George Lucas, James Cameron, Jeffrey Katzenberg Talk Digital at CinemaCon 2011
// April 21st, 2011 // Comments Off // Industry Event
by Marc Halperin
The Digital filmmakers panel at CinemaCon 2011 was held on Wednesday, March 30 at Ceasars Palace in Las Vegas and was moderated by Michael Lewis. The following are some of the key points that were made by the panelists. These are the current masters of this new art form and were all enthusiastic about the future.
What does digital provide you?
George Lucas
The problem of an artist from the beginning of time has been technology, in graphics arts the move from fresco painting in a building with a giant crew trying to get done before the plaster dries you have all of these specialized people to organize. Then with the development of oil paint you were able to move out side which freed you to change things and Paint over them.
In 1975 we started using digital tech and found that it was faster, cheaper, and better than what we had before. Artists always bang up against the tech barrier. Overcoming those obstacles improves the process it makes your resources go further.
After the original Star Wars premiered it became apparent that the movie projectors and the overall presentation needed to improve so we created our THX and TAP programs to deal with these technology and quality problems. Over the years we have seen dramatic improvements in the theatre experience.
James Cameron
Digital has allowed for the creation of worlds that could not be. If we can imagine it we can create it.
Titanic played so long our prints started falling apart, after 16 weeks. Theatres came off doing business because the prints didn’t hold up, with digital, the print is always new. We are in a brave new world today. We thought 3D would ride on the back of digital instead it was the other way around.
We are working with the realtime virtual production suite to make the production easier. The next two Avatar films will be at a higher film rate. We are looking at 48-60 frames to improve the image.
We are under assault by piracy and windows by being showman we will fight back. I will show my test on higher frame rates tomorrow morning. If you author a project at a higher frame rate it takes the glass out of the window. Higher light levels are important, it is a big issue but solutions are coming for 3D. (more…)
Trailers From Hell
