Wireless digital: coming to a theatre near you?
Rapidly evolving technology could soon change the way films are distributed, writes ALEXANDRA GILL
By ALEXANDRA GILL
Globe and Mail Update
VANCOUVER -- You didn't read about it in the newspapers or see it covered on Entertainment Tonight. But at the Sundance Film Festival in January, a small company from Vancouver helped present the wireless premiere of a high-definition feature film that will very likely be remembered as a groundbreaking moment in the rapidly evolving world of digital cinema.
The invitation-only event was held at the Sundance Institute's Digital Center in Park City, Utah, on Jan. 17. Actress Sally Field, film critic Roger Ebert, Motion Picture Association of America chairman Jack Valenti, and top executives from Microsoft, Intel and Hewlett-Packard were among the select, 40-odd techno-curious guests in attendance.
After getting their drinks from the bar, the group settled down into comfy sofas and plush chairs scattered around the conference room. Each guest was given a wireless Sony notebook computer. And whenever they were ready, the presenters invited everyone to put on their headphones, click on their computers and sit back -- or move around if they preferred -- for the world premiere screening of November, a low-budget independent thriller starring Courteney Cox from the TV series Friends.
Yes, the star of the film was still stuck on a small screen. And that was partly the point. As director Greg Harrison wandered around the room, he watched the actress's picture-perfect image on the various computers. On one monitor, Cox was sitting in an office, talking to a psychiatrist. At the very same moment, on another computer, she was climbing a dark stairwell. And over on one of two larger plasma screens, Cox's character was banging a broom on the ceiling of her apartment.
"Now I get it," said Harrison, turning to one of the Intel executives. This was not a satellite broadcast or download from the Internet. It was a brand new system of digital delivery. With a single click, the film was being distributed, on demand, directly to each computer from the Intel head office in Oregon.
And look ma, no cables. Each person in the room was free to move around with their laptops, turn the movie off and on again, rewind or fast-forward at will.
This was the first time Harrison had seen the final version of his digital film. And to his utter amazement, he said the images being beamed onto these little laptops looked exactly the same as they had at his post-production facility. In contrast to the jerky videos that are typically delivered via the Internet, the quality of this digital transmission was five times better than any available from a plugged-in connection at home.
"We don't have to make any excuses for the quality of video any longer," explains Tim Sweeney, technical marketing director for Intel, the company behind this latest generation of Centrino mobile technology (the Intel Pro/Wireless 2200BG network connection and microchip) that allows up to 54 million bits of data to be transferred per second. "This rivals the best in class."
For the past five years or so, it almost seems as if digital technology has been evolving at a similarly frenetic speed. Recent breakthroughs have already demonstrated the ability to make movies with the same clarity as 35-millimetre film using high-definition video cameras, and then project them digitally in theatres with no loss in image quality. In 1998, the number of digital video films presented at the film festival could have been counted on one hand.
This year, more than 40 per cent of the festival's 200-plus films were either shot on digital video or projected digitally. The audience has barely noticed the difference.
Ian Calderon has been watching it all unfold up close and personal. As a founder of the Sundance Institute, and now director of digital initiatives, it was he who helped spark the revolution by introducing the technical experts and their equipment to independent filmmakers, who have in turn, pushed the applications forward.
"This is the last link in the puzzle," Calderon says. "The feeling I got was that everyone in that room walked away knowing that something very important had just happened."
For now, Intel's new Centrino technology, which will be available worldwide later this year, is mainly being marketed at business travellers. With an extended battery life that lasts about six hours, the software allows consumers to download movies at superfast speeds and then view them on a plane.
But as wireless networks expand, the possibilities abound.
"It will be like having a Blockbuster video store in your laptop," Sweeney says. "You'll be able to download your personal movie to your personal handheld video player while waiting in line for a coffee, then go home and either watch it on the small screen in bed or plug the computer cable into a large display screen in your living room."
Which hardly means the collective theatre experience is about to disappear. In fact, wireless technology offers new possibilities for theatre owners as well. Right now, Internet connections through fibre-optic cable lines limit digital distribution to urban communities with high-powered networks. And despite initial high hopes, the rising cost of laying fibre-optic lines has held back the spread of broadband access, even more so in the United States than Canada (which is one of the most broadband-friendly countries in the world). With wireless distribution, a single-screen theatre house in Moose Jaw would be able to receive the latest Hollywood release at the same time as a megaplex in Montreal.
Satellite transmissions do already offer this option, but adoption rates have been slow. The major barrier to digital acceptance remains the cost of implementing the technology. Although the prices are going down, digital projectors are about five times more expensive than analog machines. As of this winter, according to the Motion Picture Theatre Association of Canada, there are only two commercial movie exhibitors in Vancouver that are digitally equipped to project features, and only two others elsewhere Canada, one in Toronto and one in Kitchener, Ont.
The potential savings for distributors are fairly obvious. It costs studios and distributors about $2,000 (U.S.) to produce, duplicate and ship a single celluloid print to theatres. If a typical big-budget release ships to 3,000 theatres, the distribution cost for a major film is about $6-million. Cut out the celluloid bulk and the costs drops dramatically.
But as it now stands, the major U.S. distributors are a small monopoly owned by the big Hollywood studios. And the Hollywood studios have their own reasons for stalling the transition from film to digital delivery.
Remember the recent court battle over screeners used to promote movies during Oscar season? Last fall, the major Hollywood movie studios tried to ban the distribution of advance videocassette or DVD copies of films to critics and other award-granting groups. The studios, led by the Motion Picture Association of America, claimed the ban was critical to preventing an explosion of piracy over the Internet. A consortium of independent filmmakers accused the studios of engaging in illegal anti-competitive behaviour. The smaller houses, which argued that the ban limited voter exposure to their movies, won a temporary restraining order from a U.S. district judge. And according to some, the independent filmmakers have even more to gain in this distribution divide.
"Of course it's prudent for Hollywood to take its time and assess the issues, but a lot of independents are grooving to the idea in a big way" says Patti-Jo Wiese, vice-president of Vancouver's Digital Film Group.
Founded in 1999, the company specializes in providing top-quality digital video-to-film transfers for the independent film community. Their work includes Zacharias Kunuk's groundbreaking Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner), which was shot on the frozen tundra of the Canadian Arctic using Digital Betacam video, and went on to win the prestigious Camera d'or at the Cannes Film Festival.
"There's this unique window that has emerged as studio types try to figure out how to manage the content copyright and piracy issues," Wiese says. "The independents don't have hundreds of millions of dollars at stake. And they're not afraid of the technology. They just want to get their movies out there."
