Wanna know why movies are called flicks? It’s because of the flickering light that’s emitted from film projectors. Like smoking, smell-o-vision, and intermissions, it looks like 35MM films and their projectors are on their way out of the cinema.
According to a report from IHS Screen Digest Cinema Intelligence Service 2012 will “mark the crossover point when digital technology overtakes 35mm.” This is bad news for film purists like Quentin Tarantino and Steve Spielberg. It’s actually good news for Smurf-documentarian James Cameron. According the IHS head of film and cinema research David Hancock, Avatar was the tipping point pushing theatres toward digital projection.
According to Hancock, before Avatar digital projection accounted for 15-percent of global screens. After the film was released, digital projection grew 17-percent in both 2010 and 2011. Here are some more harrowing items from the report for lovers of celluloid:
By the end of 2012, the share of 35mm will decline to 37 per cent of global cinema screens, with digital accounting for the remaining 63 per cent. This represents a dramatic decline for 35mm, which was used in 68 per cent of global cinema screens in 2010. In 2015, 35mm will be used in just 17 per cent of global movie screens, relegating it to a niche projection format.
It was bound to happen eventually. While I wait, I’m going to watch a few Goddard flicks at the local independent theatre. [MSNBC]
codework
Wednesday, November 16, 2011 at 4:02 PMAbout time. It is one of the reasons I have seen so few movies at the cinema in recent years. I know some (like vinyl lovers for music) will prefer the often blurry, noisy, hair-in-frame, jitter that is 35mm film. It represents an emotional, romantic view of what cinema should be. But I would prefer to see the movie as the director intended rather than how the theatre was capable of playing it.
Steve
Thursday, November 17, 2011 at 1:38 AMYou realise that traditional 35mm film can essentially be scaled up infinitely. Which is why Blu-Ray transfers of classics look fantasic now, despite the technology being decades away.
A film shot in digital will forever be in digital. Star Wars: Episode I was shot in 1080 and for all eternity, will forever be that way, regardless of technical improvements in frame-rate, pixel density etc.
TC
Thursday, November 17, 2011 at 8:27 AMYou realise you have no idea what you are talking about?
Full HD cameras film in resolutions over 4k and even 1080p is indistinguishable from 35mm film to even professionals.
Cheap video camera gear has a narrow aperture increasing depth of field but that has everything to do with how it’s filmed and nothing to do with the resolution. To make things even worse for you though, the article is talking about the end of 35mm projectors, not film.
There have been entirely digitally filmed movies for years that are then transferred to 35mm projectors to display in the cinema.
TSH
Wednesday, November 16, 2011 at 4:08 PMI don’t care what the projection technology is – so long as it’s at least at the 35mm equivalent resolution (4k? 6k?) it really doesn’t matter to me. One thing that does matter: framerate. 24fps is just pathetic by modern standards, and another relic of a bygone era when recording media and mechanisms were at their limit just to provide the illusion of motion.
Even 30 fps would be a significant jump in fluidity for motion pictures, and should be manageable by digital projectors.
Namarrgon
Wednesday, November 16, 2011 at 8:51 PMThis! A thousand times this!
I argue about this regularly with the vfx guys I work with. While some certainly agree, others are convinced that high framerates will make their precious epics look like cheap TV soaps, and that the blurry, juddery mess of 24fps makes everything look more “cinematic” (and others are just nervous of the doubled/tripled workload).
Of course, almost none of them have actually worked on or even seen a high-value 48fps or 60fps movie, so I have great hopes for The Hobbit as strong example to change their minds with :-)
AB
Thursday, November 17, 2011 at 1:20 AMThe big issue for me is that 24fps 35mm has been the projection STANDARD for decades! These days like with all digital technology, the digi projectors that are currently getting installed by the hundreds are obsolete by the time they get an image on-screen.
I know for a fact 2k projectors and servers that are only 1 year old are bookmarked to be turfed out for 4k.
Very little has changed from some of the first 35mm prints to what is on screen now, and so that’s massive respect to the pioneers of film exhibition.