Technology will need to make many more huge leaps before one can ever view films with the level of picture and sound quality many film lovers demand without having to slide a disc into a player, especially with the technical requirements of today's 3D movies.
From where I sit, I see the digital cinema creating sloppiness on the part of filmmakers because they know if they really get in trouble, they can fix it later. So they don't pay that much attention, and of course it costs a lot more money.
The film industry is moving towards digital technology.
It's weird because movie-making, and especially movie theaters, have always been so old-school, and it wasn't until 3-D that a lot of them were forced to have digital projectors and even digital distribution.
Movie distribution may very well have migrated fully to digital form by then, making a huge dent in the need to print film and physically distribute content.
But I do believe that there's going to be a time where all movies are going to be made in 3D and it's just going to be a given, and that is going to be an exciting time.
Independent filmmakers already have their heads around people on their couches watching their movies.
Cinema will not go anywhere. We want to watch movies in theaters. Cinema and digital will coexist.
Sometimes I don't know whether a movie has been shot on film or in digital when I watch it in the theatres.
100 years ago, movies were black-and-white, silent, and 16 frames a second. So 100 years from now, what are they going to be?
I'm actually very critical of digital cinema.
Since we made Shrek in the digital format, you actually can see it in its purest form digitally.
That's one of the best things about the RED ONE - I can use all the best lenses that have been used in film forever.
Hopefully with digital projection, a film will always look the way the filmmaker intended.
One of the problems I have with a lot of movies these days is that everything is too well lit. In the world of digital creations there is a tendency to show too much.
I feel the wall that divides films screened online and in the cinema is becoming less and less significant.
New media has made it possible for filmmakers like me to get their message out. No big Hollywood studios are needed anymore to make and release a film. More and more people are watching movies and television online than going to the movie theater because of costs. This freedom gives me the opportunity to create the film I want to be seen and heard.
As a filmmaker whose first film was made with the DIY tools of digital cinema, I love how the democratization of the filmmaking process and platforms like YouTube enables people to tell stories that in previous generations simply could not be told.
I think the thing that I love the most about working in the digital cinema is that you're only limited in your cinematic technique by your imagination - you're not restricted by the physical laws of nature. You don't have to worry about physically moving a 50lb camera through space, or worry about shadows and rigging.
When the digital world is really here, movies can be disseminated from satellite direct to homes and direct to small theaters in Mongolia and northern Russia and obscure places that the market for movies is going to grow and grow and grow.
With digital, you do have the advantage of having an absolutely rock steady image because there's no projector gate, no perforations, no film weaving through a machine. And there's no dust and no scratching.
