Silicon Valley film fest embraces cutting edge of technology
As is befitting a film festival born in the heart of Silicon
Valley, Cinequest continues to stay at the forefront of new movie
technology. This year, the festival introduces a new projection
system, movie downloads to mobile devices and plenty of movies for
online viewing.
Silicon Valley film fest embraces cutting edge of technology
As is befitting a film festival born in the heart of Silicon Valley, Cinequest continues to stay at the forefront of new movie technology. This year, the festival introduces a new projection system, movie downloads to mobile devices and plenty of movies for online viewing.
The film festival, which runs March 1 through March 12 in downtown San Jose, entered its 16th year with an advanced and timelier way to show movies. Festival movies come in a variety of media formats – from 35 mm to Super 8 film to digital video – each with its own size reel or tape. In the past, screenings have gone off-schedule as volunteer projectionists switched between projectors, especially during short films that offer six to eight films in one sitting.
“This year, the program will include an Omneon server system,” said Kristy Wolk, a spokesperson for Cinequest. “It will help with getting everything on time. We really work hard for that so this is something we are looking forward to.”
The new server system, created by the Sunnyvale company Omneon VideoNetworks, has been used by radio and television broadcast stations around the world to keep their lineup on schedule. Cinequest techies are able to save any format of film and video on the server for easy playout when it comes time for a piece to show at the festival. It also eliminates the need to move reels or tapes that play more than once from venue to venue for showing since all the films are saved centrally on a server.
This year, the festival has also made films available for download to mobile platforms, such as the Palm Treo 650 smartphone, the Apple iPod and video-capable cell phones.
“We think it will draw people into the festival,” Wolk said. “The great thing about mobiles is if you are waiting in line to get into the theater you can see something on your cell phone.”
To download films, viewers visit www.cinequestonline.org where they can select from 58 films or trailers that have played in past festivals through the Cinequest Collection. The 2006 films will be available online after the festival, though the specific date that they will be posted has not been chosen, Wolk said.
The free downloads are viewable on any computer running Windows 98, 2000 or XP with Windows Media 9. Most of the films are not available for play on Mac OS X. Users will also need to download a free copy of Open Media Network, a software program that ensures that video downloads are secure and can limit the number of times a film is viewed or the length of time a user has access to it.
The OMN program takes less than five minutes to download on computers with DSL or cable modems. Once the software is installed, film fans can start downloading movies immediately.
“It’s a way to give these film lovers more access to the films they want,” Wolk said. “It definitely allows people who don’t have the time.”
The Viewers’ Voice contest, made up of films that were submitted to Cinequest but that did not make it into the final program list, offers a chance for filmmakers to have the films seen online. There are more than 300 short and feature films available on the Web site. Viewers vote for their favorite pieces and the ones with the most votes are offered a slot at the festival.
“Filmmakers love it because it is a chance for them to get their film to the world rather than going to all the craziness behind Hollywood distribution,” Wolk said.
Adam Bertocci, a shorts filmmaker from New York, submitted his film to Cinequest and was happy to have the chance for viewers to see his film on the site.
“It’s one of the 400-pound gorillas of film festivals, I guess,” Bertocci said, of the Northern California festival. “I harbored no illusions that I would be one of the films to get into the festival, but I like to have what I do in front of as many eyeballs as possible.”
His film, “Love: The Movie” is a short comedy that likens falling in love to making a movie – with the need for good dialogue, a good start and action scenes.
“I think it tickled someone’s fancy enough that they invited it to Viewers’ Voice,” Bertocci said. “I will continue submitting any short I make of any quality worth discussing. It’s one more option that one has open now.”
The OMN software used to download the films is similar to other programs such as iTunes. The software creates a library of movies, with information on the size of the file and the date it was downloaded. The new technology allows for DVD quality films to be downloaded quickly and securely.
While mp3s are between 3.5 to 6 megabytes, a short 12-minute movie can be as large as 100 megabytes. OMN would take 10 minutes to download a film of that size with a DSL or cable modem while a song would take just seconds.
Jon Frechette, a Los Angeles filmmaker, is happy to have his film online, but he still has reservations about the technology.
“The thing I like about this whole wave of being able to put content on the web is that it makes me accessible to anyone in the world,” Frechette said. “My main criticism is the delivery method – the infrastructure of the Internet.”
When Frechette has directed friends or acquaintances to the site to view his film “Zoo”, a short drama about a man who tries to say goodbye to the son of a woman he has had an affair with, it wasn’t always reliable.
“I think there are still bugs that need to be ironed out before it can really truly be accessible,” Frechette said. “To truly make the Web a place where people can go, we are not necessarily quite there yet.”
The technology, of course, is only as good as the equipment users have at home. Those with slower modems or without high-end speakers, video cards and monitors won’t have the same viewing experience as those with the best equipment.
Bertocci and Frechette were unsure how many people had downloaded their films from Cinequest. Overall, more than 125,000 films were downloaded from the site in 2005. As many as 400,000 will be downloaded this year as more viewers become aware of the technology
Still, both filmmakers liked having the option of sending people to the site to view their film.
“If something comes up in a conversation with someone, I can say ‘Hey, I made something’ and send the link,” Bertocci said. “That’s one more person I’ve inundated with my product for 10 minutes.”
