtual print fees â€" for everyone who uses the system. There are no restrictions on content booking or other purchases. This is Goodrich’s system to use as they see fit.”

In the new installations, the Kodak Theatre Management System will be at the heart of the Kodak network in each multiplex. Connected to the complex’s ticketing system, this ‘command and control center’ loads and auto-migrates content and Keys to the proper screens, providing a seamless, accurate, and highly-automated presentation.

In addition to the Theatre Management System, all Goodrich installations will include Kodak JMN3000 Content Players. The Kodak players can handle a full range of content, including digital 3D presentations.

Kodak service, which is also part of the new relationship, includes remote monitoring which takes a ‘heartbeat’ of all system components over the Kodak network every five seconds. Kodak can identify, diagnose, and often correct problems before they become disruptive to the cinema’s operation.

“Kodak has built a reputation for making complex technology dependable, so customers can concentrate on managing their business and planning their future,” said Rosario. “And audiences can enjoy the quality they expect from a Goodrich presentation.”

“For almost 80 years, we’ve built our business by continuing to improve the cinema experience,” said Betz. “A great image on the screen in important, but that will always be only one reason movie-goers love coming to our cinemas. We also need to make every part of their experience special â€" and so, if Kodak delivers and automates a great presentation, we’ll do the rest. This new partnership with Kodak is an important step into our future.”

 

Studios Announce a Deal to Help Cinemas Go 3-D

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/12/movies/12scre.html?_r=1&ref=arts&oref=slogin

 

Source: NY Times

 

March 12, 2008

 

By DAVID M. HALBFINGER

LAS VEGAS — Eager to get American cinema complexes ready for a surge in 3-D movies next year, four major Hollywood studios announced on Tuesday a deal to subsidize the conversion of 10,000 theaters to digital projection systems.

The announcement, at ShoWest, the annual trade show that gathers theater owners and movie distributors here, overlooked one point: the theaters that could be converted under the deal have yet to agree to it.

The motion picture industry is racing to roll out digital projectors, not just because they avoid the costly printing and shipping of reels of film, but also because they’re needed to show the current generation of 3-D films, which have often been bonanzas at the box office. One, “Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert,” generated $31 million its opening weekend on only 683 screens, about one-fifth as many as the typical wide release.

Under the deal announced on Tuesday, the Walt Disney Company, 20th Century Fox, Paramount and Universal all agreed to pay “virtual print fees” for each movie they distribute digitally to the participating theaters. Theater owners will use the fees to buy the projectors, servers and other equipment needed — about $75,000 for each auditorium.

Also on Tuesday, Paramount executives confirmed that “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” would be released digitally, though its director, Steven Spielberg, has long insisted that his movies be released exclusively on film. Every movie that earned more than $100 million last year was released both digitally and on film.

Access Integrated Technologies concluded a first round of 3,740 theater conversions last year. It now must go out and sell its systems to other cinema owners. It has three years to accomplish those installations; the studios will pay the virtual print fees for up to 10 years.

The size of these virtual print fees was not disclosed, but one person involved said it would be around $800 per movie, per theater — down from about $1,000 in the first phase.

Chuck Viane, president of distribution at Disney, said the studios were insistent that theater owners cover more of the cost of converting, including maintenance. “We’ve always felt that exhibition had to have some skin in the game,” he said.

The announcement came as, in a separate deal, the nation’s three largest theater chains — Regal, Cinemark and AMC — were negotiating for what Variety reported would be a $1.1 billion line of credit to finance the conversion of their theaters to digital cinema. The three, bargaining as Digital Cinema Implementation Partners, own about 14,000 of the nation’s 37,000 screens.

 

3-D Success Surprises Standard Makers

http://fullres.blogspot.com/2008/03/3-d-success-surprises-standard-makers.html

 

Source: Variety

 

"It's coming up on three years since the Digital Cinema Initiatives consortium announced its specifications for d-cinema systems, and now d-cinema has begun to take off in earnest.

 

Yet for all the benefits that d-cinema was supposed to offer studios and exhibitors, interest in it has been fueled in large measure by a feature that was barely an afterthought for DCI: stereoscopic 3-D.

 

The DCI helped make 3-D more popular, and 3-D in turn has turned out to be a boost for DCI-compliant systems. Yet when it comes to 3-D, the DCI has arguably been a victim of its own success in that 3-D's growth took almost everyone by surprise.

