DigiTraining Plus: New Technologies for the European Cinemas of the Future. An account of the tenth edition

It was Poland's turn to host the tenth edition of DigiTraining Plus: New Technologies for the European Cinemas of the Future, the MEDIA Salles course addressing European cinema professionals who wish to keep up-to-date with the new technologies.
This year there were 28 participants from 12 different countries - from Bosnia Herzegovina to the UK, from Spain to Greece - taking a look at the present situation and future prospects for digitalization in Europe and listening to talks by internationally known consultants, such as Michael Karagosian, and experts who have contributed to the digitalization of large private circuits, such as Jan Petersen from Denmark, Technical Manager for Nordisk Film Biografer, or to the formation of purchasing groups for medium- or small businesses, such as Ron Sterk, Director of the Dutch initiative Cinema Digitaal.

Poland: a variety of economic models for digitalizing different types of cinemas

In the case of Poland, which by mid-2013 had digitalized 904 screens, or around three quarters of its screens, digitalization is based on a variety of economic models, according to the different types of cinemas.
On the one hand, the country's three leading exhibitors - Multikino, Helios and Cinema City - completed the process of digitalization some time ago - Multikino in 2011, Helios and Cinema City in the first half of 2012.
On the other hand, several public support schemes have been made available, both at a national and a local level, for smaller and commercially weaker cinemas.
During the course Renata Pawlowska-Pyra presented the support programme for digitalization set up in June 2011 by the Polish Film Institute, distinguished by being destined specifically for quality and arthouse cinemas, with the aim of creating venues with a cultural role which are also avant-garde in terms of projection technology.
Two years from its foundation, the scheme has guaranteed support for digitalizating more than 110 cinemas, with allocations amounting to a total of 15 million PLN (around 3.5 million euros).
At a regional level comes the "Małopolska Digital Cinemas Network" experience, set up in 2010 thanks to an initiative by the Fundacja Rozwoju Kina and financed by the European Regional Development Fund with the aim of enhancing tourism in the region by improving the offer of cinema-going. An overview of how this model works was given at DigiTraining Plus 2013 by Marta Materska-Samek, during one of the visits scheduled, devoted to a cinema belonging to the same Małopolska network, the cinema Centrum in the Cultural Centre of Wadowice.
The work of this cinema situated in Pope John Paul II's birthplace, was presented by the Manager, Piotr Wyrobiec, and is a good example of integration between the cinema and its surrounding territory, as well as the use of cinematographic offer in relation to tourism: the programming of the cinema Centrum does in fact include content linked to religious tourism centring on the figure of Pope Wojtyła.

The evolution of technology

Mike Vickers, Treasurer of MEDIA Salles, opened the tenth edition of the course by showing pictures of the newly revived Thurso cinema - the northernmost in the UK - which re-opened in 2012, placing all its bets on digital technology. He stressed the prime objective of the digital transition: to enhance the role of the cinema as a place of entertainment and cultural activity and to make sure that the big screen can be enjoyed by a growing number of spectators, taking cinema to places where it is lacking today.
The statistics elaborated by MEDIA Salles - presented by Elisabetta Brunella - nonetheless show that - if more than 27,000 screens, or almost three quarters of the European total, have opted for digital technology - it cannot be taken for granted that the remaining 25% will manage to transform to digital without difficulty. In some territories or in certain types of cinemas the percentage of digital projectors is well below average.
An overview of the situation worldwide was given by Michael Karagosian, who stated that there are now 36 markets on which traditional film has completely disappeared, whilst it is estimated that there will be an increase to 65 by mid-2014.
The installation of digital projectors, which proceeded at a rate of 30,000 units over the past three years, is now becoming less intense. The industry's interest is thus shifting to new products and to the application of digital technologies but - continued Karagosian, to reassure exhibitors who were worried about the possibility of digital technology rapidly becoming obsolete - experience has shown that digital projectors have a life expectancy that lasts well beyond the ten years initially estimated. A wide-ranging session led by Emidio Frattaroli, Director of the technical journal AV Magazine, was devoted to the new prospects for technology and encouraged a critical view of some issues crucial to the quality of digital projection, meeting with keen interest from the participants.

