His declaration formed only a fraction of the full-out assault on digital projection that Ebert has waged for the past several months. And he is not alone in the crusade for movies on film. Vitriolic articles and chest-pounding eulogies aside, all signs suggest that celluloid is headed for a rapidly approaching grave. Gone are the stutter in the gate and dirty prints. Instead, digital projection promises a stream-lined distribution and a pristine image.
Digital technology marks a substantial improvement for the average moviegoer.
A lot of critics and filmmakers are used to looking at first prints, and there's a huge difference between a first print and a print that you and I go out to watch, or a guy that antes up his eight bucks. I've worked in labs, and there's a certain way you handle a first-run print for a special audience. Oddly, the technology that has been embraced by much of the industry has not been battle-tested in mass markets. Beyond that, the public has not seen much of the new technology, though popular response is encouraging. For theaters and studios, digital projection offers a substantially less-expensive means of distributing, printing and showing new films.