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This Web site is dedicated to the thousands of "users" of my programs, those who have helped test my programs over the last 25 or so years, and especially those who shared their experiences with me.

You must read this notice: This is a licensed Web site (HTML document and associated files). You must read and agree to be legally bound in contract by the Terms of Use and conditions given in the End User License Agreement ("EULA"), Legal Notices, Instructions, Warnings, Disclaimers, and all other text in "SECTION: 0" of "This Web Site" (HTML document and associated files) before reading or using any of the information, software programs, and or files, contained in, linked to, and or associated with, "This Web Site" (HTML document and associated files). Any use or "Beta Testing" of "This Web Site" constitutes your acknowledgment of your full agreement with the current End User License Agreement ("EULA") and your decision to have this current license supersede all prior and contemporaneous agreements and understandings. Information and files in "This Web Site" (HTML document and associated files) have been placed here so that long time users of "The Author's" programs DANCAD3D.COM (tm) , DANCAD87.EXE (tm), DANCINEL.EXE (tm), DANCINES.EXE (tm) , DANCAM.EXE (tm) , or DANPLOT.EXE (tm) could help proofread the text of the documentation files or screens displayed, and also help test data files, example files, and or any software programs that might be made available from time to time, to aid "The Author" in finding mistakes, bugs, and other errors, omissions, defects, mistakes, and faults. Everything in "This Web Site" (HTML document and associated files) is "Beta Test", "Beta Code", Experimental, Preliminary, requires proofreading, or is being evaluated for possible revision, and is NOT warranted to be free of defect. To help "The Author" report any bugs, foul-ups, defects, or mistakes that you find, see "SECTION: 8" for instructions. "This Web Site" (HTML document and associated files) and all other files and programs by Daniel H. Hudgins are made available "AS IS" without warranty of any kind express, expressed, or implied. All offers and specifications are subject to change or discontinuation without notice of any kind. Please look over "SECTION: 8" of "This Web Site" before contacting "The Author."

SECTION: 6.10 is for an overview of the subject of Digital Cinema. See also the program files in the current distribution of my programs, the other parts of this HTML documentation, and the current On-Line version of this Web site for information more specifically about my programs. Any comparisons of my programs or methods to some others is only given as a vague generality of my opinion and is not intended as a recommendation or reference to any particular products, always make your own evaluations and comparisons before taking any action.

Cinema began more than 100 years ago when photographic images on strips of film began to be projected at speeds fast enough to cause the images shot at the same speed to appear to move on the screen they were projected on, i.e. they were moving pictures or "Movies".

Since the development of "Movies" Cinema has been based on high resolution images on movie fine grain film, special photographic film made for making movies on. When Video developed there were thoughts of replacing movie film going back more that 50 years, but video systems of good enough quality and cost vs. quality were not able to be marketed to compete with movie film.

After Video was developed, Digital cameras were developed to be lower cost and higher quality than Video cameras using vacuum tubes to capture the images. In recent years improvements in Digital camera sensors has allowed the manufacture of sensors that are close to the quality of fine grain motion picture film, and so the cameras used for making Cinema movies are beginning to evolve from using movie film to capture the images into Digital sensor cameras that capture the images.

In the days of filmmaking on movie film, the movie film was edited using a splicer and glue, or in an zero cut or optical printer. Since Digital Cinema cameras capture digital image "frames" the editing for Digital Cinema is done using software that picks what frame image files on a computer harddisk to include in the final edit. Such software has a preview function that replaces the use of film editing viewer machines, and lets the editor view the edited frame order as images moving on a computer's screen.

In the days of filmmaking on movie film, color correction and adjustments were made using colored filters in the path of light that would be used to print the movie film camera negative onto print films and such. With Digital Cinema cameras the full RAW sensor data is recorded as data files on a computer disk or memory array (module or card). After the RAW sensor data is converted into frame image files software is used to adjust the digital values in the pixels of the images to do the color correction also called Grading or Timing.

