Digital Film Switch by Hollywood Could Signal End Of Historic Community Movie Theaters

[KoKo]

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The license plate on movie projectionist Arnie Herdendorf's Buick is 35MM MAN, a nod to his work in the booth at the 1925 Palace Theatre, with its velvet-draped stage and chandeliered mezzanine.

When he drove recently to a multiplex to watch as its film projectors were swapped out for new digital ones, the sight of old 35 mm workhorses "stacked up like wounded soldiers" had him wondering how long his title – or job – would be around.

The questions are even bigger for historic movie houses themselves.

With the future of motion pictures headed quickly toward an all-digital format played only on pricey new equipment, will the theaters be around? Or will they be done in by the digital revolution that will soon render inadequate the projectors that have flickered and ticked with a little-changed technology for more than 120 years?

"Our guess is by the end of 2013 there won't be any film distributed anymore," said John Fithian, president and chief executive of the National Association of Theater Owners.

The Hollywood studios' industry-wide conversion from 35 mm film to digital satisfies modern-day demands for crisp clarity, cost savings and special effects like 3-D. And for big-budget theaters where new releases occupy multiple screens, installing digital projectors is a no-brainer. Already, about 60 percent have converted in the United States, at a price of $70,000 to $80,000 a screen, Fithian said.

But for the community-owned Palace and other small and historic movie houses, the merging of nostalgia with high-tech is a dauntingly expensive proposition. Yet one, most agree, that is critical if they are to keep attracting audiences to their light bulb-studded marquees. The cost is more than double the price of a top-of-the-line film projector.


Much more about this and a sad read at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/19/digital-film-switch-could_n_1287403.html

[NightWatcher]

1. That sux for the projectionist. I used to build movies from 4 or more smaller reels

You'd have to piece them together and cut and splice the reels onto a flat horizontal disk, then string them through the projector. It was fun, easy work at the time (college). So now they'll send a flash drive to plug into a computer? Boring

[KoKo]

2. Our multi-plex switched over and tonight we went to see Star Treck 3 and it was blurry...

Maybe the theater hadn't had time to sinc with the digital...but the action tended to do that thing that the cheaper HDTV's do when watching sports or action films where there is a blurring. We left the theater because we didn't want to put up with that after already walking out of Iron Man 3.

Anyone been to a theater that's converted and had a problem with the movie being blurring when moving from one scene to another?

Anyone been to a theater that's converted and had a problem with the movie being blurring when moving from one scene to another?

Didn't know about the Digital Conversion that was going on so came home and did a Google Search and found out that they need to convert by end of 2013 and how this could hurt Indie/Historic Theaters and Film Revival Festivals.

[gort]

3. I think you were watching a 3D presentation.

You need to watch 3D with glasses supplied by the theater. If you paid for 2D show then you were in the wrong theater.

[flamingdem]

4. Sigh. All the cool things are fading into obscurity

we're left with pixels..

[MattBaggins]

5. I am going to go ahead and disagree with the entire premise

I think digital will save and help indy theaters and film makers to thrive. Let the big chains mess with the really expensive digital systems that Hollywood is pushing and the indy and small theaters can still go digital and high resolution with less expensive DLP or other projection methods. It doesn't have to cost quite as much as they want to push.

In NY we are actually seeing a revival of drive ins that are mom and pop operations with bigger screens and full crisp DLP projectors. We have students who use the same type of cheap projectors and laptops to show movies on the sides of buildings in the summer. The ready availability of the cameras and projectors is actually helping a lot of film makers and small theaters to survive. People in my area flock to the drive ins during the summer just for the fun of hanging out with some friends and a few good movies.

What is killing a large portion of small theaters is us. Most people it seems want to watch the latest Michael Bay explosionpalooza crapfest rather than really good storytelling. There is also the fact that people can now sit at home and download, even indy films, and watch them on their own 80 inch 1080i/p 3D tv sets.

Indy movies and theaters can survive it they make movies that tell a good story and if the theaters can make them feel like a small community event and not just a movie.

[hunter]

21. That would be nice.

High quality projectors unencumbered by the proprietary copy protection and watermarking systems of the big movie studios cost considerably less.

Digital film making is less expensive now than either 16 or 35mm film.

A movie making and distribution system among smaller community theaters roughly equivalent to open source software communities would be a very interesting development.

I don't use Microsoft, Apple, or Adobe software on my personal computers, why should theaters be confined to the restrictive production and distribution models of giant corporations?

[WinkyDink]

6. Digital might replace film, but it can never REPLACE film, IYKWIM.

[cyberswede]

23. +1

[Heidi]

7. Kick!

[olddots]

8. This change has put more people out of work than meets the eye .

This comes from above the Hollywood studios because there aren't Hollywood studios as they existed even 15 years ago .

A shocking book that understands this breakdown is The Hollywood Economist by Edward J. Epstein .

[HiPointDem]

9. i read recently about one of the few surviving drive-ins (in west virginia) going out of business

because of this.

it makes me sad.

seems the new theatres -- if they survive -- will all be chains, and they'll just send pictures via computers.

no more art theatres?

[elias7]

10. The community theater in Peterborough just transitioned

With help of many donations, they survived to make the switch. It's a single screen moviehouse and a great resource for the community, now saved.

