The Big Picture

An independent filmmaker with many successes to his credit said it best: “Forget the show. Remember the business.” The most common mistake that new filmmakers make is to ignore the business side of the show business equation. And yet the financial aspects of show business are typically the most challenging. Last week in New York’s Gramercy Park neighborhood, the equipment sales and rental house Adorama hosted a panel of veteran filmmakers to discuss current approaches to motion picture finance and give practical advice about how producers can earn a return on their investment. More than fifty people crowded into the small meeting room for the discussion, which was moderated by Digital Cinema Society president James Mathers, himself a successful indie film cinematographer. The panelists brought a wide range of experiences to the conversation.

One of the big challenges created by digital cinema technology can be summed up in a single word: Frozen. Disney’s wildly successful 3D animated film captured two Academy Awards – Best Animated Film and Best Song – and was an international box office success. And therein lies the problem. For hit movies like Frozen all those various markets demand literally thousands of different and unique versions and producing them under demanding deadline pressure is a huge undertaking. “It seems unbelievable, but for one title that is a scope show (2.39) aspect ratio, we usually have to create a 1.78 panscan and a 1.33 panscan,” said Annie Chang vice president, post-production technologies, The Walt Disney Studios. “When you start to factor in 42 different languages for each aspect ratio and then add in multiple resolutions/playback standards (1080p, 720p, NTSC, PAL) and then add in the different edits/versions and the various delivery formats that downstream distributors (airlines, television, cable, satellite, electronic sell through, etc) ask for, you exponentially end up with tens of thousands of files. Just for one title.”

Conversations at the 2014 edition of the National Association of Broadcasters show, held earlier this month in Las Vegas, focused in part on the remarkable number of company mergers that were announced – Quantel and Snell & Wilcox was a standout – but most talk centered on the fact that there were 4K products in seemingly every booth and, everywhere you looked, a surprising number of new cameras, in different shapes and sizes. That several came from unexpected companies only added to the chatter. More complete articles about all of these products can be found elsewhere in the Report but here, briefly and in alphabetical order, are Digital Cinema Report’s Top Ten Products of NAB 2014.

Next month when The Amazing Spider-Man 2 opens in theatres around the world it may well turn out to be a watershed event in the industry. That is because it will be the latest movie to be widely released in both the Barco Auro 11.1 and Dolby Atmos sound formats. As the budgets for large-scale movies continue to grow, the pressure to open on as many screens as possible increases and Sony Pictures Entertainment clearly wanted this film on every screen it could get.