Au revoir Deluxe, hello Electronovision

The business cards did not arrive back from the printer in time for ShoWest, the e-mail took me forever to sort and Vodafone takes a week to migrate numbers even internally, but now it is done. I can proudly announce my new venture. Having spent eight years reading, digesting, breathing and living digital cinema for three great and best-in-class companies (Screen Digest, Unique Digital and Deluxe) I have now outsourced my expertise and am about to sell it back to the industry though Electronovision Consulting.


Does the world need another digital cinema consultancy? No - but it does need electronovision, i.e. the ability to see clearly in the digital landscape. As my former US boss and mentor Steve Bergman put it, digital cinema is 'big drama, little money'. Most of the companies fighting to get into or stay in this small market will not make it. If you are going to succeed in the long run you cannot expect to do business as you have in other markets or as you used to do it in the film/cinema market.

Already I have my first client and it's none other than my old friends at Unique Digital. We have just come back from a very productive trip to LA and ShoWest, more about which I will come to in a later posting. So expect to see me around and if you want to get in touch just drop me a line. If you can tell me where I got the name from and the significance of it I will even by you a drink.

Deja Vu all over again as Kinepolis rolls out digital opening night red carpet

It's been a while since I heard from my friends at Kinepolis, maybe because they are still trying to resolve with Technicolor and Dolby how to manage to circuit-wide switch-over to digital.

In the meatime, Kinepolis is hosting a real-time screening of celebrities walking down the red carpet for the opening of the Tony Scott thriller Deja Vu to cinemas in belgium and France. This is what the Hollywood Reporter article French filmgoers to get taste of red carpet had to say about it:

Footage of cast members arriving at the Kinepolis Le Chateau du Cinema in Lomme next Wednesday, will be beamed to more than 5,000 filmgoers in Mulhouse, Thionville, Metz, Nancy, Nimes, Brussels, Liege and Antwerp.
...
Next Wednesday's gala event will be introduced by a journalist from popular Gallic cinema magazine STUDIO and a bilingual hostess will interview the stars in English with a concurrent French broadcast via direct video transmission on Kinepolis' various screens, the company said.

It will only cost you eight euro to see this event in France and Belgium. For those of you getting a feeling of deja vu about it, yes, this has been done before.

Four years and two days earlier to the day (8 December 2002 to be precise) Regal CineMedia hosted a red carpet digital projection of the opening of Maid in Mahattan. You can cast your mind back with this article Regal CineMedia to feature 'Maid' premiere and this letter from Kurt Hall to someone complaining about adverts in cinemas.

For those of you looking for a more refined experience, the unstoppable Marc John has secured the live transmission of the Magic Flute from the New York Metropolitan Opera House to City Screens all across the UK. Read about it in the newsletter from the York Picturehouse.

The event was made possible bacuase Met Reaches Groundbreaking Agreements with Unions and Develops Range of Media Partnerships, a press release tells us. Would you know, National CineMedia (nee Regal CineMedia)and its Canadian partner, Cineplex Entertainmen, are also doing it (“Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD” Now Playing at a Theater Near You”). Tickets went on sale on Nov 18th in the States and I'm sure your local City Screen is also touting them now.

I know it will be great because not only has Julie Taymore directed it, but the wizard in the control booth is my friend the great Mark Schubin, who is now also available as a podcast. I look forward to his take on this.