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The Second Sight Podcast, © 2007 Alexa D. O'Brien, (27:52)

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The Second Sight offers insight and analysis on the media and entertainment industry - an often misunderstood or mischaracterized sector of the American economic and cultural landscape in the midst of its own technological and cultural shifts - from globalization and the emerging creative economy; to digital technology and the evolving aesthetic and nature of content; to the growing technological cross fertilization between media, defense, and medicine.

My name is Alexa D. O'Brien . For the next two months, we will focus our attention towards understanding the evolving nature of the below-the-line training cycle for motion picture technicians, in the face of both digital technologies and newer end to end digital workflows; and the coming of age, so to speak, of the game generation - the older cusp of which, now in their mid thirties, having finally entered their productive years as journeymen technicians and content creators.

Jendra Jarnagin is one of a handful of New York based directors of photography who has shot with the Viper. She has over thirteen years of professional shooting and lighting experience, and her cinematography credits include numerous commercials and over thirty short films. She also worked as a lighting technician on major Hollywood films and episodic television, such as "Sex and the City" and "Law and Order". Jendra recently collaborated on the recent Alexis Krasilovsky documentary, Women Behind the Camera, featuring interviews with camerawomen from all over the world. Jendra Jarnagin, shot, field produced, and directed the projects New York interviews: including Ellen Kuras, ASC; Sandi Sissel, ASC; Lisa Rinzler; and Giselle Chamma. I am pleased to have Jendra Jarnagin for a Second Sight Podcast interview. Welcome.

Jendra Jarnagin

Thank you.

Alexa D. O'Brien

Tell me about Women Behind the Camera.

Jendra Jarnagin

Women Behind the Camera is a feature length documentary that has interviews...I think they interviewed over eighty women from all over the world. I am not sure the final count in the edit. Cinematographers, documentarians, journalists, camera operators, even some camera assistants...about their jobs in different countries and partly of course some of it deals with being a woman in that job.

Alexa D. O'Brien

What was the experience like listening to these camerawomen, because you are a camera woman yourself?

Jendra Jarnagin

Watching the documentary itself was really exciting to, I guess, identify with how international the struggles of women in a male dominated field, but also the triumphs of women and the universality of the job, gender aside, that transcended international boundaries. There are interviews from India and Afghanistan, China, you name it, it's in there. It's really a unique film in that way.

Alexa D. O'Brien

Was there anything about that project...that as you were working on it...that surprised you...that you learned...that you didn't know before?

Jendra Jarnagin

I had the opportunity to see a few rough cuts as the documentary was being shaped, so when the project was substantially longer than a feature documentary naturally gets paired down to. It was really interesting for me to see, I guess, the depth of experiences, and again, just the international side of it. I hadn't really though about that before. Being a New Yorker, I think about how things are different in L.A. and I am spending more time in L.A. and sort of feeling that out for myself, but the European women and the Asian women and everything like that, I guess, did surprise me.

Alexa D. O'Brien

What was one of the experiences that you heard in the process of either directing or shooting the interviews or in viewing the final product that you related to? Was there something that you heard from the women...that were involved...that were being interviewed...that you related to?

Jendra Jarnagin

There is one quote in particular that Ellen Kuras often says. I have seen her on different panels and different interviews; I sort of follow her career; being a sort of a role model of mine. And my favorite things that she says is that when people ask her what is it like to be a woman in a man's job, she says, "Its not a man's job, it's my job." So that has always stuck with me as a much better way to define it, and it really doesn't have to do with gender. People think that it does because of...historically or traditionally, but that is definitely changing now, and the documentary definitely shows that.

Alexa D. O'Brien

Tell me a little bit about how you chose to become a cinematographer.

Jendra Jarnagin

I was lucky enough to be invited into a gifted and talented extracurricular program in middle school and one of the choices was that we could spend one day out of school every month...one of the choices was to work at the local public access TV station. And I thought that sounded really cool. So I checked that box and started going there, and being twelve years old my options at that point for career choices were, you know, the things you hear about in elementary school, "I want to be a doctor, a lawyer, an astronaut, a fireman...when I grow up." But I walk into this TV studio and see all these interesting people doing all these really interesting jobs and I decided that day that I wanted to be a filmmaker. It took probably about three more years of learning about the process and the break down of job responsibilities for me to understand the cinematographer's role and that is when I realized that I didn't actually want to be a director, I wanted to be a cinematographer.

Alexa D. O'Brien

What was it about cinematography that you found interesting?

Jendra Jarnagin

I had always loved photography and storytelling, and the visual storytelling aspect of filmmaking is what really appealed to me. It wasn't writing. It wasn't directing actors. It was interpreting the drama of the story through light and color and camera movement that really spoke to me, and I sort of considered...I kind of feel like it's my calling in life to be a cinematographer.

Alexa D. O'Brien

And do you feel drawn to any particular genre of filmmaking or are you more varied?

Jendra Jarnagin

I am varied. I guess my favorite genre would be quirky comedies. I really like independent films that present things in a new and interesting way, that are not just sort of your generic romantic comedy, or your blockbuster action film. Though I think action films have gotten more sophisticated over the last few years. I really like the 'Bourne' movies and the way that they are portrayed visually is, I guess, far more interesting to me then to some of the earlier action films, which I find to be a lot more cookie cutter.

Alexa D. O'Brien

Do you think there are differences between men and women cinematographers?

Jendra Jarnagin

I don't want to get in trouble for saying so, but I think there are. I think a lot of people, and other women that where interviewed in the documentary said, "No, that's rubbish." But, I do think that the generalizations of how women differ from me are pluses to being a cinematographer: That women are more emotional, I think makes women have the potential to be better artists; that women are more detail oriented; that women are better communicators; that they are more team builders, are all things that I think are beneficial in the role of being a cinematographer. Which isn't to say that a man can't be any or all of those things; but I do think that women are more inherently so...and that those are all real benefits.

Alexa D. O'Brien

What are some of the challengers that you face on your road to becoming a working cinematographer?

Jendra Jarnagin

It's always challenging to consistently find the kind of work that you actually want to do. Sure there are all kinds of content and all kinds of projects out there, but the more advanced you get in your career, the more selective that you want to be...that you want to take on projects that are really going to reward you creatively. So I guess the biggest challenge is choosing to be an artist who works in such a collaborative medium is that we need to be chosen for projects in order to have the opportunity to express our art. So I have found that I need to feed my own soul between projects. Sometime you take a project that is more of a 'money job', or maybe doesn't turn out as well as you thought it would, and just that...that drive for creative fulfillment...if you are relying on the projects that you get chosen to shoot can be frustrating without taking that into your own hands, and finding your own creative work to augment that.

Alexa D. O'Brien

Do you think that the culture of shooting and filmmaking is changing, or do you think it is plugging along in the way that it has been in the last twenty years?

Jendra Jarnagin

The rate at which filmmaking and the culture of filmmaking is changing is alarming. Well, I don't know if alarming is the right word. I don't know if it has a...if I really want to put that negative of a spin on it, but it is certainly more and more work to keep up with the changing technology, and to stay one step ahead be competitive, on the one hand.

One the other hand, I am interested in all of these new tools and technology. So I am finding that it is taking a lot more of my effort, and what would otherwise be free time between jobs, to just stay abreast of everything: trends, technology...and I don't really get to have time to do other things.

Even the way that we as filmmakers relate to each other...we are all just talking about the technology so much, because we are all so interested in it...that people don't seem to talk about the art as much any more. They don't talk about their creative challenges. Everyone really focuses on the technology.

On the other hand, I see the democratization of filmmaking that has gone along with the digital revolution, that there has been a devaluing of cinematographers, but of filmmakers in general. Especially with some of the marketing hype of some of the camera manufacturers...that it is portrayed and a lot of people have come to believe that anyone who can afford to buy a twenty five hundred dollar camera can go out and call themselves a shooter, or buy themselves a two thousand dollar laptop and a thousand dollar software package and call themselves an editor. People don't respect the experience, the knowledge, the talent in the same way that they use to when everything was shot on film...there was...it was all magic to people. Now a lot of people think that they can just do it themselves and they don't need to pay qualified people, or they don't understand the contribution that a real experienced professional can make to their production.

Alexa D. O'Brien

What is driving that? Is it just simply the affordability of the technology? What do you see as driving that?

