SA feature film industry goes digital

Two Cinema Nouveau screened by Nedbank theatres in Rosebank, two in Cape Town, and one theatre at Ster-Kinekor Sandton City will be fitted with digital HD projection equipment. HD rivals the more traditional 35mm format in terms of quality, and has several benefits that 35mm does not. In a recent first for SA, Spectrum Visual Networks screened the first High Definition film, Cosmic Africa, in the Cinema Nouveau screened by Nedbank chain. An audience survey was conducted amongst 200 people who had watched the movie digitally and the results were very interesting – 89 percent knew they were watching the movie digitally and preferred it to conventional 35mm. The remaining 11 percent were not even aware the movie was being screened digitally.

This roll out follows the pioneering of digital film using standard definition servers at a number of niche film festivals. These were presented by Cinema Nouveau screened by Nedbank in partnership with Spectrum Visual Networks during the course of 2003. Says Spectrum Visual Networks MD, Manny Teixeira: "Probably the most important benefit of HD for the South African film industry, is that the cost of releasing digitally mastered and distributed movies is far less than is the case with 35mm. The cost of printing and distributing is prohibitive to both producers and distributors. A single feature-length print can cost tens of thousands of rands." The release cost for movies requiring prints varies from R18 000 to around R50 000 excluding advertising spend for a one-print release and can escalate to over R1m for a wide release or more commercial 50-print movie.

Helen Kuun, Marketing Manager: Independent Films at Ster-Kinekor Pictures explains: "Only once cinema owners have deducted their fee and distribution companies have recouped their release costs, are the profits shared between producers and distributors. SA producers have traditionally only made a profit once the television and video/DVD rights to the movie have been exploited. The fixed, lower cost of digital releases, and broader availability of HD theatres will mean producers could profit from the theatrical release itself when a film performs reasonably well in relation to its release cost."

What does the arrival of HD mean for moviegoers? Kuun says higher budget, more commercially orientated movies derive the greatest benefit from digital distribution platforms since these are the movies that would traditionally have required the most prints. "I don't believe we will suddenly see a flood of local movies hitting the big screen," she says, "nor will all sorts of niche films suddenly be distributed to 'mainstream' cinemas. Movies will still be distributed to areas where the demographics of the audience match the profile and appeal of the movie. They will also still have to meet the quality standards required for in-cinema commercial release.

"What we probably will see is a greater variety of niche movies screened at film festivals, and a significant, if slow, increase in the number of wider appeal or more commercial local movies on the big screen. The local film industry will be stimulated. HD makes it more possible to produce a profitable movie because it will save producers money by reducing the production cost of a film. This is essentially because as long as producers use a high resolution tape format, the movie will not have to be converted to 35mm film for theatrical release." Kuun says the same master material can also be used to produce masters for TV broadcast & DVD/VHS release, whereas these channels all required different, often costly conversions for different media platforms in the past.

The bottom line for SA's movie industry – the more films are produced in SA, the greater our chances of producing an international hit. Teixeira believes that the perceived slump in the local film industry is not due to a lack of talent, but rather due to a lack of funding and of viable distribution platforms for locally produced material. "Bollywood has shown that movies with local content and appeal can create a significant industry. The only reason SA has not had similar growth is that we have a smaller market, making it more difficult to turn a profit on a local production. Digital has the potential to better the situation," he says.

Teixeira points out that locally produced films like "Mr Bones" (the second highest grossing movie ever to have been screened on the SA movie circuit after "Titanic", outperforming even films like "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and "Lord of the Rings" at the SA box office) have proven that home grown films have the potential to do very well. "The fact that HD will make local productions more viable will be a major boost for the local film production industry, especially once more HD cinemas have been rolled out."

"Hopefully, this will stimulate talented SA producers to create more local product. The success enjoyed by SA cinema and television advertisements at international festivals has proven that we can compete with the best the world has to offer. Now we need to extend this into long form entertainment," says Teixeira. There is much discussion around an increasing number of Hollywood releases possibly coming out in digital format, and the availability of digital equipment will save local distributors millions in distribution costs.

"The gentle revolution that started with digital cinema advertising pioneered by Cinemark and Spectrum Visual Networks, and was extended to the niche film festival market by Cinema Nouveau screened by Nedbank, again partnering with Spectrum Visual Networks, has now hit the mainstream feature-film circuit. Spectrum is delighted to be instrumental in the real arrival of digital cinema," Teixeira concludes.