Let There Be Lumière


December 28, 1895 is probably the most famous date in the history of cinema. On a winters day in Paris, Auguste and Louis Lumière publicly exhibited in the Salon Indien of the Grand Café on the Boulevard des Capucines moving images, which included the arrival of a train at La Ciotat.It was the first time motion pictures - and documentary ones at that - had ever been shown. The screening was so shocking that some members of the audience reportedly ran from their seats in fright.
In 1895 the railway network was a potent symbol of the burgeoning industrial revolution. Today the introduction of digital technology to the distribution and exhibition phases of the film industry could similarly represent a cultural revolution. Indeed, one might argue that the terrified reaction of spectators to the images of the arriving train produced by the Lumière brother's cinématographe has been repeated by Hollywood in its well-documented fear and loathing of the consequences of a purely digital cinema industry.

Hollywood is most associated with the definition of D-Cinema, or Digital Cinema. D-Cinema has been defined as the replacement of analogue 35mm feature films and optical mechanical projectors with digital files that are shown cinematically on high-resolution digital projectors. E-Cinema, or Electronic Cinema, is any content shown electronically or digitally to a public audience in an out-of-home environment. Thus D-Cinema is a high-end subset of E-Cinema. These definitions though are becoming outdated. Networks such as Digitala Hus in Sweden and the UK Film Council's Digital Screen Network already transcend such categorisations.

Digital pre-production, production and post-production are already commonplace in the cinema industry. The digitisation of its distribution phase means that motion pictures can be forwarded with greater alacrity and with lesser costs than the often awkward physical delivery of individually-struck 35mm prints. There are three main routes of digital delivery: satellite, by fibre-optic cable (potentially using existing ICT infrastructure such as the Internet), and with portable hard drives and DVDs.

Currently when a 35mm feature film arrives for exhibition it is made-up: it is spliced onto a single platter containing cinema trailers, advertising, content trailers and the main presentation. Automation cues to control auditorium lights and curtains are tagged to the print and read by an automation system. Server-based technology replicates this process digitally, as well as offering improved operational flexibility for cinemas such as ticketing. Digital projection is the final crucial phase.

The evolution from analogue to digital for the music industry has not been without complications, and the introduction of digital technology to the cinema industry has been no different. A future article will elucidate some of these issues.

The opportunities of this new system, however, are remarkable. Digital technology is an opportunity for producers, distributors and exhibitors to more accurately articulate and stimulate the desires - both conscious and unconscious - of a cinema audience. The prohibitive costs for digital filmmakers of transferring to 35mm are eliminated. It is a lifeline to low-to-medium budget filmmakers unable to secure decent openings from risk-averse distributors. Arthouse cinemas struggling against multiplex dominance could regenerate and as a result better discover and nurture those communities that are ill-served by Hollywood fare. Vocational education activities can be more vertically integrated - transforming the cinema industry from one of exclusivity to one of inclusivity.

The Lumière brothers successfully exhibited using their cinématographe documentary films all around the world. At the same time in the United States, Thomas Edison's inflexible, immobile and unwieldy Kinetograph languished by comparison. The Lumière's cinématographe was a superb innovation that could capture motion pictures and also exhibit them - sometimes within the space of a few hours. One can of course only speculate but if they were living today might they be digitally exhibiting documentaries shot on DV and distributing them by satellite all around the world?


The history of cinema - and of art - has been at times pre-occupied by a perceived conflict between beauty and truth. The documentary, however, is a compelling argument that truth of itself is beautiful. The reaction of audiences to the documentary films of the Lumières, and to the beginnings of the cinema industry are testament to this. The introduction of digital technology to the distribution and exhibition phases of the cinema industry could herald a re-beginning. Is there a lesson to be learned by us all from the first day of its inception in a Parisian café in 1895?


Michael Reilly
Docspace Researcher
08/04