In recent years, the bigger screens and surround sound of multiplex theatres have given movie audiences in Greece a better cinematic experience.

And beginning in 2002, getting rid of film will make it even better: digital cinema is coming to Greece.

Thessaloniki will acquire the first digital - or electronic - cinema in the Balkans and the 11th in Europe when its Olympion Theatre, one of the hosts of the city's International Film Festival, begins
transmitting film-less films next year.

Important breakthrough

Festival director Michel Demopoulos made the announcement in November during the 42nd International Thessaloniki Film Festival, where a two-day conference presented the new medium.

"It is the most important breakthrough in cinema since sound. It's a totally new world," said Angelo D' Alessio, President of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, which has a committee of digital cinema technology.

In digital cinema, known as d- or e-cinema, digitised image and sound are transferred through satellite, fibre-optic cable or video disk to theatres and are stored on servers for transmission through a digital projector rather than having intense light shine through moving celluloid.

The result of actual film not having to be shipped to cinemas becomes valuable for the filmmaker and the moviegoer alike.

Benefits for filmmakers and moviegoers

"Studios will benefit as the cost of production and distribution drops," said Richard Hartley, marketing director for Grass Valley Group, which provides digital media services. He said Hollywood alone expects to save more than 600 million dollars.

Copies of film that could cost $3 million for 2,000 theatres would be replaced by numerous theatres tapping into a digital transmission that costs about $5,000, without compromising quality.

Faster distribution also speeds up how soon audiences can see a film.

Hartley said Jurassic Park has been simultaneously transmitted to two cinemas from the same server with a 10-minute delay.

Newer releases

For Greek moviegoers, that means no longer waiting months to see a film that has already hit video store shelves stateside.

The digital shift also means better sound and picture quality, ending the scratches and sound problems that come from the wear and tear of repeated showings.

But cinemas will have to get necessary equipment such as projectors, decoders and the servers required for storage, according to Hartley.

While the cost of the equipment involved can be expensive and might deter smaller cinemas or those in rural areas from trying to keep up with digital technology, D' Alessio said that with the help of production and distribution companies, even they could compete and profit.

And industry experts expect that the cost of equipment will drop as technology spreads.

Digitising underway

In Hollywood, more than 80 films already have been produced digitally and a number of films on celluloid are being digitised.

Yet more and more filmmakers are going digital from the start of their project because of the ease in shooting, editing and processing a movie.

"The idea of random access, which is the ability to instantly access any data, is actually the main principle of digital technology," said producer and director Tasos Boulmetis.

Director Julius Friede agreed that digital image processing is simpler than the traditional photochemical method. "Digital technology is very helpful in the instances when shooting takes many hours and you have to use many cameras to adapt to the changes in light," he said.

Although the first experiments with digital camera date back to 1930, only recently were desired results achieved. Large production companies approved and adopted the format in 2000.

It is estimated that by 2010 the use of film will have dropped by 90 percent and that 80 percent of film theatres will be equipped with digital technology.

Currently there are about 50 theatres around the world equipped with digital cinema equipment.

Film festival organizers said they worked out a 470,000-euro (160 million-drachma) programme entitled "Modernization of Services of the Cultural Institution of the International Film Festival of Thessaloniki" expected to be completed by 2002.

IMAX on its way

While Thessaloniki will also gain its first two IMAX theatres in the next two years in the city's Technological Park, the Olympion will continue screening conventionally made films in addition to d-cinema.

Three short films that were produced and processed electronically were screened at Thessaloniki's 42nd International Film Festival: "Public Space" by Jia Zhahg Ke, "Digitopia" by John Akomfrah and "A Conversation with God" by Tsai Ming Lang. Parts of Nikos Panagiotopoulos' "The Edge of Night" also were shown as a comparison between traditional and digital filming.

Traditional film scoops awards

But traditional films still headlined the film festival. Fatmir Koci's "Tirana Year Zero" was awarded the Golden Alexander and 36,700 euros (12.5 million drachmas) in the best international film category for his movie about a young Albanian truck driver who witnessed his country descend into chaos

The Silver Alexander, or second prize, went to Israel's Dover Kosashvili for "Late Marriage".