[KoKo]

11. Kick...because I'd like to hear more folks experience with the Switch Over...THANKS!

[LiberalAndProud]

13. Some communities are getting very creative in order to keep their theaters.

CRETE, Neb. (AP) — Residents of a small southeast Nebraska community are conjuring up Hollywood in an effort to save their only movie theater.

Crete, about 25 miles southwest of Lincoln, will host a “Night of Stars” gala to help raise $85,000 for new digital projection equipment for the 87-year-old Isis Theatre.

The fundraising drive is aimed at matching a $43,000 grant from Crete Economic Development. Small fundraisers have collected about $15,500.

The Feb. 16 gala will be themed similar to the Oscars and Emmy awards — searchlights, limousines, a doorman and a red carpet. One limousine is being borrowed from a funeral home. Organizers are keeping secret about the film they will play, and an after-party is scheduled at nearby Doane College.
http://www.omaha.com/article/20130205/NEWS/702059909

[whistler162]

12. Seems like they would have complained

about the conversion from silent to sound and from B&W to color and from 4:3 to Widescreen formats.

[TheMightyFavog]

14. Wend to a drive in by Wisconsin Dells last weekend

They were still using 35mm. And for what you'd pay for popcorn and a large soda at your local multiplex, you got a burger fires popcorn and soda. Only thing I hated was the fact they cut the post credits sequence from Iron Man 3.

I wondered how this place can stay in business, especially if they have to shell out 70 grand a screen for digital conversion.

[Snarkoleptic]

15. I've seen a couple of digital projection movies at Loew's.

I couldn't help but notice that, whenever the screen was mostly (or totally) white, there were visible pixels that looked like squares around 12"x12" or so.
Kind or irritating to see this is going to be the new standard. Is this like the fraud that CD's were to replace LP's due to superior quality?

[jmowreader]

16. This is what surprises me

Hollywood could easily accommodate the art house cinemas. If it wanted to, and this is just the kind of thing Hollywood gets off on.

Barco makes a projector with 1920 horizontal lines resolution for about $40,000. With a little bit of upconversion you could play Blu-Rays on it. Two thousand line resolution isn't as good as the 4000-line Sony cinema projectors, but the Sonys are used in places with much bigger screens. Combine one of these with two industrial Blu-ray players and specially mastered discs without previews and you have a rig any art house could easily fundraise for.

[distantearlywarning]

17. Happening in Pittsburgh right now

There is a cool old movie theater here called The Hollywood, which shows a lot of indie films, older stuff, and they also do Rocky Horror with a full cast on Saturdays.

But now they are basically being driven out of business because they can't afford to go digital. They've been doing fundraisers and stuff, but I guess it is quite expensive to upgrade to digital. I wish I would win the lottery or something, so I could help them.

[KoKo]

18. Thanks for replies. I was wondering about the difference in the quality of view would

be between the film and digital.

Also that, the cost of conversion in these tough economic times will mean that wealthier communities may keep their theaters and film festivals going. But, the poorer or borderline communities will have difficulty raising the funds. And if they keep their old projectors I guess they will have limited films they can show.

[Nevernose]

19. Projectionists used to have a really strong union

Automation in the late 60s killed the union off, though. When film cans come to the theatre, it's still not uncommon to find union stuff -- notices, political ads, etc -- in them.

I really loved that job. I guess now it's like "shepherd" or "long bowman" -- historical.

I'd think that film will still be produced, though: how else are they going to sell in many foreign markets?

[Liberal_in_LA]

20. heard projectionist talk about his job on a radio program

he was doing OK because so few projectionists left but knew his career was dying one

[MineralMan]

22. Change stimulated by technology always affects those

who resist that change. Many factors work against the small movie theater, and a sizable proportion of them have already closed. Some have been closed for years. It's not just the cost of going digital, by any means.

Optical projection, like film cameras, is obsolete. Lots of things have become obsolete. Automobile carburetors are obsolete, too. They still work, but computer-controlled fuel injection is superior in performance, economy, and reliability that you'll be hard-pressed to find a carburetted engine in any new vehicle.

The CRT television and computer monitor is obsolete. I have about 10 of them, stacked up in my basement, waiting for a time to take them to a recycling center. Every one of them works just fine, but they are obsolete. My inexpensive flat screen monitor and my cheap HD TV have replaced them, and good riddance, too. They were energy hogs and just couldn't keep up with the changes in technology. I won't miss them.

The little movie theater in my old California home town closed a few years ago. It was a great place to go when I was a kid in the 1950s, and had a nice, dark balcony for date nights in the early 1960s. The closest multi-screen theater is half an hour away, but the experience of seeing movies in a modern, comfortable big-screen theater doomed my old home-town theater. Other old, obsolete movie houses are closing everywhere. People won't go to them in numbers large enough to make them economically feasible. Sure, people mourn their loss, but the same people haven't been in the places for years. Some have converted themselves into art-cinema houses in urban areas, and they're surviving, but just barely.

Times change. Technology changes. Habits change. And so it goes.

If you want to keep an old historic movie theater open, patronize it. Get your friends to patronize it. If enough people continue to patronize it, it will survive. If not, it won't.

[KoKo]

24. Thanks for keeping this Thread Going! What about Quality of Digital over Film?

What does this mean going forward? Is there a difference in quality for viewers?