Digital film- opportunity or threat?

Taken from a lecture by Lord Puttnam.
Lord Puttnam thinks the music industry took the digital change badly with a 'head in the sand approach'. Not dealing with the change has meant that are less processes in place to deal with illegal activity. He thinks the film industry should learn from this and make sure it doesn't end up with a similar fate .
“One of the lessons of digital technology is this; once the genie is out of the bottle, no matter how hard you try, you can’t get it to go back in. You can hire the most expensive lawyers, you can create the best anti-copying mechanisms you can lay your hands on, but the choice and flexibility offered by digital technology are simply too attractive to consumers. If people want something badly enough, digital technology enables them to get it – legally or illegally.”
The best way to tackle this is to offer consumers a range of products they want at a price they want. Illegal copying will never be completely eliminated but it can be reduced and avoided if the industry deal with the problem head on. If not they may end up like the music industry and their response to competition like napster.
The development of broadband could also be aided by the online distribution of films (promoted by the goverment).
“Movies could act as a locomotive which pulls other services behind it, services which offer significant and lasting benefits to society as a whole.”
As said in my previous post Lord Puttnam mentioned that digital distribution would dramatically decrease distribution costs , in terms of prints etc. E.g the blockbuster 'Troy' cost £16 million to screen across the world.
However digital film has not quite caught on yet, there are only a handfull of digital screens in the Uk it is more of an American thing at the moment. The problem is, who pays for this significant change? As honestly it isnt going to change the viewers enjoyment or produce a much higher quality?
CGI is also set to lose in this change:
“Computer Generated Imaging is tremendously skills dependent. And it is here that the UK excels. At present, UK-based post-production companies such as Framestore and Cinesite are among the world leaders in digital effects – it is precisely because of their expertise in ‘digital effects’ that the Hollywood studios often choose to place the whole of the post-production phase of their movies in this country, even when they are actually shot on far cheaper locations, such as Romania, Hungary or Morocco.
This is why the UK training strategy (involving the UK film council) is so important. So long as a significant cost saving can be offered and a high level of skill we can expect big films to be continued.
I understand that the digital effects sector already has to import people to meet the demand for skills. In the long-term that is simply not sustainable.

“If we don’t invest in the necessary talent, then we will see an outsourcing of digital work to territories that combine a far lower cost base with comparable or eventually even better skills. Think of the way India has invested in the ICT sector and gained a comparative advantage – you don’t need that much imagination to see the same thing happening in digital effects."

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