The
third French circuit, CGR, opts for digital in all its theatres
by Elisabetta Brunella, Secretary General of MEDIA
Salles
Whilst in Paris, headquarters of the main
exhibition companies, the professional associations and the CNC (National
Centre of Cinematography), the debates are proliferating, the sensational
news arrived from outlying La Rochelle (France) at the end of November:
CGR, the third largest circuit in France, is opting to go 100% digital
and is doing so with the support of a third party who uses the VPF model.
And so, in Europe’s biggest pool of movie theatres (around 5,400
screens), which counted only 41 digital projectors in the MEDIA Salles
census of June 2007, at a single stroke almost 400 screens using the new
technology have suddenly appeared.
At the beginning of February, the Idiff – International Digital
Forum – provided an opportunity for various players and different
positions to be heard. At the round table, which was a rare chance for
the presidents of professional associations and the CNC representative
to meet, an awareness emerged of the need to take action, yet cautious
attitudes, if not resistance, were also to be seen. Whilst Carole
Scotta, representing independent distributors, stated: “We
are late, action must be taken,” Victor Hadida
of the distributors’ federation, repeated that for his members digital
remains a technology that must not be allowed to modify the existing relationship
between exhibition and distribution.
Jean Labé, president of the exhibitors’
federation (FNCF), also spoke in favour of maintaining the present cinema
economy, adding: “ The real problem is for all theatres to shift
to digital over a reasonable period of time. This is why the issue of
financial resources is crucial.” As to the willingness of the different
categories to share in the costs of the transition, if Labé has
argued that, apart from the issue of who pays for the equipment, the exhibitors
will, in any case, find themselves incurring other costs, such as adapting
the projection booths or maintenance, Hadida makes no mystery of the fact
that the distributors are not without their “reluctant” members.
Patrick Caradec, moderator of the round table and a journalist
from “Le Film Français”, commented, “If the message
is that neither distributors nor exhibitors want to pay, how will the
digital transition be financed?” “It is not going to be the
audiences,” Labé hastened to affirm, “just as they
have not paid for modernising structures in the past.” It is therefore
clear that in the French path to digital changeover, public money plays
an essential role. On the other hand, the CNC, which has devoted a lot
of energy to the transition (including the Goudineau Report, a platform
shared with the German FFA, the appointment of the Lévrier commission),
is aware that the sums of money in question are incompatible with the
resources – and commitments already made – of the present
“support account”. From the floor, the reactions to these
messages came from representatives of the companies that candidate themselves
as intermediaries between distribution and exhibition, the so-called “integrators”.
As well as their regret at not having been involved in the technical panel
promoted by the CNC, they expressed the conviction that their formulas
allow the main body of theatres to shift to digital. The buzzword is again
VPF, the key to systems that can be “extremely flexible and variable,
according to the individual player’s capacity to contribute,”
according to Gwendal Auffret of Arts Alliance Media,
and “redistributive, in order to take into account very different
sorts of theatres, covering 90% of all cinemas,” according to Jean
Mizrahi of Ymagis.
“That VPF has enabled 4,000 screens in the United States to change
over to digital has now been demonstrated,” added the representative
of XDC (producers of servers and suppliers of services
for digital cinema), emphasizing the importance in Europe of using companies
that are familiar with the characteristics of the various national and
regional markets. Moreover, strong arguments in favour of the role of
intermediaries had already emerged during the morning from the words of
Jocelyn Bouyssy the “self-made man” who has
scaled the career ladder in the CGR circuit from projectionist to managing
director: “Why have we chosen digital? First of all we did not want
to find ourselves lagging behind, as happened with the multi-screen cinemas,
then because we believe in digital 3D as a means of bringing back the
enthusiasm for cinema-going and lastly because we have found a very reliable
partner in Arts Alliance Media.” As regards the costs of this operation,
through which CGR has outstripped all their competitors (“We realized
that the premises did not exist for us all starting out together,”
explained Bouyssy), no details were forthcoming but an eloquent comment:
“I came to a super-agreement with Arts Alliance Media! I can safely
say I have found my “personal” business model!”
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