Lights, Camera, Action For Digital Film Digital cinema could transform the way motion pictures are made and distributed.(INTERNET & TECHNOLOGY)

Byline: BRIAN DEAGON

Eastman Kodak Co. is pushing a technology that could replace its estimated $1 billion in film sales to the motion picture industry -- even though it could take 10 years before the new business takes hold.

Kodak is willing to cannibalize its profitable film business because it and other companies see the inevitable transition to digital cinema technology, which will deliver motion pictures in bits and bytes rather than through film.

"We're doing all we can to promote digital cinema," said Robert Mayson, a general manager of Kodak's entertainment imaging division. "It's a market we want to lead."

Kodak recently demonstrated a version of its digital cinema system at its Imaging Technology Center in Los Angeles for cinematographers and media. A programmer used it to compile trailers and four separate movie clips that were then shown simultaneously on four screens. One person did the work of four.

Filmmakers for years have used digital techniques to create realistic special effects. But the computer-generated images are then transferred back onto film, the way movies have been distributed and shown at theaters for almost 100 years.

But Kodak, Technicolor Digital Cinema, Qualcomm Inc. and others see a much bigger picture in the works. They are building computer-based systems that will electronically distribute and show first-run motion pictures with digitized films and projectors.