Paramount stops releasing major movies on film

Ironheart

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-paramount-end-to-film-20140118,0,806855.story

The march to digital continues on...

Photobug

Any one surprised with this announcement? We all knew it was going to happen.

Ironheart

I'm surprised that it took so long.

TaoTeJared

I worked as a contractor for AMC Theaters 6 years ago and at that time they had just started testing 3 major digital projectors. Was actually really fun to see the new tech and to see what it took to install them. The projectors are larger than a refrigerator and at that time 500k a piece. The movies actually came on high end hard drives that were sent overnight separate from the Key to the box which was sent a day before - all delivered by security teams. Kind of nuts to remember it. I recall later it Sony got the deal that was north of $300 million for the cost to update all of their screens. I am actually surprised to hear that anyone still uses film - I suppose some of the small independent screens.

What I found really interesting was to hear Technicolor has closed all of it's film labs. That is really amazing/interesting/sad to hear.

Gjesdal

All cinemas (perhaps with exception of a few art cinemas) went digital in 2010 in Norway.
I was asked to start working at the very small cinema (publicly owned as most small cinemas are in Norway) and as a consequence we now get 4-5 premieres a month but in the old days we got 2-3 a year.

We've had very little problem with the equipment and since we had to replace the sound system because of the upgrade the whole experience for the audience went from "meh" to "awesome" :-)

We used to get our films as the 3rd or 4th cinema, so the rolls were slightly worn when we could start showing, so the quality of the film was sometimes pretty noticeable.

I'm quite sure I'm not going to miss the analog days at all.

henrik1963

I wonder how long it will take before it is no longer possible to get film for 35mm cameras.

Ironheart

That was my other reason for posting this. The 35mm film we know and love is the same stock as used for the motion picture industry. This will no doubt put a dent in the production of that film stock. I wonder how much "subsidy" the motion picture industry provided to keep the format alive.

Ade

Yes and no.

We actually use a different film stock for photography than the ones used for projection in movie theaters.

Basically, there's a type of film stock designed to be used in camera ("capture film") and a completely different type of film stock designed for contact printing and distribution to movie theaters ("print film").

With movie theaters going digital, "print film" will all but disappear. However many movies around the world will still be shot on film (in whole or in part), so there will still be demand for "capture film".

At least for now. We know that soon even the capture side will be all digital.

Ironheart

Ade, I was speaking generally as both are undoubtedly made in the same factories, with the same tooling, so there has to be some economies of scale, which this will undoubtedly put a dent in. I realize that movie camera capture film uses different emulsions and formula than still photo media, but they share a common ancestor :-)

Ade

Only for (the remains of) Kodak, they are the only manufacturer still making print film.

Ironheart

The article said that Technicolor had closed a few factories, not left the business entirely. Do you have different information?

Ade

In the context of that article, Technicolor is a lab (film processor), not a manufacturer; they stopped making film a long time ago.

They still have one lab in Thailand, but odds are this lab will also be closed soon, probably next year.

henrik1963

When you watch a movie you will "see" 129600 pictures - that is 3600 rolls of film for a 35mm camera.

TaoTeJared

The article said that Technicolor had closed a few factories, not left the business entirely. Do you have different information?

They have made a full move into digital decades ago and still hold a ton of patients that they licence. The Film processing is a very small part of their business anymore. I'm not sure what they all do (as i didn't look that close) but you can check them out here. They are into anything and everything that surrounds creating, editing, producing, and watching movies and sound.

I wonder how long it will take before it is no longer possible to get film for 35mm cameras.

It will be around for a very long time. It has always been an art medium and will continue long after we can find it in the supermarket. The real question is how much it will cost, where to get it processed, and how many arms and legs that will cost.

Ade

They have made a full move into digital decades ago and still hold a ton of patients that they licence.

Unfortunately not.

The company now called Technicolor (which you see on the website) is actually a huge French media conglomerate (called Thomson) which bought Technicolor and rebranded itself as "Technicolor, SA" in 2010. So most of the digital stuff is actually part of the renamed Thomson, and was never part of "Technicolor" motion picture company as we know it.

After Thomson's acquisition, Technicolor's motion picture division itself remained in the film processing business (even today) and for the most part did analog lab work (developing film, printing, etc.). Along with processing conventional film stock (their largest business) they also had their own analog dye transfer process which had a big revival in the late 90's and was used in big movies like Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Apocalypse Now Redux, and Pearl Harbor.

Unfortunately for them, Technicolor motion picture division's failure to fully transition to digital has been very costly. Up until 2011 they operated six major film labs in Montreal, London, Rome, Madrid, Los Angeles (Glendale), and Bangkok. Now all but one has been shuttered, and the remaining lab will likely close next year.

TaoTeJared

Ran across something interesting:

Director of Jurassic World, Colin Trevorrow just dropped a bombshell of a tweet on his Twitter feed tonight, revealing the official filming start date for Jurassic World! Trevorrow tweeted that filming will begin this April (that's only two months from now) on both 35mm and 65mm film, with renowned cinematographer, John Schwartzman! Check out Trevorrow's tweet below:

Link

A fourth Jurassic Park aside, interesting to see he is shooting it on film.