The Show is very much reduced from years past. No idea why but trade show is less than 50% of past. Attendance said to be 700 but must include vendors as meals and groups seem very reduced. Yet everyone seems very positive... other than a couple of guys from Slovakia used to the big show in Amsterdam and looking for a little more life. All the talk is digital.. what can we say? The transition moves on. There have been many many serious discussions about what happens to the 20% of the smaller theatres and there seems consensus that less expensive stuff will quickly emerge so equipment gets less expensive and smaller size of many theatres needing less high end projectors combines with phase one / series one used projectors to make digital more available.
Nearly everyone I have spoken with says they do not expect that the 20% theatres will be left behind and political and legal issues will emerge.
saw a few movies and wish I could tell you they were exciting. So far...eh. Seeing a lot of great trailers and clips and that seems exciting and a good season is coming.
We are negotiating our three screen digi deal so moving along for a late winter install before April/ no 3-D.
Speaking of Facebook: they had a major workshop with one of the orginators and somehow it got to 3-D discussion and he said "Last year we were asked by distribs to find out what people felt about 3d and what did they find?... "generally people did not like it, did not care, didn't look for it as a decider, were more likely to not want to see a 3-D movie, did not enjoy it, etc. etc." What was the distribs reaction? He covered his ears and started going la-la-la-la-la-la.
Back at the trade show everyone who's selling loves 3-D.
Last night had a really nice tropical party outside / Dave's mother in law won a Motorola tablet and he looked like he was planning on stealing it.
Off we go to meet with financiers and integrators.