quote:

---

ShowEast: No dirge for 35mm prints

Film remains vital despite long-predicted demise

By DAVID S. COHEN

No dirge for 35mm prints | Surprise revival for 35mm

The conversion to digital projectors, slowed by the global recession of 2008, has resumed apace, driven in no small part by the gold-rush pursuit of 3D ticket surcharges.

So is cinema projection ready for a decisive shift to digital that would kill the 35mm film print once and for all?

Don't bet on it.

"We'll still process billions of feet of film this year as we have for many years," says Deluxe COO Warren Stein. "We believe that film is going to be around for a long time."

Eric Rodli, general manager, Panavision 3D System concurs.

"The ultimate death of film has been predicted for 20 or 30 years," says Rodli. "I don't know how many times I've had to say film will be around a long time."

Joe Berchtold, president of Technicolor's Creative Services business, observes there are both economic and creative reasons for film prints to survive.

On the creative side, says Berchtold, some filmmakers prefer to shoot and display on film "because they feel it's the truest representation of their creative ideas."

But Berchtold concedes that wouldn't be enough. The economics of film, however, continue to be better than those of digital.

For distributors, film prints are still cheaper than digital prints. Kodak and Fuji subsidize the cost of film prints, so Virtual Print Fees exceed the studio's net cost for a print.

What's more, moving a print around a circuit is free for a film print, but with digital, a new VPF is due for each move.

Exhibitors, for their part, were never enamored of digital in the first place. Only 3D provided a carrot, though now there is growing interest in alternative content.

However there are major terriritories where the price of d-cinema equipment is prohibitive -- and theaters are simply not ready for it anyway.

D-cinema projectors are supposed to be kept under 95 degrees fahrenheit. In old cinemas in climes where the outside temperature routinely reaches triple digits, such as India, the costs of sealing and air conditioning an old single-screen theater (or even just its booth), which might demand possibly additional electrical lines, is too great a capital investment. Moreover, the electricity cost of A/C adds to operating expenses.

Running d-cinema systems without A/C would shorten their life -- if they run at all at those high temps.

So as long as such cinemas remain in operation, there is likely to be demand for film prints.

Lenny Lipton, prexy and chief science officer of Oculus 3D, one of several companies offering a 3D-on-35mm solution, observes "If there are tens of thousands of theaters that can't convert to digital, they may go out of business if the stereoscopic medium becomes ubiquitous. That's a crazy business model for the distributors."

Berchtold oberves there's been a payback for d-cinema because of 3D. The question he asks is: "What's the saturation level for 3D.

"People don't expect the whole market to move to 3D. When you get to that saturation point what's the future incentive for digital?"

Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com.

---

quote: Martin McCaffery

---

Is it really true the projectors have to be kept under 95 degrees?

---

quote:

---

What's more, moving a print around a circuit is free for a film print, but with digital, a new VPF is due for each move.

---

quote: David Zylstra

---

This part is completely untrue - we are unrestricted in where we move our "prints", the ony restriction is we cannot show more simultaneous copies than we are booked for (i.e. if you are booked for 1 "print" you cannot schedule 2 full auditoriums of shows).

---

quote: Steve Guttag

---

Of course, it would not be too expensive to build a box around the DCinema equipment and merely air condition that space.

---

Steve!!! Did you really say what I just read? This is so unlike you to trivialize such a foolish idea.

That is a HORRIBLE idea. I know its all the rage these days of building "boothless" cinemas and such, but I have to remind you that an air conditioner is just like a hard drive. The question isn't if it will fail, but when.

Lets exaggerate this a bit. Pretend there is an oven (door closed) in the middle of an average size auditorium and you are sitting next to it reading the latest issue of Variety. That oven is generating heat, but you have air conditioning to combat it. Now lets take an identical oven (door closed) and shove it (and you) in a small closet only slightly bigger than the oven itself. No worries, you have air conditioning and your latest issue of Variety magazine to combat it, right? Well...sort of, but for the sake of this argument lets say yes.

