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Topic: Is the end of 35mm closer than I think?
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 03-26-2013 07:38 PM
Long-ish post alert - sorry.
quote: Dave Rodriguez
May Haduong of the Academy Film Archive wrote an excellent article in the Fall 2012 issue of THE MOVING IMAGE which gives a rather comprehensive "state of union"...
While her survey results were interesting and give us a useful take on what the arthouse/rep theatre sector and the managers of some of the major circulating collections believe is going to happen and when, my gut feeling is that not including technology vendors, maintainers and labs in her survey was a significant flaw.
AFAIK, Kinoton is now the only major film projector manufacturer that is still providing full-scale service and support backup for its machines in the field, and even then not for all of them. What the rep theatre programmers (and, I suspect, some archive access officers) aren't taking into account, is that once the parts and expertise needed to keep your film projectors and associated audio A-chains operational are no longer easily available, that's going to be an added pressure.
Furthermore, I only have anecdotal evidence for this (which is why it would have been great if May could have included the lab sector in her survey), but I get the impression that there is a widespread belief among the archival community that film stock and the lab services neeeded to use it will always be available, but just at a higher price as the economies of scale turn in the wrong direction.
An informal experts' working group that the British Film Institute put together last year to develop their archival strategy for the post-film (as a mainstream technology) era concluded that, as far as it's possible to speculate, it probably will be possible to continue black-and-white film manufacture and processing as a small-scale boutique operation, but not colour: the chemistry of dye coupler stocks is just too difficult and complex to be viable for the size of market that archives, rep exhibitors and still photographers who still want to use film for artistic reasons would represent.
Support for this position can be found in this article, written by a curator in a major London art gallery. The author visited the OrWo factory, and asked their CEO how likely they would be to restart dye coupler colour film manufacture if and when Kodak quit the business. His reply:
quote:
If you are able to produce an order for an amount over the size of two football fields (120 m long and 90 m wide) and have 2 Million Euros to spare for testing and are able to give us 2 years’ notice, we could look into this further.
So my contribution to this crystal ball-gazing is that when the end of (colour, at any rate) film finally comes, it won't be because archivists and rep programmers decide to abandon it, or because you can no longer buy replacement pressure plates for your FP-30 etc. It'll be because Kodak announces that they're no longer going to make motion picture colour film stock (they are now the only remaining manufacturer of it in the world, after Fuji announced the discontinuation of all its motion picture stocks except a fine grain b/w one used for preservation seps), or the chemistry needed to process it, anymore. We know that the situation at Kodak is not good: from the analyses that Jim Lindner has been posting on the AMIA list, it's clear that they're still making a substantial operational loss, are burning through their remaining capital reserves, that the restructuring to date has not turned the company around and the numebrs suggest that they're nowhere nearer to exiting Chapter 11.
Sorry to sound so negative (excuse the pun!), but I fear that within 2-3 years at most, the last colour release prints will probably have been struck. Obviously for mainstream commercial theatres, all the signs are that this moment will be a lot sooner.
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Paul H. Rayton
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 210
From: Los Angeles, CA , USA
Registered: Aug 2003
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posted 03-27-2013 01:28 AM
Two times now we have been sent a print of a classic movie, originally made in b/w, but now supplied to us on color (2383) stock. Just this week, it was "The Wages Of Fear", from 1953. A few months ago, it was "Marty" (1955). In the latter case, the print was rather milky-looking and, IMHO a disgrace -- esp. for a film that actually was nominated for an Oscar for best cinematography.
I'm guessing that, while b/w stock may still be available, the cost of making a print on such film is higher than going to color stock. After all, there's got to be less [expensive] silver in the color stock, for one thing. Does such a print do justice to the original cinematography? Well, no, but such minor details don't seem to matter in the current world of exhibition.
It's a film print, dammit, what more do you want? Shut up and stop fussing about "quality". Sheeeesh!
