Buena Vista Partners With Kodak, Dolby and NATO to Eliminate Silver Soundtracks
Starting this fall, Buena Vista Pictures Distribution will begin issuing 35mm prints of Walt Disney Pictures and Touchstone Pictures releases with environmentally friendly pure-dye cyan soundtracks.
The new soundtrack technology represents a significant environmental advance for the motion pictures industry, and eliminates the use of traditional silver- applicated tracks and the caustic chemicals involved in that process.
Buena Vista plans to switch entirely to cyan soundtracks on all of its worldwide release prints by January, 2005.
To accomplish this goal, the Disney distribution arm is working closely with Dolby, Kodak, Technicolor and NATO to perfect the technology and encourage theater owners to install RED LED soundtrack readers on their projectors. RED LED readers, which are now standard in all US manufactured projectors, are currently installed in the vast majority of projectors in use in this country. MGM has also announced that they will be issuing pure-dye cyan soundtracks on all release prints beginning this May.
In addition to eliminating silver and all of the associated caustic chemicals used in the old process, the new cyan soundtrack technology provides enormous benefits in terms of water conservation. Given that a typical movie release may require between 5,000 to 10,000 prints, it is estimated that this new approach to film production can conserve enough water to supply a town of 75,000 people with drinking water each year.
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