Disclaimer
What you’re about to read is a simplified version of how digital projection works. The thing is, that it’s all true, just simplified a bit.
Digital Cinema?
So digital cinema refers to when a cinema or movie theatre puts on a performance of a film (more commonly known as a showing) which is projected from a digital source.
Up until half a decade ago, it was very common for most cinemas to be using traditional projection units to show films. We’ve all seen this types of projectors: they’re the ones with reels of film provided on celluloid.
Example of a reel to reel projector. Image from http://www.film-center.com/bh1552.html
The idea here is that the film is supplied as a series of images which are burnt onto a semi-transparent reel of celluloid. The celluloid is passed between a light source (usually a bulb) and a lens. The lens magnifies the images and they would be projected onto a sheet/wall.
Most films were provided across multiple reels (Reel A was the first half of the film, and Reel B the second half), this goes all the way back to when films had intermissions, just like stage plays do. The intermission allowed the viewers to take a break for refreshment whilst the projectionist put Reel B in place. Later, the reels would be combined ether before the performance began or swapped over during the performance.
The captions are a little off (and you might have to click through to full YouTube to get them), but this scene from Fight Club explains a little about how it used to be done:
However, since the early 90’s there has been a push to supply films in a digital format; mainly to reduce the amount of work required to show them, and to reduce the chances of the medium breaking down (celluloid is very, very easy to break, stretch or destroy – just ask the BBC). This meant that a common format for distributing digital films between cinemas was developed.
Enter the DCP
DCP stands for Digital Cinema Package.
Essentially it’s a file format for digital films, which can be used by all cinemas. This file format means that digital films are no longer distributed via expensive celluloid, they’re now distributed via hard drives.
The average film can be stored on off the shelf hard drives (as long as they support up to 250GB/s transfer rate), and tend to max out at a file size of 300 GB (which is the size of 6 Blu-Ray disks).
At the time of writing, a compatible hard drive costs £39.99. Ref: Amazon
Films need to be transferred to the server (a computer that is connected to the projector) or can be played through the server’s USB port, and this is usually done via USB. Once the film is transferred to the server, it can remain there until it is no longer needed.
This all means that a cinema, regardless of the number of screens and projectors it has, needs to only ever receive one copy of a film. Which reduces the distribution costs of a film (especially since you don’t need any kind of special hardware to transport the films around).
For those interested in finding more about DCP, I’d recommend starting with this Wiki article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Cinema_Package
What can DCP do?
So, DCP is a file format. Much like MP3, DOC, TXT or MOV. This means that it is a container (or bucket) for the data to sit in. Containers work by separating the data in a file into known chunks. An example would be the MP3 file format:
- The first section of the file contains meta data (song title, artist name, album art, etc)
- The next section of the file contains the compressed audio (what you actually listen to)
- The final section contains some error checking values (used by your computer to ensure that the file is complete and ready for playing)
Bear in mind that this is an extremely simplified version of the MP3 file format, though.
DCP refers to everything in terms of “reels”, so a DCP file may have many video reels, audio reels and subtitle reels. This maps to how consumer digital video technology works :Blu-Ray video has support for 1 video track [what you see], 99 audio tracks [what you can hear, usually separated by format or language] and 99 subtitle tracks [each with a label for the language].
Comparing this to 33mm film (non-digital film projection): one video track (the images burnt onto the celluloid), one audio track (provided next to the images, again burnt onto the celluloid) and no optional extras. If a studio wanted to provide subtitles, they would have to make a separate print of the film, print the subtitles onto the images and supply that. Very few films had captions/subtitles in the language of the film for the reason that this was VERY expensive to do.
Film studios or film distributors will usually send a DCP with one video track, at least one audio track, and one subtitle track. More often that not, multiple audio tracks are supplied (usually an audio descriptive track, and maybe a dubbed audio track if the film has dialogue in a foreign language).
This means that before a film performance begins, there is ample accessibility for all. It’s simply a matter of selecting a few parameters, or pushing a few buttons – not difficult at all.
A lot of cinemas even offer autism friendly showings, where the lights aren’t dimmed as much as usual, the film isn’t as loud, and customers are permitted to bring their own snacks and (for children with autism) toys too.
So before a film performance is scheduled, the cinema management know that they can cater for folks who might require subtitles or an audio description.
Many cinemas offer a headphone plugin point by each seat for the audio descriptive track so that a specific screening is not required.
Technical Issues
With all this in mind, it is easy to think that putting on a performance of a film with suitable support for the accessibility requirements would be simple.
Well, it is.
Seriously, to show a film with subtitles all that the projectionist need do is enable the correct subtitle track before the performance begins. To be fair, the subtitles can be selected whilst the film is playing but that’s not the best option.
The same can be said or a film with an audio descriptive track.
It’s just like flipping through the audio and subtitle options on a DVD or Blu-Ray film. In fact its easier, because there are functions on the projectors interface to do that for you. All you need to do is hit the subtitles button and the projector will select the appropriate subtitle track.
This is because subtitle tracks in DCPs have extra information (called Meta Data) to tell the projector what language it is in (much like DVDs and Blu-Rays do with their subtitle tracks), and digital projectors (if set up correctly) will know what country they are in, and what language is spoken in that country.
So Why No Subs?
This is a little tricky to answer at first (mainly because I haven’t done enough data gathering), but most cinemas are reluctant to offer many film performances with subtitles/audio description (at least during “peak times”) because they fear that it would scare off customers who are not hard of hearing/hard of sight/have accessibility issues.
Due to this, many cinemas will offer a subtitled/audio descriptive performance of a film during the daytime, or at the weekend (if you can find them at all).
For those looking for subtitled showings of films, in the UK, I’d recommend the following site: http://www.yourlocalcinema.com/
Even then, I hear (no pun intended) that many of these showings, which are catering to an almost completely deaf/hard of hearing audience, will suffer “technical faults” whereby the subtitles wont be shown. But, as I’ve just mentioned (in the previous section, in fact) this is not a technical fault and even if it were, the person who could fix the issue (the projectionist) is in the perfect place (the projection room) to fix the issue.
I feel like I’m getting on a it of a rant now, but I’ve covered the basics of what digital film, so I think I’ll leave it there for now.
Before I go though, give this a share with any folks you know who might be interested in film and (if you are hearing – that is, if you have no hearing issues) leave a comment as to whether you would watch a film, at the cinema, that had subtitles enabled.
I do. in fact, I did when my girlfriend and I went to see The Imitation Game.
Right, I’d better be off. Have fun.
