cámaras de 75 mm, y los primeros filmes en formato IMAX. Esta tecnología fue perfeccionada en los ’90 con el desarrollo de las nuevas salas de cine.
James Cameron y Scott Ross fundadores de la empresa “Digital Domain”, usaron la tecnología de Imágenes Generadas por Computadora (CGI en inglés) para crear películas que se convirtieron en éxitos de recaudación como “Titanic”, “El Quinto Elemento”, “Mentiras Verdaderas” y la serie de las sorprendentes películas de “Terminator”. Esta nueva tecnología, fundada en el uso de programas y computadoras de diseño así como programas Apple, le dio una nueva dimensión a la industria del cine.
El debate actual de la industria del cine incluye el tema de las pantallas en las salas donde el público pueda disfrutar de experiencias únicas. A medida que se hace más común el sistema “On Demand”, (películas a pedido) en la TV o en la computadora, los dueños de las salas de cine tienen que encontrar formas innovadoras para su modelo de negocio. La discusión será ardua ya que los dueños de las salas opinan que los estudios de cine se llevan la mayor parte de las ganancias de la recaudación por entradas y por eso ellos deberían ser los que cubran el costo de la readecuación de las salas al nuevo formato.
Por otro lado, los estudios dicen que ellos no se dedican al negocio del equipamiento técnico. Parecería que en el modelo de negocio de la aeronavegación y el alquiler de autos podría encontrarse la salida de este dilema. Así, se generarían negocios para empresas que quieran alquilar los equipamientos necesarios para las salas de cine, brindando un precio justo para los estudios de cine y para los dueños de las salas. Esta solución le ahorrará a los estudios, millones de dólares en copias de cintas que se requieren ahora para satisfacer la demanda simultánea de los lanzamiento mundiales en unas 8.000 salas en todo el mundo. También ayudaría a combatir la piratería aunque hasta el momento no hay nada que se haya podido hacer al respecto.
Podemos decir que lo que salvó a la industria del cine en el pasado, la proliferación del video, está empezando a decaer a medida que crece la distribución directa al consumidor, lo que redujo drásticamente el modelo de alquiler de películas.
Finalmente, en los últimos dos años se desarrolló una tecnología que hizo que las recaudaciones en las salas de cine se incrementaran: el 3D en películas de animación. Esto le ha dado sin duda una ventaja importante a los cines sobre el alquiler de películas en el hogar.
(*) Al Liberman, Director de Programa de Entretenimiento, Medios y Tecnología (EMT) de la Escuela de Negocios Stern, de la Universidad de Nueva York. Exclusivo para Revista Competencia.
Digital transformation of the entertainment & media industries
UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY AND THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION: FILM AND MORE
By 1950 television had become an important part of the American consumer’s life and evenings all across the country were devoted to watching the three networks. NBC, ABC, and CBS. These networks would eventually be joined by Mr Rupert Murdochs’ FOX Broadcasting Company part of the then fledgling News Corporation. At about the same time, the seven film studios had emerged from various states of bankruptcy reasonably unscathed and on the way to becoming the hub or lynch pin within the leading media and entertainment conglomerates.
Over the next 50 years Cable grew to over 200 networks or channels, as leading technology companies, SONY and Phillips battled for supremacy in VHS, CD, Dat,
DVD, and more recently Blue Ray vs. HD DVD. The last four decades of the 20th century was simply the digital appetizer to the buffet or gourmet dinner of the technology advances coming on stream as we crossed over the border into the new millennium, the 21st century.
The most recent decade, the first of this century, right up to the year 2009 has seen simultaneous disruptive technologies impacting classic media and the distribution pipelines to a degree beyond what anyone could ever have anticipated. Perhaps this is because the first time the Internet, the mother of all technologies, became very successful, the bubble burst soon after. Many enterprises and entrepreneurs as well as media executives at companies like AOL –Time Warner, lost jobs, revenues and nest eggs. These disturbances rather than disruptions will be highlighted and then analyzed for this and future articles, as we examine the impact, positive and negative, on the various sectors in the entertainment and media economy, including film, home video, broadcast, cable, music and publishing.
