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Let’s go to digital cinema now
http://www.sina.com.cn 2004/12/28 11:31  Beijing Review

  High quality, profitable and consumer- friendly digital movies are here to stay

  By TANG YUANKAI

  ‘A lot of people including myself have not realized that we have benefited a lot from ‘digital movies,’” recalled a Beijing audience member named Shen Ying, after watching the Hollywood movie Looney Tunes at a digital cinema. She was highly impressed by the quality of the movie, which despite having been screened hundreds of times, showed no signs of wear and was still sharp with bright color resolution. After speaking to the film projectionist, she discovered she had been watching a digital film, which explained the high quality.

  The projectionist told her that traditionally there would have been two motion picture projectors in a cinema, one for the first half of the movie, the other for the second half. Compared with traditional cinema, digital cinema only needs one single digital cinema projector, which converts the digital signal into images and projects them onto the screen. There is no intermission during a digital movie and unlike its counterpart, no chance of damage caused by long-time irradiation of light. The reason is that digital movies do not use film. It is all computerized. This means digital screenings will be devoid of scratches or flickering images commonly found on film copies. The high quality seen in very first screening will be maintained irrespective of the number of times the movie is shown.

  Digital Movie Production

  HI-TECH MOVIE : At the 11th Beijing International Radio, Film and Television equipment fair, a worker prepares an advertisement for digital movie equipment

  Digital movies are made, distributed and projected in a digital format. The biggest difference between digital and traditional movies is that digital cinema uses computers, traditional filmmaking uses film stock. In line with modern cinemas digital movies have gained a foothold in China’s burgeoning entertainment industry.

  After a digital movie is produced, it is distributed to digital cinemas around the world in three ways-by satellite, the Internet or physically by CDs or hard disks. In the near future, Chinese moviegoers, who complain about the high price of tickets will be able to enjoy relatively low ticket prices and better motion picture quality. Experts say that the cost to develop Data-Transmission System (DTS) film copies is about 10,000 yuan ($1,207) at present, while a digital movie hard disk only costs 1,000 yuan ($120.77). Normally, there is one hard disk for one city, which brings down the cost of movie projection tremendously. Additionally, movie-makers can use high-resolution digital camcorders to shoot movies. The cost is much less than larger traditional cameras. Therefore, the cost of making a movie can be greatly reduced and it is possible to lower ticket prices.

  “The development of digital technology can greatly shorten the time difference between the premieres in two cities,” said Wen Tongqing, a fellow with China Film Group Corp. “In the future, we can use satellite to transmit signals and to type on subtitles directly onto a film. About three weeks can be saved if no dubbing is needed. With no film to develop, no prints and no copies to be made, the digital movie can be duplicated onto hard disks and sent to places around the world by express mail.” Wen forecast that foreign digital movies could be screened in China two months after being premiered, perhaps even simultaneously without technological problems.

  Distribution

  Since January, 2003, Chinese audience can watch as many as 30 new foreign movies annually, almost double the figure a few years ago. Twenty of these foreign movies are traditional films distributed by China Film Group Corp. and Huaxia Film Co. Ltd. The other 10 are digital movies sent to Digital Movie Co. Ltd., an affiliate of China Film Group Corp., which will then deliver them to digital cinemas. However, Digital Movie Co. Ltd. only introduced six foreign movies to China. This stems from the belief that there are too few digital cinemas in China last year, even though the number of digital cinemas increased to more than 50 from only 13 last year. Money talks and foreign movie makers do not have the interest in providing digital movies until they are certain about profitability.

  The situation, however, will change by the end of this year, as the number of digital cinemas financed by the National Film Supervisory Bureau under the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) will reach 166, costing 200 million yuan ($24.15 million). The rate of development is close to that of America. It is reported that the future program is not only targeting big cities but also small and medium-sized cities.

  At the same time, the film houses in the countryside will be replaced by digital cinemas. If everything proceeds according to plan, the number of digital cinemas in Chinese cities will have reached 500 in five years. There will be about 2,000 in the countryside.

  “Foreign movie producers can no longer downgrade us, as we have established such a huge digital cinema network,” said Wen, adding that the U.S.-based Warner Bros. plans to set up 50 cinemas in China, all of which will have a digital projection room. The box office sales of Looney Tunes by Warner Bros. has already exceeded 6 million yuan ($724,638) in digital cinema tickets. This, claimed Wen, is a big achievement in a country where the entire cinema industry has been in stagnation.

