Download those movies!

That is, 1. If you are BLIND and can't see the artifacts you DON'T get
on DVD, or,
you have a 25 year old 19" analog TV that won't let you.
Current compressed delivery formats are GARBAGE.
But then the iPod generation doesn't care about quality anyway.
-Rich

Digital revolution takes on movie industry

With Hollywood's largest studios launching a download-and-own film
service via rivals Movielink.com and Cinemanow.com, the move towards
digital distribution also means the move toward D-Cinema.

The movie industry may soon be taking the lead from its independent
filmmaking colleagues making a significant move towards digital
filmmaking. That could be the catalyst for the digital revolution in
every arena of the film industry.

"This is a landmark development in the evolution of home
entertainment," said Benjamin Feingold, Sony's president of worldwide
home entertainment, digital distribution and acquisition. "Allowing
consumers to download and own movies digitally via their broadband
Internet connections, gives them more power to be entertained when and
how they choose."

Sony Pictures Entertainment was among those studios partnering in the
Movielink deal, which also includes Paramount Pictures, Universal
Studios, Warner Brothers, MGM Studios and 20th Century Fox. Sony along
with Lions Gate also has a deal with CinemaNow.

Earlier this year there was uncertainty when the movie industry was
going to embrace digital distribution. Only a handful of companies had
already started the trend, not including video-clip download sites.

Apple's iTunes allows consumers to purchase $1.99 per TV episode
downloads from ABC, NBC Universal, USA Network, Disney and the Sci-Fi
Channel, while TiVo and DIRECTV announced plans of a launch to-go
service that allows transferring shows to portable media players.

The Starz Entertainment Group launched its own video-download service,
Vongo, for purchase or download of its some 1,000 movies onto different
consumer electronics.

Already video download and streaming sites have been providing content
including do-it-yourself vids on eBaum's World, Google and YouTube
sites as well as the successful indie short-film haven Atom Films,
which has moved towards a multi-format download service.

And with big studios joining the bandwagon, such service may spell
trouble for snail-mail DVD services like middlemen distributors
Blockbuster and Netflix, which may be adapting quicker than intended if
it means they could be cut out if not experience a split in the
profitable revenue sector.

But movie theatres, not to be left out, will soon find themselves
turning completely into digital cinemas within the next 10 years if not
sooner, says John Fithian, president of the National Association of
Theatre Owners.

"This will be the biggest transition in the movie theatre industry
since the advent of sound," he said.

That means over the next several years the some 6,114 movie theatres
that exist in the United States today will make that move, which will
result in them ultimately downloading movies from satellite or
broadband or receiving HD disk tape, replacing the expensive and
fragile 35 mm cellulite film stock on bulky reels.

According to Fithian, the industry has already spent five years
transferring to digital technologies with technical specifications that
promote compatibility and interoperability, enhancing quality levels
with the best visual systems, and financing the transition.

Digital for the theater not only provides owners a solution to
deteriorating film but enhances the patron's experience, Fithian noted.

With D-Cinema, it signals 3-D production of high-quality experience and
provides greater flexibility in programming, which would include music
concerts, sports and more indie movies.

But this move towards digital distribution both in home delivery and
theater also suggests the drive to digital filmmaking. Hollywood has
been slow to adopt digital filmmaking, unlike its up-and-coming
independent colleagues who have embraced the digital movement as a
cost-effective approach to making films.

And the accessibility provided by digital video is a major step into
democratization of the film industry, says Connecticut-based
independent filmmaker A.D. Calvo of Goodnight Film.

The digital movement along with the Internet, Calvo says, has in fact
opened up the filmmaking realm by allowing anyone to get involved with
a decent camera and good footage, making it more economically efficient
in producing and disseminating.

"LA has been slow to adapt new technology," says the filmmaker, whose
most notable work is a documentary on now infamous
nude-Britney-Spears-birth-on-a-bearskin sculptor Daniel Edwards called
"The Several Severed Heads of Daniel Edwards."

According to Calvo, Hollywood spends a huge amount of money to digitize
film after shooting in order to control color and visual effects in the
digital intermediate process and then converts it back in the film out
process.

And he says while this process won't go away for major studio epics
like "King Kong," most people don't notice subtleties of color, grains
or resolutions, and because of this, Hollywood should allocate that
money to fund more indie projects.

"People want a broader range of films and choice than millions of
dollars spent on color touch-ups," Calvo said. "It makes sense to keep
work entirely digital, that's what most indie films are doing."

The former software and interface developer interested in making
psychological horror films was inspired by the good story-low cost
J-Horror films or Japanese horror films that have inspired American
movies like "The Ring" and "The Grudge."

And the low-cost digital movement is making that dream possible for
him.

"It's an avenue for new talent to get their works seen, short film or
demo reels," he said. "And as a director, with digital video, I don't
have to view daily screenings but see the takes on the set and get
multiple cameras and shoot more coverage at a lower cost."

Still at the end of the day, Calvo says two things are the most
important.

"Even with technology, it comes back to story and acting," he said,
"but it is making the cost of production go down, providing more
choices for consumers to choose from, and making niche films a profit."

Copyright 2006 by United Press International




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