[NEWS]: Woody Allen goes green with new film
James Anatidae
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/07/16/film.green.reut/index.html
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) -- Woody Allen once joked that he is "at
two with nature," but when his latest film opens in September, the prolific
filmmaker will find himself communing a little more closely with Mother
Earth.
That's because the next entry in Allen's celluloid canon -- "Anything Else,"
starring Stockard Channing, Glenn Close, Jimmy Fallon and Jason Biggs --
will be the first film released with what is known as a pure-dye cyan analog
soundtrack.
Cyan soundtracks eliminate the use of caustic chemicals used in traditional
soundtracks by skipping the silver application process in the print
manufacturing phase, which enables a significant reduction in the amount of
water needed to produce the soundtrack. If all U.S. film release print
manufacturing converted to cyan tracks, the savings would be equivalent to
the drinking water needs of a town of 75,000 people for a year, according to
the theatrical audio gurus at Dolby Laboratories who are behind the new
print process.
The introduction of cyan dye analog soundtrack has been under discussion for
nearly a decade but has had trouble finding a champion among Hollywood's
major studios. That is until the environmentally conscious executives at
DreamWorks SKG, where Allen is wrapping up his four-picture distribution
deal, decided to take up the cause.
DreamWorks distribution chief Jim Tharp and operations head Mark
Christiansen cited three reasons why the studio decided to embrace the new
lab process on Allen's latest picture.
"It's much more environmentally clean; the film has much better overall
quality due to a decrease in chemical splash; and 'Anything Else' is not set
for an ultrawide run, which makes the conversion process more manageable,"
Christiansen said.
Indeed, the introduction of new or innovative elements in a film print adds
an element of risk to the already-arduous task of keeping films unspooling
without a hitch in America's multiplexes. Should a picture's audio cut out
during a screening, movie fans are likely to become more than a little
agitated.
Case in point is a "Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones" digital
cinema screening in New Jersey in May 2002. A prototype digital cinema
projector broke down during a midnight screening and the police had to be
called in to manage an angry crowd.
While nowhere near as technically complex nor as problem-prone as early
d-cinema screenings, cyan dye analog soundtracks will play only in those
theaters that have installed red-light readers into their projectors.
It is estimated that 85% of the projectors in the United States are now
equipped with red-light readers, and the members of the National Association
of Theatre Owners have agreed to equip all of their theaters with the device
this year. But it is those theaters that have yet to convert that still
remain a cause for alarm among Hollywood distribution execs.
Ted Costas, Dolby's local cyan dye soundtrack evangelist in Hollywood, put
it pretty simply. "The only theaters that have not equipped themselves with
red-light readers, domestically, are those holdouts that have been waiting
for a reason to switch, which we now have," he said.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
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