NEW DIGITAL EXPERIENCES
AT DGT 2007
By Elisabetta Brunella, Secretary General of MEDIA
Salles
The only one in the MEDIA Programme’s offer of training to deal with the
topic of digital cinema from the theatres’ point of view, the MEDIA Salles
course took place for the fourth time this year from 28 March to 1st
April. Once again hosted by Barco at their Kuurne quarters in Belgium
and supported by the Italian Government, “DigiTraining Plus: New Technologies
for European Cinemas” provided the necessary information and tools of
analysis for weighing up and facing an innovation which, as summed up
by one of the participants, Matthieu Bakolas, of the Ciné Le Parc
in Charleroi, “proclaims a revolution whose effects will have a strong
influence on all the professions linked to the cinema, from authors to
exhibitors”. It is in this perspective that the theatre managers’ main
interest shifts: since 2004, when the course was launched, up to the present,
the emphasis has gradually moved from the technical aspects (How does
digital projection work? What is the quality of vision like?) to questions
about the mode of transition. “Business models”, the impact on relationships
within the chain of the cinema life cycle, the offer of products, both
in the traditional sector of films and in that of new content, were thus
the main topics of the 2007 edition.
To an even greater extent than in
past years, the course was largely based on the presentation of practical
experiences. Today, partly due to a significant increase in the number
of digital projectors over the past year-and-a-half, different approaches
can be evaluated. At the end of 2006 the world’s digital screens touched
on 2,866, with an average increase over the year of 382% and a peak of
1,031% in North America, a territory that counts two thirds of the world’s
digital screens. But Europe, too, with 531 projectors using DLP CinemaTM
technology, shows an interesting profile: a cross-section was to be seen
on the visits to the complexes in Tournai and Bruges, managed respectively
by Imagix and Kinepolis, and the accounts contributed by companies such
as Odeon and Finnkino. For the latter company, the leader on the Finnish
market, the brand new installation of a digital projector in the prestigious
Tennispalatsi in Helsinki represents the first step – taken in harmony
with the Finnish Film Foundation and supported by it – to try out the
technology. In the case of the Odeon, explained by Drew Kaza and Gerald
Buckle, respectively Director and Manager of Digital Development, the
“100% digital” option adopted in the United Kingdom for two venues with
nine screens each, goes beyond the objective of acquiring knowledge and
know-how expendable when the digital transition is a widespread phenomenon.
The strategy aims, in fact, to create a brand image for digital cinema,
exploiting on the one hand the prestige of the Odeon (a company in operation
in the United Kingdom since the ’40s) and on the other the innovative
nature of this type of projection. This includes the invention of a new
name for the digital cinemas in the Chain (“Digiplex”) and a message to
customers that leaves no doubt as to the reality of the new technological
experience: “digital cinema is here”. Kinepolis – European pioneer in
the adoption of digital – is to be seen in a similar perspective, having
commenced a new phase with the announcement of the imminent installation
of a digital projector on all of its Belgian screens. The objective: to
ensure that the new technology is used to present the film for the duration
of its commercial life. Something that presupposes a high degree of confidence
in the availability of titles distributed in digital format. To remain
in the field of content, the course offered a broad panorama ranging from
the viewing of 300 at the Tournai Imagix, to an anthology of European
productions offered by XDC on the screen of the Bruges Kinepolis. These
screenings were joined by the presentation of the catalogue by Park Circus,
a young UK distribution company specialised in new digital editions of
“evergreens”, starting out from Casablanca, and of the “3-D” sector, consisting
in an advance screening of the production Fly me to the moon and
the talk by Matt Cowan of Real D, who showed how this type of product,
which promises an absolutely original viewing experience and is not affected
by competition from home-entertainment, represents a catalyst for the
spread of digital projection. Up to the present there are 700 screens
worldwide equipped with digital projectors for “3-D”.
Digital cinema as an innovation that must not penalise any exhibitors:
this demand, expressed by speakers such as Ad Weststrate, President of
Unic, and Michael Thomas, representing AG Kino – Cicae, was addressed
by the talks dealing more specifically with business models. As well as
the concept that seems to be most widely accepted in North America – the
so-called Virtual Print Fee – other models were presented, aiming to restore
the balance in a situation that sees the investment needed for digital
transition being borne mainly by the exhibitors and the long-term economic
advantages directed mainly towards distribution.
Amongst these is the “Pay per Play Fee”, which could be adapted most successfully
to the peculiarities of the European market, characterised by a high number
of companies, including some very small ones. Or the involvement of producers
and distributors in order to contribute to the success – in a short space
of time – of the digital transition. Or, again, the intervention of the
so-called “integrator”, i.e. the company that offers itself as an “intermediary”
in the relations between exhibitor, distributor and supplier of technology,
assuming, amongst others, the task of negotiating with the distributors,
so that part of the money saved thanks to the elimination of 35mm prints
be paid into a “savings fund” destined to finance the purchase of equipment.
The aim – of crucial importance on a market such as that of Europe, featuring
markets with strong national peculiarities and the presence of many small
or medium-sized businesses – is to find solutions to match the different
situations.
“Because – as Jens Rykær, President of MEDIA Salles, commented –
theatres must neither submit passively to the digital transition, nor
feel as though they are being besieged by the new technologies. It is
the latter that should be at the service of the cinema. It is thus impossible
for there to be a single business model, valid for all situations. And
it is the exhibitor who must be able to choose”.
La versione italiana di questo articolo
è stata pubblicata nel “Giornale dello Spettacolo” n. 14, del 25
maggio 2007.
The English version has been published in the
“European Cinema Journal” n. 02/07.