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UK, Ireland Push For Digital Douglas Annand and bronze handles
After the Cameo in Edinburgh cast by Gordon Andrews, who designed
road-tested digital projectors from both Australia’s decimal currency.
disc and cable signals and the public Adelaide’s Regent Arcade Sold
reaction varied from “no difference to
Adelaide-based Malabe Group has
35mm”, to “higher visual quality,” the
purchased the Regent Arcade. The
pace of changeover is likely to
former Regent theatre will be
accelerate.
reconfigured to become a retail super
Docspace an Edinburgh-based, store. Cinema is not part of the
publicly funded organization will assist redevelopment.
cinemas in Scotland to make the Avoca Beach Protests
transition. In Ireland Avica, a US-based Argument rages over the future of New Zealand News
company will convert all 500 screens in the Avoca Beach Theatre near Gosford According to the latest survey
105 cinemas. In the UK the Film on the NSW central coast. According to cinema attendances in New Zealand are
Council is building a network of some Susan Kurosara in her column down 10 percent. Reasons given
200 digital screens to go live in early Departure Lounge (The Australian), include: Admission prices too high,
2006. In the USA the Landmark group towns like Avoca Beach, which rely on previous survey of ticket sales was
of 100 art-house cinemas has tourists, need buildings with ‘high skewed by the Lord of the Rings Trilogy
announced that it will make the change. eccentricity value and great and DVDs are too cheap.
Progress on the Paramount Triple,
The push for change is from the reputations’. The theatre is described as
Wellington is slow but two cinemas are
distributors, who stand to make great a quirky, single screen, 1950s
completed.
savings when it is no longer necessary bungalow-style structure, which caters
to strike a 35mm print at a cost of to lovers of foreign and independent Penthouse Cinema 4 is moving
$2,500 and see it deteriorate with use. films. It seats 285. One local claims ahead, but appears to be behind
Cheaper tickets are not a foregone that a penguin waddled in one night. schedule.
conclusion, and the argument about The landlord’s proposal is for a Lighthouse Group is expanding. At
who should pay for the change-over four-storey building enclosing the Petone, a suburb near Wellington, a
continues. (Exactly who will pay in the theatre, effectively reducing it to a third screen has been opened, while
UK is not clear from the reports.) One curio. The plan includes three screens, construction at Island Bay and
insider view is that the cinema owner an art gallery, restaurant and apartments Pahartanui continues.
should pay, on the basis that “what you with underground parking, all the Reading, the new owners of the
don’t own, you can’t control.” things that make life comfortable, but Movieland group of cinemas has plans
One indisputable improvement that would also make the site to upgrade them, but will not continue
digital can deliver is absence of indistinguishable from developments with Movieland’s policy of including
‘flicker’, a technical problem never anywhere. art-house films. This could open the
totally solved in the 20th century. Incidentally, Kurosara names two way for a competitor, since Kapiti art-
other cinema favourites, and they are house fans now have to travel 50km
Planetarium Goes Digital
both in New Zealand – Dorothy north to Levin or 50km south to
The Melbourne Planetarium at
Browns in Arrowtown and Cinema Wellington.
Scienceworks has re-opened with a
Paradiso in Wanaka. Raumati Beach just five km. from
digital, full dome video projection Paraparaumu Beach is to get two
system. The image is seamless and Possible Heritage Listing for boutique cinemas and a live theatre
blankets the hemispherical dome with a Regent Wollongong auditorium in a shopping development
high-resolution image. A recommendation by the NSW
due to be completed in November
heritage Commission to list the 1,500-
Big Screen Video Games 2006. All places mentioned are between
seat Regent, awaits approval by the
One screen at Hoyts Merrylands Wellington and Palmerston North.
Planning Minister.
(NSW) now offers video games. For the
Gateway City Church, which
first time the designer detail in the REPORTING BY:
bought the building last year for
games can be appreciated: no such Mel Elliott, Colin Flint, Tony Froude,
$3.4m., and now hold services there,
thing as nondescript pixels when the William Gray, Brian Hunt, Peter
oppose the listing. The Church and
screen size is 12.2 m. by 7.6 m.! Also, Wolfenden, Eric White and Ian
Friends of the Regent Theatre have
tank cannons and plasma rifles firing Williams; supplemented by information
been invited by the Minister to make
sound in cinema surround sound. from City Weekly, The Australian, The
their final submissions. Heritage listing Herald Sun, Adelaide Advertiser and
Combining the luxury of the cinema
would not prevent changes, but it would news.scotsman.com.
with the dynamic experience of
make the Heritage Council a consent
gaming, the concept is likely to attract
authority.
clubs and the corporate sector to run
tournaments, with finalists battling it The building is the surviving
out in front of an audience. commercial example of flamboyant
décor by Sydney designer Marion Hall
Best. It includes a tiled mural by
6 2005 CINEMARECORD