Jendra Jarnagin

It is hard to say what is driving that. I guess attitudes and change in culture need to come from somewhere. I guess that there is just such a need for content that not every kind of content has the budgets for people to even consider paying anything more than what they have to. But it has become so competitive that people are willing to give it away, and as long as that continues to happen, people don't see the need to go beyond that.

Alexa D. O'Brien

What can an experienced cinematographer like yourself bring to a project that a kid who buys a camera can't? Give me an example....draw that out for the audience, so that they know what you mean.

Jendra Jarnagin

Well I think in any job, having experience is a benefit to not having experience. To give a specific example: Going into a location and knowing how to light it instinctually, or drawing from your own experience could be a lot faster and a lot more efficient, than if someone needs to tinker around and find what they are trying to do. Also, in preproduction, an experienced person can put together a lighting package that will serve the needs of the production, without necessarily needing to order extra stuff, which they know that they are not to need because they have done it before. Also just better results that come from the confidence of having done it before, and I guess better communication and a more fulfilling creative relationship as well.

Alexa D. O'Brien

How is narrative changing...the aesthetics of narrative in terms of the movement of the camera and the way in which...I mean obviously lighting is going to be specific to the script, and what is going on and the mood that you are trying to create...but in terms of camera movement and it terms of editing, how do you think that that has changed, lets say, in the last fifteen years?

Jendra Jarnagin

Well I do want to address what you said about lighting reflecting mood. I think that lighting trends do along with the camera trends as far as reality television and documentary being a more mainstream medium than it use to be as far as having mass appeal...are definitely influencing narrative filmmaking...where people think that in order for it to feel more 'real.' or more immediate that it should be this frenetic camera movement...this shaky cam trend that you see maybe in TV shows like "The Office" or things that are trying to have a 'mock-umentary' look to them, but the lighting as well...where people don't want...or not everyone wants a beautified look, or overly glossy look that has come to be interpreted as unnatural...like to have it look more real, people will often want to do things more intentionally sloppy and non glamorized.

So I do think lighting plays into that, and of course editing...I guess we have gone beyond the MTV generation but certainly the speed at which music videos and even still commercials...the attention spans of the audience...or at least the assumed attention spans of the audience...I think people tend to not give the audience enough credit...has affected the pace of editing, the number of shot to cover a scene, that you do not see people holding on a two shot in the editing the way that they use to, or staging the action within a wide shot the way that Woody Allen is famous for...even in some degrees Hitchcock. It is just a lot more, fast paced.

Alexa D. O'Brien

Tell me about the experience of working with the Viper and how it compares to more traditional acquisition for you?

Jendra Jarnagin

By more traditional acquisition do you mean film or...?

Alexa D. O'Brien

I mean film.

Jendra Jarnagin

I come a film background, and I still love film...and I really wasn't very interested in digital when I had a choice. Certainly if a project had to be done digitally and there was something about that project that I still wanted to do I understood that the budget was an issue...when budget was the main reason to shoot something digitally.

Only since the Viper, which I would say is probably the first of the next generation of extended dynamic range cameras...did I really feel like digital was a viable choice for narrative filmmaking. Without the extra information and the tonal range that these new cameras offer, I just found that it was...that shooting on video or the older styles of HD was just too much of a compromise visually and artistically and I do think that audiences do notice that, and there was definitely...I even hears a backlash from independent films trying to sell their movies that distributors...that distributors were far less likely to be interested in something shot on digital than they were something shot on film, no matter how good the movie was.

So the Viper...I really enjoyed shooting with the Viper and I didn't feel...when I started shooting with the Viper...that is when I really started to focus on the pros of digital acquisition versus the cons, and I had one epiphany in particular where I was shooting this scene...there was a movie that I shot some additional photography for, called The Wreck. I was not the DP for principal photography, but I did the reshoots; and there was this scene where...it was the beginning of the film...and it was the introduction of one of the principal characters and we shot him in a complete and total silhouette.

I thought that that was pretty bold for an exposure standpoint, and if I had been shooting film I would have, to be honest with myself I would have put a little more exposure into his face, because I would for fear of being fired, when the dailies came back...that the producer, the director, even the actor seeing that after the fact when it was too late would be like, "What are you doing? We can't see the actor's face. It's the introduction of this character you can't do that!" But because the director and producer were on set, and we did have monitoring capabilities on set, they could see what I was doing, and they really liked it. They signed off on it on the spot and that gave me more freedom to be more bold, and it was a liberating feeling that makes me, I guess more excited to be able to continue to do that in the future shooting digitally.

Alexa D. O'Brien

What opportunities, aesthetically, practically, in whatever way, do you see happening in the next ten years lets say with this new technology?

Jendra Jarnagin

Well the new technology is exciting to me from a...you know, I always like learning new things...and there is a lot out there right now and I think that 2007 is sort of a figure of the sea change that digital acquisition became a reality as far as what filmmakers and cinematographers wanted it to be....instead of the tools that we are being made to use reluctantly.

So I am excited about were things are going, even where things are at now, that they weren't even a year ago, and I don't know if I have been thinking about how its artistically exciting more than the technologically exciting. I am a technical person and I have been thinking about it from the technical angle, but I am just taking the opportunity to learn as much as I can about all these new cameras as they hit the market or if possible, even before they hit the market to sort of position myself as on the cutting edge of these kind of things, and hopefully that will help edge me out of some of my competitors when I am interviewing for jobs.

So I guess I have been thinking of it more of a career strategy standpoint and not so much an artistic standpoint...I still love 35mm film. I still think that the organic quality speaks to our soul in a way that electronic doesn't. But just like with digital still cameras I do see that the writing is on the wall...that the image quality is approaching close enough...that that isn't the biggest factor, that that the pros outweigh the cons in terms of convenience, immediate viewing and even cost, though of course these fancy new cameras are not exactly cheap right now.

Alexa D. O'Brien

There is definitely a difference between high-end digital and 35mm film, in my opinion. How would you describe it for yourself?

Jendra Jarnagin

It is definitely hard to define and hard to verbalize how film is different than even the best digital. All of the specifics that cinematographers have been defining over the years have been addresses in newer and newer cameras. I thought that digital couldn't look as good as it does today, and it does. We saw the 35mm frame size and depth of field characteristics with new cameras, such as the Genesis, the D-20, the Dalsa. The highlight detail was the worst thing about video and then that has been solved with all the new next generation extended dynamic range cameras.

Though we have pinpointed these things and they are being addressed better than any of us, well maybe somebody knew, but better than most of us thought would even be possible, there is still something about film; and I really don't know how to describe it, other than that it is organic...that it is beautiful . The subtleties of the color...maybe that is the only thing that I can still pinpoint as the subtlety of film, but I don't know, as we are being bombarded by more and more digital content, I don't know that the viewer will continue to see of feel the difference.

I think I feel right now film buffs, connoisseurs, people who love to go to the cinema: they can tell. They may be not able to articulate it, but they can tell. But as we have our big home entertainment systems and people are watching everything on DVD, and even television shows have gotten so good that more and more people are watching television shows instead of movies all the time. I don't know that, you know that that is going to continue to matter to the viewer. The only way that the viewer gets to speak their opinion is with their pocketbooks. So if people are still seeing digitally shot films in the same numbers in the same number of films shot on film then the studios aren't going to care.

Alexa D. O'Brien

Tell me what you are going to be working on in the near future.

Jendra Jarnagin

My next project, I am really excited about. Its a short film, a kung fu action Film in 3D. It's called "Heavy Metal Ninjas in 3D". I think the title says it all. Of course shooting 3D is an opportunity that does not come around very often, so I am very excited about that. I am waiting to here about a feature...I don't have the job yet so I can't speak about it, and I don't want to jinx it either. I am also talking to someone right now about doing a documentary in New Orleans.

Alexa D. O'Brien

Awesome...well I really appreciate your time Jendra.

Jendra Jarnagin

Thank you very much....apleasure talking to you.

Alexa D. O'Brien

Thank you. To find out more about Jendra Jarnagin visit her website at http://www.floatingcamera.com. To find out more about Women Behind the Camera visit http://www.womenbehindthecamera.com/ Until next time, this is Alexa D. O'Brien for The Second Sight.

The Second Sight Podcast, © 2006 Alexa D. O'Brien, (26:35)

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The Second Sight offers insight and analysis on the media and entertainment industry - an often misunderstood or mischaracterized sector of the American economic and cultural landscape in the midst of its own technological and cultural shifts - from globalization and the emerging creative economy; to digital technology and the evolving aesthetic and nature of content; to the growing technological cross fertilization between media, defense, and medicine.