 

The DCI was set up by studios to "establish and document voluntary specifications for an open architecture for digital cinema that ensures a uniform and high level of technical performance, reliability and quality control." In other words: to make d-cinema as standardized as 35mm prints and projectors. DCI wrote specifications, and then the Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers (SMPTE) wrote standards for manufacturers.

 

Digital cinema consultant David Reisner explains, "The goal of the studios is to have single inventory or, as close as possible, one mastering." That seems to be working, as far as it goes. There is a single, consistent standard for a digital cinema "package" (the equivalent of a release print) for regular 2-D films.

 

But the rush to put 3-D in theaters got ahead of the specifications, so there are now competing proprietary 3-D systems, notably from Dolby and Real D. The competition may not be as dramatic as the homevideo format wars, but it is the kind of problem DCI was set up to avoid.

 

"There is one format for the digital files, but the digital files that look good for one (3-D) system aren't necessarily the files that look good for another system," Reisner says. "We have multiple 3-D systems out there, and we don't have a mechanized system to go from one to the other. Right now they have to be mastered individually."

 

That can be a headache for studios and distributors. Warner Bros. technology VP Wendy Aylsworth, who is also technical operations and engineering VP of SMPTE, says that for the worldwide release of "Beowulf," "Between 3-D formatting issues, servers that hadn't been upgraded to the latest configuration and subtitling issues, we probably released a dozen different versions of the movie for 3-D, as opposed to one version for the standard 2-D version."

 

Ahead of schedule

DCI had not anticipated that d-cinema would turn 3-D seemingly overnight from a problematic novelty into a bona fide attraction for audiences.

 

"We knew it was a possibility," Aylsworth says. "We just didn't know the studios and consumers would jump on this bandwagon. We thought it was 10 years out."

 

So DCI has been hustling to catch up, issuing an addendum last year to address 3-D and move toward a single master for 3-D. Then there's the issue of subtitles, which complicates matters.

 

"Do you burn the subtitles into the master or keep them as a separate file and merge them into the image? If the subtitles are jumping back and forth, that's going to make people seasick," says Reisner.

 

Still, the omission of 3-D specifications from the DCI may have some silver lining.

 

Rob Engle, senior stereographer and digital effects supervisor for Sony Pictures Imageworks, notes the technology for projecting 3-D on the bigscreen has improved markedly over the last year and is getting better all the time.

 

"The 3-D "Monster House," Engle says, was released at less than standard 2K resolution. "There was no equipment out there that could have played in its highest quality possible, so what's the point? Why would you release a master that nobody could play?"

 

Yet when "Beowulf" was released a year later, it was possible to screen the film in 3-D at full resolution.

 

"If they had done a standard a year ago, it wouldn't have been this level of quality, because there was no way the equipment could have done it. Now it can. So the spec you get now may be very different from the spec you would have gotten a year ago," Engle says.

 

Screen size dilemmas

Those improvements are raising new issues, though. Ray Feeney, president of RFX and one of the most respected technologists in the industry, warns that new projectors, bright enough to throw a 3-D film on screens as big as 60 feet wide, reveal some basic problems.

 

Until now, digital projectors limited commercial 3-D exhibition to screens roughly 25 to 30 feet. "When you go up in size, the images tend to diverge and make it difficult for your eye to resolve them as stereo," says Feeney. "When you go down in size the stereo effect lessens."

 

This is a problem for multiplex owners who want to run 3-D films through their normal cycle, starting them in big theaters and moving them to smaller ones over the course of their release window. Feeney believes this may require different masters for different-size screens, despite the best efforts of the DCI to avoid that.

 

"When (the DCI) set out to do digital cinema, they went at it in a thoughtful, scientifically researched approach to the problem," Feeney says, but with 3-D, the focus of research has been on how to create a single 3-D release package, not on the larger issues of 3-D.

 

"The studios need to take a look at it before they standardize on a package," he says. "I just think people are going to have to look at the higher-level issues behind this as part of a studio effort, not just say put the left eye this way, the right eye that way, and pack the bits this way."

Barco to expand Digital Cinema team in the US.

http://www.dcinematoday.com/dc/pr.aspx?newsID=1070

 

Las Vegas,NV—Mar 12, 2008

 

Barco, a world leader in Digital Cinema, increases its commitment to the digital cinema market, and announces the appointment of Todd Hoddick as new Vice President for Barco Media & Entertainment’s Digital Cinema activities in America.  In his new role, he will closely work together with Wim Buyens, head of Barco’s Global Digital Cinema activities.

