International Edition No. 15 - year 2
- 26 January 2007
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The
fourth edition of the training course “DigiTraining Plus: New Technologies
for European Cinemas” begins on 28 March.
A message to European exhibitors from Mads Egmont Christensen, course
moderator.
It
has been with great pride and pleasure that I have moderated the three
previous “DigiTraining Plus” events, which thanks to the hospitality
of Barco has taken place in their state of the art conference theatre
at the production plant in Kuurne, Belgium.
Over the years MEDIA Salles and Barco have managed to gather an extensive
number of the central key players within the field of digital cinema,
i.e. experts, practitioners and artists whose input and reflections have
proven to be extremely valuable for the participating cinema-owners and
representatives from exhibitors’ organizations.
Add to this a lively debate among speakers and participants both within
the realm of the professional presentations and in the friendly atmosphere
of the social activities over the four-day intensive schedule, and I do
not hesitate to say that participating in the “DigiTraining Plus”
workshop is a must for any exhibitor who wants to play a part in the digital
roll-out instead of being run over by it!
Mads Egmont Christensen: a career
devoted to cinema and to teaching
Mads Egmont Christensen holds
a BA in History/Criticism from the University of Copenhagen and
a Masters Degree in Film Education from the University of Southern
California in Los Angeles. When he returned to Denmark in 1971 he
started producing, writing and directing at Bellevue Studio, then
Denmark’s leading commercial production company. Subsequently
he became Managing Director of Gutenberghus Film & TV Production,
in which capacity he produced both a number of award-winning commercials,
short films and the first major entertainment TV-series to be commissioned
outside Danmarks Radio.
Mads Egmont Christensen has been Assistant Director on a number
of feature films, among them Pelle the Conqueror, and has
directed an award-winning feature-length documentary, Tomas,
A Child out of Reach. In 1988 he became CEO of Metronome Productions,
where he started the TV department and produced a number of features,
including Dance of the Polar Bears, The Boys from St
Petri and the award-winning documentary Giselle. Since
1998 he has been teaching production at The Danish Film School,
at The Norwegian Film School, at The Super 16 School in Copenhagen
and first and foremost at the European Film College in Ebeltoft. |
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MEDIA Salles,
the initiative on behalf of European cinemas,
with the support of the MEDIA Programme and the Italian Government,
is promoting the fourth edition of the exhibitor training course:
“DigiTraining Plus: New Technologies
for European Cinemas”
Kuurne, Belgium
28 March – 1st April 2007
in collaboration with
to be held at Barco headquarters
Main topics
The present state of the European and international market for
digital screening
Overview of technologies
Exhibition and Distribution
Digital Cinema economics
Market potential
E-cinema – D-cinema – 3-D Cinema
The course will
also offer
Visit to a cinema equipped with digital projector
European case studies
Lessons will be held in English.
Deadline for
enrolments: 23 February 2007
Course participation fee
(covering tuition, teaching material, accommodation and meals):
500 euro, for enrolments made by 23 February 2007.
600 euro, for enrolments after the deadline (according
to availability of places).
For participants from areas near
Kortrijk/Courtrai who do not need hotel accommodation a limited
number of places is foreseen at a cost of 150 euro
(covering tuition, teaching material and meals only)
A restricted number of scholarships are available.
The training initiatives promoted
by MEDIA Salles are open to professionals from countries belonging
to the MEDIA Programme.
For further information, please
contact the MEDIA Salles’ offices (Tel.: +39.02.66984405,
e-mail: infocinema@mediasalles.it) or visit the website www.mediasalles.it |
To download the course application form,
click here |
WOMEN IN DIGITAL
Rita Stella,
Cinema Exhibitor
Apollo Spazio Cinema
Milan, Italy
In
2004 I took part in the first “DigiTraining Plus” at Kuurne.
Partly as a consequence of this experience, when we started out to restructure
the old Apollo cinema (1,200 seats right in the centre of Milan) with
my partner Lionello Cerri, in 2004, we aimed to create a place that
was technologically in the avant-garde.
Today it is called Apollo Spazio Cinema and has 5 screens, for a total
of around 900 seats. The 5 projecting booths are each fitted with 2
traditional Cinemeccanica Victoria 5 projectors and with video projectors.
In the Sala Fedra, the Cinemeccanica digital CMC-D2, using Barco technology,
has also been installed.
click here to see the whole
article
Digital screens in Switzerland as at 30/06/2006:
12 projectors DLP CinemaTM
click here to see the table
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Cinemeccanica extends its decades of experience at the service of cinema
exhibitors to the field of digital projection |
Vittore Nicelli,
Managing Director of Cinemeccanica, Milan |
Cinemeccanica,
a world leader in the production of analogical projectors, began to supply
digital projectors with DLP CinemaTM technology in 2005.
This new phase in the history of a company that has been operating in
Milan, Italy, since 1920 began right there in the capital of Lombardy
where, on 15 January 2005, the first CMC-D2 digital projector was installed
in the Cinema Manzoni, followed shortly afterwards by the one destined
for the Apollo, fresh from a radical transformation which had made it
into an avant-garde urban miniplex. From this moment onwards, Cinemeccanica
received a series of orders from various European countries.
Among these countries is France, where the first clients include both
a chain, like Gaumont (the Marignan, in Paris, has a CMC3-D2 projector
and a CMC-D2), and an independent theatre like the Cinéma Le Paris
of Forbach. In the second semester of 2006 a digital projector was delivered
to a venue as famous as the Rex in Paris.