My name is Alexa D. O'Brien . For the next two months, we will focus our attention towards understanding the evolving nature of the below-the-line training cycle for motion picture technicians, in the face of both digital technologies and newer end to end digital workflows; and the coming of age, so to speak, of the game generation - the older cusp of which, now in their mid thirties, having finally entered their productive years as journeymen technicians and content creators.

Today, we are talking with cameraperson, John Clemens. For seventeen years now, Clemens has ac'ed and operated for directors of photography like Lance Acord (Buffalo 66 and Lost in Translation). His most recent work with Acord was on a Mercedes Benz spot that Acord shot and directed. John has also worked with Joseph Yacoe, known for his commercial and music videos work. Clemens most recent job with Yacoe included a hair product commercial with Penelope Cruz. Director of photography, Darren Lew, who has shot commercials for the likes of Clinique, Versace, Nike, and Adidas, and who began his own career as a still assistant to renowned fashion photographer, Steven Meisel, has said of John Clemens:

"I have never worked with a camera assistant who had it more in his blood than John. He has got a sixth sense for focus and a working method of military precision and consistency, it is no wonder he works with the greatest DP's from all over the world. His skill goes beyond the technical--he quietly contributes to the art of camera work each time we work together everyone else becomes second best after working with John."

John Clemens' credits include Buffalo 66, Naqoyqatsi: Life as War, and Requiem for a Dream. I am honored to have John Clemens on the line for a Second Sight pod cast interview.

Alexa D. O'Brien

Hi, John. How are you?

John Clemens

Good. How are you doing?

Alexa D. O'Brien

I'm good, thank you. John, why did you become a camera assistant?

John Clemens

I primarily became a camera assistant...I was studying photography. I studied photography my whole life. I was in college at the time, and I just felt like I wasn't getting enough of both film and photography in college. So, I left college and eventually, a number of months later, became a production assistant with hopes of moving into the camera department.

Alexa D. O'Brien

What was one of your first projects as a camera assistant?

John Clemens

I guess one of the most memorable projects...Sandy Hayes, a wonderful steadicam operator, had called me up to assist for him on a music video that we were doing. This was early on, and we were shooting, Hype Williams was directing, and I met Mike Garofalo on the set, and from that day forward I went to work with Mike as well as a second AC, and things just really flourished from there.

Alexa D. O'Brien

Sandy Hayes credits include Garden State staring Natalie Portman. In 2006, Hype Williams became the recipient of the MTV Lifetime Achievement Award, and his more recent work includes music videos like Kanye West's "Gold Digger" featuring Jamie Foxx. Mike Garofalo's has also been around for years, and his more recent credits include "Dave Chappelle's Block Party."

What is one lesson that stands out for you as you were rising through the ranks of the camera department?

John Clemens

Just maintain, stay focused. Be very even keeled, and try to keep your ears open. Listen to the director, director of photography, assistants and the other crewmembers as they are communicating; and in essence, they are all trying to get the job done, you know, fulfill an idea that is being put forth to them.

Alexa D. O'Brien

Tell me about one of your more challenging jobs?

John Clemens

You know, they have all been challenging in certain respects...in their own respects. Looking back on it, I sort of still get a little nervous on Buffalo 66, due to the fact that we were shooting Ektachrome film for that project, and we were doing clip tests for each scene; but ultimately we had most of the...I would say 90 percent of the movie in the can without developing a single stretch of film for dailies. So, that was probably the most nerve wracking project I have worked on.

Alexa D. O'Brien

How do you handle stress on a job?

John Clemens

At this point, I try not to get stressed out about much. Stress just adds another level that you really don't need to think about in the process of doing your job. You know, occasionally you will be thrown a loop...thrown into a situation where you are really fighting yourself...and stress really works against you, when you are trying to figure out an answer to a problem in a certain situation.

Alexa D. O'Brien

You mentioned Buffalo 66, are there any other projects that stand out in your memory?

John Clemens

You know, there are just so many to be honest with you. Looking back, I would really have to think at length to try to pull out the one that really sticks in my mind. They have all played a really important part through out the years.

I mean going back, Sandy Hayes and I had the opportunity to work on Woodstock, the Barbara Koppel documentary, that still hasn't been released yet. Sandy and I were on one of the crews that were send out to pick up and photograph three days of the festival all on our own; and that was just a real thrill, especially with my love for music videos as well as music.

Alexa D. O'Brien

Why do you love music videos?

John Clemens

You know, that is a great question. Probably, because I remember the first time MTV came on the air over cable; and it was just a point in my life where I was at the right age, very into music, and then it was really groundbreaking to have these wonderful commercials for songs that you absolutely love. Ultimately that is really what drove me into the film business. I really wanted to spend the rest of my days making music videos.

Alexa D. O'Brien

We seem to be at another crossroads in terms of the nature and aesthetics of content...what do you think about what is going on in music videos or shorter format for Internet distribution?

John Clemens

I think it is all very exciting. I mean, there are still a number of music videos being made, lots of features, lots of commercials. In terms of the advent of the Internet, you know, more and more, we are shooting stuff that is both for television, for commercials before movies, feature length movies in theaters, as well as for Internet content. So, it just provides, in my opinion, another great opportunity to work in the film business.

Alexa D. O'Brien

Is there a common denominator that all great AC's share?

John Clemens

I guess with anything you chose to do, I tend to believe that you choose to do something because you are really passionate about it, not so much because of the money. The money is not necessarily secondary - it is nice. Don't get me wrong. But, ultimately you have to be happy with what you do, and I think if you are passionate about anything, ultimately you will be successful.

Alexa D. O'Brien

Why are you so passionate about photography or cinematography? What is it? Have you thought about that? Do you know why you are passionate about it?

John Clemens

You know, I have been passionate about photography ever since I was a child; my grandfather teaching me photography, color photography, black and white photography. It has always been just a part of my life. So, other than that I really can't tell you much more, why I am so passionate about it, except that it has always been such a part of me.

Alexa D. O'Brien

Do great ac's approach their job differently or do they all sort of approach the job in the same way?

John Clemens

I would imagine that somebody who is successful at what they do, tend to do things just a little bit differently. They have a different approach, different style, different personality, a different way that they see things. I would imagine, more often than not, that would be the case. Back to being very passionate, enjoying their job very much, being a part of the crew and the film making process. Honestly, I fell that that is ultimately what makes a great ac, a great gaffer, a great director of photography. Just having a great passion, a great source of pride, you know, in their craft.

Alexa D. O'Brien

Has the training cycle changed since you began your career?

John Clemens

No, I don't think it has changed that much. It is interesting because there is no specific training cycle, so to speak. Some people come through camera houses. Some people come out of film school. Some people just....myself I was a stage manager at Peter Corbett and Co., and, you know, for example on the weekend when the stage was closed, I use to go over there and play around with the cameras and do some shooting there. So, it's just a matter of...there are so many roads to Rome. There are so many ways to approach the jobs, as well as your background...background in education and personality. Taking that all into account, I wouldn't say there was a generational difference with becoming an assistant cameraperson.

Alexa D. O'Brien

So, if I understand you correctly you wouldn't say that there are major differences between your generation and the one that is coming up now.

John Clemens

No, I don't think so. There is definitely lots more opportunities. Well, lots of opportunities for an assistant to hone his skills and gain the experience. They are still shooting both lots of independent and higher budget films. Music videos are still being photographed. We live in an age where cultures can get enough information, and couple that with the fact that we are now working video as well as film, it seems like the opportunities are just ever so abundant, in terms for working technicians, artists, in the film business.

Alexa D. O'Brien

I have heard from several older professionals that the younger generation coming up seem more afraid to admit when they do not know something. Some have even gone so far as to characterize that propensity as a form of arrogance. Would you respond to that?

John Clemens

I would respond to that, it depends on the person's experience in the film business for starters. I would imagine that perhaps, not so much the arrogance but the naivety of the people not seeking any sort of advice. You know, I would imagine that they are a lot less experienced within the film business. I would take a guess at and the reason being is because the film business overall is a communicative art form and the people making it, the best projects ultimately turn out with how well the crew members are communicating on set. The flow of ideas within the set, from the top from the director, down through even the production assistants. As much as anyone would deny it, it is a very collaborative form of art and communication. So, you know, I would just imagine that the lack of experience, it just boils down...a by-product of that lack of experience would boil down to the lack of communication between the different technicians on set. I wouldn't...it seems to me to be a very large call that it would be a little bit arrogant, you know. I wouldn't be able to say that that particular example is a matter of arrogance as much a s a lack of experience, more than anything.

