Years ago, a projectionist made 75-100k per year most with <grade 10 education because of the danger of carbon arc rods and the skill it requires…when I managed and was the projectionist, all my users were also trained to thread the movies and start and focus them…most took about a week of training…industries change, now there are very few dedicated projectionists in the theatres as that job has been deemed redundant…just like the distribution channel of movies will become redundant.

We are not specifically talking about streaming (even though the artical says they did it) we are talking about distribution through bit-torrent, even if it is encrpted to distribute digital movies (not just from MPAA) to the theatres…it would allow for independent artist to show their wares without the huge printing cost of film stock.

Just have twice or triple the same equipment for redundancy (projectors, disk arrays, playback machines, internet links), and you are gold.

Someone mentioned FTP; not thats being quite ignorant. If you are a single source, and need to distribute to, say, 20 locations, using FTP you need to upload 20 copies, and either every one waits a lot (bandwidth/20), or everyone waits in queue. With bittorrent, you only need to upload 1 copy, and by the time this is finished, all 20 will have it. That is why Bittorrent is still the most efficient distribution method, as long as many people want the same thing at the same time.

In short, by the time ftp finishes a single copy upload, bittorrent would have unlimited copies completed.

Lately, watching movies in theaters leaves a lot to be desired in the quality department. Besides the usual bad contrast/lenses/focus/subtitles situation, Add to it the ridiculously expensive and outdated (Physical) distribution method they use, not to mention quick wear. Yes its time these dinosaurs adapt or perish. The only reason i would go to a cinema anymore is maybe to share moments with someone, because as far as enjoying movies the themselves, it sucks; plus they even charge more than a DVD per ticket…

Long live free speech and free info.

i hate knowing what to look for

most digital projectors now couldn’t throw the picture the length of the theatre with enough light, but I am sure there are ones out their that could…

Retrofiting is probably not an option especially with all the computerization of the 25mm projector now…most theatres would have to buy new projectors to play the movies and new projectors cost up to a million a piece.

Myself, I would be more excited than exited.

Anyhow, the swarm wasn’t real. From a technical point of view, if this were to happen in everyday cinemas, the film would have to be streamed from a swarm that could offer equal or higher speeds for this to work. So this doesn’t really prove much, TBH.

I figured at the time the moviemakers switched from film to digital the distributors and theaters would have done the same.

HOLY SHIT 35mm is ridiculous.

I just can’t stop thinking that all the **IAA are just like GM and will have a crash course in economics really soon.

I’m all for improving the technology, and maybe one of the only people that actually works in the film industry that isn’t afraid of change, but I don’t think the math on this adds up. And while most of the audience that downloads movies doesn’t seem to notice or worry about a lot of the awful artifacts that come with compression, those of us that do see it and care would like to see them go (are you listening bittorrent?)

Sweethard deals are like political contributions…the theatres are doing it for their own survival but don’t like it…if you got rid of the need for 35mm print then you can do a complete digital distribution that would get rid of dead wood but also allos for greater access to non-holywood movies depending on the area/.

We had numerouse issues with our theatres when a competing paramount theatre sucked, and people wanted it in our theatre and they were disapointed because it was shown in a 2 screen paramount theatre with crappy 70′s seats and projection….

actually some nights the independant film was the biggest group of seats…it was actually funny we we called out numbers at the end of the night to the movie tracker (which we had to do by contract every night) that their movie sucked and that some independing film beat them…all in all the theatre is a social event and out bosses always said that we have to project that it was because with the new technology, if it wasn’t a social even and that people didn’t see it as an escape from their home life theatres would die…all our marketing was for that or to that.

Thanks,

It would be a win for both cinemas and the film producers if they got rid of the middle men….

Yes, that is a good idea…as long as it is encrypted and the media that is local to the theatre is watermarked and somehow protected I can see it as a viable alternative….

The problem is that theatres have a huge investment in the 35mm projectors that are now completly automated that you feed the film in and set the timer you can run 12-20 theatres with an Usher…or even from your office by pushing a button and then makeing sure the the focus is on….

Theatres will not change unless their is a demand for new distribution or guarenteed revenew models…their cash cow is the MPAA that limites the movies that are released so they don’t have to make many risky choices…

Over hypes films are ones that normally suck…and after being in the industry for +12 years, you can see what is going to fall on the floor and shouldn’t have been released….or even cookie cutter movies or retreds.

You say bandwidth will increase movie pricess…I call FUD.

Ok, basic math here each copy of a print for a 35mm movie can cost between $20-80k not including the distribution costs of that…if it costs more then $5 per download of a film to a theatre I would be surprised, even if they did do the 4k resolution…

With digital distribution, there would be no need to wait for prints, replace bad film reals or limit movies to someone that can pay up to $150k for a 2 hour movie to be processed…with digital media, I would argue that the costs of movies in the cinema would got down (if the theatres passed the costs on to comsumers) once the control of movies moves from the printers and major studios to the actual public…

I will point out I do not download movies or games, but am interested in the technology and that I borrowed a copy of Donny Darko from a friend many years ago that cost 4.5 mil to produce but only made 4.1 mil in the theatres because of limited release (it didn’t even make it to most areas) That movie saw a wider audience on usenet then it did in the theatres because of limited copies of the movie and that distribution and printing were too costly….the star…Jake Gillenhall….look where he is today.

Movies that might not do well in the theatre might be caused by the archaic distribution and production and if after 4 weeks there was a groudswell of word of mouth of the movie then more people would go to the cinema…I remember Ghost coming to the cinema (yes I am old) and we booked it for 4 weeks at 60% to the studio…after 4 weeks it dropped to 20% after 8 weeks I think…it stayed for I believe 24 weeks and was sold out almost every night…the theatre made lots of money and the studio didn’t…

The current model of contracts I personally believe is outdated and doesn’t allow for smaller budget films to get to the audience…this is where bit-torrent is coming to the front…

Heres a thought.. When we go to the movies and pay these rediculous prices we should all be able to bring USB sticks and get a free DRM Free dvd copy when we leave..

^^ I know is a pipe dream but would atleast bring alot of people into the theatres.. Probably kill cams etc..

====================================sorry but i gotta call bullshit on this one, i’ve had torrents go 30-40MB/s [yes megabyte not bit], and 19mbs is really only 1 main server needed, not serving more than 5 peers on 100mbit

ffs does no one else distro here?

If they had the movie downloaded already, download speed would be un-needed. Bandwidth would be same, it would just be split up even more among people instead of one entity.

That would be stupid! If they use BitTorrent they could download from each other, this means:
* Greater download speed
* Less brandwith (They download from the “local theater” instead of a sever across the world
* Able to download the movie if the sever crash (as the computer with the film have a ratio of >1.000)

The movie would only have to be streamed once and then it would be stored on a computer to be replayed as much times as they want.

Good lord, your stupidity continues to amaze me.

Besides, an HD movie can easily for on an SD-HD memory card these days.

Give your head a shake honey.