Locarno , Switzerland —Aug 1, 2007
XDC at the 60th Locarno International Film Festival: 17 Motion Pictures - 30 Digital Screenings - 5 Digital Systems
As the official digital cinema technical partner, XDC is providing all of the necessary projection equipment and technical support for the digital screenings which will be performed on the famous Piazza Grande and in the Teatro Kuursal, the Auditorium Fevi, La Sala and the Rialto.
“This year, XDC assures that the Festival will be efficiently deployed by the most advanced digital cinema technologies, such as 2K DLP Cinema® projectors1 and JPEG2000 DCI2 compliant D-Cinema servers.”, says Patricia Boillat, Image & Sound Supervisor for Locarno Festival. “Together, we will give the assurance to the Festival that the digital workflow operations are achieved in due time and with the required level of reliability.”
The theatre rooms will be equipped with a mix of Christie and Barco 2K DLP Cinema® projectors. In particular, the Piazza Grande will be equipped with the new Barco DP-3000 projector. “Being the brightest digital cinema projector in the industry, the DP-3000 is the perfect solution for such an amazing show experience. Imagine an open-air theatre with an attendance of 10,000 moviegoers and a screen width of 26 metres for a projection distance of 80 metres. This will demonstrate the high performance of Barco’s 2K digital cinema projectors.”, points out Andrew Healey, International Marketing Manager at Barco.
XDC will provide the technical support for all digital projections in collaboration with its Swiss integrator Protronic AG Kinotechnik. “We are very excited about the partnership with the Locarno Festival. Indeed, this Festival is an outstanding opportunity on the Swiss market. With over 30 digital screenings, it enables XDC to show filmmakers, producer’s 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. The motion picture community can enjoy the benefits of XDC’s optimal screening conditions” concludes Patrik Engler, Protronic CEO.
17 films will be digitally processed and quality controlled by the XDC Digital Content Lab in comparison with 7 films last year.
“Moreover, digital screening helps avoid expensive operations to convert to 35mm, which is particularly crucial for some independent films with limited budgets,” says Fabrice Testa, Marketing & Operations Manager at XDC International. The list of the films which will be screened digitally includes: Chicago 10, Vexille, Extraordinary Rendition, Nu te Supara dar, Phantom Love, Copacabana, Il Pianto della Statua, Despues del Mar, Cinema Mundi, The Screening, Strange Culture, The Study of Bunkers & Mounds in a Temperate Climate (Relatively Speaking), Soldier’s Wife, René, Palestines, Crackers, One Minute to Nine.