Alexa D. O'Brien

I often think to myself that there are so many different forces changing the culture of below the liners from one of craftspeople who goes through a formal apprenticeship to a culture of technicians who very often approaches the job from the point of view of perhaps self education, perhaps climbing the ladder faster than their predecessors, would you comment on that?

John Clemens

You bump into a situation where someone jumps a rung on the ladder or whatnot, but ultimately it is the relationships that you have within a business, that you have formed through out your lifetime even...not just in art school or, it could be a social gathering, or it could be someone who is self-taught could possibly have made their own movies and just excelled in a certain craft whether it being shooting, focus pulling, you know. Again, it brings us around to that there are a lot of approaches into, you know, any particular type of filmmaking. If you wanted to narrow it down and say whether it be commercials or you have to be a little more specific in terms of you know what kind of work is being produced. But ultimately it is a funny system in how, you know, very experienced ac's, very experienced craftspeople, tend to do larger budget type shows, quite possibly. That is not to say that somebody with less experience wouldn't be invited along as well.

Alexa D. O'Brien

What I hear you saying is that the skill set or even art remains the same, it is the tools that change...

John Clemens

To a degree. You know like any craft, you need to learn new tools on a daily basis, you know. It is a wonderful thing there is always going to be change. There is always going to be new tools, better tools. There is also going to be tools that are not better, but they fit a particular application for a different look or a different situation. You know, it is an ever evolving process, you know, not too much stays the same these days; although things within the film business tend to be a little bit slower changing. If you look at how memory and computers, and computer systems and how quickly they change and how quickly you have to learn new systems, the film business is still offered new film stocks, new lenses, new cameras, new technology, all the time, and that is an evolution of any given thing. And it keeps it exciting and you have to not only reinvent yourself, but, first and foremost, you have to relearn and along with relearning a new tool, film stock, camera et cetera. Ultimately, the new tools create new possibilities for new looks and new projects and new ideas of how to approach a new shooting style or situation, and it is quite a growing bit, it keeps the business growing with fresh ideas as well as a lot of new tools are culturally based. Different filming styles are based on what is happening within pop culture, and not to throw away old cultural filming values, but just to give you an idea of the ever-changing possibilities that you are handed on a daily basis.

Alexa D. O'Brien

How has digital technology changed the aesthetics of motion picture imaging?

John Clemens

From my perspective, it has given a whole other opportunity to stylize as well as capture imaging as well as to present ideas in essence of director, director of photography as well as the technicians. So it is a wonderful opportunity, it is a wonderful new tool and it has at times, it has very specific applications, if you are going to video Internet. It just opens up many more doors for opportunity within the business.

Alexa D. O'Brien

Are you referring in part to the immediacy of digital technology vis-à-vis film?

John Clemens

To a degree, I mean I was reading an article...that is one of the main reason's Roberto Rodriguez really enjoys shooting digital is the immediacy of it, the immediacy of being able to play back a particular scene to see if that was a selected take for him or if he would like to do it again. There are some people who are very into the immediacy of it. My experience with it so far, we are in the midst of doing an HD project right now both in New York and New Orleans and San Francisco, and we haven't really had the need for the immediacy. To see the exposed image that quickly, actually we have photographed everything and then we have handed off the tapes to the editor. We haven't even taken a look at them. It is a commercial, although that shouldn't mean too much. We are not playing back anything. It is documentary style. So, you know, for some people it would be a matter of the immediacy of capturing on video. More often than not it really boils down to multi-camera shooting, whether it be for broadcast as well as it seems that there is a feeling that...there is a feeling that there are the economics of shooting video as opposed to shooting film. And I haven't quite figured out the economic yet, it doesn't seem to make sense for me. So, I really cannot make a judgment call on that.

Alexa D. O'Brien

How has optical technology changed or advanced for cinematography in the last decade?

John Clemens

Being the purchaser of new motion picture lenses I can attest that they are just... the technology on the glass is just so superior, whether it be computer-designed elements within a zoom lens for example, or within a prime lens. Lens design these days is so far superior and complex, probably due to the computer. Lens coatings and the technology that laid down those lens coatings on a lens for the same reasons, are much more advanced. You know, they are constantly striving for lenses with better resolution, better optical quality, better physical performance in terms of moving gears, and moving elements within each other, and lenses that are faster, are longer, and have in essence a better minimum focus on them; and all these just add to the experience and improvements within the image capture on both motion picture cameras as well as video cameras.

Alexa D. O'Brien

Has the workflow change with higher end digital technology, whether it be HD or larger chip cameras?

John Clemens

Not too much for the camera assistant. You still have the same issues, or the same workflow, not necessarily issues, but that is more part of the job: maintaining the camera in a good working order, making sure the focus is coming up and is collimated correctly both on the lenses and the cameras. You do have a back focus issue on some of the Sony cameras, the Panasonic cameras, but ultimately the workflow is the same. You are maintaining the cameras so they work properly, and they will for the long run, and they hold up very well. You are maintaining the focus, and that the lenses are calibrated properly. The same situation on motion picture cameras. The workflow on set: you are still getting marks, you are still pulling focus on them, and the lens manufacturers have done a wonderful job with making film style lenses for the video cameras that make it that much more comfortable as well, both comfortable for the assistant and the operator. But as well, to somewhat give a more filmic depth of field to the video cameras. Ultimately, the only thing that changes within the workflow is you most of the time you'll have a...on the Sony and Panasonic cameras, smaller chip cameras that are manufactured by Sony, Panasonic, Fuji, you will have a digital imaging technician to keep a better eye on your color rendering as well as your highlights and low lights, to make sure that you are within the boundaries of capturing those highlights and lowlights and everything in between. Panavision and Arriflex have done a wonderful job with their two video cameras, digital HD cameras that they came out with, that maintain the exact workflow of the film cameras that are being utilized today. There is no back focus issues on them. The menus are relatively the same as, you know, a standard thirty-five motion picture camera. So, they have done a wonderful job in maintaining the workflow on their end. So, overall with the question that you have asked: the workflow is, I would say, is still the same regardless of which cameras you are shooting ultimately your responsibilities haven't changed.

Alexa D. O'Brien

I recently spoke with a director of photography who made the point to me that with digital technology there are so many more variables in the digital work flow that affect image quality. Do you think that that is a fair thing to say?

John Clemens

I think that is truly a fair thing to say. For example, with film you are using...just a small number of film stocks, whether it be Fuji, Agfa, or Kodak. And with experience with those film stocks, you can narrow it down quite well and pinpoint the look that you want to achieve. Now with the digital HD cameras there is no flat-line between the...there is no starting point for example within...even from camera to camera, but let me not jump ahead of myself, there is no baseline between a Sony, a Panasonic chip and even within the same series of cameras. There are little anomalies inherent within each camera that it is hard to gauge a baseline off of. They are good in giving you the tools necessary to change those little nuances whether it be between cameras within a particular manufacturer or a cameras from different manufacturers. But ultimately there is a little bit more work in coming to a known with digital cameras as there is with film and the experience that you have with a certain film stock for example, so there is a...the tolerances are squeeze down a bit on you.

Alexa D. O'Brien

John I really want to thank you for your time today.

John Clemens

Oh, thank you Alexa. It has been a pleasure. Have a good day.

Every Oscar for Best Picture since the first Academy Awards in 1928 has honored a motion picture recorded on film from the Eastman Kodak Company. Since the dawn of the motion picture industry, Kodak has served as a driving force in filmmaking science and technology, providing negative, print, and sound film, digital intermediate post-production work, and digital cinema products and services. In a November 2005 Lehman Brothers Equity Research Report, analysts Sabbagha and Talbott, estimated that Eastman Kodak earnings from entertainment film revenues were $1 billon annually, forty percent from their origination stock and sixty percent from their print stock. I wanted to learn more about how Kodak intended to protect is legacy brand in the midst of the emerging digital motion picture marketplace. Last month, I spoke with Bob Gibbons, Director of Marketing and Communications at Kodak Digital Cinema.

Alexa O'Brien

How has Kodak been preparing for the digital marketplace in regards to motion picture film?