My current program DANCAD87.EXE (tm) can be used for both editing and color correction of frames captured in a Digital Cinema camera.

During the transition from movie film to Digital Cinema image capture, some filmmakers use movie film cameras, but then put the processed movie film negative into a special movie film scanner to make the digital image frames to color correct and edit on a computer. Some movie film scanners use pin registered film movements like a movie film optical printer used for high quality printing and special effects shots, others move the film along and scan it then use software to register the images so that there is not an jiggle from one frame to the next.

My program DANCINES.EXE (tm) can be used to automate a DIY movie film scanner or a movie film printer. DANCINES.EXE (tm) sends a signal for a movie film projector to advance one frame then sends a signal for a digital camera to shoot a image of the movie film frame, in that way you get a set of digital image frames that correspond to the movie film frames. See the documentation for DANCINES.EXE (tm) for more information about all it can do since this is just an overview here.

Movie theatres are in the process of converting from using movie film projectors to using a form of video projector adapted for display of higher quality digital frame images as part of the DCI standard conversion from film to digital cinema.

During the transition from film to digital cinema, movies finished using digital cinema frames and software are being transferred from digital frames back to movie film using a film recorder. A film recorder is a device that has a 35mm movie film camera pointed at a small high resolution monochrome computer monitor. The movie camera is advanced one frame at a time to shoot three exposures of the small high resolution monochrome computer monitor through Red, Green, and Blue filters onto fine grain motion picture negative film to make a master printing negative that can be used to make movie film prints in the normal way on a contact printer. Other types of film recorder use colored laser beams or LCD displays to make the image to record on the movie film to be used for printing or projection.

My program DANCINEL.EXE (tm) can be used to build your own DIY film recorder. DANCINEL.EXE (tm) sends signals to the computer's parallel port to advance the movie camera and displays the high resolution images on a LCD 1600x1200 or CRT 2048x1536 resolution monitor. It is best to make three exposures through Red, Green, and Blue filters to get better results when making a color print or printing negative. You can also make color separation printing negatives on black and white movie film, or make a black and white print direct off the monitor by using DANCINEL.EXE (tm).

In addition to making a film print or projecting Digital Cinema frames using DCI standard projectors, you can make reduced resolution frames from your 2K or 4K master edited and color corrected frames for HD, Blu- Ray (tm) or DVD use, by making the reduced resolution frames using software you skip the step of scanning the finished movie print and get cleaner results, so it is now possible and becoming standard practice to go all digital from the camera to the viewers home monitor.

How much longer motion picture film will be produced is a matter of pointless discussions, maybe 10 years or so, what is important for all filmmakers to understand is that the industry is converting to Digital Cinema whether they like it or not, so if you want to stay working in the field of filmmaking you will at some point need to develop Digital Cinema skills or you will be out of the field of filmmaking and out of a job.

My programs work both with all digital workflows for use with Digital Cinema cameras, frames converted from Video cameras, CG frames, and frames scanned off movie film current or archive. My programs also allow for output of the edited and color corrected frames for making movie film prints or for using the output frames and sound mix files for viewing on all digital displays, etc.

You can find more information about using my programs for Digital Cinema tasks by looking in the sections that have the text from the program and update documentation files corresponding to the documentation files in the ZIP archive files for the program executables from the Download sections. See SECTION: 3.80.0.0 for information about using DANCINEL.EXE (tm) in a DIY film recorder, see SECTION: 3.85.0.0 for information about using DANCINES.EXE (tm) in a DIY film scanner, and see SECTION: 3.3.7.34 for information about using DANCAD3D.EXE (tm) and DANCAD87.EXE v3.7N+(tm) for motion picture post production and DI (Digital Intermediate) to edit, color correct, and sound mix a feature motion picture. See also any later Update files relating to the programs, and look in the Downloads sub-sections for additional utilities and or programs that may be added that relate to Digital Cinema.