“From June 2011 up to today the Polish Film Institute hasallocated 3.5 milion euros to co-financing the digitalization of a hundred or soscreens belonging to art-house circuits, with the aim of ensuring that even inthe country’s small and medium-sized towns there is a varied offer ofquality cinema,” stated Renata Pawlowska-Pyra, responsible for the project,whilst presenting the main features of cinema-going in Poland.

To date, the initiative has thus made it possible forthe new technology to be adopted even in theatres not belonging to the bigcircuits - Multikino, Helios and Cinema City – who hadalready completed their transition to digital by mid-2012. Using fundscollected by the PISF from the box-offices of all cinemas, up to now theinitiative has achieved its prime objective of preventing theatres with amainly social and cultural vocation from being relegated to the far edges ofthe market.

This approach aroused particular interest amongst thecourse participants and in particular those coming from countries where theexhibitors feel a need for similar measures to be adopted, such as Greeceor Bosnia Herzegovina.

The impending disappearance of 35mm is of particularconcern on this type of market, where the rate of digitalization is below theEuropean average.

In Bosnia Herzegovina, for example, the rate ofdigitalization has only recently reached 50% of screens: here – accordingto professional players – the radical modernization hoped for in thesector should make it possible to increase pro-capita cinema-going, which todaydoes not even amount to half a ticket per inhabitant.

The day continued with a session devoted to technologyand with a significant title: “Everything that an exhibitor should knowbefore buying a digital projector,” held by Emidio Frattaroli, Directorof the trade journal AV Magazine.

The talk encouraged a critical look at some topics ofcrucial interest for the quality of digital projection and met with a lot ofinterest amongst the participants.

“The projector’s resolution,”concluded Frattaroli, “is not everything and there is no equipment thatis suitable for every case. Screen width, the material the latter is made ofand the performance required of the light used (3D or not) are only some of thefactors to take into consideration. Even the information given in the technicalspecifications for the various materials may prove not to work out in practice.This does not mean it is false but that it is not always valid over time or thespecifications are not obtainable under all conditions, for example.”

The need to acquire a business culture and learn fromexperience and from the exchange of experiences is a message that also emergedfrom the case histories presented at the end of the morning sessions by MarcoFraschini, technical director of the Multiplex Le Giraffe (13 screens in theMilan suburban area) and Michael Tilios, head of market analysis for Odeon,which, with 58 screens, is one of Greece’s leading exhibition chains,also operating in the field of distribution.

The visit to the Cinema City Bonarka – 20screens in the shopping mall of the same name just outside Cracow – shiftedthe focus to content and in particular the innovative uses of digitalprojection, presented by Krzysztof Indyk,Manager of the Cinema City Poland forsouthern regions.

This complex, addressing mainly families and youngaudiences, proposes its own exclusive content, under the name Cinema Park,which aims to transform and give an active role to spectators, in particular“budding audiences”. Based on the concept of teaching byentertaining, Cinema Park offers learning paths on topics such as Nature or theenvironment, involving the children in quizzes and interactive games or inscreenings including sensorial experiences, for example in the music theatre orthe one devoted to movement.

In the evening the course moved on to Cracow inanticipation of an intense program of visits to cinemas with very variedphysiognomies and vocations, all having in common the adoption of digitaltechnology.

The “Young Producer” workshops are changing their formula. Apart from the meetings with the producers and the trainings on preparing the applications, we would like to offer our students practical help in realizing their first independent movies. During the closed part of the workshops, young producers will have an opportunity to meet the experts who will advise them on the ways of developing their projects, the kinds of financing sources that should be searched for, the places where one should head to at the beginning, in order to receive financial support for the realization of a scenario. In small groups we will analyse the chances of particular projects, the co-production possibilities and the development potential on the international market. We will discuss the strategies of sales and promotion, but we will also take a look at how similar projects are developed abroad. The students will have an opportunity to talk about the problems connected with financing their projects, and they will also be able to build a realistic structure of their financing. The program will end with a pitching, together with the representatives of the film funds from the whole Europe, producers and guests of the festival.

To take part in the workshops we would like to invite the students of production, and the graduates of film schools with small experience, who are thinking about developing their own projects, and have an already prepared, or an almost prepared, scenario. We would like to encourage you to download the entry form from our website, fill it, and send it back to the address This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. together with adequate appendixes. We do not specify the length of the films, yet we assume that they will be mostly one-reelers. The workshops will be conducted in English, and the costs of participation is 140 PLN. The deadline for application is 4th October.