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Author Topic: Cyan dye track conversion Paul Salley Expert Film Handler Posts: 105 From: Liberal, Kansas Registered: Jan 2001 posted 07-17-2003 06:54 PM                  DreamWorks Leans to Green with New Soundtrack Tue July 15, 2003 10:13 PM ET By Sheigh Crabtree LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Woody Allen once joked that he is "at two with nature," but when his latest film opens in September, the prolific filmmaker will find himself communing a little more closely with Mother Earth. That's because the next entry in Allen's celluloid canon --"Anything Else," starring Stockard Channing, Glenn Close, Jimmy Fallon and Jason Biggs -- will be the first film released with what is known as a pure-dye cyan analog soundtrack. Cyan soundtracks eliminate the use of caustic chemicals used in traditional soundtracks by skipping the silver application process in the print manufacturing phase, which enables a significant reduction in the amount of water needed to produce the soundtrack. If all U.S. film release print manufacturing converted to cyan tracks, the savings would be equivalent to the drinking water needs of a town of 75,000 people for a year, according to the theatrical audio gurus at Dolby Laboratories who are behind the new print process. The introduction of cyan dye analog soundtrack has been under discussion for nearly a decade but has had trouble finding a champion among Hollywood's major studios. That is until the environmentally conscious executives at DreamWorks SKG, where Allen is wrapping up his four-picture distribution deal, decided to take up the cause. DreamWorks distribution chief Jim Tharp and operations head Mark Christiansen cited three reasons why the studio decided to embrace the new lab process on Allen's latest picture. "It's much more environmentally clean; the film has much better overall quality due to a decrease in chemical splash; and 'Anything Else' is not set for an ultrawide run, which makes the conversion process more manageable," Christiansen said. Indeed, the introduction of new or innovative elements in a film print adds an element of risk to the already-arduous task of keeping films unspooling without a hitch in America's multiplexes. Should a picture's audio cut out during a screening, movie fans are likely to become more than a little agitated. Case in point is a "Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones" digital cinema screening in New Jersey in May 2002. A prototype digital cinema projector broke down during a midnight screening and the police had to be called in to manage an angry crowd. While nowhere near as technically complex nor as problem-prone as early d-cinema screenings, cyan dye analog soundtracks will play only in those theaters that have installed red-light readers into their projectors. It is estimated that 85% of the projectors in the United States are now equipped with red-light readers, and the members of the National Association of Theater Owners have agreed to equip all of their theaters with the device this year. But it is those theaters that have yet to convert that still remain a cause for alarm among Hollywood distribution execs. Ted Costas, Dolby's local cyan dye soundtrack evangelist in Hollywood, put it pretty simply. "The only theaters that have not equipped themselves with red-light readers, domestically, are those holdouts that have been waiting for a reason to switch, which we now have," he said.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 07-17-2003 07:17 PM                     This belongs in the Film Handler's forum. There is already a thread going here.  |  IP: Logged

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