Film Fading to Black

[sfage]

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Sigh.

 

This is making me sad. My M2 needs a CLA but it's not cheap. I am beginning to weigh the cost of that against a new digicam.

[StS]

Well, I just had my M3 serviced, including a shutter replacement. The invoice wouldn't even have bought a half decent point-and-shoot.

 

My speculation is as good as anyones, however, I'm prepared to bet a bottle of Taittinger Champagne, should I ever in my lifetime not be able to buy or order film any more. Replace Taittinger by Moet et Chandon, if Taittinger does not exist any more then. If we still can buy Champagne at all then.

 

Recently, I read an article about the larger cinemas in Germany being concerned about the sluggish adaption of 3D (typical ticket price 12EUR vs. 8EUR 2D), they are worried about their +100kEUR investments apiece in digital projectors. All the smaller cinemas still use film projectors and simply can't afford the digital ones. They will still need film copies.

 

Summing up, I guess nobody expects film to become main stream any more. But reports about it's death are a bit premature, if I may borrow from Mark Twain (who, admittedly, is not with us any more now).

 

Stefan

[AlanG]

Recently, I read an article about the larger cinemas in Germany being concerned about the sluggish adaption of 3D (typical ticket price 12EUR vs. 8EUR 2D), they are worried about their +100kEUR investments apiece in digital projectors. All the smaller cinemas still use film projectors and simply can't afford the digital ones. They will still need film copies.

 

 

I don't know about Germany, but think theaters in the US are switching. Kodak makes laser digital projectors.

 

KODAK Laser Projection Technology

 

http://3droundabout.com/2011/10/5242/imax-licenses-right-to-kodaks-laser-projection-technology-for-deep-blacks-and-bright-3d.html

 

I think camera film will be around for a while but movie projection will convert to digital in most places pretty soon.

[StS]

I guess there is a difference, which is also due to the different urban landscapes.

 

The large cinema chains over here operate "multiplex" cinemas, which are typically part of a shopping mall and have several, typically eight, projection theatres. They have all converted all or most of them to digital, their audience and business model requires to have always the latest technology. All the cinemas I visited so far in the States run by this model.

 

There are still several smaller "neighbourhood" cinemas having only one, maybe two projection theatres, most of them owner-operated. The majority of them show films, which can't be found in the multiplexes. Some of them show mainstream and are visited by people, who prefer to walk round the corner rather than driving to a shopping mall. For them, a digital projector is a huge investment, especially, since their audience does not necessarily require it.

 

It has been said several times that these older cinemas will die, when TV came up, when colour TV came up, when the multiplexes came up in the eighties. So they will continue to die over the century and will keep some small load on the remaining film copy business.

 

Thinking about it, I will show them in a photo series, when my job is a bit less busy.

 

Stefan

[chrism]

I think I first came to love art deco architecture in the Odeon cinemas of my childhood and youth in the UK. They were very large too, some with a balcony as well as stalls. When my father really liked a film, we had to troop back the next night and watch it again!

I know someone who is responsible for installing digital projectors here, and he tells me one advantage they have for the studios is that each digital file can be watermarked, so any illegal copying can be traced to a particular cinema.

 

Chris