Bob Gibbons

Let me just give you my view of digital cinema, because I have been involved with it since the beginning at Kodak. Around 1980, probably around the time of Disney's TRON, postproduction started going digital. The problem with computers in 1980 was that you needed a lot of power. You needed silicone graphics. Even if you had big computers, the quality of the postproduction, the special effects and so forth, was far less than film quality. So we said, why don't we come out with some sophisticated scanners and recorders to help maintain the quality of the product? So, we came out with a brand called Cineon. We also opened up a laboratory so we could improve those products and that was Cinesite, an effects company. As it turns out, other people started to come out with products. Pretty soon, there was a lot of good quality capability out there. Prices came down and there were more competitors in the marketplace.

Then we said, maybe we don't need to be in the product side of things. Maybe we ought to be in the service side of things, and continue to do effects. So we have two digital service companies: one in Hollywood called, LaserPacific, and one in London called, Cinesite that has done effects for Harry Potter and Narnia.

The next thing that happened was in the 1999; at ShoWest, there was a side-by-side comparison between film and digital. For the first time, exhibitors looked at digital on a big screen and said, "This looks pretty good. This looks a lot better than I thought it was going to look." So, we looked at it. I was at that meeting. A bunch of us came out of there and said, "One of two things is going to happen." Although digital looked pretty good, I mean it looked a lot better than people thought it would, there were still a lot of technical problems that needed to be solved. There was still a lot of edge-to-edge uniformity. There were still a lot of resolution issues. There was still a lot of stuff. We said, "Alright, before this is catches on, somebody needs to solve those technical problems. Maybe nobody will solve them. Maybe they are just too tough. in which case, film will last forever and won't that be great for us?" "On the other hand," we said, "Look, somebody is going to solve these problems, so why don't we solve them? We have over a hundred years of experience in color. We know a lot about image management. We also have a lot of patents on sensors and scanners. Why don't we start applying some of our sort of Kodak capability, or research capability, to solving the digital problems for digital cinema?"

So we started on a path that said, what we are going to do is when digital cinema is ready to move into the marketplace? We want to be ready with a solution, with a system to sell. If it never moves there, fine, but once it does, we want to be ready to go. People are either going to say, "Hey, I want to shoot film and print on film", in which case, they can choose Kodak; or "I want to use a digital system," in which case they can choose Kodak. That was the plan.

Now the problem was how are we going to pay for this. Well the way we started paying for it was by saying, "Look, if you look in the projection booth, you see there are really two projectors." This is 1999. One is a film projector that is putting the feature film on the screen; the other is a slide projector putting slides on the screen. We said, "What if we replaced that slide projector, with a low cost, business grade digital projector and put a network in? We will build a network, a cable network, which is to say a DSL line that goes from a Kodak headquarters' network operations center to the theater. Once it goes to the theater, it will end up at a big server in that theater." We called it a "content manager"-nothing to do with movies now, just pre-show. So, we did that. In fact, that was our starter.

We installed those systems in November 2003, and now we are up to a little above sixteen hundred screens, mostly in the U.S., a little bit in Canada; and a little bit in Japan. We have networks in place to those theaters. We have pre-show projectors tied into those networks. By the way, networks don't care what kind of data you are sending over the network. They don't care if you are sending image data, or numerical data or whatever. So the fact is that we can use those networks to manage bigger programs, manage bigger files, manage digital cinema. What we have done is partnered, which is to say we joined forces with Barco; which is one of the three manufacturers, projector manufacturers, who are licensed to use DLP technology, and we are working with them on installing full featured systems.

So right now, Kodak provides the network. Kodak provides the Cine Server, which is a big capable server, and Kodak works with Barco on the projectors. We do not build projectors, but we provide projectors. In fact, we provide all the service, all the support, all the content management. We've prepared the content for six or seven studios. We are working with Disney right now on Annapolis. Glory Road is out there. We did Narnia. We did Harry Potter for Warner Brothers. We did George Lucas, Fox, for his latest Star Wars. We did The Island, which is DreamWorks. We did Robots and Walk the Line which was Fox. We have done a bunch of movies.

Alexa O'Brien

Technicolor right now is in the process of beginning beta tests of their digital projection systems. It seems to me that Kodak has already done a quasi beta test with their networks and pre-show digital content. Would that be correct to assume?

Bob Gibbons

Yes. We have, but don't forget. The exhibitor lives in fear of one thing, a dark screen. You cannot test things enough for exhibitors. The fact that a small system works does not prove to the exhibitor that a big system works. The main difference, and I am oversimplifying, is that movies are encrypted. They are scrambled. Pre-show is not. If you want to pirate a pre-show advertisement, please do. The fact that a little projector works with small packets or files does not necessarily prove to an exhibitor that a big packet will work. They want to prove it for themselves. So, Technicolor is doing beta tests. We are doing beta tests. We have big digital projection systems in Chicago, Florida, and Rochester, where Kodak is based, close to our research people.

Alexa O'Brien

Are they 2K projectors?

Bob Gibbons

Yes. They are 2K and they are showing features. We already talked about some of the features, in addition to the pre-show systems that are out there. The idea is to create a system that starts with the smallest thing you can put on screen, which are pre-show advertisements; then the biggest thing you can put on screen, which are movies; and then go slightly beyond that. Starting on the first of January, we put five systems into Australia that show 3 D for example. We have been showing Disney's Chicken Little down in Australia, since the first of January.

To some extent, if you think about digital cinema. Digital cinema is both sort of a wonderful opportunity and a kind of an incredible challenge. The incredible challenge comes from the fact that somebody is going to have to pay for this thing and how are we going to do that? If you are an exhibitor, you probably have a fully functioning and fully paid for movie projector that runs film, that you probably bought twenty or twenty-five years ago, and that works great. It probably cost you $35,000. Now I'm going to go in and try to convince you to pull that out and replace it with an $85,000 projector that essentially does the same thing...

Alexa O'Brien

That might be obsolete in a few years...

Bob Gibbons

Yeah. Why would you want to do that? If you were only reinventing the wheel and calling it fire, the answer is, you wouldn't do that. You have to be able to do more with a digital system than you can do with an analogue system. In fact, you can do more. You can do a lot more. By having a network, you can, not only get content, you can also manage your business. You can take care of other expenses. If you just look at one technology replacing another, you are probably missing something. It has to bring something new. It has to be better, faster, cheaper. Once it gets to all three that's wonderful. If it is better and faster, that might be enough to convince you to spend more money on it.

Today, trailers are the most effective form of advertising for studios. You are already in a movie theater. You are already a movie fan. It's great targeted advertising. What happens is studios go to exhibitors, and say, "Please play my trailers," and the exhibitors say, "Alright. Absolutely. Of course." For whatever reason, the exhibitor has told every studio that he is going to play every trailer on every movie. By the way, audiences won't stand for that. So the studio knows the exhibitor is not going to play all of his trailers, but the studio sends the exhibitor all the trailers anyway. The studio sends them in flat and sends them in scope, which is to say wide-screen. Anyway, the studio says, "I wonder if the exhibitor is playing my stuff." So, the studio sends a checker into the theater to see if the trailer is playing, and that is an additional expense. Not only did they make the trailer, which cost them maybe $40 in processing and distribution costs; then they have to pay another $60 to the checker who goes into the theater. Now you have $100 to see if the trailer played. A digital system will tell you that automatically. Digital systems, such as ours, file audit reports every night. It tells you what played. You can to use digital to help defray or eliminate some of your other costs. A network helps you do that.

The other part is that digital can also enhance the entertainment experience, or change the entertainment experience, or add an incremental entertainment experience or do something that you can't do with film. Some of us are convinced that if you simply put a sign on your door that says, "I am going to show you this movie digitally, and by the way I want you to pay more for it." People in essence won't pay more for it. Now I say in essence, because for the first couple of weeks they might, but then after that it gets to be, "Hey do I want to pay twelve bucks to see a movie in digital or do I want to pay ten bucks to see it in film? You know, when film is done right, film looks great. I want to see the story. I don't care if I see a digital film." If you can do something like 3 D with Chicken Little. If you want to see Chicken Little in 3 D, you have to see it digitally. By the way, it doesn't cost $10 it costs $12 or $13 dollars or whatever. It's a different experience.

Alexa O'Brien

Theater attendance has certainly faced competition from alternative media before with the advent of television in the 1950s. Experiential marketing is so prevalent, today, as is the explosion of media rich content from video games for the gaming generation. Is a value added hyper-experience, for example with 3 D, what digital cinema can offer that a home theater cannot? In other words, will digital cinema change the nature of movie content?