WHEN the air conditioning fails, which "booth" is going to overheat first and have you screaming to get the hell out of there...and how fast will it happen as compared to the other "booth"?

For anyone that can't handle that mathematical example, please get out of the industry and spare the rest of us with functioning brains.

Also you will find that when you have a lot of air conditioning in a small space with equipment putting off lots of BTUs, it becomes very difficult to truly get the system sized and installed properly. I've seen this type of nonsense first hand and it is THE stupidest thing I've ever had to deal with. Yes I'm talking about you Mr. Humidity. There's nothing quite like partway through a movie the port window fogging up because the system was cycling. Nevermind the condensation inside the projector either. Do you WANT the projector to die?

This is a classic example of "what's the price" vs. "what will this cost me"? Oh sweetie, it'll COST you a lot!

At the end of the day, it costs MORE to put a projector in a box than it does to build a small mezzanine. Now by small mezzanine I don't mean "sky closets". I mean a mezzanine the length of the building, but not wide. Not only does construction become cheaper (think about it, all of the plumbing, HVAC and electrical work no longer needs to be performed on lifts, as much can now be performed via ladders) but WHEN that air conditioning fails...your projectors can still keep running because there is now all of that dead area in the mezzanine that the heat can disperse to. (And remember, that dead area isn't going to increase your tonnage if the booth was designed properly.)
 

---

Posted by Jake Spell (Member # 5294) on 10-11-2010, 08:42 PM:
 
As someone in the HVAC/R industry I have to agree with Brad. While it is entire possible to have a very functional system for such a small room with perfect temp/humidity control. They are very expensive and even the best system will eventually break. So you would have to install a second backup system as well.

Having a booth with multiple A/c units is the best way to go. This way they will provide good humidity control and redundancy
 

---

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 10-11-2010, 09:48 PM:
 
Brad,

I was not endorsing the method...merely stating it was possible to overcome the temperature issue. I could also show the math that it could be cheaper to have spare A/C units and suitable temp./humidity sensors to know when a unit is failing.

Again, I'm not suggesting it is a good idea but it is certainly a viable one for the cheapskate.

Steve
 

---

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 10-11-2010, 09:51 PM:
 
No, any way you slice it that is a horrible idea. By having multiple systems and controllers and sensors, the entire thing becomes overcomplicated. These days finding an HVAC repairman that can actually fix a generic system is hard enough. My experience has shown to pay the price needed to get a suitable system designed AND installed properly doesn't touch the benefits during construction (both time and money) as well as the "oh shit" factor when the system goes down. With the booth...the show goes on. With the projector cage...abuse and/or death.

You also forgot, cheapskates are so cheap they wouldn't put in a second system. Also if you found one that did, once the first system went down, they wouldn't have anyone come out and fix it while they were running on the second system because "its cooling ok". Oh and lets not forget "but the customers don't go up there". Well of course they don't, but your $50k projector has to live up there!
 

---

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 10-11-2010, 10:50 PM:
 
I think quite a few movies will still be shot on film for at least several more years. Video cameras are making steady improvements in terms of resolution, light sensitivity and color depth. But they still have that video look. And the video look can really show up like crazy in dark, low light settings despite all the work film look filters and color grading tricks do to hide that soap opera appearance. Lots of movies have a great deal of night time footage and scenes in dark, mysterious environments. Unless you're watching a bright, silly movie with CGI altered talking chihuahuas you're going to be seeing some dark scenes.

A badly filmed movie still looks like it was shot on film. Shooting a movie in "digital" requires a little more care if the film look is really desired.

I suppose at some point video cameras will be able to imitate the film look believably and even do so in real time within the camera as the movie is being recorded. The technology is just not there yet. My hope is that the camera sensors will continue to see big improvements in resolution (and that lens technology will improve along with it). At some point maybe we won't care if the footage doesn't look like film because it looks even more detailed and real. Video just needs to get better at being video instead of trying to be like film.
 

---

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 10-12-2010, 02:30 AM:
 

quote: Steve Guttag

---

to build a box around the DCinema equipment and merely air condition that space

---