Back from Showest

Posted on April 10, 2009 by JamieG

This was my first Showest. I enjoyed it, but at the same time came away with a vibe of disappointment.  Not because it did not hold the technical delights I really enjoy being involved in, but for the withdrawn enthusiasm due to the economic crisis.  The problem is that Cinema is having one of the best years ever.

My brother in recent your of attending, had come back with a suitcase full of goodies.  Free clothes, caps, DVD’s food souvenirs.  You name it.  This year…  I got one coolish but cheaply made Star Trek cap.  Otherwise, it was so low key..

DCI was of course what everyone is talking about, and how the VPF is the key. (See the recording of the Showest panel discussing this on cinetechgeek)

3D was the big push and siad to be worth it even without VPF.  Premium pricing carries that.

The bigger surprise was that Art-house and Alternative content has been a getting a lot of interest and welcomed as a new source of income.  It was interesting to see that a lot of the big studio films on preview appeared to be Art-house in nature.  A “we can make this stuff too” type feel.

Operas and retropy (Spell? New word to me. Showing Old films again) was also a topic of interest.  This has partly taken traction based on non-DCI technologies.  And to a degree this makes a lot of sense.  Why use $80K DCI kit when you can use $10K of standard Kit to archive a 90% result. (And most patrons will not even know the difference.) Especially as this is niche content that is likely to get short runs (Harder to amortise but a lot cheaper then DCI). I even hear some cinemas putting in a few non-DCI cinemas simply to play eCinema release Art-house and alternative content.  Especially now as this type of content is becoming more common.

In terms of content for www.cinetechgeek.com, I got over 2 hours I expect.  This will take some time to get all online.  Editing, then compression etc.  This has started and content will start appearing in a day or two.  The videos will include,

  • Taping of a panel talking about VPF
  • USL and its cool kit
  • Dolby,
  • QSC
  • Christie
  • Sony
  • NEC
  • DataPort
  • MiT and some interesting stuff they are up to.
  • DTS and Qube

plus a few other smaller videos.

I missed Barco (No one avail to go on Camera) and many other stands.  I do plan to get some info from RealD.  I did their training while at the show, and they have definatly got some cool tech.  I hope to bring this to you later when I have time.  Based on theor power point for the training.

Posted in DCI, Sony, cinema | Leave a comment

Avid is getting desperate

Posted on March 7, 2009 by JamieG

Recently Avid has been changing the way it approaches the Video Editing side of the production industry.  Apple and Final Cut Pro has been eroding their dominance for quite some time. The recent drop in prices by avid is unprecedented.

Can Avid afford to become a footnote in the history of Editing software..

Apparently not.

Recently I hear (On the Quiet) of Avid selling a post production company 2 x Avid DS system for the price of one, plus an editing station for…..  And get this.. $50,000.

Basically for the price of the hardware.  2 x 8(cpu) way systems with adrenalin and Raid systems.  And an extra PC for the edit station.

Now that’s desperate.

Posted in FinalCutPro, Post Production | Leave a comment

Who is responsible for cinemas going digital

Posted on March 2, 2009 by JamieG

It has never been harder for a cinema owner to make decisions on how to move forward. Going digital and the VPF (Virtual Print Fee) has taken a lot of the control out of the cinema owners hands. You want to move with the times, but cannot afford to miss out on the VPF. How does a cinema owner deal with this labyrinth?

A recent article on Broadcast TV Faces Struggle to Stay Viable Its a great read, I recommend it.

A point to take from this is that larger productions like ER and friends are no longer viable for that industry. In reality we should consider how this will also be effecting the life blood of the cinema industry. The film makers.

Going digital is to the advantage of the distributors. That is what the VPF is all about. However, the world moves forward and new issues are surfacing. The decision to go digital is no longer a matter of the distributors saving/making more money. We need to consider some new developments.

Production viability

In the article I mention above there is an indication that the production of premium content is becoming harder for TV. This indicates that the big and popular blockbusters, the life blood of cinema exhibition, are also likely to be less viable.

Going digital, at some stage, is going to reduce film distribution costs and in the long run let film makers make better films with less money. In effect making them more viable. Feeding us good premium content that patrons will enjoy coming out to see again and again.

Going Green

Every year thousands of used polyester films are dumped into land fill. These films need large amounts of water and electricity to make while also introducing unfriendly chemicals into the environment. If the cinema industry is to move forward with the times it needs to turn over a new GREEN leaf and move to digital. The use of reusable hard drives could be a great thing to do for our planet.

No excuse

By no means do I make an excuse for the distributors to pay less on a VPF. In reality I do not think they have done enough. However, it is no longer time to sit on the fence to see what happens. If the opportunities arrives it is time to move forward and embrace digital.

P.S. This is taken from the blog www.cinetechgeek.com on the film industry.

Posted in DCI, Film Making, cinema | Leave a comment

Going to Showest

Posted on February 18, 2009 by JamieG

I am excited to be going to Showest this year.  Showest is “the” cinema conference.  I will be there to demonstrate the technology I develop in my day job.  But even better, I will have video camera in hand and hope to record a truck load of great content for the cinetechgeek.com video blog.

God I love tech..

Posted in DCI, cinema | 2 Comments

Cine Tech Geek Video Blog launch

Posted on February 10, 2009 by JamieG

I am happy to announce that today I am launching www.cinetechgeek.com, a VIDEO blog on the tech side of the cinema industry.  As a DCI cinema tech and developer, there is a large problem developing in that projectionists are not well informed of the changing technology in their field.  I have produced these videos  in a hope to help them transition to the new future of digital cinema.  But at the same time I like covering the older tech to show where we have come from and why we must move forward.

This has been a lot of work and is the main reason my personal blog has gotten less attention over the past few months.

Please do give it a look.  I still need to get it into iTunes.  Tho it is all ready and primed.  Just a few loose ends.

Also, can anyone tell me if its worth using feed burner?

Posted in DCI, cinema | 1 Comment