Careful programming and communication with the public

Petr Vitek, the genial co-founder of the Aero in Prague, a landmark for quality cinema, gave participants a series of examples of how to involve the public in promoting a cinema.
Agreements with art academies and design institutes have allowed Aero and its other "satellite" cinemas to take advantage of an original brand of image and graphics at a low cost. On the other hand, the creators of the festival posters or programmes of the various initiatives - students from these schools - gain experience of real-life commissions and have the opportunity of making their talent visible. But even the "average" spectator can play an active role, for example by decorating a balcony with the banners that Bio Oko gives its fans. In the digital age, by making intense and original use of the social media, Aero encourages its aficionados to talk about their favourite cinema and its programmes more or less every day, thus creating an ever-increasing community of supporters. At no cost or almost.
Programming at the Svetozor is equally creative, although the programme is fortnightly. Centring on the screening of one or two international premières - which, according to the day in question are offered at different time slots - it is complemented by productions of local interest, documentaries, advance screenings, children's films and alternative content (starting from opera by the New York Metropolitan), scheduled for the time slots most suited to the specific type of spectator.
The talk by Peter Bosma, an independent programmer and researcher, focused on the positioning of cinemas, based on a knowledge of their audiences, both traditional and prospective, and began by placing movie theatres in categories. From "old-time" cinemas to "luxury" theatres, Bosma identified six modes of programming, challenging the course participants to come up with a seventh category, based on digital technology.

The visits: digital technology at the service of the cinema and diverse audiences

One of the strong points of the DigiTraining Plus course are the visits to cinemas where digital technologies are used to offer the public diverse and innovative programming.
One example was the Cinema City Bonarka, a highly popular multiplex on the outskirts of Cracow. As well as traditional screenings, the Bonarka offers Cinema Park, an avant-garde initiative in the field of so-called "edutainment", in other words educational entertainment, mainly - but not necessarily - addressing children and schools, and which the course participants were able to witness live.
Again in Cracow, the Kijów cinema - which hosted the first evening of the course - was an example of a very different sort of cinema: a theatre which, with over 800 seats, is one of Poland's biggest and presents numerous cinema events, including, in the past three years, Eurocinema Expo, the convention at which digital technologies are presented to representatives of the Polish cinema industry.
Amongst the cinemas visited in Warsaw, the second course venue, Kinoteka is an arthouse cinema with 8 auditoriums and 2 foyers, situated in the grand Palace of Culture and Science, built in 1955. Programming at the Kinoteka - where course participants were able to watch "Warsaw 1935", a striking, animated short-film in 3D reconstructing how the city looked before the war - combines a series of blockbusters and independent films, accompanied by theme festivals and special events. Projection was digitalized in March this year.
The Multikino Złote Tarasy is completely different: a luxury, new-generation multiplex in a large mall, with a unique character that seems to have been created on purpose to amaze, starting with the VIP area and the Velvet Bar, where a buffet meal was served.
The avant-garde technology at the Złote Tarasy made it possible to screen a demonstration of High Frame Rates (48 photograms a second), made thanks to collaboration between Barco and Arri.
The last stage of our day in Warsaw marked by the theme of diversity, was the Iluzjon, a cinema with two screens offering programming based mainly on films from the National Cinémathèque archives. The Illuzjon is an attractive, single-floor building, surrounded by a small park, and was completely renovated in 2010.

What will tomorrow's cinemas be like?

A glance at the cinemas of the future came in the talk that concluded the course and was given by Ron Sterk, Director of the Dutch Exhibitors' Association (NVB) and Cinema Digitaal, the initiative that has allowed cinemas in the Netherlands to attain 100% digitalization. Sterk stressed the importance of starting to "think digital". Making a break with old models linked to traditional film and discovering new potential and innovative ways of working are much greater challenges - but also more exciting ones - than just changing your equipment. This, according to Sterk, is the new way of thinking that will make a theatre's lease of life longer. To those who believe that they do not have the necessary resources, Sterk pointed out a successful path experimented in the Netherlands: that of cooperation. It was by joining forces that the Dutch exhibitors - even those running the smallest theatres - managed to digitalize thanks to a collective VPF model, and again thanks to cooperation that "Cinéville" was created, a monthly subscription allowing free access to arthouse cinemas in Amsterdam and nine other towns. Thus independent cinemas, too, were able to equip themselves with a tool that in the past had been a prerogative of the leading European chains.

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Amongst the most interesting challenges for the movie theatres of the future is undoubtedly increasing accessibility, in other words opening up the cinema-going experience to those with impaired sight or hearing.
In Europe this issue is beginning to arouse interest, partly because of the need to comply with EU policies, whilst in other parts of the world accessibility is already in place.
For further information on accessibility in cinemas, see Michael Karagosian's talk at the 2013 DigiTraining Plus course, available at the following link: http://www.mediasalles.it/training/training.htm
 

