Digital technology casts its net wider

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, FEB. 21. The mantra of the day: digital. It played on every lip at a programme, held here on Wednesday by the Kinfra Film and Video Park and Pentamedia Graphics, that explored the phenomenon.

"Pandavas: The Five Warriors", a full-length digitally-animated film, was screened on the occasion.

Speaking on "New frontiers of digital cinema", Mr. Anand Parthasarathy, film critic, pointed out that digital technology was casting its net wider day by day. "From film production, it is moving into distribution and exhibition."

The phenomenal growth of the Internet was a stimulus for this. Last June, 20th Century Fox, sent its latest product, an animated feature, `Titan AE', from its studio to a theatre across the US, digitally over the Internet. This method was currently limited on account of low bandwidth and consequent slow transmission speeds possible over the Internet.

The other digital method of sending films from the producer to the exhibitor was by the use of a dedicated satellite link, similar to the VSAT (very small aperture terminal) that was available in India. A two-hour feature film sent by this means, could be downloaded anywhere in the world in about 20 minutes. It needed to be encrypted to ensure that only the chosen theatre could unscramble the data.

Mr. Parthasarathy said the exhibition of these films was also likely to go digital within the next 4 or 5 years. The digital signal downloaded "online" from satellite or Internet or "offline" from a CD or DVD that had been dispatched to the theatre would be projected by a PC, which was fitted with special image intensifier lenses and mirrors.

It would open up the possibility of two or three screening halls in a cinema multiplex screening the same film in multiple language versions from a single control room.

The final frontier of digital film delivery would be direct-to- home (DTH) activity, making the theatre itself an anachronism. The Indian Government had recently legalized DTH technology and a few providers were expected later this year to give a solution, including a set top box and small 1-metre backyard satellite dish by which the customer could sign up for a variety of "video on demand" options.

On February 14, Universal Films had signed a deal whereby its new comedy, "Meet the Parents", now running in India, would be available in the digital form in American homes via the Cable TV network. Taking the digital leap a step forward, the same studio, along with Miramax, had identified 12 upcoming movies to be marketed direct-to-home via Broadband Internet.

He said there was no denying the fact that good cinema lay in artistic creativity rather than showcasing of technology. But to ignore obvious technological changes was a luxury that the contemporary filmmaker could no longer afford.

Currently, high cost was the only factor that delayed end-to-end digital production, distribution and exhibition of films. But in the computer business, costs had fallen far more spectacularly than any one ever dared to predict, opening the Internet today to an estimated 500-600 million users worldwide.

The same effect, he said, would soon sweep over the Indian film industry. It should be ready to adapt and adjust to the changing times and technology.

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