The Guardian: Celluloid dreams set to disappear in a digital puff
Before long film will be but a memory at your local cinema as reel projectors are replaced with newer, sharper digital systems.
I think that digital projection will be a great boon for cinemas and the independent movie industry. I think it will be quite a long time until the projection of film is phased out completely, we at The Little Theatre will be running both systems alongside one another for the foreseeable future.
One great advantage of digital projection is the lower distribution costs for the medium as currently the cost of a producing a single print of film is thousands of pounds plus there is the substantial courier costs for transporting 10 000 feet of polyester film (celluloid was discontinued decades ago). Digital ‘films’ will be distributed on hard drives and therefore will be of the order of £100 rather than thousands.
Lower costs will mean that more independent movies will be able to get a wide release among cinemas across the country. Better choice for the moviegoer and better chance for the small movie producers to compete against the big boys.