Digital Cinema and DVD Duplicators: The New Economies of Scale

Independent filmmakers by the nature of the craft don't typically enjoy large budgets for reproducing or distributing their work, whether their goal is recognition on the festival circuit or gaining access to independent theater chains. The growing momentum of digital cinema promises to turn traditional distribution models upside down. Combine that factor with another trend, the direct sales of DVD videos from Web site, and suddenly independent filmmakers have entirely new venues to draw audiences and sell their work. A DVD duplicator can be an indispensable tool in this process, generating inexpensive discs that can be used for promotional purposes, festival screenings, direct sales, or projection in theaters equipped with the DCS Cinema System.

For some time, filmmakers have taken advantage of the Digital Video (DV) format to create movies for a fraction of the budget of a 16mm or 35mm film. While the editing and authoring tools to produce high-quality DVDs of these works have been available for a number of years, entry into the mainstream cinema world was restricted unless a filmmaker wanted to convert the DV content to 35mm reels. This conversion process typically costs thousands of dollars and then producing copies of the master costs approximately $1000 per set of reels. This hefty price of admission to the moviemaking trade has discouraged many talented filmmakers and limited experimentation and creativity.

Digital Cinema Solutions, based in L.A., offers an alternative to conventional film projection systems that accommodates several forms of digital media content. High-definition movies encoded using the Microsoft Windows Media 9 encoder can be delivered by means of a broadband network, a portable hard disk, or optical discs. A DVD-ROM drive in the host computer can send standard DVD content or other digital media content to the projector. The playback system, using "dark chip" digital light processing (DLP) projection techniques, projects video of a quality that impresses even seasoned theater owners. Smaller screens and intimate theaters work well for standard DVD, but projection on thirty and thirty-five foot screens requires the higher resolution of an HD Windows Media 9 format file.

The DCS playback system sits side-by-side with the film projection equipment in a theater. As Jim Steele, the president of Digital Cinema Solutions, describes it, "Our Digital Cinema System complements the currently installed 35mm film infrastructure of movie theaters rather than competing with it, and this enable distributors and exhibitors to easily begin delving into this new paradigm without jeopardizing their traditional business models."

Landmark Theaters (www.landmarktheatres.com), the nation's largest independent chain specializing in independent and foreign films, is in the process of adding DCS playback units into all of its 54 theaters. Windows Media 9 encoded movies have been playing on several Landmark screens, including "Standing in the Shadows of Motown" and "Step Into Liquid," an acclaimed surfing documentary. Sundance, the Mecca for the independent film community, used a DCS playback unit for last year's festival screenings to show "Masked and Anonymous" and will continue the digital cinema tradition this year. Artisan is releasing the new version of "Terminator 2" in both standard DVD and high-definition Windows Media 9 format on disc. The trend to digital cinema appears to be accelerating.

Jon Whiting, the designer of the DCS playback system, collaborated with a wide range of companies to refine the system, including Dell, Microsoft, Intel Corporation, NVIDIA Corporation, and Echo Digital Audio Corporation. Jon spends a fair amount of time on the road overseeing installation of the DCS system into theaters. The feedback he has received on the projection quality and ease of use has been largely positive. "The distributors like it," Jon said. "I've had managers say that their screens have never looked so good. Then again, I have heard from the die-hard managers who love 35mm film, but I would say that most of our theater people love it. It is easy to use for them. The picture looks and sounds great. Ultimately, it comes down to what the people in the theaters see. I took my parents to see 'Standing in the Shadows of Motown,' the first movie we did, and they couldn't tell that it wasn't a 35mm print."

For the moment, DCS is focusing on independent theaters. "We are not trying to go after the mainstream space," Jon said, "because the independents are a lot more willing to adapt to new technologies. If a distributor or chain doesn't have to make even 25 prints for $25,000, they can turn around and put the savings into marketing. Everybody makes more money that way. It is more of a cost transfer than a cost savings. We would much rather have them take the savings from doing it digitally and put the money into marketing or maybe releasing the movie in five more cities. They get more exposure and, hopefully, the movies does better and then everybody does better in the long run."

For about the price of a single digital video to 35mm film conversion and single dupe, an independent filmmaker can buy a capable DVD duplicator that can make several DVDs per hour. Whether you're creating a DVD for projection in an intimate theater venue or duplicating a short of high-definition Windows Media video for projection, a DVD duplicator can be one of the most important tools in a filmmaker's toolkit.

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