1 The Director of Photography – an overview

Practical Cinematography 199
amount of image post-production without leaving the digital domain.
The need to carry out a lot of digital post-production is a powerful
argument for originating on HD.
Single-chip cameras
Matters have moved forward and several manufacturers have introduced
single-chip cameras, where the chip is approximately the size of
the frame used in 35 mm photography and some of them have, effectively,
twice the resolution of the first generation three-chip cameras.
Perhaps the greatest advantage of these cameras is their use of exactly
the same lenses as 35 mm film cameras. It remains to be seen if these
cameras will increase the popularity of shooting feature films in the
digital format.
Digital presentation
There are clear financial advantages for the distributors of feature
films if cinemas are equipped with digital projectors of sufficient quality
such that the audience are unaware of the change from mechanical
to digital projectors.The savings come in some surprising places. In the
distribution chain, it is said that the cost of transporting film prints, i.e.
vans etc., from theatre to theatre is more than the cost of producing
the prints themselves. If this is the case, were it possible to deliver the
virtual digital image by, say, fibre-optic or satellite, a large cost of delivering
the images to the cinema would be saved.
The other side of the distribution dilemma is interesting, as the distributors
do not own the projectors: the exhibitors own the cinemas
and the projectors, so the cost of conversion would fall on the shoulders
of the exhibitors, who are unlikely to make any extra profit from
the change-over. Currently, the comparable price of a digital projector
able to give a picture of comparable quality to a mechanical projector
is substantial, an HD projector costing some three times as much as
the mechanical equivalent.
Conclusions
HD digital cinema, I believe, is bound to come but I suspect slowly, as
there are many obstacles to overcome, though few of these are of a technical
nature – all the required delivery systems and projection equipment
are available today. It will need an important agreement between
the distributors and the exhibitors for the revolution to happen.
There will be some films that will cry out to be shot in the digital HD
format and others that will not. Futuristic and hyper-realistic movies,
together with those requiring a lot of digital post-production, will be
well suited to HD, though I believe that for many years to come the
more human story-based movies will still shoot on film.Why? Because
there is over 100 years of history and knowledge in how to stir the
emotions of an audience, via their eyes, that lies vested in that peculiar
controlled rotting of silver. We Directors of Photography have been
successfully giving our audience pictures they love, and know how to
emote to, on film for those 100 years or so – long may it continue.