Imago 2012 Brussels Technical Committee Report

Imago Technical Committee meeting Saturday march 10,
Studio l’Equipe Brussels meeting room, 10h30 - 19h00

Present :
- Kommer Kleijn, SBC (Chairman)
- John Christian Rosenlund, FNF
- Hakan Holmberg, FSF
- Rolf Coulanges, BVK
- Philippe Ros, AFC
- Bastiaan Houtkooper, NSC
- Jarek Szoda, PSC (new member, welcome !)
- Marek Jicha, ACK (invited guest)
- Ella van den Hove, SBC (invited guest, representing the SBC technical committee)

1. Kommer opens the meeting with a thank you to our hosts, "Studio l’Equipe"

2. Approval of the draft agenda with addition of an extra point about blacklevel problems at DCP screenings in Berlin, proposed by Rolf.

3. Approval of the minutes from previous meeting with a big thank you to Philippe Ros for his work in writing them.

4a. Appointment of moderator was skipped (Kommer will moderate), Bastiaan will take notes and asks for a few minutes at the end of each discussion to formulate and write the conclusion together.

4b. Discussion on blacklevel in DCP projection . initiated by Rolf, seen at Berlin festival.
DCP needs to be checked, Marek had similar problem and will conduct research.
Cross check masters DPX and DCP
Differences noted between different copies and screens.
Rolf and Marek are requested to report back the results.

5. Imago projection quality label
JC is making a demo DCP to compare projections.
background : In Norway they will tour around the cinema’s for one day and with a group of DOP’s, soundmen and Cinema-owners and compare the quality of laboratory and theatre screens in a visual way.
This will happen around April/May in Norway. An IMAGO representative should be there present and after that we will distribute the test data for members that want to do the same in their country.

Suggestion to use a two step system for getting a better picture in the CInema’s :

1. Make available the Oslo / IMAGO demo reel for theaters. Start a discussion with the cinema owners in a friendly way ?
2. Making a standard with measured values, give the cinema an IMAGO label
3. Label could have different steps. Perfect, Medium and Low. Or stars. It should be on invitation ?
Suggestion : 1 star = good cinema, 2 star is better and 3. is excellent cinema. To stay positive.

For step 1 IMAGO TC is going to invite some members to be at those screenings
For step 2 Kommer is going to write a set of minimum technical standards for the one star cinema.

In 4 months we will meet to compile the results and take the next step.
Possible presentation at IBC.

6. Silverscreens
Different standards between film and digital projection are pushed by a major screen manufacturer.
(lower for digital means we are loosing more and more what we achieved before).

High gain screens above 1.4 are unacceptable in most theatres (exept maybe extremely long shaped ones).
Less known is that silver screens also give less stereo separation when the viewing angle increases.

Good screens 1.0 up to pearl 1.4 (the "best" and "good" picture with "best" or "good" uniformity)
Pearl screens 1.8 and 2.2 are promoted by screen manufacturers but do often not give the required uniformety
Silverscreen is 2.3 or 2.4, generaly resulting in unacceptable light loss for off axis viewers and/or unacceptable uniformity

Suggestion to write a simple paper explaining the problems (Kommer)
Bring it to the IMAGO board and delivery it to the societies.

In France the CNC just annouced (7/3/2012) interdiction of silver screens in France 5 years from now.

Couple the IMAGO cinema label standard to the screen quality too ?

Suggestion :
Create a DataBase on the IMAGO website with Cinema’s and add a review / rating system.
Each society should collect the data in their own country.

7. Projection Framerates
Kommer briefs the changes / updates from this years
Changes this year : AFR standard (25, 30, 50, 60) is now also an ISO standard (official international standard).
The archival frame rates (16, 18, 20, 22) are now an SMPTE standard.
New work was started on HFR (High Frame Rates) standard (48,50,60 per eye for stereo, 96, 100, 120 fps for 2D)
Suggestion to put the need for 25fps projection in the IMAGO rating system mandatory for the first star.

8. Digital Archive Autorizate by Marek Jicha and colleague professors at the FAMU academy in Prague.
Marek explains his paper about Digital Archiving and the relation to author rights.
Mareks paper has been discussed and some changes proposed.
The technical committee is comfortable with the naming of DRA (Digitally Restored Autorizate) and the definition of "original of film".
The TC does not agree with the presence of digital film restorers during the process and wishes to hand the question of royalties over to the authorship committee.

9. SuperDPX. IIF and ACES
The TC agrees to drop the SuperDPX work since it has been more or less integrated into the IIFF work and we leave it to them. The TC received thank you from David Stump ASC who told us that our work has been used by AMPAS.
Bastiaan will stop the registration of the domains and the website superdpx.com/org/info/eu.

10. Datamanagement
Ella presented the results of her questionnaire and shares the happiness of having a local TC.
Suggestion to always invite a representative of the local TC for the country we have the IMAGO TC meeting in.

11. Philippe Ros expressed his concern about the misleading PR of some camera manufacturers.
Strategies to fight this were discussed. Members will submit articles/links to the other members and if there is a consensus about those articles we might put it up on the IMAGO site to inform other members and put some pressure on the manufacturers to inform correctly.
We will also initiate more direct dialogs with the manufacturers. First step might be contact with ARRI in Munich. Rolf is working on that.

12. Selecting the new TC chairman for the next year. No volunteers. It is agreed that we will ask some help for organisation of the meetings from the association in the country where the meeting is held, like SBC did here with Ella. (Thank you Ella). It would also be appreciated if the local association could arrange for someone to take the notes during the meeting. Kommer agrees to continue the chairmanship.

13. JC talks about his software, gives a quick demonstration of the different apps on iPhone and iPad. Members are impressed and enquire about the details.

14/15 None

16. We set a new meeting date at Cinec Monday 24th of September.

The committee thanks Studio l’Equippe for their hospitality and lunch, the SBC for the help and dinner, Ella and Kommer for organizing this meeting.