Bob Gibbons

I think that people will go to the theater because of the social experience. There is something different about being with a hundred people then there is with being with two people. At the same time, I don't think technology itself is the answer for anything. It's the beginning of an answer. If you use one technology to replace another, it is probably a waste of your money. If you use technology as a starting point to say, what else can I do with this? How else could I use this? How can I in essence change the entire experience with this technology? Then, you have start on something.

The question is whether people will do the hard thinking and take the hard steps involved to get to that. If I decide that I want to show my slides with movies that attract teenage boys, it is a difficult thing to do. I have to change my slide tray. Every time I get a movie like Hostel or pick another movie that appeals to teenage boys, if that movie starts on screen one and by week two it's on screen four, then it's tough. With digital, you can do it with the click of a mouse. It's just easy. On our system its called targeting. On our system, you can target by screen. You can target by feature. You can target by studio. You can target by rating. You can target by genre. You can target by day-part, so that you can put different stuff on during the day than you do at night. You can target by location. You can target by circuit. You can essentially build your show with the click of a mouse.

Why would you want to do it? Some audiences are tough to reach on television. Teenage boys on television, you pay a fortune to reach those kids on TV. You might pay $100 a thousand to reach a teenage boy, where you pay $20 a thousand to reach a senior citizen. There is more money in it, if you use technology to do that, but nobody is. I mean the most they are doing is putting different stuff on R rated movies, than they are putting on G rated movies.

I will tell you where it is being done, though. It's being done in Europe on a per capita, per person basis. When you walk into the door the exhibitor makes money from you. The money they make from you is partially from a ticket price. It's partly from what you spend on concessions. It's a little bit if you play games, and stuff like that. If you are an exhibitor and you have a slide show, they are probably making seven cents from you. Over in Europe, when you walk through the door, they are making up to ninety four cents from you. Why? Because the have targeted stuff. They have sold it differently. They are showing you stuff you absolutely cannot see on television. It's different and they can sell it for a lot more money.

So think about that kind of model brought forward into the feature arena and think about what's going on in a typical theater during a typical week. Well a typical theater runs at twenty three percent occupancy in the United States. On weekends, it's crowded. Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday, few are there. What you could do, and I am just hypothesizing: Pink Panther, Firewall, and Failure to Launch are opening tomorrow. While they were shooting any of these movies, they were also gathering material for the DVD. You are going to have deleted screens. You are going to have director's commentary. You are going to have whatever you are going to have. That's done. Not only is that done, but that's digital and they got it. Why couldn't you create an enhanced experience? You can go on the weekend. A lot of people are going to want to go on the weekends, but every Wednesday night at my cinema, I am going to show you this DVD stuff that you are not going to be able to see before the DVD comes out. I am going to create an enhanced experience for you on Wednesday night. It's a hypothetical. Why can't you do it? The answer is you could. It's really easy.

Alexa O'Brien

How many digital projectors has Kodak installed in theaters?

Bob Gibbons

Since 1999, people have been placing projectors, and they have largely been beta tests. People haven't really paid for them. In other words, how many feature systems does Kodak have out there in the marketplace in test? The answer is three. If you said how many screens out there showing digital pre-show, the answer is a little over 1600. If you count all the screens around the world, there are about a 110,000 screens worldwide. There are about 38,000 in the United States. Of the 110,000, about 600 have digital capability. It's a tiny part and it will change. It will change but we have to get beyond these hurdles. It will take time.

Alexa O'Brien

Technicolor has a rollout plan. So does Access IT. Some of these plans are in the beta test phase. It is my understanding that Access IT is rolling out their own digital cinema systems without doing a beta test. Will the various networks be compatible? Are they analogous to cable television, where in a certain region Kodak has predominance, in another region Access IT has predominance?

Bob Gibbons

Well, there are two answers there. Will they be compatible? The answer is yes. The studios got together and formed the consortium for the Digital Cinema Initiatives. The purpose of DCI was to create a sort of the digital equivalent of 35mm film. The reason why film works worldwide and Warner Brothers can produce something here in Hollywood and show it over in India is that 35mm is 35mm. The studios said, "You know what, unless digital cinema works for all of us, it isn't going to work for any of us. We need to go to all theaters day-and-date around the world, so we better come up with standards." They have come up with is a concept called interoperability which means that everything fits together and everything operates with everything else. Now, that is a neat idea and obviously, what you want to do, but it's not there yet. In fact, it will probably be a while before it is there. So, if Kodak is going to show a movie on a Kodak system it is probably better that we prepare the content for that movie. If Technicolor is going to show a movie on their system it is probably better that they prepare the content. Interoperability will take a while to sort through the system. Then the systems will improve themselves and exhibitors will get more comfortable.

Alexa O'Brien

So, at some point Kodak would be able to prepare content for a Technicolor system...

Bob Gibbons

Sure. We will be preparing it. Everybody will be preparing it. The analogue world is very different from the digital world. The analogue world has really high barriers to entry. You want to make film, man oh man that requires investment. You want to participate in a digital business. You've seen what happens with special effects. When it started out you needed a Cray computer. Then you needed a silicone graphics computer. Now you need three guys with a Mac in their garage. That means really low barriers to entry. There are a lot of competitors. There will still be some shake out, but eventually, we'll all be able to prepare movies for everybody else.

Alexa O'Brien

In the digital marketplace, where there are lower barriers to entry, how will companies like Kodak or Technicolor protect their brands from the competition?

Bob Gibbons

That is the key question, isn't it? I mean what is the brand going to stand for. Clearly, we don't want to go the way of the studios. The studios basically gave away their brands, with the exception of Disney. I mean name the last six movies you saw and which studios produced them. Stars became their brands. What is the last Tom Cruise movie you've seen, or whoever, right? Guess why budgets are so high. The studios don't have any leverage. So, that is the challenge and that is the question.

Alexa O'Brien

Kodak is a fantastic brand identity. Kodak originating and print stocks for motion pictures are unparalleled. You certainly have the market share in those deliverables. I understand the landscape that you are describing but I am still not clear on what Kodak intends to do to protect its brand. Technicolor and Kodak both have long standing brand credibility compared to newer entrants like Access IT. A legacy brand can certainly help companies compete against newer entrants in a digital marketplace. In the flatter landscape of the digital marketplace, however, how will Kodak protect its brand from competitors like Technicolor, who also have a legacy brand?

Bob Gibbons

Let me just address a couple of things you said. First, how is Kodak going to protect their awesome legacy in origination film? One of the ways is by designing film to be part of a digital system. That means designing film that is more scanner-friendly. If you take the RGB curves, and make them exactly parallel to each other, then you make it easier to scan film. If you make a more scanner-friendly film, then that saves you time in the edit suite with your color timing. That is part of it. The other idea is to make film that breaks the speed-grain-sharpness triangle. If you wanted more sharpness, you had to trade off speed and you have a lower speed film. If you wanted less grain then you couldn't have speed. We have figured out ways to get around those trade offs.

The point is that film is the premier origination medium and will be for sometime. Now at some time, film is going to go away, but for now, we are continuing to develop film. We are not just saying, "Film is good enough let's just leave it alone." We are continuing to spend money on film and film development, color development and so forth. We just think there is more capability there. By the way, digital projectors and other projectors are going to get smarter. There is going to be more capability. We are ultimately going to be able to use lasers in which case colors are going to be more pure. We make sure that you get the best front-end with film and then you can digitize it all over. That is the front-end thing.

The back-end in terms of Technicolor, how does Kodak compare? It's interesting because in an analogue world, Technicolor for years has been one of our biggest customer. Certainly as a laboratory, they are huge, and they are really important. By the way, we have a great relationship with them. In the digital world, we could be one of their suppliers, because Technicolor is kind of an aggregator. They put systems together. Technicolor doesn't make projectors. They buy projectors. Whom do they buy them from? They could buy them from Christie. They could buy them from Barco. They could buy them from NEC. There are only three companies that they can buy them from. If they want to buy servers, whom are they going to buy servers from? Well they could buy them from us. They could buy them from Quvis. Then they can put that all together. So, what is Technicolor going to do in the whole thing? Well, they can prepare the images, because they are a lab. They know how to do that. They can do all the sort of digital front-end or middle-end. They can do all that. So, that's what their brand might be.

