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August 23, 2004 Historic Digital Tests to be Stored at Academy film ArchiveBeverly Hills, CA — The Standardized Evaluation Material (StEM) that will be used for testing programs by Digital Cinema Initiatives, LLC (DCI) ultimately will reside at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Film Archive. StEM provides a baseline to test a wide variety of digital cinema compression, projection, transmission and other related technologies. It was developed as a collaborative effort between DCI and the American Society of Cinematographers in the summer of 2003. Digital Cinema Initiatives is a joint venture of the seven major Hollywood studios formed for the purpose of establishing and documenting a voluntary digital cinema technical specification. "The Academy Film Archive is the logical choice to store the StEM original camera negative and digital files," said Walt Ordway, chief technology officer for DCI. "We wanted an unbiased and safe place for this important material, and the Academy's unique commitment to the motion picture industry satisfies all of our requirements." Michael Pogorzelski, director of the Academy Film Archive, said the archive is pleased to have been selected as the repository for the Standardized Evaluation Material. "We hope that we also will serve as the archival facility for other materials that will be used to reach a digital cinema standard," Pogorzelski said. "The transition from film to digital will be an industry-altering turning point in the history of motion pictures." This is exciting for everyone who cares about motion pictures," said Richard Crudo, president of the ASC. "The debt we owe to the industry's pioneers is well known, but future generations will no doubt be just as thankful for the efforts we're making now. The sky was the limit in 1928. The feeling right now is the same, but the sky we're looking at is even higher yet." "This is historic material," said Andrew Maltz, director of the Academy's Science and Technology Council. "Taken as a whole, the StEM and the tests that use it will be as significant as the first sound-on-film tests performed in the last major industry transition 80 years ago." Ordway, Pogorzelski and Maltz worked together to arrive at a deposit agreement that satisfied the concerns of the studios and other participating groups, which wanted to protect the material from possible inappropriate commercial exploitation. "The original negative and digital files will not be available for any use without the permission of the DCI companies," Maltz said. The StEM and other materials gathered over the coming years will be stored in the state-of-the-art temperature- and humidity-controlled vaults of the Academy Film Archive at the Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study in Hollywood. Copies of the StEM are available for testing and for certain demonstration applications from DCI-approved post production facilities. More information on StEM use is available at www.dcimovies.com. # # # |
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