Tom,
The timing of the conversion to digital projection could be much sooner that
anything else. It all depends on money.
The biggest use of film in motion pictures is for prints. Sure, a lot is
used in production, but that can't hold a candle, or a Super Trouper, for
that matter, to the amount used for prints. for the distributor, there's a
ton of cash to be saved by distributing films via satellite to the theatre.
The distributor wants the conversion to be sooner rather than later.
The theatre owner, on the other hand, is in no hurry. The projectors are
already there, and quite reliable. Almost no one has a projectionist these
days, so there's little if any labor involved. Any money spent on digital
projection is straight off the bottom line.
When distributors start funding all or part of the conversion, look out. If
the economy had not slid (PLEASE, no political rants!), we probably would
have seen this conversion well under way now. As it is, thanks to the
softening economy, we will probably not see a big change for a couple of
years.
There is also the question of security. If the films were distributed on
some sort of magnetic or optical medium, there would be the very good chance
of one dissapearing into a pirate duplicating facility, and if it is
satellite distributed, the pirate could steal it from the ether. Several
companies are/were working on encoding schemes to prevent piracy. One of the
players was Boeing, and I suspect that the R&D money is getting thin.
In any event, the film isn't the same as we use. The most obvious difference
is the strong anti-halation backing, which requires the strength of ten to
remove. Also, remember Seattle Film Works? That's what they used to sell
(now, they use regular C41, reputably from Agfa), and it stunk!
What should we do? Why, shoot more film, of course! That will keep those
factories up and running!
Bill Pearce
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