NEC NC2000C Protocol Document

NEC Digital Cinema Projectors Protocol Document - NC2000C.
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SEPTEMBER 2013

46     WWW.FILMJOURNAL.COM

WWW.FILMJOURNAL.COM     47

SEPTEMBER 2013

‘The time has come. The Capri Theatre needs to get 

digital.” Continuously operating since 1941—when the 
first neighborhood theatre in Montgomery, Alabama, 

was still known as The Clover—the Capri Community Film 
Society, its nonprofit operator since 1983, was faced with the 
daunting task to go “DCI or DIE.” (We grateful y—and with 
permission—lifted those catchy words for our headline.) Noting 
“the studios made us do it,” cinema director Martin McCaffery 
launched a Kickstarter campaign in April, ultimately raising more 
than the $80,000 requested, in addition to “a generous grant” 
from The Daniel Foundation of Birmingham that provided the 
first $25,000. DCI it is.

Arthouse Convergence last January. “After that, I just 
decided we had nothing to lose, so why not give it a try?”

How are independents dealing with this seismic 

change? In the first of a two-part series, we examine 
the work of passionate individuals and groups of people 
not only at the Capri but in Tampa, Florida (www.
tampatheatre.org), and Berkeley Springs, West Virginia 
(www.starwv.com). They will be joined next month by 
equal y good folks from Stamford, Connecticut (www.
avontheatre.org), as well as theatres in Santa Monica and 
Hol ywood, Calif. (www.americancinematheque.com), and 
Lichtervelde, Belgium (www.cinemadekeizer.be). All of 
them exclusively share with Film Journal International their 
thoughts on timing, how they financed the conversion, 
specific chal enges they encountered due to their unique 
surroundings—and, of course, how programming 
philosophies are being impacted. As McCaffery says, 
“We’re hoping digital will al ow us to expand our 
programming.”

While certainly lucky to have such good friends, the 

Capri (www.capritheatre.org) is not alone in overcoming the 
chal enges of digital conversion and in hoping for good things 
to come with it. Putting it into perspective, that amount 
of money is “more than we spent on 35mm in 30 years,” 
McCaffery says in his video pitch. “And it is also more than 
we had in ticket sales last year.” Other successful Kickstarters 
such as the Catlow (http://bit.ly/fji1012catlow), Patio, Harbor 
and Rose theatres as well as Lyric Cinema Café (http://bit.ly/
fji1112kickstarter) have already been profiled in these pages. 
And McCaffery credits the Crescent Theatre in Mobile, Ala. 
as his inspiration, along with the discussions at the Sundance 

All of our exemplary movie houses have been around for a 

long, long time. At 72 years, the Capri is the youngest in 

the bunch (barely, by one year). The Aero Theatre opened in 
1940 and is operated by the American Cinematheque, which 
also runs the Egyptian in Hol ywood. Exhibitor-showman Sid 
Grauman launched the exotic landmark in 1922, four years 
after the Mil ion Dol ar Theatre in downtown Los Angeles 
and five years before his world-famous Chinese Theatre down 
the boulevard. The Avon was part of that magical movie year 
1939 and our smal -town wonders in Berkeley Springs and 
Lichtervelde were established in 1928 and 1924, respectively.

“I have to remind people that the Tampa Theatre was 

built before sound was even invented,” laughs John Bel , the 
president and CEO of the 1926 atmospheric movie palace 
that the MPAA recently placed on its list of “the world’s best” 
(www.thecredits.org/2013/05/ten-of-the-worlds-best-movie-
theaters). “Since film is our core business, we were well aware 
for several years that digital cinema was coming,” he reassures. 
“In July 2012, however, we realized it wasn’t just coming but 
that it was here. While there wasn’t any one distributor that 
went on record saying they would stop distributing film prints 
to the Tampa Theatre in 2013, that was the message we were 
hearing nonetheless. Part of why we had been waiting was our 
hope that the digital conversion would be like plasma TVs,” he 
laughs. “You know, prices coming way, way down after the first 
ones had come out. Unfortunately that has not been the case.”

The accelerated timing put the nonprofit Tampa Theatre 

SayS CEO JOhn BEll On thE fundraiSing 
Campaign

 fOr digital COnvErSiOn Of thE 

nOnprOfit

 tampa thEatrE, “WE ElECtEd 

tO

 gO With a mOrE graSSrOOtS Campaign. 

mOSt pEOplE gavE uS $10 Or $50 giftS, But 
WE

 raiSEd aBOut $104,000.”

CL ASSIC 

MOVIE 

HOUSES

the Capri, 

nee Clover, 1958

reel life,

before digital

DCI or Die! Kickstarter

GO DIGITAL

BY   A N D R E AS   F U C H S

DCI or DIE

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