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I believe film will be obsolete within the next 20 years. Although many of you will think I'm crazy and say I believe in conspiracy theories, here is how it will happen if it is going to happen. How many of you older folks remember being in high school and the teachers showing 16mm films on subjects ranging from the Battle of Gettysburg to proper sexual tecniques? Now fast forward (no pun intended) to the 1990's. Everything of this sort is now on video. Kids today don't even know what a 16mm projector looks like. I know, I teach sometimes. OK, you say, big deal a TV/VCR set up is a couple of hundred bucks tops and most schools can afford that with no raise in taxes anyway, right? Right! But know this: That school is getting those TV/VCR combos absolutely free because Advertisers realized about seven years ago that school kids are a captive audience and if we can show them a 10 minute news broadcast geared toward them at some point in the school day, followed up by a few minutes of commercials for stuff like Moutain Dew and Cinnaburst Gum, profit margins for these products will go up. Those advertizers then got together with executives at ABC, created this bullshit news program called "Channel One", and seven years later, almost every school in the country (and there is a hell of a lot) is subscribing to this program to get free AV equipment, TV's, VCR's, computer software, the whole nine yards! All the school is required to do to get this stuff is to let the kids watch those commercials. The cost in doing this must be incredible, but its happening! Now if your still reading this and saying "but what does this have to do with me?", well, I'll tell you. Studios will not want to foot the bill for digital projection, and we know the exibitors don't want to do this either, so they'll compromise. They will use this 'captive audience' crap to get advertizers to pay for their new toys. And the saddest part is these idiots in the New York and Los Angeles ad agencies will think their getting the deal of the third millenium. The studios will turn movies into two hour commercials. They will write scripts that promote products, restaurants, and places ten times more than what we see now (I'm speaking in particularly of the Taco Bell scene from Sylvester Stallone's "Demolition Man"). Exibitors will then try to chuck their slide contracts with guys like Coke or Pepsi, claiming they and their subsideries get enough play time in the actual film, and go to finding more and more folks to advertise locally in the newly available spots on the carrosel. In the end, everybody is happy, right? Well, until ten years later when every company, group, small business, and even person who bought into this digital cinema crap realizes they've just been SCREWED!!!!!

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Mike Blakesley
www.goforsyth.com/roxy

Sadly enough, we all know the power of the word "digital." I believe that is why Lucas held off for two months before releasing Phantom Menace in "digital". He knew his movie would generate the millions it did and start to die off. But wait, THEN he releases it in "digital" and everyone flocks back to see the new technology, regardless of how much they want to see bloodshed in the name of Mr.Binks.

My opinion on the picture quality of film though still stands...it's the BEST, I don't care how fancy technology gets, film still delivers the best picture no if's and's or butts!

But remember though, front wheel drive in automobiles was touted as "better" than rear drive, and most people don't care. The biggest advantage in front-drive is cheaper manufacturing cost, not in handling! Same goes for video formats, they are cheaper, and easier to use, but definitley not higher an quality.

1) I don't know of any video display technology that can even come close to film. I don't know exactly, but isn't the resolution of film somwhere in the 10's of Microns range? I don't even think nanomirrors can get that small. (Some of the experts out there will be able to answer that question better than I can.) Furthermore, even when you can see the film grain on the screen, the grains are "Moving" on the screen and your eye can't perceive them unless you look. (Or unless the director makes the film grainy like 'Eyes Wide Shut'.) With video, you'll have the pixels always in the same place. This causes all sorts of goofy things like alialing where diagonal lines look jagged. I know most people don't notice but it drives me crazy. (Okay, a short walk.)

2) Obsolecense! -- How many people have old Apple ][ computers in their closets collecting dust. Not only are those computers useless, nowadays you can't get software to run on them and anything you stored in the past is now inaccessible by modern computers. (How many iMacs or Pentium clones have a 5.25 inch disk drive?) If you stored any important information on that old computer you're screwed if you ever have to read it again!

There was a really interesting article in "Scientific American" magazine on this subject about a year or two ago. It said that todays computers would be obsolete in 50 years and any data on them would be inaccessible.

WE STILL HAVE 100 YEAR OLD FILMS AND THEY CAN STILL BE PLAYED ON (ALMOST) ANY MODREN MOVIE PROJECTOR. -- Not so for video. Video tapes will last in perfect storage conditions for an average of 10-20 years! That goes for almost any magnetic medium. Those digital video "prints" of Star Wars won't be around in the year 2099, I bet.

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