The Dissolve has a pretty interesting interview with William Friedkin. His take on DCP and 35mm is an interesting one - let's just say he's a fan of digital exhibition.
My own view is that while I certainly understand and feel romanticism about 35mm, there simply is no point in trying to fight digital filmmaking and projection at this point. The studios have to catch up, and there are problems with how the studios are handling archiving and repertory availability, but I believe/hope a lot of those issues will be solved just through time. I'm also hopeful, but perhaps foolishly so, that once the studios catch up it might actually end up making repertory exhibition cheaper and easier, and thus more viable. Fingers crossed.
Every new format requires time. My greater concern is that not all DCP projection is quite up to snuff. Whether through poorly rendered DCPs themselves or shoddy projection equipment/handling, I've seen too many movies in the last couple years that bring to mind old video projection (i.e., not good).
Friedkin also provides an interesting story about working with the studios to try and figure out who had the rights to his film Sorceror. I think it says a lot about the studios and how some of them aren't really fully invested in their libraries. If it isn't a major work from which they can continually squeeze out money by reissuing it every few years on the latest video formats, then they do not seem terribly interested.
I really believe that the studios have not fully realized the value from their libraries to be had from internet streaming distribution. They're repeating their stubborn mistakes from early TV and the dawning of the video age. Warner Brothers, which, owing to the sheer size of their library, has the most invested in repertory exploitation, had to step in to give a jolt to re-releasing Sorceror on Blu-Ray. Paramount, which recently licensed its library to Warner Brothers for video releasing, was obstinately disinterested at first.
There's a lot more in The Dissolve's interview worth checking out.
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