The Digitalization of Films, Cinemas, and Festivals (discussion)

The Auditorium of The Finnish Labour Museum Werstas, Tampere, Tampere Film Festival, 13 March 2010. Moderator: Jukka-Pekka Laakso.
- Tillman Scheel (Reelport GmbH, Europe's Finest, Germany)
- Per Fikse (Minimalen Short Film Festival, Norway)
- Tero Koistinen (CEO, The Finnish Film Chamber, Finland)
Norway's first-run cinemas will be all digital, no 35 mm, in July 2010.
For short film festivals you need a media scaler to fit all films that are not in the DCP format. You need to get the movie one week ahead to digitize the media.
There will be no need for 3D film festivals soon, as 80% of the new releases will be in 3D.
Digitization excludes small cinemas and small films.
The first Europe's Finest releases in Finland will be Cul-de-sac, Repulsion, Jag är nyfiken gul, and Orphée.
Reelport Film Market service: there were 3555 short films at the database during the Tampere Film Festival, accessible for the media professionals. There will be a pretty complete library of European short films. - I was a client of the Reelport Film Market service for the first time, and I am happy to testify that this is the best film market service I have ever experienced.
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My remarks: The digital roll-out is at its most hectic right now, but there are great digital issues still to be solved: 1) the visual quality is too often flat and lifeless due to inadequate digital intermediates, 2) there are no digital cinema standards, only compliances, 3) there must be a way to sustain access to our immense photochemical film heritage from 120 years, 4) there is no digital preservation standard for digital movies; film is still the preservation standard also for digitally created movies.