  Benefits to Local Film Makers

  DIGITAL RULES: Digital cinema has entered China and has movie fans over the moon about quality

  Apart from Zhang Yimou, another director whose movies attract a large audience in China is Feng Xiaogang. Most recently, the latest commercial movie A World Without Thieves directed by Feng is now screening nationwide. Judging from the number of copies distributed, the movie has hit a record high, exceeding House of Flying Daggers directed by Zhang Yimou. Feng is grateful for the rapid development of digital cinemas which has helped his cause-about 100 of the 400 copies of his movie are projected in digital cinemas.

  Feng has put his faith in the new technology that could see the end of piracy in the movie industry. “If it were not for piracy, I could have attracted far bigger audience and increased box office sales,” Feng said. In order to prevent piracy of his new movie, he has invested in the development of Enhanced Versatile Disc (EVD). The EVD technology adopts an anti-piracy design and prevent copies from being made. Movie insiders are hopeful this will sound the death knell for movie piracy.

  In July, the Ministry of Information Industry officially announced the national standard for the EVD industry. On the same day, Antaeus Group and the owner of EVD technology-Beijing E-World Technology -signed an agreement to set up a joint venture named Beijing Antaeus Universal Digital Technology Co., Ltd. Zhang Baoquan, Board Chairman of Antaeus Group, a graduate of Beijing Film Academy, directly invested 200 million yuan ($24.15 million) in Antaeus Universal, thus holding 80 percent of the shares in the joint venture. Zhang Baoquan said he plans to invest 1 billion yuan ($120.77 million) in the EVD industry over the next three years and would focus on the business of building up digital cinemas and producing videodiscs.

  EVD Combating Piracy

  EVD is a technological standard and a proprietary intellectual property right of China. At the meeting of International Electrotechnical Commission and International Standard Organization (IEC/ISO), China’s EVD standard bill was accepted. Some experts stated that EVD technology would become an international standard because of its prestige. Zhang Baoquan believes that EVD technology will be very useful in the making of digital movies and TV series, bringing them into the high-resolution era.

  “As projection equipment for high-resolution digital cinemas, EVD technology can greatly reduce the printing and distribution expenses of the traditional movie industry, while bringing Chinese cinemas high-quality and low-price movies. It will definitely become the main channel for the development of the Chinese movie industry,” he said, adding that with the help of EVD technology, Antaeus Universal will be exclusively entitled to produce and distribute foreign movies in China.

  Many experts assert that the low cost and convenient distribution of EVD technology will bring about a revolution in the movie industry. One kind of EVD projection equipment only costs 70,000 yuan (less than $10,000), while the projection equipment in the present digital cinema costs between 700,000 yuan and 1.5 million yuan (between $84,541 to $181,159). The high equipment cost is the main expense in the development of digital cinema.

  “If everything moves smoothly, Antaeus Universal will become profitable within a year,” said Zhang Baoquan, confidently.

  Digital at Home

  In 2000, China Telecom Corp. started a template program called digitized e-community, which aimed to bring digital films to home. Jindian and Jinri residential gardens invested in by Zhang Baoquan’s company, are the first experimental housing estate signed with China Telecom.

  “I can say that I made the earliest design decision for building up an e-community,” said Zhang. “My aim is not for a telecom service but for the projection and distribution of digital movies, including VCDs.” Originally Antaeus set up a special science and technology company to enter the future digital cinema market.

  However, since the industry standard for the conversion of digital movie system was not yet established, a lot of problems existed relating to digital cinema, distribution, anti-piracy and cost. This coincided with the bursting of the technology bubble worldwide, which cooled Zhang’s passion for digital cinemas. With the advent of EVD the rocky road ahead has been smoothed.

  Since the media broke the news that Zhang was to invest in EVD, many domestic movie agencies have been negotiating cooperation possibilities with his company, prompting him to look ahead and eventually form an international EVD supplier.

  “At first, I can put many of my movie collections onto Hybrid Fiber Coaxial (HFC) and allow Video On Demand (VOD),” something Zhang believes is the quickest way to profit. Although Chinese HFC has long had the function to allow VOD, the source for HFC is far from sufficient because of copyright issues. It can only distribute TV programs, so a lot of web resources are left unused. “We are entitled to all rights of EVD technology, and once VOD can be supported, we can share our profits with Telecom and HFC companies,” said Zhang.

  He has asserted that he is able to develop three markets for EVD: Digital cinemas, VOD programs and family entertainment. Zhang expects EVD technology to stimulate the development of high-resolution TV industry. When that happens, he believes Antaeus will be able to profit by selling household equipment and EVD discs.

  Zhang also pointed out that there are policy obstacles for EVD’s entry into cinemas. After the Ministry of Information Technology announced the standard for EVD manufacturing industry, approval from SARFT is needed if cinemas want to stream in EVD.






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