Cinematographer John Bailey on Digital Cinema & 3D

[Francesco Bonomo]

From the same people who brought the pretty good pre-oscar interviews with Wally Pfister, Roger Deakins, and many many others, here's another one, though shorter, mostly about Digital Cinema & 3D, with John Bailey, ASC, Cinematographer and author of a very good blog on the ASC website. Pretty good, IMHO (and I happen to agree with most of what he says, but that's another story)...

 

[Jerry Murrel]

Francesco,

 

Excellent discussion by John Bailey - I'm very glad I came across this:

 

 

Didn't realize the Studios had decreed that one year from June all 35mm release prints

will cease and only method of distribution will be DCP. That will devastate a lot of

theaters in small towns which can't afford Digital Projection.

 

John Bailey is a highly intelligent and well respected cinematographer. Again, thanks

for posting this!

 

 

-Jerry Murrel

DP

Little Rock

[Francesco Bonomo]

Didn't realize the Studios had decreed that one year from June all 35mm release prints

will cease and only method of distribution will be DCP. That will devastate a lot of

theaters in small towns which can't afford Digital Projection.

 

More on that, an interesting article published a month or so ago in the LA Times:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-small-theaters-digital-20110419,0,2294998.story

 

I'd say the move to digital projection was predictable, but even though it's happening at a higher pace than some people expected (after a VERY slow start), it's still a long way from becoming the standard. Half of all American screens are still projecting film, and from what I see here in Italy and in other parts of Europe, the percentage of digital screens is still a minority (not to mention India and China, where they're upgrading fast, but at the same time there are thousands of "traditional" theaters). So the Studios can try to force whatever they want, but if a relatively big number of theaters doesn't "upgrade" to digital as soon as they (the studios) would like them to, they would potentially lose hundreds of screens where to project their movies.

 

John Bailey is a highly intelligent and well respected cinematographer.

 

I agree, and as I wrote before, I share many of his opinions expressed in the interview and elsewhere, especially the metaphor of "being pushed towards the cliff" and "3D being all about cash". Still, it's interesting to hear about the "revisionists", as he calls them in the interview: I'm seeing more and more people who were almost forced to learn filmmaking in all-digital classes/schools who are strongly pushing to shoot whatever they can on film, whether it's 16mm or 35mm, and simply refusing the whole "I've got more Ks than you" marketing mentality.

 

Again, thanks for posting this!

 

You're welcome, Jerry. John has a great blog at the ASC website, too:

http://www.theasc.com/blog/