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Digital cinema refers to both technological and cultural developments in contemporary cinema. Culturally it refers to new styles, effects and techniques informing the grammar of cinema.
Technology
Digital cinema is the continuation of the art and science of cinema using digital storage and display instead of film.
Note that digital cinema is distinct from high definition television which has different cultural and industrial origins.
In particular, digital film is not dependent on using television or HDTV standards, aspect ratios or frame rates.
There are several types of projectors for digital cinema, the most common one in the US being DLP technology. Current DLP projectors use 1280 x 1024 resolution, although as the technology matures, this will probably increase. The industry standard for film processing is 2K (1828 horizontal pixels) so this seems a natural goal for projectors to reach. At this point they would be projecting at the native resolution of the digital film.
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace was said to be the first digital movie which could be distributed to digital cinemas electronically.
Culture
It is truly hard to say what the future of cinema is. There are some like George Lucas that think celluloid is dead and the future is an all-digital medium. Many think digital film making will democratize the world of film and point out how much more inexpensive digital is compared to tape. Directors such as Steven Soderbergh and Michael Mann have filmed some parts of their most recent pictures on digital. With the advent of digital projectors and special effects, it appears digital would be more suited for the future of cinema.
However, one cannot deny the history of film. For the last 100 years, all movies have been shot in film. Every film student is taught the tricks of using 35mm. Digital is relatively new. Also, the fundamentals of digital are completely different from that of film. A movie shot in digital does not have the same "feel" as a movie shot in film. Also, the quality of digital, at least for now, is nowhere near as good as film.
Film is in many ways more portable than its high quality digital counterparts. The chemical process initiated by exposing film to light give reliable results, that are well documented and understood by cinematographers. In contrast every digital camera camera has a unique response to light and it is very difficult to predict without viewing the results on a monitor or a waveform analyzer, increasing the complexity of lighting. Most digital cameras have an insufficient exposure lattitude when compared to film, increasing difficulties of filming in high contrast situation, such as direct sunlight.
It is also hard to say how democratized cinema would become if it were to turn all digital. There are over 5,000 films shot a year in digital. With such a huge supply, a digital filmmaker has difficulty getting seen and, therefore, often doesn't get the upper hand in distribution negotiations. It has actually given more power to large distribution companies, because now they can play the gatekeepers, in picking which films are seen and which are not.
Celluloid is clearly not dead. However, digital is not a fad that will go away. The future probably will be one of film and digital in the same medium.
Digital cinema companies
See also
External links
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