Last weeks story: New pilot scheme launched to open up digital cinema to rural North Yorkshire, shows how important the Film Council has been for getting digital cinema started and the focus maintained on the non-blockbuster sites. 

Mr. Hunt slammed the management for each making over 100,000 pounds. Easy pickings for a publicity fight in a recession. On the other hand, Mr. Hunt didn’t explain how much money the Film Council was handling each year, what it takes to find the talent to be responsible for that type of operation, and what it takes to get people who can work with high powered producers, directors, studio personnel, etc.

The Film Council began just 10 years ago, and not just for capitalizing several hundred digital cinema systems in the UK; for a summation on its history see: Skillset: The Role of the UK Film Council 

[Update]: Other interesting news: an entity set up (via the aegis of the UK Cinema Exhibitors’ Association) to assist small and medium-sized UK cinemas, now the independent group named The Digital Funding Group LLP, has appointment of Sir Hayden Phillips as its Chairman. The full announcement is in a pdf at the end of this article. 

The article doesn’t mention Mr. Hunt’s salary or whether he offered to lower it and his staff costs to assist in the effort.

Christopher Hampton, most famous for the screenplays of Dangerous Liaisons and Atonement, made the lede quote, and described Hunt’s the decision as a “thrashy response”. He said he knew of films that would never have been made without the council, according to the Guardian article.

The word “quango” is used. Its definition is: noun ( pl. -gos) Brit., chiefly derogatory — a semipublic administrative body outside the civil service but with financial support from and senior appointments made by the government. (ORIGIN 1970s (originally U.S.): acronym from quasi (or quasi-autonomous) nongovernment(al) organization.)

There is an interesting set of slides that show 24 films that we financed (or partly financed) by the Film Council at:
UK Film Council axed – but how much did it fund films? 

Film-maker Ronan Bennett writes a great piece on the issues involved from his experience at:
Axing the Film Council: a move that impoverishes us all 

• provide services and support for existing systems
  prepare and distribute preshow content and playslists
  continue Kodak’s network operations center services
  develop and license digital cinema technologies to be commercialized by others

There is an attempt to hone in on what that licensing concept means, plus some thoughts of what this event of another large player leaving the field, mentioning Technicolor and forgetting DTS – read the entire report at:
Kodak Digital Cinema Undergoes Major Strategy Shift,
J. Sperling Reich at Celluloid Junkie

World’s first non-commercial national digital cinema roll-out – June 26, 2009

“This is a great undertaking for a small country”, said Jorgen Stensland, Director of Consultants at Film & Kino. “Under these agreements, Disney, Fox, Paramount, Universal, and Warner have committed to deliver wide releases to Norwegian digital cinemas. The deal also covers our own mobile cinema in rural areas. Film & Kino’s goal of delivering quality film all over this country is secured in the future by these agreements. We are happy that Norwegians will be able to experience the perfect quality of a DCI-compliant digital exhibition, which will also give our audiences the opportunity to see the new generation of 3D films that are underway. We look forward to working together with the studios to make this happen.”

The agreements will help facilitate the financing of the conversion to digital cinema. The costs will be shared between distributors, cinemas and Film & Kino.

“A success like this is the result of a great team effort. We want to thank our team members for their unflagging commercial, technical and legal support during these negotiations”, said Roar Svartberg, Acting Director of Film & Kino.

Roger Pollock, Paramount Pictures’ Executive Vice President, International Distribution & Operations, said “Digital distribution and the growth of 3-D cinema is the future of our industry, enabling films to be seen in the highest quality and most dynamic ways possible. Film & Kino is aggressively stepping forward to place Norway at the forefront of this technology, providing their audiences with the very best movie-viewing experience available. This is an important step in Europe’s roll out to digital conversion and will hopefully serve as an influential example across the region.”

Julian Levin, Executive Vice President, Digital Exhibition, Twentieth Century Fox commented “We are delighted to have closed a deployment agreement with Film & Kino. This important deal is the first of its kind covering the conversion from 35mm film to DCI compliant digital projection for the entire country. The transition to a digital projection platform will additionally provide the foundation for 3D exhibition capability, exhibition of alternative content and improved flexibility in distribution and exhibition operations. The ultimate beneficiary of the transition will be the movie going audience. We look forward to working with our colleagues at Film & Kino during the transition and providing Fox’s movies, in 2D and 3D, to Film & Kino digital projection system deployments.”