Argentina: a handbook published on accessibility in cinemas

Last August in Argentina, the Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales presented the publication "La accesibilidad a los medios audiovisuales: la narración en lengua de señas argentina y el subtitulado para personas sordas".
This handbook, which came out in response to the Ley de Servicios de Comunicación Audiovisual, guaranteeing that all types of spectators enjoy audiovisual content, opens by stating that in a world where new technologies ensure that the means for inclusion are possible, the right of those with impaired sight or hearing to take part in the cinema-going experience must be guaranteed.
The publication, authored by Claudia Gabriela D'Angelo and María Ignacia Massone, arises out of collaboration with the Argentinian Deaf and Dumb Association (CAS) and the National Institute against Discrimination, xenophobia and racism (INADI), as well as with the Federal Authorities on Audiovisual Communication Services (AFSCA) and the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research.
Thanks to the competence of its individual contributors, the publication is able to deal with the various technical aspects of accessibility - from subtitling to audio descriptions - with close attention to the practical side of it.
Extremely precise instructions are given, for instance, to cinemas that wish to create subtitles for a film or for other types of content (for example live events), or to include a window on the screen for an interpreter translating the content into Argentinian sign language. One particularly significant consideration emerging from the book is linked to domestic cinema. Argentina is a country in which foreign-language films - particularly those produced in the U.S. - are subtitled. Almost paradoxically, this makes American cinema and foreign productions accessible to those with impaired hearing, whilst the same is not true for domestic productions. The use of subtitles for those with hearing impediments can thus be considered a resource that will boost the domestic cinema market.
 

France and the UK: accessibility already in place
by Elisabetta Brunella

"Member States shall encourage media service providers under their jurisdiction to ensure that their services are gradually made accessible to people with a visual or hearing disability."

The Italian version of this article was published in "Cinema & Video International" no. 10/11, October-November 2013.

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ALL DIFFERENT ALL DIGITAL
by Elisabetta Brunella

This column hosts portraits of cinemas in Europe and the rest of the world which are quite different from one another but have in common the fact that they have all adopted digital projection.

Splendid Palace, Riga (LV)

Ninety years old and - fortunately - showing its age.
Founded at the end of 1923, the Splendid Palace was built in Riga at the initiative of two businessmen from St. Petersburg to drawings by the architect Fridrihs Karlis Skujins (1880-1957). The first building in the Latvian capital conceived from the start to house a cinema, the design was extremely ambitious: not only its huge dimensions (824 seats), but above all the highly original style, combining the neo-Baroque of the façade with the neo-rococo inside the building and contributions by renowned Latvian artists from whom sculptures and frescos were commissioned.
During its nine decades of life the Splendid Palace has managed to live through the complex historical events in this Baltic Republic - the enthusiasm for independence won in 1920, German occupation and successive Soviet dominion up until the return of freedom in the 'Nineties - managing to conserve its main features which make it the only cinema of its kind in the world.
Soviet reminiscences having disappeared - from the name "Riga" adopted in 1952 to the busts of Lenin and Stalin - thanks to careful restoration work the Splendid Palace presents its audiences with the stucco, varnishes and gold enamelling of the 'Twenties (what has changed is the entrance: once leading onto a small square overlooking the central Elizabetes Iela, the Splendid Palace is now partially hidden by a post-war building, about whose possible demolition there is - as can well be imagined - fierce debate).
This remarkable architecture revealed itself in all its splendour - enhanced by an original light show - on 25 October, when it officially celebrated its 90^th anniversary. A celebration in harmony with the cinema's rationale, tending towards quality and making the most of cultural diversity. To sum up, a "counter-trend" in style.
The occasion, which opened with the "unveiling" of hand-painted posters by Artis Koknevics, another of the Splendid's special characteristics, continued with a few speeches, few well-known figures but a lot of attention to the public and a celebration of the cinema's distinctive features: the screening of the the oldest Latvian documentary of which there is still a copy, accompanied by the orchestra performing a score especially written for the occasion by a young Latvian composer, a documentary recalling the history of the cinema and the people who were responsible for its success, an exhibition of photographs bearing witness to the host of advance screenings, festivals and special events that have been held in its "first" ninety years of life.
The "first" because today's management of the Splendid Palace is determined, despite conditions that are certainly not the most promising from a purely commercial point of view (today who can afford an auditorium seating 650 and the luxury of grand foyers decorated with frescoes?), to give this "non-conformist" cinema a great future. The digitalization of the large auditorium - begun in 2009 - is an example of this effort and that of the smaller one "a project," Daira Abolina, representing the cinema tells us, "that we hope to achieve soon, particularly if we manage to combine public funds with our own resources."
The commitment to preserving tradition whilst at the same time innovating has met with acknowledgement from the public: 68,860 spectators in 2011, 84,173 in 2012.
And so, a Happy Birthday to the Splendid Palace and Many Happy Returns, always in "splendid" form.

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