 |
| Tony Scott's "Beat the Devil". Photo by Jim Sulley/WirePix |
More than 14 million Internet viewings later, BMWfilms.com has released three new shorts in “The Hire” series, all produced by production company RSA USA and agency Fallon Worldwide. Executive produced by RSA founders, directors Ridley and Tony Scott, and RSA USA president Jules Daly, the three shorts were directed by John Woo (“Hostage”), Tony Scott (“Beat the Devil”) and Joe Carnahan (“Ticker”). In this latest effort, BMW again breaks new ground, this time by pioneering new technology applications.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
In addition to web distribution, the films will be shown on BMW Films Channel on DirecTV, and projected digitally in commercial theaters nationwide beginning this month, as part of the BMW Films Digital Cinema Series, a partnership with Microsoft.
The two companies will present a series of eight independent features in 25 art house theaters across the country. The theaters are being specially equipped with digital projectors and a digital cinema system developed by Digital Cinema Solutions, which in turn is based on Windows Media 9 Series — a new media platform centered on a new, incredibly scalable Microsoft compression codec.
“We are proud to be a part of a program that will make accessible the work of emerging filmmakers who push boundaries, take risks and challenge us to see a subject in an entirely new light,” said Jim McDowell, VP of marketing for BMW North America.Digital Cinema
BMW Films Digital Cinema Series is encoded in Windows Media 9 Series, a digital media platform that includes the Windows Media Player, a new streaming server, and a new software development kit. It’s built around an 8-bit YUV codec that uses the 601-4 matrix and utilizes 4:2:0 sub-sampling. It has been designed to accommodate everything from low-bit rate dial-up streaming media, to professional applications.
“Windows Media is not tied inherently to any resolution or frame rate limitations,” said Tim Harader, business development manager of Microsoft’s Windows Digital Media Division. “Today one could encode resolutions of 4k or even greater. The limiting factors are storage and playback. Storage, because the uncompressed source file that you would encode would be enormous, and playback because no existing PC is fast enough to render these resolutions without dropping frames. As storage and processor technology continue to evolve exponentially, this will be less of an issue.”
Digital Cinema Solutions president and founder, Jim Steele, explained that his company built a digital cinema system around the new Windows Media platform that includes audio patch boards to connect to existing audio systems and various digital I/Os. The system also has a touch screen display to set up playlists and comes with a DSX 6000 digital cinema projector from Digital Projection Inc., (DPI) – a mid-range black chip projector.
Steele has a history with the codec, having been involved in Digital Cinema trials of 9 Series (previously code named Corona).
 |
| Standing in the Shadows of Motown is the first in the BMWfilms Digital Cinema Series. |
“When you get into that level of compression, the big worry is always the artifacting in your extreme darks and extreme lights, and your heavy duty movements,” he explained. “It looked great to the very film community we were all deathly afraid of.
“I had in my hands a solution to empower the indie film business, and independent exhibition business with something that worked today,” he said. “It was ready to be exploited, independent of all of the politics and other mishmagosh that’s going on in the digital cinema world. This was a system I could take to the indie arena today, and while everybody figures out what the overall format is going to be for mainstream digital cinema, I could just apply this on a smaller scale.”
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