 

Todd has significant experience in the entertainment industry and Digital Cinema. Over the past 10 years, he has been a full time employee or independent consultant supporting international companies such as NBC-Universal, The Walt Disney Company, News Corp-Fox and Sony. 

 

Prior to this new role at Barco, Todd Hoddick held the position of Vice President Strategic Partnerships & International Operations for Technicolor Digital Cinema. He has an impressive record in supporting and achieving industry firsts: 1st international satellite distribution of full-length Hollywood feature film in Belgium; 1st release of fully integrated Theatre Management System in Western Europe (July 2007).

 

“We strongly believe in the future of digital Cinema and will further invest in the innovation of our Digital Cinema solutions and in our global teams and services. Todd Hoddick is a great asset to Barco’s US based Digital Cinema team. His knowledge of the cinema industry, his enthusiasm for new technology and his proven track record make him of great value for an already strong team”, says Wim Buyens, Vice President of Barco’s Media & Entertainment Global Digital Cinema activities.

 

Todd Hoddick states: “Barco is ‘the’ innovating leader in Digital Cinema projectors. I am thrilled to be a part of this team and I look forward to serving and supporting our Digital Cinema customers, dealers and partners. Digital Cinema and the quality of 3D Digital Cinema are at a breakthrough point.  We anticipate great excitement and broad acceptance of this revolutionary technology.”

 

“In his new role, Todd and his US team will further build on creating close relations with integrators and theater owners. Barco strives to always think with the customer, in order to offer the best Digital Cinema solution. Offering that solution goes beyond selling digital projectors; it’s about the total cost of ownership, ease of use and more”, concludes Wim Buyens.

 

RealD 3D Biggest and Brightest at ShoWest

http://www.dcinematoday.com/dc/pr.aspx?newsID=1075

 

Los Angeles —Mar 13, 2008

 

3D Cinema Leader RealD Uses RealD XL Technology to Bring Digital 3D to Larger Screens Than Ever Before

 

RealD 3D, the global leader in 3D, continued its innovations in 3D cinema at the ShoWest film conference with spectacular demonstrations of its RealD XL larger-screen technology, which allows RealD's next-generation 3D experience to reach screens over 60 feet wide with a single projector.  RealD XL was first unveiled at the November 5, 2007 premiere of Paramount Pictures' Beowulf in Los Angeles.

 

On Tuesday , DreamWorks Animation chairman and CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg presented a sneak preview of the studio's Monsters vs. Aliens (releasing March 27, 2009 through Paramount) along with a special 3D clip of DreamWorks's 2D summer film Kung Fu Panda, both in RealD 3D, at the Paris Las Vegas Theatre Des Arts. The clips were shown on the Des Arts's 60-foot screen utilizing RealD XL with a single DLP projector and impressed nearly 2,000 convention-goers with the depth, clarity, and color of the 3D visuals. Mr. Katzenberg said, "The proprietary tools and techniques that we've developed as a part of our 3D initiative and the use of Real D's groundbreaking XL technology together allowed us to project onto the silver screen 3D images with unprecedented clarity during Tuesday's ShoWest presentation."

 

Wednesday at ShoWest, New Line Cinema and RealD screened New Line's summer tentpole,  Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D  (releasing July 11, 2008), also at the Theatre Des Arts , in RealD 3D utilizing RealD XL. New Line Cinema President of Domestic Distribution David Tuckerman said, "We were thrilled to screen Journey in its entirety in RealD 3D to ShoWest attendees. The film looked great on the extra-large screen- bright, sharp, and colorful- and the audience was blown away."

 

RealD 3D's ability to reach larger screens than any other digital 3D technology enables exhibitors to show the upcoming slate of 3D movies in their largest auditoriums, increasing both the potential audience for 3D films and incremental revenue for the exhibition community. Drew Kaza, EVP, Digital Development at Odeon-UCI Group, said, "RealD's ability to bring 3D to larger screens is great news for those of us who have embraced 3D and wish to maximize its potential in our largest auditoriums. We are thrilled that screen size is no longer a constraint of great digital 3D."

 

Michael Lewis, RealD 3D chairman and CEO, said, "RealD is committed to 3D cinema and to innovation. 3D is all we do - and this expertise allows us to continually upgrade our cinema technology, providing the absolute best 3D experience available. RealD XL is the latest example of that."

 

RealD was recently named to Fast Company's "Fast 50" Most Innovative Companies.

 

RealD XL will be available as a component of the RealD 3D system for larger theaters in late 2008.