—May 17, 2006
Digital Cinema gets another boost in Cannes!
The Cannes Film Festival Official Partner for digital cinema, XDC has encoded
over 25 motion pictures and will manage over 40 digital cinema screenings at
this year’s Festival
XDC enhancing its partnership with the Cannes Film Festival will support all
the digital cinema activities from encoding the movies up to the screenings in
the auditoriums of the Palais. As Official Partner of the Cannes Film Festival
for digital cinema, XDC has installed the digital cinema systems in the renowned
Lumière, Debussy, Bazin and Buñuel in Palais des Festivals theatres, and will
collaborate with CST to provide the technical support for all digital
projections in the Official Selection and in the parallel sections.
“We are particularly proud that the Festival has entrusted XDC with the
responsibility for the whole workflow from the digital encoding to play out. It
is the outstanding successful track-record over the last 5 years in digital
cinema, both from the management and the technical staff, with the roll out of
over 210 screens and the preparation of over 150 films in Europe, which allows
XDC to meet this technological challenge” says Alain Remond, General Manager of
XDC France.
XDC has also provided the equipment necessary for digital projection and
play-out into Espace Miramar for the International Critics’ Week and into Noga
Theatre for the 38th edition of the Directors’ Fortnight. The projectors
installed in all the theatres are compliant with the requirements of the DCI and
are today all in 2K resolution. The XDC servers are perfectly well suited to the
specifications presently used for digital film distribution.
“Over 25 films have been processed by XDC Lab”, says Regis Raway, XDC Services
Sales Manager. “The producer and/or the distributor give us the image via the
digital master. Sound and subtitles are also provided … along with in some
cases, trailers. We then, digitally encode the motion picture with or without
subtitles and dubbed audio versions. Stringent quality control is performed all
along the digital copy production workflow process, with a series of validations
of the final result being carried out by several engineers. The digital copy is
stored on a transportable hard disk and encrypted for optimal copyright theft
protection. XDC’s strength is to be able to provide this high quality work at
very short notice. We are accustomed to producing digital copies in just a few
days before the projection in Cannes.”
The full-length feature films being prepared and/or managed by XDC are :
- Official Competition: Iklimler by Nuri Bilge Ceylan – Southland Tales by
Richard Kelly
- Out of Competition : Over The Hedge by Tim Johnson and Karey Kirkpatrick – El-Banate
Dol (These Girls) by Tahani Rached
- Cannes Classics : India Song by Marguerite Duras – Le mystère de la Tour
Eiffel by Julien Duvivier – Bejin Loug by Sergei M. Eisenstein – The Last
Adventurer by Robert Enrico – The Searchers by John Ford – El Topo by Alejandro
Jodorowsky – The Way Ahead by Carol Reed – Odd Man Out by Carol Reed – A Kid for
Two Farthings by Carol Reed - Monte Cristo by Henri Fescourt
- International Critics’ Week : Destricted by Marina Abramovic
- Directors’ Fortnight : Azur et Asmar by Michel Ocelot – Mala Noche by Gus Van
Sant
The short-length feature films :
- Official Competition : Film Noir by Osbert Parker - Ongeriewe by Robin
Kleinsmidt
- Out of Competition : Stanley’s Girlfriend by Monte Hellman – Chambre 666 by
Wim Wenders
The documentaries:
- Out of Competition : Boffo ! Tinseltown’s Bombs and Blockbusters by Bill
Couturie
- Cannes Classics : Marcello A Sweet Life by Mario Canale and Annarosa Morri –
Il était une fois … Rome ville ouverte by Marie Genin and Serge July – John
Ford/John Wayne : The Filmmaker and the Legend by Sam Pollard
“We are very excited about the partnership with the Festival. The Cannes Film
Festival is an outstanding opportunity, which enables XDC to show filmmakers,
producers cinematographers, in fact all members of the production and delivery
chain the comprehensive tools and services they can use to get their stories to
screen the way they intended. With over 40 digital screenings, the motion
picture community can enjoy the benefits of XDC’s optimal screening conditions”
says John B. Birchell Hughes, XDC Senior Vice President Production & Distributor
Relations.
“This year, EVS Group will have a special exposure at the Festival …” adds
Bernard Collard, General Manager of XDC International, “…EVS Broadcast Equipment
has signed a partnership agreement with TV Cannes Festival, to provide technical
facilities for the whole event.” …the official broadcasters for the 59th Cannes
Film Festival is programming 12 days of the Festival (May 17 to 28, 2006) with
24 hours per day coverage including the opening and closing ceremonies, photo
calls, interviews, a 45 minute daily programme of press conferences and a 15
minute highlight magazine format feature called ‘Le Mag’, etc. “Besides the
production of highlights packages and live delays, EVS XT[2] platform will be
further operated for its native support for IMX and its ability to read and
manage all Avid post production files in standard definition already used by the
broadcaster”, comments Nicolas Bourdon, Head of Marketing and Communications for
the EVS Group. “Reliability, reactivity and interoperability of EVS tapeless
technology with third party devices, are the critical factors behind the
broadcaster’s decision to select our solutions”, he adds.
