The Apollo Carmarthen Cinema in South West Wales which opened its six-screen picture house earlier this spring says it has become the first all digital 3D-ready multiplex in Europe. The multiplex has Harkness Screens Spectral 240 3D screens in all six theatres.
Band Pro is offering the new FGV 7D-PL camera modified by FGV Schmidle. This versatile cinematography tool is a standard Canon 7D permanently retrofitted with a one-piece lens/sensor/base-mounting element made of solid steel. Unlike most DSLR modifications the FVG 7D-PL comes with a one-year limited warranty from FGV Schmidle.
The Cinema Advertising Council has named the winners of its 2009 CAC Creative Excellence Awards. Awarded annually the council recognizes the achievement of high-quality and entertaining advertising that appeared during the past year on a national regional and local scale. “With record-breaking box office results 2009 was a great year for the movie business and the advertisers who chose the cinema platform ” says Michael Chico president and chairman of the CAC. “Congratulations to the latest recipients of the CAC Creative Excellence Awards.
Cinedigm Digital Cinema has signed six Cinema Buying Group member exhibitors representing 94 screens to its 10 000 screen Phase 2 digital cinema deployment program. With these recent screen additions Cinedigm will have contracted almost 400 CBG-member screens to participate in Phase 2. All of the members of the National Association of Theatre Owners’ Cinema Buying Group are eligible to work with Cinedigm using a master license agreement developed especially for CBG members. The CBG represents more than 600 members that collectively have over 7 000 screens.
Cinedigm Digital Cinema has closed a $172.5 million credit facility co-led by Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking and GE Capital Markets. This new credit facility will refinance all existing senior and mezzanine non-recourse debt in the Company’s Phase 1 deployment subsidiary Christie/AIX through a newly formed bankruptcy remote subsidiary called Cinedigm Digital Funding I LLC. The facility has received a provisional rating of Ba1 from Moody’s Investor Service.
ContentFilm International has acquired worldwide rights to The Dog Squad: 3D to be directed by Les Mayfield (Flubber Blue Streak Miracle on 34th Street Encino Man). Steve Carpenter wrote the original script. Voice-over and cast will be announced in the coming weeks.
Deluxe Digital Media Hollywood has acquired a DaVinci Resolve from Blackmagic to provide the ability to color correct in the 4K environment. The new system will be added to their existing suite of Resolve 2K systems. Resolve also handles real time grading of raw Red files. The addition of the new Resolve upgrade will allow Deluxe’s Sherman Oaks facility to improve workflow efficiency and productivity between projects working within different resolutions. “Our relationship with Blackmagic and their products has been excellent.
Element Technica has introduced the ultra-small Neutron 3D rig which is designed to mount lightweight 3D camera packages for stereoscopic video capture from smaller jibs Steadicams portable camera and point-of-view positions. Live sports and entertainment production demand even smaller less obtrusive cameras for point-of-view camera angles where the camera must fit into a tiny and sometimes dangerous space where it is unseen and out of the way.
According to the statistics provided by Media Salles the number of screens equipped with DLP Cinema or SXRD technology at the end of 2009 was 4 693 a 206.9 percent increase over the previous year spurred by the demand for 3D. The European Audiovisual Observatory estimates that gross box office for the European Union increased by 12 percent year-on-year to a new record high of EUR 6.27 billion in 2009 largely thanks to premium prices for 3D screenings.
Nearly 83 000 people from 156 countries attended last month’s National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas and if you were there you could be forgiven for getting the impression that absolutely every single person at the show was involved in stereoscopic 3D. In some ways it was one of the most discouraging events I’ve ever attended because in my view this mad rush to get on the 3D bandwagon is almost certain to lead to an alarming number of poorly conceived poorly executed and poorly received 3D movies and television programs. I’m not alone in this opinion.
