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Executive Summary 17 IBC Big Screen Experience Cinema's future is bright


Don Shaw Senior Director Product Management,


Entertainment Solutions Business, Christie Digital Systems Region: Canada


Interviewed by: Carolyn Giardina


“Exhibitors who are enjoying the 3D ticket premium need to step up and install equipment that’s going to allow them to present 3D in the proper brightness,” warns Don Shaw, senior director of product management at Christie. “I’m not talking about 3-4 footLamberts; I’m talking about 14 fL.”


Without that, he believes, 3D


box office will decline. At IBC2014, Christie (with Dolby) and with the co-operation of 20th Century Fox, presented


a screening of 'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes' and ‘Life of Pi’in 14 fL 3D Christie 6P Laser Projection and Dolby Atmos - the first time any audience in the world got to experience full- length feature films in full brightness 3D laser projection. One way that Christie and other projector makers are looking to address this issue is with laser projection. “You can get a lot brighter image on the screen with a laser projector,” Shaw says. “This is most


important for 3D presentations. In 2D you would have 14 fL of brightness; in 3D it’s often the case that there’s only 3-4 fL of brightness on the screen. “The overall effectiveness is a less immersive experience in 3D; people complain about headaches and eyestrain; and at


“Exhibitors need to step up to


offer better 3D”


the end of the day people are less willing to pay the premium for 3D film. Laser projection is a technical solution to this problem.”


But, he adds, there are other options for increasing brightness depending on screen size, particularly for small screens. “You can upsize your projector, go to dual Zenon [lamps], and find more efficient 3D systems. Laser is just one tool in the


toolbox that’s more specifically able to get higher brightness on a very large screen.” But these new laser projectors


are not without challenges. “The first challenge is cost (laser projectors can run several hundred thousand dollars),” Shaw says. “Probably part of the problem is that VPFs (virtual print fees) have not yet expired.” These deals were developed to finance the digital cinema transition by having studios contribute to the projector cost by paying a ‘virtual print fee’ to the exhibitor showing its movie. “But a lot of the bigger chains have the flexibility to move VPF- funded systems around to other auditoriums in their chains as their older units become obsolete,” Shaw adds. “I believe that someday lamp


projectors will be replaced—I don’t know if that will be in 10 years or 20 years,” he continues. “But exhibitors won’t have to


change lamps anymore and that means they’ll be going to solid state Illumination, which generally means lasers for movie theatres. It’s just going to take some time, like any other technology, to reach economies of scale.”


What new opportunities lie ahead for theatre owners? “Most of the major chains have put in Premium Large Format auditoriums and financially they are doing very well with those auditoriums. But it is a limited market; there are one or two thousand total in the world.”


Computational Cinematography


In theory, all creative decisions from focus to look can be made in post to the benefit of storytelling and the bottom line. Howard Lukk, formerly VP


Technology at Walt Disney Studios, is an exponent of that theory at Pannon Entertainment. Computational cinematography – or 'Comp Cine' as he dubs it – is not yet ready for primetime, he believes; “but it has great potential and will eventually go mainstream.” He was part of the team at


Howard Lukk Director, Pannon Entertainment


Region: United States Interviewed by: Adrian Pennington


Disney, with ARRI and Fraunhofer HHI, that developed a trifocal system to shoot and post the demonstration short film Make Believe. Acquisition comprised an Alexa paired with two satellite mini-cams and is primarily intended to eradicate the disparities caused by manually aligning two side-by- side cameras/lenses on a stereoscopic rig. However, multi-image arrays


or cameras with plenoptic lenses could work for 2D by allowing refocusing after the fact and to retrieve extended dynamic range. “The key advantage is that you can leave a lot of the


decisions to post so on the day you capture the entire light field and then manipulate the image in post,” explains Lukk. “I know that scares cinematographers since they want to be authors of the image. I understand that. The authorship of the image moves into the post side so we need to get cinematographers more involved in that process.” The trifocal “is a baby step”


Lukk is also a SMPTE


Standards director and, prior to Disney, was director of technology for DCI where he was responsible for researching and documenting digital cinema specifications. As such he keeps a keen eye on high frame rates, which the industry has stuttered toward. “When we started on the


DCI [specifications] we had to


“Multi-image arrays are a new type of tool that cinematographers should not shy away from”


in this direction but Lukk believes this is where camera manufacturers should be placing their R&D bucks. “Most development is needed on the witness cameras in terms of greater resolution and greater dynamic range but Comp Cine will be like the transition between film and digital as far as its impact on workflow and pipelines is concerned.” Lighting a scene for Comp


Cine is just as important “until next generation LED and strobe lighting which permit you to relight after the fact,” he adds.


lock on a single frame rate throughout the motion picture rather than changing the rate within the picture mainly to keep costs down,” he explains. “As projection technology improves there's no reason we couldn't switch frame rates on the fly opening up creative possibilities. “I would like to see the use


of shutter angles explored ... an angle at 240º all the way to a 359°, combined with frame rate, can make a big aesthetic difference. I'd also like to see 2D films shot in HFR, where the story deserves it.”


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