The Final Cut
p2pnet.net News:- The Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) doesn’t like the look of this.
Lions Gate Films and AMC Theatres are distributing The Final Cut, a sci-fi thriller in which Zoë Chips, placed in the brain at birth to record your entire life, provide footage which is edited into a ‘Rememory’ – a film shown at your funeral.
What’s alarming the studios, however, is that The Final Cut is being distributed by satellite. It’ll be saved on computer drives and shown on digital projectors.
Could that mean …………….?
Yep.
This is the first time an exhibitor and distributor will partner for a relatively wide-scale release of a digital print on systems that aren’t compatible with the standards set by DCI, the seven-studio digital cinema coalition, says the Hollywood Reporter,
DCI owners include Time Warner, The Walt Disney, Viacom, News Corp, General Electric, Sony Corp and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
“It’s a problem that there are inferior quality systems that are going to be used to show movies to moviegoers,” Doug Darrow, business manager DLP Cinema, is quoted as saying.
“The moviegoer deserves a theatrical-quality image, and the only way they can get that is with a DLP Cinema projector and a DCI-compliant system. With all due respect to my friends at AMC, if you are going to show a movie to an audience, and they are going to pay standard ticket price, then they deserve the best quality that technology can deliver.”
Others, “worry that if ‘Final Cut’ generates solid grosses when it is released Oct. 15, that could lead to exhibitors adopting a number of digital formats rather than one common standard,” says the Hollywood Reporter.
But here’s what’s really bothering Holywood:
“As well, filmmakers have been worried that once a film becomes digitized it is more easily stolen and will always retain high quality when copies are made,” says a CanWest News Service / Associated Press story.
“No longer would bootleggers have to steal actual film from a theatre or bring a camcorder into a theatre.”
Will, then, The Final Cut indeed represent the final cut?
In the meanwhile, the Reporter piece has Greg Laemmle, president of independent circuit Laemmle Theatres, saying, “It’s good to gauge audience acceptance of standards that are a little bit below what the studios are demanding. Maybe this is an opportunity to see if a digital transition doesn’t have to be as expensive as some of the numbers that are being thrown around.”
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See:-
Zoë Chip – Lions Gate Makes the Cut for Exclusive AMC Theatres Digital Engagement, September 30, 2004
aren’t compatible – ‘Final’ exam for Lions Gate, AMC, Hollywood Reporter, October 1, 2004
easily stolen – Lions Gate to use satellite distribution system, Vancouver Sun, October 2, 2004
October 3rd, 2004 at 5:50 pm
Might it also open up the possibility of cutting out Hollywood (and its standards – or otherwise known as ‘barriers to entry’) and allowing wide -spread distribution of movies that aren’t somehow controlled by the big studios?
I dunno just throwin that out there?
TT
October 3rd, 2004 at 6:05 pm
So what? Probably easier said than done, but give the customer the option of theatrical standard price or digital reduced price. Any problem with that…?
October 7th, 2004 at 5:17 am
Yup, I agree with that. Them hiding behind the notion that no other service can provide the same image quality is just a thin slimy film of hogwash.
October 15th, 2004 at 4:03 pm
I saw the AMC digital release of “Evergreen” and the quality was not even as good as HDTV and object to calling this digital cinema. Paying full price for this type of presentation is an insult to the audience.