by Vadim Rizov



When permanent technological changes are predicted to rev from 0 to 60mph in the next five years, it"s best not to hold your breath. With digital projection, things haven"t just progressed but apexed in record time. In 2005, early adopter theaters would tout their brand-new digital projectors as a special attraction. Now, seeing a movie in 35mm in Manhattan-if you want to be a super-purist-requires considerable cunning and advance planning for mainstream films, and may not even be possible. (That goes double for 3D movies: if you don"t want to pay extra and want to watch the flat version, you had better act fast.) The rest of the country hasn"t quite upgraded yet (and the arthouses are even slower), but just wait: the digital revolution, after years of excitable hype, is finally on the ground, with 16,000 screens worldwide (15% and counting, but far more noticeable in metropolitan areas).

For the most part, this is a welcome development since technological process-for once-hasn"t been a bummer fraught with complications. This is the first year digital projection has not just been up to speed, but ahead of the game. If, for example, you were interested in seeing Sherlock Holmes, The Informant! or any other digitally-shot movie released in 2009 by Warner Bros., you"d have been well-advised to make sure your theater was projecting it digitally: their 35mm prints, for whatever reason, have been prone to undesired artifacts (the glossily shot Sherlock Holmes became overly dark and muddy, while The Informant! lapsed into unfortunate video blotchiness). In these cases, film was an active downgrade.

Posted by: ahillis    Source

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