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The digital revolution
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Digital films are in. SUDHA UMASHANKER discusses the latest trend that is fast catching on in the country.
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THE LATEST buzzword in the film industry is digital cinema, also known as electronic cinema or simply e-cinema. Digital cinema is a filmless, digital distribution and exhibition system for feature films. It delivers motion pictures that have been digitised, compressed and encrypted to theatres using either physical media such as DVD-ROMS or electronic transport methods such as satellite downlink or fibre-optic link. Authorised cinema halls automatically receive the digitised programmes and store them on hard disk while still encrypted and compressed. At each showing, the digitised information is retrieved from the hard disk storage, decrypted, decompressed and displayed using high resolution projectors featuring high quality digital sound. The benefits of digital cinema are a crystal clear image and sound at every showing. The image on the screen is blemish-free with no scratches, dirt, burns, pinholes or splices.
The digital technique has been used in select theatres in the U.S., starting with ``Star Wars Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace" followed by ``Bicentennial Man," ``Mission to Mars," ``Dinosaur" and ``Toy Story - 2", among others.
Yet another advantage is that it can help check piracy. Today producers make tiny, un-noticeable squiggles on the film to see which print has been pirated. Every time a film is projected digitally, the system can put in unseen watermarks, which help in identifying the time/date and the venue where the film was projected and enable tracking down the theatre it originated from. The latest in the Star Wars series, ``Star Wars Episode 2 - Attack of the Clones" was not only released in the digital cinema format but also shot without film, using high definition digital cameras and stored on digital tape. Director George Lucas is believed to have said, ``I think I can safely say that I will probably never shoot another movie on film."
Senthil Kumar of Real Image Media Technologies (run by a talented bunch of people including P.Jayendra, P.C.Sreeram, Mahesh Mahadevan and Arun Veerappan) which has been promoting and developing all aspects of digital cinema in India, says, ``Digital cinema is great for films with special effects as the images are already in digital form and don't have to be converted at great cost from 35mm analogue film. Digital editing systems allow fantastic effects to be done so film songs can become even more slick, like music videos." Another advantage, according to him, is that colour correction is far better than what can be done on film and it is possible to make subtle enhancements. Also, the same shot can be used many times over unlike on film where one needs to make a lower quality and expensive ``dupe" in order to use a shot more than once.
The number of shots you can shoot per day increases and consequently the time taken for shooting a film is reduced quite significantly. Film negative comes in 400-ft rolls, each running for about four minutes, and the whole crew needs to stop after four minutes of shooting to change camera rolls. With digital tape, the running time is 45 minutes and as tape changes take less than a minute, the creative flow of the actors and director is not affected. ``Consider the economics. A digital tape costs Rs. 5,000 and runs for 45 minutes. An equivalent length of 35mm film would cost Rs. 1.06 lakhs. If you shoot 100,000 ft., the cost of film and processing would be approximately Rs. 30 lakhs against Rs. 1.25 lakhs on digital tape. Of course, this involves an expenditure of Rs. 9 lakhs for converting the final digital film to 35mm for projection in conventional theatres but even then you save Rs. 20 lakhs. As more and more films are released in the digital format, there will be no need to print back to film for theatre release in a few years time," Senthil Kumar says. There is more scope for saving thanks to the high quality field playback of digital tape. Since digital cameras are more sensitive, the amount of light required is less, reducing light and generator bills.
P. Jayendra of Real Image Media Technologies believes that digital cameras also aid creativity. ``You can play around with the gamma, the black level of the film, the colour balance and much more for every shot. You save these set ups and recall them instantly anytime later. Suppose you have done a night scene and two months later want to take it up again you can call for the same setting and achieve a seamless look. The creation of computer generated imagery, enhancement of picture elements, morphs, warps, etc., have all been made possible thanks to digital technology. For example, the opening shot of "Forrest Gump" tracks an unusually long and extremely intricate flight of a feather. To create the shot, the real feather was filmed against a blue background in different positions; this material was then animated and composed against shots of a landscape. The result is a new kind of realism, which can be described as something intended to look exactly as if it could have happened, although it really could not have. Just over the horizon are motion paintings, cubist cinema, virtual actors, virtual sets, new transitions thanks to the digital revolution."
What about the flip side? Senthil Kumar points out that ``film is by no means dead." Film still has a higher range of contrast it can capture compared to digital cameras and a greater range of shooting speeds that facilitate a wide variety of slow motion effects. However, with digital, the slow motion can be done in post-production too. Technically, the film also has a higher resolution compared to digital cameras. However, since the original film negative is never seen by the audience and a duplicate is made from which release prints are made, the effective resolution of film and digital tape appear the same to the audience.
So much for the visual. Something that we are a lot more aware of today is digital sound in the cinema, explains Senthil Kumar. Digital sound in the cinema uses a six-track digital system such as DTS, which is designed to produce the best sound replication possible in a movie theatre. With DTS, the digital sound track is not contained on the film itself but on separate CD-ROM disks. The six tracks of digital audio data that has been stored on the CD-ROM disk are read and played back in absolute synchronisation with the film by reading a special time code track that is recorded on the film. A big advantage of digital sound is that the smallest sound like a pin falling on the floor to big explosions can be heard crystal clear. Sound gets a new perspective. Sound emanates not only from the main speakers behind the screen but is also distributed to the surround speakers, thus giving the picture on the screen a definitive ambience. Films made on the DTS sound format include ``Lagaan", ``Parthale Paravasam", ``Dil Chahta Hai", ``12B", ``Aalavanthan", ``Padayappa", ``Jeans", ``Muthavalan", ``Taal", ``Alai Payuthe", ``Nayak", ``Kannathil Muthamittal", ``Company", ``Kandukondain Kandukondain" and ``Baba".
Revathy Menon, director and actress who used DTS in ``Mitr - My Friend", feels that DTS highlights the little sounds that you think about, from a spoon being placed, to a little bird chirping somewhere outside. Creating the ambience makes a lot of difference and there digital sound is amazing.
According to Jayendra, ``With DTS sound, you do not have to compress sound because it is on a disk and you can put as much information as you want even when all six channels in a theatre are active. With digital sound, there is no loss no matter how many times it is transferred so that the sound on the hundredth day is the same as on the first day. The two popular formats — Dolby Digital and DTS — have their advantages. While DTS facilitates easy dubbing of the film simply by changing the CD (provided all is well with the CD), Dolby Digital runs on an optical track i.e. sound is on film. There is the price factor as well. Dolby Digital comes with a price tag of Rs. 15 lakhs while DTS costs Rs 7 lakhs. Several theatres equipped themselves with digital sound for the release of Rajnikanth's ``Baba." In terms of cost, theatre owners have to invest Rs. 20 lakhs for the digital sound processor, amplifiers and speakers. With the multiplex revolution coming in, Jayendra feels that it is time for theatres to convert to digital. The owner of a city cinema hall agrees but he has this to say: ``While digital sound is here to stay digital cinema is still in its infancy. Equipment is highly expensive. Until better devices are made available at cheaper prices, the same format of 35mm cinema scope will continue. There is yet another version of digital cinema being tried out which could be economical. Producers can beam the film directly through the satellite and the theatre can download from the satellite and project it on to the screen. Incidentally films need not be shot digitally for this."
And now for news from closer home that will gladden the hearts of cinema lovers. Ace cinematographer P. C. Sreeram is making India's first full length high definition digital film, ``Vaanam Vasappadum". Since he declined to comment till the film was completed, the last word may not have been spoken yet on digital cinema.
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