Russell Richard Fowler

Qube Cinema, another server company, also has a DCP program called Master Express. Their product will run off XP or Vista hardware.

I have good memories of John. When Texas Instruments introduced Digital Cinema early in this decade at ShoWest convention ( now obsolete 1.3K system ) they used material shot on film, for film and digital, so as to show A/B and split screen presentations on a 35 foot + screen. He was in the trenches getting the 35mm projection set up and had everything signed off when at the last minute the Kodak "marketing" department ( the evening prior to the event ) order that the film print be replaced with the then new Vision stock. His rant fell on deaf ears since the existing negative stock was a perfect in timing / contrast vs the Vision print. He wanted a fair evaluation....not a hyped up one. The last time we saw each other a couple years prior to his death as we shared car rides at another convention. Conversations always a good give and take. He was a great magician....always ready to show you how to pull that rabbit out of the hat....with enough tricks up his sleeve to keep it interesting....

I supervised the screening Thursday evening in Miami; there where other screenings in the U.S.A. at the same time, to coordinate with Francis father's birthday. The media was Bluray via a HD projector and Dolby 5.1 Digital Sound. The ratio appeared to be 2:40/1 in Black and White with 1:85 and 1:33 color flashback sequences. The black and white only exhibited a couple of back lit street scenes which "looked" digital.....the color sections exhibiting a warm bias and a "Tales of Hoffman" sequence having a classic 1940 - 50's Technicolor look. The black and white was not very very high contrast....looking as you would extract B&W from a color negative (similar to contrast seen in D.P. Roger Elswit work in Good Night and Good Luck) but with careful modeling and great work from D.P. Mihai Malaimare Jr. Long time editor / sound designer Walter Murch expertise produced a great soundtrack and visuals. There was great care in image processing that six feet away from the screen....it looked like Kodak Plus-X 35mm....with grain. The Blu-ray disks and 3 back ups had proper color bars / count down / sync pop and accurate time code made it easy to prep / cue and present. A full house and plenty of "Film Cut" Chardonnay from Francis's winery made it a great screening....

We did some Burger King in house advertising spots in a cinema in Miami. I used the existing 35mm cinema projector (Cinemeccanica V-5 with a 2000 lamp = 10 - 12,000 lumen), re-aimed the projector downward via apple boxes so the spot of the projection lens was slightly above the talent's heads (3 actors and 20 extras) and the balance of the beam doing a nice backlight. I made up a film loop with strong cuts and graphics to make a nice flicker. I have done a similar effect with via video projectors running over 8000 lumen.....not as clean as 35mm but effective.

I have set up exhibits with endless 16mm loops for an English artist. Repetitive images make easy cut points (example clip, repetitve flashing light on a lighthouse) or a pan into a dark point ( example one loop is a restaurant and the camera follows a food server going through a kitchen door /cut/ and coming out the same door with a food tray)or fast fade (12 frame) is acceptable. Her loops ran 3 to 40 minutes. The attention span of the majority of people will not notice a cut point... I set up a video loop last evening for a festival; watching the 1000's potential eyeballs that evening, they zoned in and out after viewing 15 seconds of the 20 foot image from a 5 minute DVD loop.

I am scheduled to handle the screening in Miami on June 11th......the current information is that the media is coming in on Blu ray disk....subject to change.

Digital Cinema deployment in the U.S.A. is dead at the moment due to high cost and lack of financing with the exception of 3D / Advertising applications. I have done projects internationally and unfortunately most 35mm prints in the U.S.A. are garbage compared to prints made in Latin America, Thailand and other locations. 2K digital looks better than the average print. The movie studios are pushing Digital delivery so as to bring the cinemas in line with "other" customers that "converted" such as T.V. stations that went from film / tape distribution to cable - digital delivery many years ago...it save the distributors money, not neccessary the cinemas. There are payment schedules based of VPF ( virtual print fees ) paid by distributors to cinemas to help defray financing but lack of trust, money and long term return on investment leave many clouds in the picture. In more vertically integrated business enviroments such as India, corporations such as Adlabs can make DCI Digital Cinema progress from the existing E-Cinema base; with India small runs of 100 - 150 prints, by the time the 35mm prints play a C level cinema...E-Cinema looks better. History repeats itself since Digital Cinema is like where sound for movies where handled in the early 1930's ( integrators, lease - finance agreements, improving technical quality )...eventually it will be the accepted standard.........The recent availability of DCP mastering programs for end users from Qube / Doremi / and Quvis should accelerate use of D.I. to independent producers.

DigiBeta can look good even shown at 28 - 37 foot wide images digitally in a cinema with proper hardware and image scaling. I was the Technical Director for the Miami International Film Festival which ended about two weeks ago. 25% of images shown where DigiBeta...7%HDCAM...3%DVCAM...3%DVD (seven foot screen)...the remainder was 35mm film. Ironically our opening film was a 35mm print made from an HDCAM origination source...on a 40 foot screen, the producer and director said it was the best presentation they have seen of their show. DigiBeta is "mature" but can be a good start.

I am working on some early 1970's footage on Ektachrome reversal film that was flashed by Western Cine many years ago to cut down contrast for printing....

The train wreck in the movie was a hoot...basic Photoshop in action. Edging and shading of the wrecked train made it look so cardboard in digital....

I was involved with the Miami premiere of Che 1 / 2 with 2K digital projection from a DCP file. The "grain" on the dark scenes mentioned was not film like and had a cyclic pattern which was very noticable. There some clipping in the forest scenes, especially shots looking up to the sky through the leaves and branches. Kodakchrome is an on target opinion especially the mountain vistas. As a story told, I liked Che 1 / 2 (#1 is scope #2 is 1:85).....we had a successful presentation (250 people inside / 150 protesters with bullhorns and police detail outside.....Che is a "touchy" subject in Miami) and Mr. Soderberg was easy to work with. The post team at IFC gave me enough info and support to make it look good. Sharpness was acceptable but as a reference a 3 perf film image to scope ratio shown from a HDCAM SR via a 2K projector ("Notorious" / 20th Century Fox) screening the following week was "tack" sharp and grain when noted was more "film like".

You are assuming HD is only 1080...there are approximately 20 resolution standards considered HD; from 720P (1280 x 720 pixels) on up. Some networks such as FOX only supply a 720P signal, so your t.v. set (and mine) are uprezzing to 1080. Better to talk of HD resolution than "analog" like half (versus 1/4....3/4...HD).