Digital, at the risk and peril of Quebec films

For several years, almost all feature films have been shot in digital format. But just because this technology is newer doesn’t mean it’s synonymous with longevity. In fact, the constant evolution of digital formats threatens the preservation of works. Here’s why.

June 2018. The Cinémathèque québécoise presents a retrospective celebrating the 15th anniversary of the production company Metafilms. About twenty works are on the program.

Released in 2013, Diego Starby Frédérick Pelletier, is scheduled for June 12 at 7 p.m. A week before the screening, Pelletier receives a call from his producer informing him that in preparation for the screening, the distributor Métropole has sent… a Blu-Ray.

For filmmakers who are proud of their work, this situation is unacceptable. Projecting a Blu-Ray in a theater is feasible, but it remains a format made for the home. In theaters, DCP (Digital Cinema Package) or LTO (Linear Tape-Open) viewing files are used.

However, DCPs are embedded in external hard drives whose contents can be erased in favor of newer hardware. This is what happened with Diego Star.

“My producer called our international salesman in Miami,” says Frédérick Pelletier. [Ce dernier] had kept four DCP copies of the film and sent one at his own expense to Montreal. So I showed the subtitled American copy of my film financed by Quebec at the Cinémathèque québécoise.”

“I think at the time, hard drives were rented from a lab and they were wiped once the tour was over. When I arrived [en octobre 2018]I bought hard drives to make backups,” says Damien Detcheberry, general manager at Métropole.

Concerns

The example reflects a situation that still prevails and that concerns filmmakers in Quebec and around the world. While the rules for preserving good old cinema on film have been known – and perfectly mastered! – for decades, films shot digitally float in a magma of shooting formats, reading technologies and incessant upgrades. This translates into a risk of data loss or alteration over time, as explained by the general director of Rendez-vous Québec Cinéma, Dominique Dugas.

“Archivists have nearly a century of expertise in how to preserve films on film (temperature, humidity). Their restoration is better since the master copies are preserved,” adds Guillaume Lafleur, director of broadcasting, programming and publications at the Cinémathèque québécoise.

Digital has its advantages of course: cheaper, less bulky and more accessible to all. On the other hand, some formats remain the property of the manufacturer and can be marked with planned obsolescence. Added to this is the multiplication of file types. “There are digital formats (mini dV, Beta, HD Cam) used in the past whose sustainability is unknown,” says Mr. Lafleur.

Doubtful? Try it yourself with your old digital recordings or external hard drives of photos sleeping at the back of a wardrobe…

Legal Deposit

The best way to ensure the sustainability of our cinematography would be for each work to be saved in both analog and digital versions. Since the advent of digital, countless films have been digitized. The reverse could be done.

But that’s not likely to happen anytime soon. Because the costs are too high, namely a few tens of thousands of dollars per feature film.

“Making a film deposit of a digital work would be costly for depositors and for the State. This is not being considered for the moment,” says Mireille Laforce, director of legal deposit and acquisitions at Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ).

Legal deposit of films has existed in Quebec since 2006. All works financed by the State must be deposited with BAnQ. The Cinémathèque québécoise, which has the expertise, preserves these so-called conservation copies.

M^me Laforce says that in the past, producers who have made a legal deposit have asked for a new print to be made of the conservation copy. But this is not ideal, and authorizations are rare. “The goal of legal deposit is one of long-term conservation,” she says.

On other occasions, it was BAnQ that had to pull the wool over the eyes of producers who had not made their legal deposit. “Sometimes we have to send reminders,” says M^me Laforce. It is a work of perseverance. We work for posterity.

If the technological issues are crucial, it is also necessary to ensure better distribution, insists filmmaker Myriam Verreault who, last April, made a notable statement on her Facebook page regarding the lack of accessibility to her film. West of Pluto. A few days after our interview, she happily announced the return of her film on the TVA+, UNisTV and Apple TV platforms. “Our films are 90% financed with public funds. They should be accessible,” she says.

The debate is far from over. It is being waged in the name of both sustainability and quality. “When you work with a professional projection format in a theater, loss problems do not occur, or very rarely,” emphasizes Guillaume Lafleur. “And the definition, both of the image and the sound, is superior.”

In short, everyone wins.

Also read “How the NFB ensured the sustainability of its works”