The 29th American Film Market is set to screen 513 motion pictures in 35 languages including 102 world premieres and 375 market premieres during its annual event scheduled for November 5-12 at the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel and Le Merigot Beach Hotel in Santa Monica.
Cinecolor Chile and Cinecolor Mexico have successfully met Kodak ImageCare Program requirements for the camera negative processing aspects of their operations. The addition of these two laboratories takes the worldwide program membership to 47 in 27 countries and a total of five facilities for the Cinecolor group. Cinecolor Chile is the first laboratory in that country to attain these standards. The aim of the ImageCare Program was so clear that our board of directors understood its benefits immediately says Juan Carlos Arriagada project manager for Cinecolor Chile.
Cooke Optics has announced that its /i Technology will be available on all Red One cameras. Jarred Land fire chief at Red announced on the Red Web site that all new Red One cameras would come with /i pins installed and fully functional beginning that day. Cooke’s /i “Intelligent” Technology enables PL-mounted film and digital cameras to automatically record key lens and camera data for every film frame using /i equipped lenses which can then be provided digitally to post-production teams.
Digital Cinema Initiatives announced that it has signed licensing agreements for compliance testing with technology and development consulting firm CineCert in the United States DMC/Keio University in Japan and Media Innovation Center in Italy. These entities will perform testing to determine whether manufactured digital cinema equipment and products are compliant with DCI’s Digital Cinema System Specification.
Dickinson Theatres has become the first theatre chain to commit to the previously announced Phase 2 Digital Cinema Deployment Plan from Access Integrated Technologies. Under the terms of the agreement Dickinson will convert 310 screens in 24 multiplexes across eight states including a concentration of 84 screens in eight locations in the greater Kansas City metropolitan area. The first eight screens to be included have been installed in Little Rock Arkansas at the Chenal theatre.
Panavision has announced an agreement with Abel Cine Tech and Vision Research for the acquisition of Phantom HD high-speed digital cameras. The contract means that the Phantom HD cameras and custom accessories will be available for rent in a complete system package with Panavision optics including anamorphic lenses.
The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers is forming a technology committee to standardize mastering and packaging formats for content distributed over broadband networks. Such a broadband standard could fuel fresh business models by enabling consumers to purchase entertainment from any online destination and play it back on any device. The committee’s launch highlights SMPTE’s interest in addressing the challenges of delivering professional content—including movies television programming online programming and music—no matter the distribution platform.
Mac Guff one of France’s largest digital visual effects design studios is installing Exanet’s ExaStore Clustered NAS 2008 to ensure that its 3D animation video effects and post-production processes are supported at the highest performance levels available. “Mac Guff chose Exanet to provide its storage solution because ExaStore’s performance and reliability are unmatched in the media and entertainment industry ” says Jeronimo Munoz Exanet regional vice president Southern Europe.
QuVIS has selected Paragon Software’s Universal File System Driver technology to embed within their new Wraptor Digital Cinema Package mastering plug-in for Apple Final Cut Studio. Paragon's technology fulfills the requirements for creating a digital cinema content distribution hard drive according to the Digital Cinema Initiative specifications by enabling a Mac with Wraptor and Final Cut Studio to: Create a Linux ext2/3 File System partition on a USB2.0 external hard drive suitable for use as a DCI-compliant distribution hard drive.
Ymagis the Paris-based European digital cinema services provider has announced that Universal Pictures will provide movies to theaters equipped by Ymagis and will pay digital print fees under a long-term agreement similar to those signed by Paramount Disney and Fox. Ymagis started its roll out activity in July after the first signing contracts with distributors and has so far signed contracts with exhibitors for a total of 29 screens in France.