I think that you are going to see in this great brave digital world is that there is going to be kind of a settling down process, where everybody starts out saying I want to be everything to everybody. I want to be a leader in this industry. Well I think what we are going to see is a settling down process, in which companies look and say, "O.K. What am I really good at?" What they are really good at, they can then start to leverage, build, grow or extend. and offer it to other people. So if Barco says we are really good at cinema grade projectors; and that's what we want to do; and we don't want to do service; and we don't want to do support; and we want to just build projectors and so forth. That's fine, and then those who are really good at service, a gigantic service operation starts up. So there is going to be some settling down.

One of the things that Kodak is good at is that Kodak has a legacy of making complicated technology simple. Once upon a time, there was this great theme that somebody came up with, "You press the button, and we do the rest. That still applies today. Analogue technology is really well understood, but it's sort of limiting. I mean you have big reels that show up at the movie theater. They have to be spliced together, and then they have to be un-spliced. You have to cut the heads and tails off. Everybody knows how to do that and it is very reliable. It's a bit limiting.

Digital, on the other hand, is kind of liberating. There is a lot that you can do, but it is also complicated. How do you do it? Do I need a server? Do I need a router? Do I need a switch? Do I need a network? Now that I have a network today, will that be good enough for tomorrow? Tell me about JPEG compression and MPEG compression, what's the difference? It's just endless. We think we understand that and we think we can simplify it for people. Oh, and by the way, if we can deliver the solution, not by ourselves, but by working with Barco and others, such that if anything goes wrong, you call us. You don't have to worry about, "Should I call Barco because I have a Barco projector and a Dell computer." Don't worry. Call us. We'll take care of it. What our brand could stand for in the future is, it has to stand for color, and it has to stand for great images. We have to do that. That is our legacy. In addition to that, we are going to stand for simplicity. We are going to stand for putting the situation together in a way that makes it simple, that lets you do what you want to do. Think of what is in film. Film is a really complicated thing. You are coating all thirteen layers and making the total package less than the thickness of a human hair, and you are doing it in the dark. This is tough stuff. Well, we think we know how to do that stuff. Deliver digital services and systems. Put it all together for you. That is what we are trying to do.

Alexa O'Brien

If I understood you correctly, then Kodak will actually supply Technicolor with technology for their digital cinema systems.

Bob Gibbons

Lets put it this way; we hope so.

Alexa O'Brien

What other advantages does Kodak get from selling digital pre-show systems to theaters?

Bob Gibbons

First, it's good business in its own right. Second, you start to get experience in distributing content. In an analogue world, content is distributed by truck. In a digital world, there are other ways of distributing content. One is over terrestrial lines, if the files are small enough to go over a DSL line. You are not going to send a movie over a DSL line. You are going to send it some other way. You are going to send it by satellite, which is one way, or another way is by hard drive. You can send part of the content, meaning you can send the keys, which unscramble the content, or you can send the pre-show by disk, by DVD. One of the advantages that we've gotten by being involved with pre-show systems is that we have developed the capability to prepare and send content to theaters. We've created new connections with theaters.

The other advantage was installing networks in theaters. Networks are important to handling pre-show content today. Tomorrow, in the feature world they are going to be really important for managing movies and for telling you what played, on what screen, at what time, with what trailer. The network also ties into the ticketing systems, so we are getting experience with different ticketing systems. If I use my example from before, I want to reach teenage boys so my ad only plays on movies that teenage boys like to see. Turns out that this week Hostel is playing on screen one. So, the ad automatically goes to the right screen, because it has what we call "business association rules" attached to it. It automatically plays on that screen. Nobody needs to do anything. The only thing an exhibitor has to do is turn on the system. Our system on our network is talking to the ticketing system every couple of minutes, saying, "Hey what are you playing, on what screen?" The ticketing system says, "Well I am playing Hostel on screen one. So our system says, "O.K. Play there." Next week, for some reason, Firewall plays on screen one and Hostel moves to screen three. Our system talks to the ticketing system and says, "So, what are you playing?" "Well I am playing Firewall on screen one." "O.K. Fine." Our ad goes to screen three. It moves around the network. Moving content around the network is really kind of a learning experience, because that was never possible before. It wasn't the case of we didn't know how to do it. It wasn't possible. So it's been a big learning experience.

Alexa O'Brien

Is whoever controls the network, the industry gatekeeper?

Bob Gibbons

Gatekeeper is a pejorative term in the industry. Nobody wants a gatekeeper. A gatekeeper was originally described as someone who stands between the exhibitor and the distributor, someone who stands between the studio and the theater, and no body wanted that. Networks have to be like the highways. Anyone can use it, you just decide how and so. Think of them as sort of toll roads right. You can travel a toll road; we are just going to have to pay our way. Nobody says you cannot go on it.

If you watch television or go to the movies, you have already seen Grass Valley™ brand products and their Emmy® award-winning technologies at work. Mark Chiolis is the Senior Marketing Manager of Thomson Grass Valley's Strategic Marketing and Business Development Group, based in Burbank, California.

Alexa O'Brien
How does the Viper FilmStream fit into the marketplace against digital cinematography cameras like to the Panavision Genesis and the Arriflex D-20

Mark Chiolis

Both the Genesis and the D-20 are using single CMOS based sensors that are capable of using legacy 35mm cine lenses. The benefit of a single sensor is that you eliminate the prism but there are trade-offs in having to split out the Red, Green and Blue signals from the single sensor. Our philosophy on the Viper is to utilize three high-quality patented Frame Transfer (FT-DPM) Digital Pixel Management CCDs that take advantage of today's latest design technologies in optics, providing a combination that yields what we at Grass Valley believe is the highest quality digital image available in a production camera today. The Viper also has four distinct modes of operation which makes it the most versatile of the digital cameras. Depending upon the project it is possible to shoot in the "raw" 4:4:4 FilmStream mode, a fully color corrected and processed 4:4:4 mode, a semi-processed 4:2:2 mode (which is perfect for cost conscious television work) and of course "regular" fully processed 4:2:2 HD mode. Additionally, because of our unique ability to reconfigure our sensors to different formats, the Viper is the only digital camera that is capable of shooting widescreen (2.37:1) aspect ratios that use the full vertical resolution of 1080 lines. Because other digital cameras are not capable of reconfiguring their sensors they are forced to "chop off" the top and bottom of the picture creating a faux widescreen image. This lowering of the vertical resolution can really display itself especially when going back to film for release.

Alexa O'Brien

Since its inception as catalyst for cinema's transformation from black and white to color, Technicolor's history now spans ninety years in the motion picture industry. Even as parent, Thomson, leverages the rainbow's magic brand to advance its digital cinema venture, Technicolor still processes over five billion feet of motion picture film a year. DreamWorks, Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, Warner Brothers, and Twentieth Century Fox have all signed agreements to use digital projection systems from Technicolor Digital Cinema on five thousand screens in the United States and Canada; and under the terms of a strategic understanding with Century Theatres, Technicolor will begin to install digital projection equipment with a beta-test deployment of ninety to hundred-and-twenty screens, in the first quarter of 2006. With an initial rollout plan for complete digital projection systems on up to five thousand DCI-compliant screens over the next three to four years, Thomson intends to deploy at least fifteen-thousand digitally-equipped screens in the United States and Canada over the next ten years.

As president of Technicolor Electronic Distribution Services, Joe Berchtold is responsible for the strategic development, growth, and operations of the Thomson Services division worldwide, including all aspects of Technicolor's digital cinema initiatives, on-demand content, and IPTV distribution services. Since joining Thomson in 2003, Berchtold has been co-head of strategy and acquisitions, leading key initiatives that include the acquisition of DirecTV's set-top box business; the company's investment in Content Guard with Time Warner and Microsoft, where he now sits on the board of directors; and the forging of an agreement with VeriSign to jointly develop an online content authentication and authorization service bureau to support secure delivery of electronic entertainment content over digital networks.

Alexa O'Brien
Do you think digital cinema will reverse the declining box office trend?

Joe Berchtold

Well, I think that the hope of that is what has driven a lot of the energy behind digital cinema over the past year. I think people have come to realize that the savings from digital cinema on the cost side are some ways out, and the real opportunity here is the top line. It's getting customers back. If you think about a movie theater as a retail business, it's among the most constrained retail businesses you can imagine from a merchandising standpoint; because as a physical reel of film is tied to a physical room, there's just no flexibility. Digital inherently creates a lot more flexibility. People are talking about some of the things. You can add more screens. You can move screens. All of which will help on the margin. But, we also think, and I'm not creative enough, but we also think that five years from now, what are some of the most creative people in the world going to have figured out to be able to take advantage of this technology?