We can begin with looking at film, acknowledged as the engine that drives much of the entertainment content. It applies pressure and builds the pipeline and portfolio for so many of the other sectors. Film had its first infusion of technology long after the battles for ownership of the projector patents by Alva Edison. The development of the much celebrated “ JAZZ SINGER” the story of Al Jolson, became the first of the talkies, followed by the development of color and a whole new dimension of movie experience was provided for the public. As Kodak improved their 35 MM stock providing more clarity in color and better reproduction of sound and music tracks, the next phase in film distribution focused on the speaker system in theaters. The need for Hi Fidelity speakers in theaters providing surround sound, was fulfilled by the development of new equipment such as THX by Gorge Lucas and a state of the art from the laboratories of SONY.
Another technology patent devloped in the 1980’s provided the impetus to develop 75 MM cameras, and the raw stock for the early IMAX short films. It was perfected in the 90’s , as theaters were built and the IMAX corporation became a valuable asset. The theaters became part of the tourism industry and were frequented at or near theme parks or downtown at new, user friendly locations across the US and eventually in Paris, London, Toronto and other global cities. Today full length feature films are shown on IMAX.
James Cameron and his partnership with Scott Ross founder of Digital Domain, used the early development of Computer Generated Images (CGI) to build blockbuster movies including Titanic, Fifth Element, True Lies, and the totally dramatic and surprising Terminator series featuring the famous closing line- “I will be back”. This new technology, primarily guided by software and the use of multiple Silicon Graphics machines, and Apple paint box, added important dimensions to the film. The consumer had come to expect special effects that went well beyond stunt actors, and the use of green screens. The Matrix franchise, and soon after the XMen, Spider Man and Pirates of the Caribbean, among a host of comic driven movies all used these software programs to create action that was impossible for mere mortals or even highly trained stunt actors to accomplish.
Any discussion about film even today must include theaters where viewers can watch movies in hi definition on screens that are larger than even the largest flat panel home theaters. As home video versions of every movie proliferate, and video on demand brings movies to your personal computer and your smart phone, theater owners or exhibitors as they are called are under enormous pressure to seek new business models.
One recent success has been the pre-recording of live performances at the NY Metroplitan Opera.The result has been successfully presented in full color, digitally mastered, and with superior sound bringing classic opera performances to theaters around the US at affordable prices to be enjoyed by a mass audience.
What seems at this point to be the next frontier awaits the agreement between the studios and the exhibitors on converting the majority of screens to digital capture of movies. The battle is unique since the exhibitors have believed that the studios enjoy the majority of box office revenue and should bear the cost of this conversion, while the studios explain that they are not in the equipment maintenance business. It seems that an already established model in the automobile rental and airline industries will be the answer in digitizing screens. A leasing arrangement brokered by entrepreneurial enterprises will broker the arrangement and developing an equitable lease price for both sides.
This is expected to save the studios millions which has up to now been invested in huge numbers of prints required to satisfy simultaneous release of blockbusters in 8,000 screens around the world. It is thought that this has helped to curtail piracy.
However, even the newest technology innovation has not stopped ever present film.piracy.
It should be noted that what has been the savior of the film industry in the past, that is the proliferation of home video is now beginning to plateau as the distribution direct to the consumer has reduced the impact of the rental model.
Finally the last two years have seen another application thought to be the next big thing in film rewarded by an increase in theater tickets sold It is the use of technology and superior software programs to create the excitement and audience involvement through the addition of 3D primarily in animated films but expanding to horror and action adventure genres. This has given an advantage to exhibitors over the at home experience.
Next time we meet we will discuss the impact and transformation of television through technology innovation.
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