From Science Fiction to (Virtual) Reality: the Growing Trend towards Digital Cinema

In 2002, George Lucas, the founding father of the sci-fi blockbuster, did something that many in cinema at the time viewed as being – well – a little bit “out there”. He shot the entirety of his fifth “Star Wars” movie with a digital camera that presented images at the rate of 48 frames-per-second. In other words, he’d abandoned the 35 mm, 24 frame-per-second show reel that had served as film’s metric since time immemorial. Fine and good, but the trouble was there were only two movie-houses in the United States – one in Los Angeles and one in Paramus, NJ – that were actually fitted to show digital pictures, and only because Lucas had specifically equipped them to do so. While many critics saw the potential advantages of digital film – the more “lifelike” picture quality, the potential for rapid global distribution (rather than the usual targeted release) – many more concluded that the technology was as eccentric as the Stars Wars universe. Leave it to the inventor of Eewoks and Jedi to fly off the deep end, went the going commonsense of that year.

Big ideas have a long history of not catching on till there’s enough critical momentum to propel them forward into the mainstream market. Fast-forward a decade later, and digital cameras – and digital cinema-houses – are more ubiquitous than ever. Indeed, this summer, another guaranteed smash-hit blockbuster movie, The Hobbit, is being released in digital by Peter Jackson. Jackson claims the more realistic quality of 48 fps provides a good “balance” to the “fantastic” nature of the story he’s telling.

But aesthetical arguments are only the half of it. With digital cameras ensconced in the world of television, as well as indie film, it can only be a matter of years before mainstream Hollywood follows suit. After all, film reel is expensive. Having a digital camera aboard your production saves you, quite literally, millions of dollars. In an industry that knows a thing or two about overblown budgets, digital technology can serve as a great democratic equalizer, allowing films to be shot in high-quality resolution for a minimal price. All signs seem to be pointing towards digital encoding. Strange to admit, but the creator of C3PO seems to have been right all along.