Re: [Leica] Future of film

[Byron Rakitzis <leica@rakitzis.com>]

> While I can see future enhancements of the sound track, I am somewhat limited
> in my vision as to what benefit would be derived from digitization of the
> picture track.  Without some great artistic or cost benefit, why should the
> theaters swich from film to digital tracks?

Bill,

Let me say that I know very little about the movie business. Maybe someone
like Richard Knoppow (is he on this list?) will jump in to enlighten us.

But as far as I know there are good reasons to switch to digital:

First of all, prints are fragile. There are problems with registration,
scratches, etc. If you've ever seen a poor print in a cheap movie theater
surely you know what I'm talking about.

Prints are also very big and heavy, and many copies need to be made. With
an appropriate network bandwidth, you take away the problem of fabricating
prints.

There are also probably business reasons (which you may or may not agree
with or care about) for distribution companies to go digital: I think
that the companies will consider it to their advantage to negotiate
distribution rights of virtual copies of a movie rather than physical
copies.

> If I am wrong, then the niché market I will look for is showing old art films
> and slides (perhaps I could make slides of all of the negatives in the US
> National Archives) with old projectors.  Ought to keep me $$$ occupied until
> the end of my life.

Surely showing art films is already a niche market. Look at what dominates
popular culture: mega-plexes, summer blockbusters, and so on.

Byron.