DIGITAL REALITY FOR LARA CROFT
Copyright 2001 www.tombraiderchronicles.com Source: Yahoo!

[ March 8th 2001 ]

Pepsi, the soft drinks manufacturer who joins Ericsson and Land Rover as sponsor of Paramount Pictures Tomb Raider movie, hosted a lavish corporate cocktail party in Las Vegas last night to celebrate the much-anticipated Eidos Interactive action movie. Movie producers and cinema contributors around the globe had swarmed to the bright transient lights of Las Vegas, collecting in a state of the art movie theatre to witness the major Hollywood Studios parade their next generation of digital film, a seamless, sharp and crackle-free projection which Spy Kids director Robert Rodriguez claimed "looked the way it looked when I first shot it."

Typically, movie film has been shot on celluloid, which gradually loses it's sharpness the more the reel is played, often boasting a grainy, particle quality which has now been eclipsed by the introduction of digital film. George Lucas has applied this new technology to his new Star Wars adventure Episode II which has captured the interest of fellow directors.

The spectacle was clearly designed to impress. But with all that gadgetry to drool over, National Association of Theatre Owners President John Fithian is warning exhibitors not to get antsy about going digital too quickly. Fithian cautioned that a single digital standard hasn't been set, and buying a pricey $100,000-$150,000 system could be risky. "The technology is developing, but it is not there yet," he said.