Hearing Jim Cameron and others speak during the Digital Cinema Summit, it’s interesting to ponder whether HD acquisition for feature films is having a bigger impact on how movies are made from a technology POV, or how they are financed, marketed, distributed and discussed from a business POV. Cameron and several others pointed to major breakthroughs in fiber technology and the Sony SRW VTR as major elements that have made this form of filmmaking more accessible to larger groups of filmmakers on various budgets. (Indeed, DP’s from several such shows spoke at the Digital Cinema Summit, and Millimeter and Digital Content Producer will be covering workflow from several such projects in coming issues.)

Still, on the post side, HD acquisition has changed workflow in many areas, but not always the basic principles of filmmaking, Cameron said, using editing as an example when asked if cutting 3D is any different than cutting 2D material.

“I haven’t found big differences in a 2d cut and a 3d cut, for the most part,” he said. “You do need to learn the tools necessary to control the flow of information for the audience’s impression of what the second eye is seeing. But the principals of editing haven’t changed. Short, fast cuts might be different in 3D, just because 3D imagery is received and processed best when left on the screen a bit longer. But the basic approach is the same.”

But, in terms of the business of cinema, he added many changes are on the way. For instance, visual effects budgets will, by definition, increase on major tentpole releases that opt to go into the 3D realm, as Cameron is strongly urging. But from a business POV, Cameron and others suggested that’s OK from a big-studio perspective, because they expect those films to earn more revenue in the long run anyway.

The bottom line in moving into HD filmmaking, 3D filmmaking, and so forth, Cameron and just about every other panelist at the event suggested, is to respond directly, or indirectly, to sagging cinema ticket sales and the explosion of home entertainment options. They are trying, and the technology is enabling, they say, to create cinema experiences that simply aren’t available, or possible, at home or anywhere that does not have, as Cameron said, “a really, really big screen.”