Any ideas on how digital theaters will affect independent filmmakers

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Phil Maker

Well-known member
Does anyone have any idea when theaters are going to make a nationwide switch to digital?

What are the implications for us when this does happen?

Will there be a huge boom of homemade films and self distribution?

Will the digital revolution water down the market?

Since distribution will be basically 0 dollars, will we be fighting Hollywood over time slots?

If we do have to go up against Hollywood how will we survive?
 
Phil Maker said:
Does anyone have any idea when theaters are going to make a nationwide switch to digital?
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For theaters I don't believe there's any sort of mandate in place forcing a deadline to switch to digital. The market will dictate the change, it's been a fairly slow process so far.

Phil Maker said:
Since distribution will be basically 0 dollars, will we be fighting Hollywood over time slots?
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It's inaccurate to say that distribution will be 0 dollars. The digital files still need to be delivered to the theaters. This will likely be handled by satellite or fiber. Either way it amounts to bandwidth and bandwidth isn't free (significantly cheaper than prints but still not free). I think hollywood will subsidize the distribution network an therefore control the content delivered through the network. So yes, you're in for a fight with hollywood, at least with regards to mass market distribution.

I think the bright future for indies lies with home delivery. As more and more consumers go HD there will be a demand for content. Content that can be delivered on demand to their desktop and played out on their giant LCD screen. Yeah, it's not the same as going to the theater, but the popcorn will be a lot cheaper.
 
milksac said:
For theaters I don't believe there's any sort of mandate in place forcing a deadline to switch to digital. The market will dictate the change, it's been a fairly slow process so far.
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I beg to differ. All cinemas over here in little Norway are to go digital within the span of 5 years or less, so if the U.S is not - where will we get our movies from?
 
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Movies will be mastered for both digital and film projectors which increase the cost of mastering, not lower it. But the digital master can be used for other distribution deliverables such as DVD, download, streaming etc. But versioning will exist for color space and all adding to the overall cost of creating a digital master and all the submasters - editing for content - airline and broadcast, etc. The cost of creating a DCI compliant master is still steep for theatrical display. Even if the cost of digital delivery did go to $0, distribution and display are not the highest costs associated with distribution, it is marketing -average dollars for studio film is $50-$60 million or 1/2 of production budget. Consider that release prints are about $1,500 and a film opening wide is 2000 to 3000 prints - that is a drop in the bucket. Of course add to that shipping costs, but you get the point. The prints that are used here in the US are then laser etched with subtitles and shipped to the non major markets worldwide .


I think the promise is to allow all forms of content to be shown in the theater from concerts, independent, etc. Theaters will show whatever fills the seats and buys popcorn. You can see how theaters are reinventing themselves to better than the home experience - with smaller screens in the megaplexes, HD at home. my 14 foot screen at home starts looking pretty good depending on where I sit in the theater. But the newer theaters, stadium seating, larger screens, great sound, are changing the experience. Add to that the fact that some movies play better with an audience - there will still be that theatrical distribution channel.

Movies still have the DVD market afterwards for revenue - films in theaters sell more in their DVD life - some films make more money in DVD than they did in theaters. King Kong DVD made only 17% of its theatrical revenue on DVD, but 16 Blocks made 139% on DVD compared to theatrical.

All of it is a still a moving target - it will always be a marketing game as there are only so many hours in a day a consumer can watch content (the reason for the mobile explosion) and how and when they want to see that conent. All of it has to make sense business wise.

The intersesting thing for independents is download and download and burn just coming online. But again, marketing, ,marketing, marketing... if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it...


Michael
 
In a related story, recent numbers I have seen on the number of screens are:

37,000 screens in North America (US and Canada)
105,000 screens in 28 territories throughout the world


Michael
 
Lots of films are still shot on film so odds are it wont be for a bit, although it seems to be peaking its head around the corner for sure.

- Kyle
 
In this day and age one can remove the acquisition format from the distribution format since most work shown in theaters is going through some form of DI process - and with that being the case, it does not matter what it was shot on as far as distribution is concerned... But there is still a big different in look, feel, and all other subjective and creative choices associated with film as an acquisition format that will continue to hold true for some time.

Michael
 
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