Don't know if someone has posted this yet. Good article on how the studios are pushing the digital only distribution model.

Movie Studios Are Forcing Hollywood to Abandon 35mm Film. But the Consequences of Going Digital Are Vast, and Troubling - Page 1 - Film+TV - Los Angeles - LA Weekly (http://www.laweekly.com/2012-04-12/film-tv/35-mm-film-digital-Hollywood/)

Sad but true for our generation .. looks like the next lot coming up won't get the chance to learn the beauty of film stock.

Or the clatter of a hot projector, the smell of the celluloid, the reel change cues and the big round film tins .... ah well we might still be able
to roll our Jafas down the aisle.

Fascinating historical details in there, thanks Richard.

Cheers.

To me, it just seemed like a bunch of head-in-the-sand whining. Technology marches on.

If anything, this will encourage studios to continue to scan more old film projects into high-definition digital video, which would mean that even more studios could play these old films that the folks featured in the article are complaining about not having access to.

Also, this conversion will mean that these films will be available continually to a limitless number of generations, without having to spend large amounts of money on continual storage and restoration (or having the film neglected to rot). Scan them now at the highest practical resolutions. You could probably hire a lot of the smart people from the film manufacturing industry to work on the restoration projects.

And if the studios were smart, they'd change a low price to download a 720P copy to view at home, like say $5. There'd be no incentive to pirate, and the studios would make a much more direct per user revenue, and at $5, users would be more likely to purchase on impulse.

There will still be plenty of cellulose lying around that you can feel free to maintain a room in your facility to play.