Duncan Clark, Executive VP, International Distribution, Universal Pictures International, said: “We’re pleased to be working with Film & Kino to help the Norwegian cinema industry transition to digital cinema via our UIP territorial office in Norway. Clearly the growth of 3-D cinema and digital distribution is the future of our business and this complete rollout of digital to Norway’s cinemas, which has the backing of the Norwegian government, is an important step. Norway is the latest country to become part of the extensive conversion to digital that is being rolled out to cinemas in Europe. By supplying our movies digitally, we hope audiences in Norway as early as later this year, will soon be able to experience the highest quality cinema experience via the best digital technology available.”

Commenting on the announcement, Jason Brenek, senior vice president, Worldwide Digital Cinema and Cinema Programming, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, said, “Digital cinema is taking a giant leap forward in Norway thanks to the tremendous efforts of Film & Kino. This is a bold and exciting move to transform all of Norway’s theaters to state-of-the-art DCI-compliant equipment and give moviegoers the best possible theatrical experience. Disney remains committed to digital cinema and digital 3D, and will continue to work with Film & Kino to bring the future of exhibition to moviegoers in a timely and cost effective manner. Our lineup of upcoming films includes a wide variety of titles that showcase this latest digital technology, including many films presented in Disney Digital 3D™.”

“Veronika Kwan-Rubinek, President, International Distribution, from Warner Brothers said, “Warner Bros. is excited about this unique partnership with Film & Kino, the first-ever deployment model that aims to digitize an entire country. This holistic transition to DCI compliant digital projection systems firmly establishes Norway as a leader in technological innovation and ensures the continued growth of this robust theatrical market.”

<p ><em> June 26, 2009<br>The Letter of Intent signed between Multikino and XDC includes the roll out of DCI-compliant projection systems co-financed by the Virtual Print Fee (VPF) model, represented by XDC. Multikino and XDC plan to sign final deployment agreement within 3 months. Rollout is scheduled to begin in Fall 2009, with an initial commitment of 100 screens throughout the year 2010. The whole installation process is to be completed by 2011.<p > Piotr Zygo, CEO of Multikino stated “Entering in VPF deal with XDC we improve our competitive advantage in term of quality of films and capability of screening 2D and 3D content, as well as we open space for alternative content and leverage our advertising tools. Those factors should generate new streams of Multikino’s revenue in the future.<p > Serge Plasch, XDC’s Chief Executive Officer said: “It’s a real pleasure to announce our fourth major VPF deal in Europe. Multikino is the leading exhibitor in Poland. We are convinced to build a fruitful cooperation with them on many aspects: exhibition services, distribution, alternative content and advertising. XDC is probably the only company in Europe able to provide smart solutions for each of these revenue segments.”<p > Under the terms of the agreement, which is to be finalized within the next three months, XDC will exclusively install DCI-compliant digital projection systems: 174 2K Cinema projectors and XDC’s CineStore® Solo G3 D-Cinema servers. XDC will also implement a fully integrated and networked solution in each of the 20 complexes, thanks to its advanced Theatre Management System and Central Library, the XDC’s CineStore® Plaza.<p > Digital Cinema Polska will carry out the installations and maintenance, as well as the frontline helpdesk.

Cinedigm Digital Cinema Corp. (NASDAQ: CIDM) announced today that it will host the first-ever, live virtual Q&A between a film cast and theatre audiences nationwide as a part of the June 19, 2009 opening night of the feature film “The Narrows.”

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NEC Corporation of America, a premier provider of IT, network and identity management solutions, today unveiled the new NEC NC2500S-A digital cinema projector. As Hollywood studios begin requiring a higher level of brightness for 3D movie releases, NEC is the only provider to offer all pre-existing customers this new feature in their current models with a simple upgrade. The world-renowned Ziegfeld Theatre will be among the first of NEC’s customers to embrace these new projectors.

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Ballantyne of Omaha, Inc. (NYSE Amex: BTN), a provider of cinema equipment and services, today outlined investments it is making to expand its cinema screen manufacturing capacity at its Strong/MDI Screen Systems, Inc. subsidiary, based in Joliette, Quebec, Canada.

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Christie announced the completion and official opening of the new Christie Managed Services state-of-the-art Network Operations Center (NOC) facility in Cypress, California.  Addressing the growth of digital cinema and on-screen advertising, the NOC features have expanded and upgraded capacity to monitor, maintain and service tens of thousands of digital projectors and related devices across the U.S. and Canada on a 24/7, year-round basis.  It also offers greater capability to handle devices from post-production to large group training centers and control rooms.

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