In a cinema not so far away There’s a brave new world of digital broadcasting just * “ around the corner but Angus Fontaine reports as far as the cinema industry is concerned, everyone just wants to know who’s going to foot the bill. They say cinem a is up fo r grabs. But the fate of 21 st century filmmaking was probably decided a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. It was June 1,1977 and George Lucas was sitting in a diner on Hollywood Boulevard morosely picking over a cooling burger and fries while over the road, at Mann’s Chinese Theatre, Star Wars was having its premiere. Having endured a mutinous shoot and harrowing edit, Lucas was dreading the reaction to the film he had taken to calling “a $10 million dollar trailer”. At best, he thought, Star Wars would gross “eight, maybe ten million”. But one thing, he thought, was for sure: mass humiliation was in the post and his reputation as a director in ruins. -> Five months and US$193.5 million later, Lucas
Hollywood's ongoing belief in the power of
2002 w ill form the insipidly twinkling showpiece for
technology over poetry.
the bold new era of digital projection.
-> Lucas's contemporaries were appalled. Robert
-> For many in the industry digital broadcasting is a
Altman called it "the death of film ” . Martin Scorsese
natural progression. In a world where the new Sony
railed against Lucas’ claim that Star Wars' success
Playstation 2 comes equipped with a phone line,
subsidised smaller filmmakers. "They're not
internet access, and a DVD video player with high
subsidising everything else," he said. "They're
resolution graphics, the imminent arrival into
smothering everything.”
cinemas of digital projectors controlled by a central
-> As William Friedkin [The French Connection} told
broadcaster shouldn't surprise anyone. It's a
journalist Peter Biskind in his book Easy Riders,
wonderful life but it's a wireless world.
had changed his tune. His vapid space opera - which
Raging Bulls, Lucas "swept all the chips off the
-> The advantages of digital are manifold. To a
as he initially put it, was “the story of Mace Windu, a
table. What happened with Star Wars was like when
director, one of the prime attractions is that it allows
revered Jedi-bendu of Opuchi who was related to
McDonalds got a foothold, the taste for good food
pronto playback (no more 'waiting for rushes'),
Usby C.J. Thape, padawaan learner of the famed
just disappeared," he raged. "Now we're in a period
thereby allowing filmmakers to view footage
Jedi" - had surpassed Steven Spielberg's Jaws to
of devolution. Everything has gone backward toward
immediately it is recorded and alleviating the need to
become the biggest money-maker of all time.
a big sucking hole."
-> Lucas quickly became arguably the most
-> Twenty-three years on, everything still sucks. But
recall crews to re-shoot the same scene weeks or months later at cost.
powerful man in Hollywood, capable of demanding -
nowadays there's a new pie in the sky. It's called
and getting - an unprecedented 77 percent of the
‘digital broadcasting'. This 'floater' looms larger
gross of all sequels, not to mention the
than Darth’s Death Star and once more it is piloted
and width of lense, critical stuff when you’re putting
merchandising and video rentals. Even when it was
by George Lucas, the man who once said that
a film together and which until now has been laboriously taken down by hand.
Digital cameras also have special built-in channels for recording data, such as focus position
re-released in 1997, the Star Wars trilogy grossed
“emotionally involving the audience is easy... get a
another US$250 million and today it is estimated to
little kitten and have some guy wring its neck."
have earned upwards of US$3 billion dollars, most of
-> The digital ship of industry was until recently
represents a further dilution of the filmmaker's art.
it syphoned into George's geek wonderland in the
hovering over Fox Studios Australia, where Lucas
Animated movies aside, the digital imagery we’ve
California foothills - a sprawling totem to New
was shooting Episode II - which when released in
seen so far has been criticised by many
[ U ] CINEMA PAPERS.OCTOBER.NOVEMBER.2000
However, for some directors the loss of celluloid