Selected to photograph Warner Brothers' highly anticipated feature Superman Returns, the Genesis is the first fully portable, digital imaging camera that utilizes all existing spherical 35mm lenses including Primo primes and zooms. Other features include full bandwidth, dual link 4:4:4 HDSDI outputs, single 4:2:2 HDSDI monitor output, dual viewfinder outputs, fiber optic camera adaptor, integrated lens control, camera control via Panavision RDC or Sony MSU, RMB series controllers, and digital lateral chromatic aberration compensation for improved visual effects cinematography. With a 12.4 mega pixel, true RGB sensor, 10-bit log per color output, the Genesis has a greater dynamic range than other available digital cameras. Bob Harvey is the Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales at Panavision in Woodland Hills, California.

Alexa O'Brien
The rumor on the street is that both Arriflex and Panavision have made their last 35mm cameras. Arriflex will not make anything after the Arricam and the Arricam Light and Panavision will not make anything after the Platinum, so neither will create new film cameras. They will just maintain what is already out there. Is that true?

Bob Harvey
I don't know the answer to that. We try to put into the market place what the market place is demanding. We have designs for new cameras certainly. We are concentrating right now on lenses, but I have no answer to that.

Alexa O'Brien
What is an accurate picture of current and future digital acquisition? Where do you see things moving in the next three to five and five to ten years?

Bob Harvey
I think that features films and dramatic television are moving towards digital at a pace we can all live with. Three to five years out it's tough to say. I think with the development of the Genesis you are going to see an awful lot of what we call hybrid projects, where it is a mixture of both film and digital. Will digital take over completely? Years from now I am sure that can happen. Something will happen. Nothing lasts forever. In the case of film, it has a long life ahead of it.

Pat Kaufman is the New York State Film Commissioner and President of the Association of Film Commissioners International.

Alexa O'Brien
Why do states, regions, and countries compete for production dollars?

Pat Kaufman
Because production is a very clean and efficient industry that comes in, spends time in your area, spends a lot of money and then either puts down roots and becomes, if you can get enough of it, you can become a production region, and have your own indigenous companies, or at least, it means that companies come and go from your area, spend money, don't pollute, you know, advance your area, bring your area to the attention of the world, and while there at it they spend money.

Alexa O'Brien
Can you tell me how the current business model for production and post production will change in the next five to ten years as you see it?

Pat Kaufman
And if I did have a succinct wonderful answer to that, I would be a rich women. I think that clearly production gets more competitive than ever and where productions will go to the filming, to do their post work, to find their distribution has become entirely fluid, which means that there is opportunity for a region to build an industry if they are willing to do what it takes to build the infrastructure and that sort of thing. I think that the industry faces great shifts, the economy is going global, at the same time that new distribution opportunities are coming up, so that in the future, film and television shows are not only going to be seen on TV. screens and on movie screens and on DVD's, but now we are going to be downloading them onto iPods and telephones and that sort of thing. So it is a time of great fluidity, and great change, which means its a time of opportunity.

Alexa O'Brien
Do you think it would be fair to say that a region that wants to set itself up as a production hub and wants to capture as much production dollar as it can from acquisition to distribution would probably look to build a cluster with more "Creative Class" type people?

Pat Kaufman
It does once you start to get a critical nucleus, yes. You do have to have something of a critical nucleus, so there is no question that any region that is trying to build should pay great attention to the companies that are there and encouraging them and helping them. So the answer is yes.

Alexa O'Brien
Would the critical mass companies for that future, let's say ten to fifteen years, need to focus on digital formats or would they be more traditional below-the-line technicians and businesses like rental houses or studios?

Pat Kaufman
I think you need a bit of each.

Alexa O'Brien
How has the AFCI (Association of Film Commissioners International) grown in the last five years and what larger themes that illustrates for you?

Pat Kaufman
Well I think you can really see the impact of the global economy as you look at this organization has grown, because we are definitely getting increasing numbers of members from around the world, from as new and different regions begin to establish themselves and compete for projects and jobs.

Alexa O'Brien
What should low or medium infrastructure production structures states or regions fundamentally focus on in order to garner more production dollars in the short term and then in the long term?

Pat Kaufman
I think that they should not overlook the importance of building and and supporting the companies that are there, and I mean the production companies that are there. Encourage the commercial producers, encourage the independent film producers that may be making low budget movies but whom will hire crew and help build your crew base, that is important for short term and for long term. And then work to create policies both short term and long term that demonstrate that the region film friendly and will do what it takes to help not only local production companies but then production companies from elsewhere that you try to attract.

Alexa O'Brien
I am particularly interested in skill sets and job training for the future work force. Tell me how important partnership is in the digital economy in terms of film production.

Pat Kaufman
Partnership is always important because it's a collaborative industry. It's extremely important for a region to have strong partnerships with their local film schools, strong partnerships if they do have a union base of crew, to have partnerships with them in order to encourage the film schools to continue to develop potential workers for the industry as well as to encourage the unions, if it's an area that has unions, to absorb and welcome new members.

Alexa O'Brien
The AFCI (Association of Film Commissioners International) is such an interesting organization. On the one hand, globally the marketplace for film production is so fiercely competitive yet at the same time the AFCI is a partnership or those different regions helping each other out...

Pat Kaufman
You know everyone admires that about the Association and it speaks very highly of the, how evolved film commissions really are. They really get it. Film commissions almost to the last one get the fact that, yes we are highly competitive, we are all struggling to capture much of the same production and yet we also recognize that what we can share with each other in terms of knowledge, training, resources, is useful enough that we set aside our competitiveness and work together. It's remarkable. There are very, very few industries, or very few entities that function this way. We've been trying to help some of our indy producers in New York to organize and we have been working, suggesting to a number of the animation houses in New York that they should organize and its so interesting because initially they tend to be resistant. They don't want to share their data and information. They see the other companies in their genre as competitors, but even they are beginning to recognize...I mean organize in the sense of having an association, that kind of organize, is what I mean of course, to have an association to put your information together and you can be more of a force to bring about the changes that you want.

Alexa O'Brien
I am wondering whether or not universities or technical colleges in a low to medium infrastructure region should focus on training their students not only on 35mm but also on digital acquisition tools and whether or not this will have an advantagous effect on building their infrastructure for incoming business. I am not thinking of New York and LA, because they always have that strong infrastructure. I am thinking of places like South Carolina...

Pat Kaufman
There is no doubt that it's a good idea to train the students on the new technology. That goes without saying that the students should come out of their with the skills sets to do both.

Nowadays competition is fierce among states, regions and countries vying for production dollars. Jeff Monks is South Carolina State Film Commissioner. I spoke with the commissioner on January 12, 2006 via phone.

Alexa O'Brien
Why do states like South Carolina compete for production dollars?

Jeff Monks
First, I can tell you why South Carolina does. It's a knowledge-based industry. You know it's a beautiful blend of the technical meeting the creative, and it draws from so many different pools of talent in South Carolina. It is what our governor and our legislature are after: build a knowledge-based industry in South Carolina. This industry fits beautifully into that. Then you get into things like, above average wages. It's a clean industry. It can easily have come to a small community as to a large community, and the cost of recruiting compared to recruiting a manufacturer for example is significantly less. When we recruit a manufacturer, you are also looking at developing infrastructure. You have to build roads; you have to improve your sewer system. What's the effect upon your schools? Whereas this industry doesn't have that. So, the recruiting costs are significantly less. Finally, it promotes tourism, as films and television shot in South Carolina are shown around the world.

Recently brought in from Munich by Simon Broad, Andreas Weeber is the Supervisor of the new Digital Imaging Department at Arri CSC in New York. He is also responsible for introducing the Arriflex D-20 Digital Camera to the United States.

Alexa O'Brien
The rumor on the street is that both Arriflex and Panavision have made their last 35mm cameras. Arriflex will not make anything after the Arricam and the Arricam Light and Panavision will not make anything after the Platinum, so neither will create new film cameras. They will just maintain what is already out there. Is that true?

Andreas Weeber
No, that's definitely not true. Arri doesn't see the D-20 as a replacement for film cameras. The D-20 is aimed for different applications, let's say commercials or something, you know whatever is not going to end up on a film screen or something. But, you know, movies in the theater still should be done on a 35 mm camera. We never pretend the D-20 is as good as a 35 mm camera, resolution wise and color wise and all this. So that rumor is just not true, and Arri would be really stupid to do something like this.