A full day session on advancements in Digital Cinema, which kicked off last week’s Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers’ (SMPTE) Fall conference at the New York Hilton, prompted a flurry of analysis about the effect these developments may have on postproduction, as well as business models.
Digital Cinema has emerged as an important topic this year. Drivers include the work of the seven-studio consortium Digital Cinema Initiatives, which last summer completed and released a Digital Cinema specification designed to give manufacturers its recommendations for technical development. This was also presented during the SMPTE conference. Furthermore SMPTE, which is a standards organization, is closing in on setting final Digital Cinema standards that are expected to be completed by the end of next year.
“Digital Cinema is here; it’s going to happen,” asserted National Association of Theater Owners (NATO) president John Fithian during the conference. “We are very confident that the spec is on course toward final standardization–but the revolution is not going to wait [for standards].”
With this in mind, SMPTE presenters outlined the potential impact of these different dynamics on developing postproduction tools and techniques. Speakers included Glenn Kennel, director of technology development, Texas Instruments DLP Cinema. Kennel chairs SMPTE’s color ad hoc group, a part of the SMPTE DC 28 Digital Cinema Committee that is working on standards.
It should be emphasized that standards are not in development for the creative portion of the digital intermediate (DI) work. It is the mastering where standards and postproduction could collide.
A point that generated a significant amount of attention during SMPTE was color space, which is essentially the spectrum of color that the human eye can see. Kennel explained that the intent is that the digital cinema distribution masters would be required in an X’Y’Z’ color space, while color correctors today typically work in RGB color space. (He added that the creative work would in all likelihood continue to take place in the “intuitive” RGB space, with conversion taking place at the end.)
So during his presentation, Kennel suggested color correction/DI-related system makers extend support to include X’Y’Z’, and asked post houses to encourage this of their suppliers. And during SMPTE, exhibitors that develop color correction systems were already in discussions with Kennel and other digital cinema stakeholders, with an eye toward supporting X’Y’Z’. While this is a feature film issue, it will likely impact future developments in most color correction technology; announcements pertaining to this subject could come as early as the pre-NAB season this winter.
Another popular Digital Cinema-related subject was more about business models than technology–that is digital cinema distribution of 3D movies, a topic prompted by the recent release of Disney’s Chicken Little in 3D.
“I’ve seen the [3D] demos, I’ve seen Chicken Little, and 3D in digital cinema is really cool,” said NATO’s Fithian. “In digital cinema, 3D is no longer a novelty and it provides something you can’t get at home… It’s going to make more money and bring more people to the theaters.
“But, 3D is not the reason that digital cinema will happen. It’s a wonderful value add.”
Fithian identified other potential value-add opportunities, such as concerts and sports, and said, “If you market it right, it’s going to work.”
Fithian reported that rollout plans call for a couple hundred digital cinema screens to be operational next year for testing, and a larger rollout will follow in ’07.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
Production in New York became a focal point of the keynote address by Lou Madigan, CEO of Steiner Studios in Brooklyn. Madigan offered an overview of how the developed site, which opened in ’04, came to be realized and what it offers. “It’s just a start,” he emphasized of today’s offering, explaining that the master plan calls for a total of 12 stages. He also anticipates that the waterfront could offer future opportunity, potentially the development of ferry transportation to and from Manhattan.
SMPTE was also about catching up with colleagues. Among the familiar faces was colorist John Dowdell III, who is the new director of imaging technology at Goldcrest Post Production in New York, which also has offices in London. Dowdell was thrilled to be joining “a company by filmmakers, for filmmakers,” as well as to be reunited with former Tapehouse coworker Tim Spitzer, who is managing director at Goldcrest Post Production.
Dowdell also told SHOOT that the company is growing its digital intermediate (DI) capabilities with the addition of Quantel’s new Pablo color correction and finishing system, which was introduced to the community at the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) last September in Amsterdam. Dowdell is available as a colorist for both feature and commercial work at Goldcrest.
THE BIG IDEA
SMPTE also presented the first result of “The Big Idea” educational initiative of the SMPTE Foundation. This program invited SMPTE student chapters to submit proposals for projects. The program’s overall goal is to promote the value of student chapters and the organization. The selected proposals received funding.
Last week, the New York University (NYU) SMPTE student chapter presented the final production of its ‘Big Idea’–a commercial for SMPTE that was produced in HD. Student producer and editor Scott Gerber emphasized that the project not only promoted SMPTE, but served as a vital educational tool by offering the students some hands-on HD production experience using the latest tools.
The comedic spot, conceived and written by student director Stephen Gnoza, takes place in an ice cream parlor where customers are confused by some strange practices–such as being asked to order their ice cream by the inch, rather than by the scoop. The tagline questions, “What if there were no standards?”
The spot was lensed with a Varicam donated to the project by Panasonic. Gerber cut the spot on Apple’s Final Cut Pro, and the spot was finished at New York-based Moving Images. The student group thanked the SMPTE New York chapter for its consultation. They also thanked aforementioned colorist Dowdell and New York-based PostWorks president Billy Baldwin, who came to speak at student meetings. NYU faculty advisor Fritz Gerald oversaw the project.
