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“Digital cinema is arguably the most important development in film since the introduction of sound” Anthony Minghella, Oscar winning Director of The English Patient and Cold Mountain, Chair of the British Film Institute. The market for Film and the development of Digital Cinema Screen Digest forecasts that there will be more than 17,000 d-cinema screens in the world by 2010 (around 15% of the whole cinema business). Cinematic entertainment is big business, which touches the lives of almost everyone. It is also a growing business: in Europe, cinema admissions grew from 587 million in 1992 to 926 million in 2006, an increase of 55% while the number of screens grew from 17785 in 1981 to over 25000 in 2006. This represents a large industry in financial terms: in 2006 the top 20 movies alone grossed a total of over $8 billion and European ticket sales were in the region of €5 billion. The stakes for digital cinema and its associated technologies are therefore immense – particularly when one realises that the market for cinematic release is only about 50% of the total value of ‘film’ when one considers derived products in the form of DVD, video, broadcast, online, and games. The current industrial environment shows uneven progress toward a digital cinema chain, with a rapid adoption of technologies and work practices for Digital Intermediate at the postproduction stage, but a much slower introduction of digital origination and projection (the pace of advance being determined by a combination of economic and technological factors). The Telecine Interest Group (an informal organisation with 1300 members in 50 countries) produced in 2003 a table of 46 feature films that have been completed using the Digital Intermediate process. This was an underestimate, which excluded some well-known examples from companies using film scanners rather than Telecine: probably more like 100 - 150 films had been finished this way. The list of confirmed Digital Intermediate movies includes the winner of the Berlin Golden Bear in 2001, and the 2002 winners of the Venice Golden Lion in 2002 and Cannes Palme D’Or. The principal current barriers to the general adoption of Digital Intermediate were said to be ‘lack of interoperability’ within systems, lack of standards, and potential ‘over-runs’ on budget and schedule. By 2004 only a few movies (with the exception of animation or HDTV productions) have been created ‘filmlessly.’ The most high profile is George Lucas’s Star Wars – Episode 2, which lent itself to digital acquisition due to the amount of compositing and effects work needed. Reasons cited for the lack of digital production are many. Some say that high quality cameras are too limited due to their dependence on a disc store system at the end of an umbilical, and others such as Geoff Boyle, the well-known Director of Photography, cites “the lack of a sustaining workflow methodology.” However, several well-known directors are enthusiastic about the future of digital cinematography. Wim Wenders is another of those who sees the transition from analogue to digital production techniques as being as revolutionary an event for cinema as the introduction of talking pictures. At the end of 2005, Screen Digest International estimated there were around 849 installations of D-Cinema exhibition systems worldwide, representing approximately 0.8% of all Cinema screens; manufacturers estimate that this will reach 17000 by 2010 (17%). The main reasons cited by Exhibitors for the small market penetration before 2006 were ‘lack of standardisation / interoperability,’ ‘costs’, and ‘availability of material.’ All those obstacles seems to be overcome in 2007. Once again, digital technologies are favoured by leading directors.
Oscar-winner Steven Soderbergh (Best Director, Traffic, 2001) complains of analogue film that “Even after that first screening, it's got dirt on it and scratches” but “when I go to see the digital version of the movie I know it’s going to bright from edge to edge, I know it's going to be sharp from edge to edge, I know the print is not going to be torn up, and that it is as close a re-creation of what we intended as its physically possible to get.”
European added value Given the size and international scope of the market, the complexity and variety of the technologies concerned, the dominance of the seven Hollywood major studios on film production, and the pre-eminence of the US computer industry, it is evident that no single European country can compete alone. Concerted effort in RTD, promotion and marketing is essential if the European industries are to succeed in the industrialisation of digital cinema. Europe is fortunate in having played a pioneering role in the creating of Digital Cinema technologies – and many of those pioneers are in the IP-RACINE consortium. However, while European manufacturers still succeed in supplying dedicated systems for specialised purposes, they are in danger of being squeezed or left behind as the international industry adopts new digital technologies and procedures. Our ambition is to secure the digital future of the European entertainment industry as the technologies behind the currently separate sectors of film, television, and interactive media further converge. IP-RACINE has the potential to create a European RTD community that can compete at a global level, to give the European entertainment industry the tools it needs to compete with ‘Silicon Hollywood’ and its offshoots. In the production and postproduction sector, Europe has responded by the creation of geographical clusters of complementary specialised companies, which increasingly collaborate ad hoc to execute major projects. This does not, though, solve the need for more innovative methods, or overcome cost of the high-end technology and the level of capital investment needed to compete on the international market. Here again, the smaller size of European companies puts them at a disadvantage, underlining the need for technology to carry out novel procedures, better, cheaper. It is clear that if we, Europeans, leave the US to dictate the future standards of digital cinema, the multicultural, multilingual and minorities-protecting advantages of our versatile solutions will never take shape. Fortunately, the European presence is now really visible in the standards committees, mostly due to IP-RACINE members. This effort will continue at least in the next forty-two months but its efficiency will be greater due to the integrated vision supported by IP-RACINE. We may see the European digital cinema industry and IP-RACINE as the champions of versatility and adaptability as opposed to the monolithic force of the big Hollywood studios. Consequently, many nations outside USA will find it natural to go for European solutions. The early commercial success of the European industry in Europe, Asia and South-America are other indicators of this trend. This support from many countries in several continents is a kind of guarantee of the future of the European digital cinema industry. Of course, the best European products do penetrate Hollywood and by strengthening our role in the Digital Cinema and pioneering it through collaborative research, we will continue to increase the level of penetration. There is a ‘window of opportunity’ for Europe to succeed in the area of Digital Cinema. The members of this consortium are among the brand leaders in Digital Cinema equipment. IP-RACINE has close links with the EDCF (European Digital Cinema Forum), which is evolving from an informal association to a professional body (incorporated as a Dutch stichting). The EDCF is a primary forum for all European Digital Cinema activities, with members including film production and postproduction companies, hardware and system solution suppliers, and the Cinema owners. The EDCF and its members liaise closely with equivalent structures in Hollywood, where all seven major studios have created a new vehicle to further define their interests called Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) LLC with which we also intend to liaise. DCI has nominated the Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) at USC’s Digital Cinema Laboratory as a test centre for Digital Cinema technologies. Through the consortium partners’ professional activities (and building on connections established in existing projects such as RACINE-S) IP-RACINE has direct access to the activities of major Hollywood Studios, including Industrial Light & Magic (George Lucas) and Warner Brothers. Links to Cinema Exhibitors come through structures such as the CEA (Cinema Exhibitor’s Association) and the US equivalent, the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO). The potential for European companies and universities to act in this domain is underlined by the range and depth of existing research: IP-RACINE reinforces a considerable body of earlier IST-funded RTD into aspects of digital cinema technology, television and new media. In addition to IST-supported work, there is also a continuing interest on the part of EUREKA to fund work in the cine area. The partners in IP-RACINE build on the experience they have obtained in the following European funded projects for digital cinema technologies and applications.
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