Reg. Trib. Milano n. 418 del 02.07.2007
Direttore responsabile: Elisabetta Brunella

 
 
 
  International Edition No. 55 - year 5 - 17 February 2010

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From the seventh edition of the course
“DigiTraining Plus: European Cinemas Experiencing New Technologies”

Helsinki, 17-21 February 2010

- daily update -

First day of the course for the over sixty cinema professionals coming from 13 European countries, from Greece to Sweden, from Germany to Spain, to the United Kingdom. Acting as host today, alongside the course moderator – “veteran” Tony Williams, who has worked in the sector for over 40 years – was Tero Koistinen, Director General of the Finnish Chamber of Films.Koistinen, who is also a member of MEDIA Salles’ Executive Committee, explained to course participants the state of the art and prospects of Finland’s digital cinemas.

“Finland is one of those European countries in which the Government is making special efforts to support digitalization in cinemas. ”Most digital screens in Finland do, in fact, derive a large portion of their financing from the public contributions allocated by the Finnish Film Foundation. The objective is to help those cinemas most penalized by traditional screening to become more competitive.“ Over the past few years, the Finns have realized that the main benefits of digitalization are to be found in the fact that it can help save small and medium-sized cinemas situated a long way outside urban centres.These cinemas need first runs and all the content that digitalization has to offer.” As to content, the keyword is diversification: thus, the international full-length feature films that have been available in digital format for some years now, have been joined by almost all Finnish-produced feature films.To these is added alternative content, in particular documentaries and live opera performances.

Whilst presenting the course, Tony Williams emphasized the alternation of lectures on theory, opportunities for exchange between participants and between participants and speakers and practical opportunities, comprising visits and screenings, for experiencing the potential of the most avant-garde digital technologies.