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 03-27-2013 11:46 AM
quote: Justin Hamaker
I have heard from various sources that it's come to the point where most everyone is waiting for someone else to be the first to do a digital only release on a wide release. My gut tells me we will first see it on something that breaks in 1600-1800 theatres, rather than a tent pole release.
quote: Louis Bornwasser
What we are seeing here is a high stakes game of chicken.
Interesting. So basically, the mainstream distributors are biding their time until a high enough proportion of theatres have gone digital that they can cut the remainder loose without a significant dent in their bottom line.
When this happens, I can see cash-strapped theatres developing low cost, low quality DIY alternatives to a full-scale 2K or 4K projector, which down-rez the picture and squash the colour space considerably from the DCI specs. For example, there is now a software package that will play encrypted DCPs on a Windows PC (Fraunhofer Easy DCP Player) - that, plus a fast enough computer and a classroom/boardroom XGA projector can be had for ten grand or so. That won't exactly be a step forward from 35mm in the viewing experience for the customers of these theatres, but it'll be better than closure, I guess.
quote: Scott Norwood
Is there any economy of scale with B&W motion-picture film and lab services now? Outside of the occasional wide-ish release print order, I would think that most B&W motion-picture stock is currently being used for archival storage purposes, anyway.
Good point, and reinforced by the fact that Kodak have discountinued or put on special order several b/w lines in recent years. The current state of play is that 5366 and 5324 (b/w fine grain intermediate neg and pos), and 2302/5302/7302 (b/w print) are still officially available as items from stock, but I've heard anecdotally that orders for 5222/7222 (b/w camera negative - their last remaining line) can now involve a significant wait time. If true, this would suggest that archives are now the only remaining buyer of b/w motion picture stock in significant quantities.
quote: Paul H. Rayton
I'm guessing that, while b/w stock may still be available, the cost of making a print on such film is higher than going to color stock. After all, there's got to be less [expensive] silver in the color stock, for one thing. Does such a print do justice to the original cinematography? Well, no, but such minor details don't seem to matter in the current world of exhibition.
One thing that occurs to me is the sound issue. Paul's print of The Wages of Fear (he very kindly showed me a reel on a recent visit to the Egyptian) had a cyan track on it. Could it be that Janus made the decision to print on colour because so many theatres now have laser or red LED readers, that compatibility with them was considered more important than the authentic monochrome look? But yes, cost could be an issue. Not only because of the silver, but because very few labs now process b/w at all (in the US, Film Technology Co. in Hollywood, and two or three independent labs on the East Coast, plus the in-house lab at George Eastman House are the only ones I can think of, plus PresTech and the BFI's lab in London), and their price per foot is probably a lot more for b/w now, to reflect the set-up time, chemistry mixing and so on.
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Carsten Kurz
Film God
Posts: 4340
From: Cologne, NRW, Germany
Registered: Aug 2009
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posted 03-28-2013 03:48 PM
quote: Leo Enticknap
When this happens, I can see cash-strapped theatres developing low cost, low quality DIY alternatives to a full-scale 2K or 4K projector, which down-rez the picture and squash the colour space considerably from the DCI specs. For example, there is now a software package that will play encrypted DCPs on a Windows PC (Fraunhofer Easy DCP Player) - that, plus a fast enough computer and a classroom/boardroom XGA projector can be had for ten grand or so. That won't exactly be a step forward from 35mm in the viewing experience for the customers of these theatres, but it'll be better than closure, I guess.
Leo - I think you have it wrong. These softwareplayers are able to play encrypted content IF the key is available. They can not 'crack' encrypted content. But they will not get keys for content to play on these software players - with some very few exceptions (some few arthouse features actually come unencrypted). A softwareplayer is not DCI compliant, hence the distributors will not issue KDMs for them.
Whatever, no independet cinema can survive on that supply. They will more likely reside on DVD and BluRay.
- Carsten
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