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Author Topic: The First Commercial Digital Presentations Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-04-2013 08:45 PM                        Learning from the murky origins of film exhibition, I thought I'd start a string on the history of digital and see if we can codify what is fairly recent history: First "digital" film to get a commercial release (defining digital is key here). First digitally captured film First all digital presentation First DCP Obviously lots of formats starting with video and overlapping. Want to target commercial first run application. Have at it.  |  IP: Logged Aaron Garman Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1470 From: Toledo, OH USA Registered: Mar 2003 posted 06-04-2013 09:55 PM                     Toy Story was the first feature entirely digitally animated, if that counts for anything. Wasn't Episode II the first feature produced entirely digitally, albeit only HD and not true 2K? O Brother Where Art Thou was the first to use a Digital Intermediate for a feature. AJG  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-04-2013 10:11 PM                        The first public DLP exhibition of a first-run motion picture is likely Star Wars Episode I in several locations. Some of these exhibitions also used the Hughes/JVC system, which I believe was the basis for today's LCoS chips (like the Sony D-cinema projectors). The same week, An Ideal Husband played with some sort of electronic (not necessarily digital...I don't remember the details) projection system in NYC and possibly LA. This was in 1999. There were experiments with videotape to film in the 1970s that got theatrical releases, but those were obviously using analog video formats, not digital. DCP is a moving target, so I'm not sure that "first DCP" really means anything.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 06-05-2013 05:36 AM                        quote: Aaron Garman O Brother Where Art Thou was the first to use a Digital Intermediate for a feature. I seem to remember reading somewhere that Pleasantville was the first feature to have an entirely DI post-production workflow, but that this was experimental and necessitated by the subject mattter (frequent dissolves from b/w to colour and so on); but that O Brother... was the first entirely DI p/p feature that did not involve the extensive use of special effects; i.e. by that point it was more cost-effective to grade the footage digitally than photochemically. Terminator 2 and Jurassic Park (both 1992) are often cited as the first Hollywood features to make significant use of CGI. The 1993 restoration of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, using the Kodak Cineon system, is claimed by a number of sources to be the first digital film restoration project (e.g. Bob Fisher, 'The Digital Restoration of Snow White', American Cinematographer, 74/9 (September 1993), pp. 48-54.  |  IP: Logged Mark Ogden Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 943 From: Little Falls, N.J. Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-05-2013 07:17 AM                     The first 100% digitally shot film to get any kind of a legitimate wide distribution that I am aware of is Mike White's Chuck and Buck, released in July of 2000. It was shot, as I recall, on the Sony MiniDV format, which was their digital follow up to Hi-8. The film was standard definition. The first film to be photographed in 24p high defination on a purpose-built camera for digital HD cinematography was Brad Anderson's horror film Session Nine, released in July of 2001. If you remove "digital" from the qualifications, you can find examples going back as far as 1964, when both Richard Burton's Hamlet and The T.A.M.I. Show were shot on the "Electron-o-vision" system. This involved RCA image-orthicon cameras that had their power supplies and deflection boards modified to produce what has been variously said to be between 850 to 1200 TVL of resolution. The T.A.M.I. Show is available on a beautifully mastered DVD and is a hoot to watch, especially if you are in to early rock 'n roll.  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-05-2013 09:32 AM                        I'd totally forgotten about the T.A.M.I Show, even though it was big in rep houses when I was in HS. Steppenwolf in 1974 (based on the book, not the band) was touted at the time to be the first feature to make extensive use of video. IMDB says it was a mix of video and 35mm. I remember commenting here about Chuck and Buck after we showed it. I defended it's use of a different color palette than film. It sure didn't look like film. 1998's The Celebration from the fun folks at Dogme 95 was shot with a Sony PC-7E Camera but apparently has a PAL video negative.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-05-2013 09:56 AM                        Another popular title that was shot on video in the '90s was the Hoop Dreams documentary. I believe that it was shot on analog Beta SP video and transferred to film at Image Transform using a CRT-based film recorder, likely with nothing digital (except for a TBC) in the chian.  |  IP: Logged Richard Fowler Film God Posts: 2392 From: Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA Registered: Jun 2001 posted 06-05-2013 10:04 AM                     "Norman is that You" with Red Foxx and Pearl Bailey produced by MGM in 1976 used a multi-cam setup with a custom semi-HD system matted to 1:85. The 35mm print I saw held up well on a 80 foot drive-in screen. The frame line had running time code so framing had to be accurate...looked like film (no scan lines) with only a rare "give away" of highlight smearing.  |  IP: Logged Richard Fowler Film God Posts: 2392 From: Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA Registered: Jun 2001 posted 06-05-2013 10:05 AM                     "Norman is that You" with Red Foxx and Pearl Bailey produced by MGM in 1976 used a multi-cam setup with a custom semi-HD system matted to 1:85. The 35mm print I saw held up well on a 80 foot drive-in screen. The frame line had running time code so framing had to be accurate...looked like film (no scan lines) with only a rare"give away" of highlight smearing.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 06-05-2013 10:49 AM                     Way back in the 2002/2003 era (I know, a whole 10-years)...one of our clients (Ritz at the Bourse in Philadelphia) used one of the early digital formats that was a competitor to the whole DCP thing...it worked off of Windows Media Player (no I'm not kidding) and featured an A/V grade DLP projector. I distinctly remember them showing "Standing in the Shadows of Motown" with the set up (a really good documentary, by the way). It actually looks surprisingly good...it was a 1280x1024 machine but zoomed out for the 1.85 ratio...so it was essentially a 720p picture. Since the movie was shot on 16mm (and some 35mm)...it didn't look too bad. We did MANY studio screenings where an SXGA projector was brought in and D5 VTRs were set up in lieu of 35mm...those I never got...renting this stuff, flying it all over the country was not cheap...there was normally multiple technicans to splice all of this gear in, possibly move/return the film projector...etc...all for one show. Christ, strike a print! I distinctly remember doing the first Bourne Identity this way.  |  IP: Logged Mitchell Dvoskin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1869 From: West Milford, NJ, USA Registered: Jan 2001 posted 06-05-2013 11:41 AM                     quote: Richard Fowler "Norman is that You" with Red Foxx and Pearl Bailey produced by MGM in 1976 used a multi-cam setup with a custom semi-HD system matted to 1:85. Wow, I remember that. I was the manager/projectionist for the long gone Town & Country Drive-in in Coalton Ohio in 1976/77, and I still remember those counter numbers in the frame lines. Did not care for the film, but it did not look any worse than a lot of the other crap we ran at the time.  |  IP: Logged Shawn M. Martin Expert Film Handler Posts: 175 From: Arlington, VA, USA Registered: Feb 2012 posted 06-05-2013 03:01 PM                    quote: Mark Ogden The first film to be photographed in 24p high defination on a purpose-built camera for digital HD cinematography was Brad Anderson's horror film Session Nine, released in July of 2001. I'm pretty sure that Jackpot, by the Polish brothers, was shot about a month before Session 9, on the same camera (Sony F900). It was also released about a week before Session 9, and was in fact the first 24p film to be released on 35mm.  |  IP: Logged Mark Ogden Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 943 From: Little Falls, N.J. Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-05-2013 08:21 PM                     Never even heard of Jackpot before just now, but when you're right, you're right. According to IMDB, it beat Session Nine into theaters by two weeks. Huh!  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 06-05-2013 10:08 PM                     quote: Leo Enticknap Terminator 2 and Jurassic Park (both 1992) are often cited as the first Hollywood features to make significant use of CGI. Several movies pre-date that work. Tron was the first to use computer graphics in a feature film (although the rendered graphics were incorporated into the movie in a very "analog" way). The Last Starfighter, Return of the Jedi and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan featured some ground-breaking computer graphics-based sequences -like the "Genesis Probe" animation in the 30+ year old Star Trek movie. Young Sherlock Holmes was the first movie to have a CG-based character worked into live action (a sword wielding knight pops out of a stained glass window). Willow had a couple ground-breaking CG effects sequences, including the first "morphing" effect. The Abyss broke more ground with its "pseudo-pod" made of of CG-animated water. Obviously T2 and Jurassic Park broke more ground -with JP really doing wonders with motion capture technology. Star Wars: The Phantom Menace is the first movie I can recall to market a digital presentation and have virtual prints as an alternative to 35mm. I'm pretty sure O' Brother Where Art Thou is the first movie to be post produced entirely from beginning to end using a digital intermediate. Other movies using CG effects prior to that used a mix of traditional analog film processing as well as CG/film scanning techniques. Some earlier movies with significant CG use could show obvious shifts in color, contrast, grain structure, etc. when the live action traditional color timed plate changed to the CG plate. Look at the scene in Jurassic Park where the T-Rex chases Jeff Goldblum. Goldblum's "Malcolm" character is waving a flare. Right when the T-Rex roars at Malcolm you'll see a big color shift as the live action plate changes to the CG plate. The now-animated T-Rex chases after Malcolm. Had they made JP today the shot would have looked far more seamless. I have no idea what would be the first 2K JPEG 2000 DCP.  |  IP: Logged Mike Heenan Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1896 From: Scottsdale, AZ, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 06-06-2013 12:20 PM                     Last Crusade had Walters melting face digitally mixed from film I believe.  |  IP: Logged

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