Theatrical spots: exhibitors are exposing movie goers to more in-cinema commercials—and reversioning TV spots

Post, April, 2004 by Christine Bunish

Remember the days when movie theaters were commercial-free zones? Theatrical spots have become standard fare today, and some are innovative, highly creative mini-movies. But what does it take to get them on the big screen?

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UK BIG ON CINEMA SPOTS

Britain and the European continent have a much longer history of "cinema spots" than does the US, where the medium is still in its infancy. "Cinema advertising is huge business in this country," reports Matthew Bristowe, a producer at London's The Moving Picture Company (www.moving-picture.com).

His firm does 80 percent of the cinema campaigns in the UK, he estimates, including spots for Levi's, Nike, brewers Stella Artois and Guinness, The Gap and couturiers Dolce & Gabbana. The studio has also done spots for the US market. UK cinema spots are typically part of a comprehensive media buy, which also includes broadcast commercials. But they're increasingly crafted especially for the cinema instead of repurposed from on-air spots.

"More and more clients are making spots just for the cinema, and they can be a little more creative with the content," Bristowe observes. "Differently-rated movies can have commercials tailored for them with perhaps a little more risque content." In addition, "Sixty- and 90-second commercials are more frequent in the cinema than on TV and give directors much more creative and cinematic freedom. A lot of [spot] directors fancy themselves movie directors and some, indeed, are!"

The process of posting commercials for the big screen has not remained static over time. "The traditional way was to shoot on film and go to the lab where the color timing was tied to the chemical process," Bristowe recalls. "The big revolution came when colors could be created in the digital environment," the same environment television commercials had been finished in for some time.

The Moving Picture Company works with completed cinema spots, which have been laid off to an array of video formats. A spot is played into the company's system and loaded onto local hard drives where it is converted to data and interpolated to 2K with proprietary Film Tel software, which works in conjunction with Apple's Shake on IRIX, Linux or Macintosh platforms.

One of Film Tel's chief functions is the conversion of TV's linear color space to film's logarithmic color space. "The two color spaces are different," Bristowe says. "On TV you can digitally create colors--out of gamma colors--but you can't shoot those out directly to film. We've developed software to bring those colors back into the film color spectrum while keeping them looking exactly the same as they did on TV."

FilmTel software also converts aspect ratios, reconciles video fields with film frames and sharpens the final image. After extensive quality control, the cinema spot is scanned with an Arrilaser recorder and sent to one of the labs in town for processing.

Bristowe urges clients doing cinema spots to speak to producers at post houses "at the earliest opportunity" to avoid surprises. For example, "tape runs at 25fps in the UK and film at 24 so a cinema spot will be longer and slower than a TV spot. If you have an up-tempo music track it's going to be slowed for a cinema spot and may sound like it's dragging. If you know this in advance, you could create a 24-frame cinema mix."

POSTWORKS

New York City's PostWorks (www.pwny.com) has seen "a substantial amount of growth" in theatrical spots, according to president Billy Baldwin. "It used to be TV spots being put up for cinema but now people are creating separate versions for cinema release," he reports. "They vary the length, play with the content and get creative with it. A cinema spot can be like a mini-movie itself. A lot of the audience gets put off by cinema spots so if you can heighten the experience it's kind of fun."

To assist an increasing number of clients doing theatrical spots, PostWorks has produced an informative booklet, "Cinema Spots Exposed: A Guide to Commercial Spots for Cinema Release." The publication walks clients through such basics as frame rates, aspect ratios, resolution and up-conversion, and discusses the process from creating graphics and CG elements to editing, sound and distribution.

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Most theatrical spots are still shot on film, then transferred to and finished on video. They return to film for release. "We've made the alchemy of converting video to film into a practical process by taking advantage of today's new technologies and the use of HD as an intermediate," says Baldwin. "Using 24p HD as an intermediate you can create a cinema spot that's the closest representation of the film end product as you get."

PostWorks has crafted theatrical spots for advertisers such as HBO, Nestle's, Ralph Lauren Blue and Jamaica Tourism employing a strong roster of tools, including Quantel iQ, Avid DS Nitris HD and Teranex products.

PostWorks finished Coca-Cola's "Sprite Remix" spot from Ogilvy Mindshare/NY in 1080/24p HD. Targeting the youth market, the :60 cinema spot promotes a new tropical fruit-flavored soft drink and features hip-hop artist Biz Markee at a turntable while multiple monitor walls behind him are filled with stock footage of everyone from an Elvis impersonator to Mohammed Ali and a dancing Sumo wrestler.