Italy and France have been joined by other large markets such as Spain,
starting with UIP in Madrid, and the United Kingdom (there are two Cinemeccanica
digital projectors in the prestigious Odeon Leicester) and by a tiny but
dynamic market such as that in Iceland, where 3 projectors have been installed
in Reykjavik by the Samfilm Group. Outside Europe the first installation
was in Colombia. |
Appreciation
for the Cinemeccanica digital projectors seems to be confirmed by the
fact that, after an initial order, “early adopters” such as
the Furlan and Giometti Groups, in Italy, have purchased a considerable
series of digital projectors: respectively a total of 8 installed in the
cinemas of North-Eastern Italy and 10 in the theatres of the Central Adriatic
area.
“Our strength lies in a knowledge of the exhibitors’ demands
and in the trust we have built up over 86 years operating all over the
world. Companies that shift to the new experience of digital projection
want to be able to count on a partner they trust”: this is how Vittore
Nicelli, Managing Director of Cinemeccanica, commented on the positive
start of the digital adventure from Venice, where Cinemeccanica provided
two digital projectors in the Sala Grande and the Sala Perla theatres
for the 63rd International Film Festival, confirming their
partnership with leading world cinema events from ShoWest to the Locarno
Festival.
To read the full article and the technical specifications
of the Cinemeccanica digital projectors, click
here. |
News from Spain
Yelmo Cineplex tries out the Barco 2K projector
The Spanish company Yelmo Cineplex is the first to
have installed the digital projection system offered by Barco on a free
trial run to three participants in the 2006 edition of the “DigiTraining
Plus” course organized by MEDIA Salles. Based on a Barco 2K projector,
the initiative is also sponsored by XDC and Kodak. Enrique Martinez
del Molino, Technical Director of Yelmo Cineplex, emphasizes the importance
of this test run for gaining a wider knowledge of the characteristics
of digital screening through hands-on experience. It is Yelmo Cineplex’s
intention to try out the new technology both for the presentation of
films and for alternative content. Infact the 2006 edition of live Red
Bull X-Fighters event, a motorbike race held every September on Madrid’s
Las Ventas circuit, was successfully projected by Yelmo using the Barco
digital projector and a satellite dish transmission.
A Barco 2K projector on trial at Yelmo Cineplex
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Launch of the Catalan Digital Cinema Circuit
Five cinemas have launched the CCCD, Catalan Circuit
of Digital Cinema, breaking away from the network set up in Spain by the
Cine Digital company. The new, independent group works on the programming
of films and live events using Sanyo 1.3K projectors, already tried out
over the past few months for the presentation of the documentary The
Dragon House, a Spanish production on Bhutan, and the Catalan theatrical
work, Mar I Cel. The Circuit’s baptism consisted in the digital
projection of a rock concert held on 23 November in Barcelona at the prestigious
“Auditori”. Filmed on seven TV cameras by the Catalan public
television network, the event was shared, live, by audiences in the five
centres served by CCCD, towns counting from 15-20,000 inhabitants, with
the sole exception of Leida, which counts 125 000. The coordinator of
the Circuit, Montserrat Guiu, an exhibitor from La Seu d’Urgell
in the Pyrenees, stresses that one of the objectives of the initiative,
supported by Catalan television and by the production company Benecé,
is to bring new and interesting shows, of a cultural, musical or sporting
nature, to audiences far away from Barcelona. “It has been a positive
start,” comments Guiu, “the spectators felt well and truly
involved in the atmosphere of the rock music event.”
As regards films, priority will be given to Catalan productions: coming
shortly will be Dies d’agost by Marc Recha.
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"Cinegames":
interactive, online videogames on the big screen
On 29 December the Spanish circuit Yelmo Cineplex opened
the first “Cinegames” screen, devoted to interactive, online
videogames, in its Leganés complex on the outskirts of Madrid.
Here, thanks to an investment of around three hundred thousand euro, fifty
spectators placed in “animated” seats, arranged as stadium
seating and fitted with individual 17-inch screens, can actively take
part in the game digitally projected on the big screen and accompanied
by a high quality sound track (surround 7.1). A commentary on the action
taking place, as well as special effects including laser lights, complete
the experience.
For the first trial month – at half price – (after 31 January
the ticket will cost 5.80 euros, compared to the 6.50 euros for a film),
the “gamespectators” can get to grips with a car race, of
which there are 6 versions with 140 vehicles and 19 tracks. Other proposals
have already been announced, both in terms of pure entertainment (with
a videogame on the second World War and another version, defined “futuristic”,
set in 2142), and in terms of education (with the 3D game “Aymun”,
designed for children).
Enrique Martinez, technical director of the Yelmo Cineplex, who worked
for three years on the realisation of Cinegames, for which developments
are foreseen both in Spain and abroad, stated: “Cinegames represents
a great opportunity for us to distinguish ourselves from our competitors,
in view of the explosion of multiplexes in Spain. It is part of a strategy
that concentrates not only on the classic offer of films but also on innovative
products such as 3D.” Moreover, Cinegames makes it possible to get
the most out of smaller theatres, too, which, thanks to the avant-garde
technology, allow videogame fans to enjoy game quality that cannot be
reproduced in other surroundings.”
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