A Chat About How It Looks

Hi all,

In almost all the reviews for the movie, both in the print and online media, including reviews by bloggers, there has been mention about the way S'kali looks in the cinema, particularly issues in regards to blurriness and pixellation. Some questioned as to if it was due to inexperience on our team, others if it was because of issues in regards to projection. In light of this I felt, that as writer/director of S'kali, I would write a post to explain the reasons for this.

Like all other digital filmmaking teams in Malaysia, our first port of call once the shoot was over, when it came to talking about getting the movie into the cinema, was GSC. This is because at the time, GSC was not only the one chain with 3 E-Format screens, but in fact the only one with E-Format screens. What transpired in the end was that, for a variety of reasons, GSC would be unable to show the movie till sometime April/May 2007, if they decided they liked the movie enough to show it.

By the time we were made aware of this, the momentum had begun and we were slowly getting the word out via the press and other avenues and thus there was an expectation that the movie would open in 2006. Also, we knew that if you leave a movie on the shelf too long, it can become a 'stale' product.

At the same time whilst we had been talking to GSC, we had also been talking to Cathay and they were very interested in the movie and what we wanted to do with it. So when GSC did not work out, Cathay stepped up to the plate, moving up the installation of their E-Format screen from the end of the year to September just to get S'kali out. Now the thing was, Cathay's E-Format screen was only going to be able to screen the movie on DVD. Digibeta was not a possibility.

Now most of the production team have seen S'kali in it's full HDV glory. It is sharp, clear and looks pretty good for something shot on digital film. As most people would know, HD-DVD is only beginning to emerge, so when one has to burn a DVD of a HDV movie, it means compressing it, which means a loss of quality. Now that loss is not that noticable when you pop the DVD in to watch on your TV, in fact it still looks pretty good. But once you blow it up via a projector, then yeah, things don't look so good anymore.

So we were faced with the following decision:

1. We could wait till 2007 and release the movie on more screens on digibeta but run the risk of the momentum dying. Also, there was no real guarantee that the movie would get shown anyways.

OR

2. We could make the compromise and get the movie out with Cathay who were really eager and supportive thus getting the word out because that was more important to us.

And we stand by that decision. What was important was that people got to watch the movie, got to talk about it and that the name of the team and the company got out. It was the best decision because it led to us getting a significant chunk of money now for our next movie which is being shot middle of next year.

But what is also important to glean from this is the implication E-Format holds for other emerging digital filmmakers in Malaysia who do not have huge budgets and will be gunning to get their movies in the cinema. We were lucky that the people at Cathay were willing to step up to the plate and get the movie shown. E-Format is our first step in what should a constant and unrelenting march towards proper digital projection where one pops a hard drive into the projector and screens the digital movie in full digital quality.

This is vital as digital cinema is a cinema about innovation and Malaysian cinema from now on will be about digital cinema. Thus it is only right that we continue to push the boundaries not just when it comes to production, but also distribution and exhibition.

Because to remain showing digital films on E-Format would be akin to screening 35mm films on video.

Thanks for reading,
Arivind Abraham