FEATURE: US digital firm looks to Europe, not Hollywood

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. start-up S.two Corp has convinced a Hollywood director to use its digital recorder, but its hopes of winning more devotees hang on a small production company doing a children's film in Belgium.

S.two is closely following the making of "Le Poulain" ("The Colt") by Ring Productions because the film's technological and commercial success could open the European market for its Digital Field Recorder (DFR), which it calls an industry first.

"This (the film) is very much a showcase for us," said Steve Roach, a founder of S.two, based in Reno, Nevada.

Hollywood has been slower than Europe to adopt digital technology due to outstanding issues about sales, costs and standards. The only big hit, so far, has been the DVD.

Some directors such as David Fincher have taken a shine to the latest digital cameras to come to market -- and Roach hopes they will see the DFR as the perfect companion.

The size of a guitar amplifier, the DFR is a portable computer that captures scenes shot on camera onto a hard disk rather than tape or 35mm film.

It not only cuts costs but also makes editing easier, said Roach. "There's no film, no film processing, no labs."

But the DFR's key feature is its ability to preserve the original quality of the image. Its wide bandwidth helps it avoid having to compress the image -- an inevitable process that happens with other filming equipment.

Roach said he was focusing his marketing efforts in Europe rather than the United States because its film industry was mostly populated by independent filmmakers working on tight budgets -- ideal customers for the DFR.

"The market potential is quite large but unquantifiable," said Roach. "You could be looking at a market...one third (the size) of the 35mm movie film market."

Roach declined to say how many recorders S.two had already sold or how much in sales the DFR had generated.

No more "Oops!"

"Le Poulain", which stars France's Richard Bohringer in a story about a mare's search for her lost pony, is the second feature film to go digital for the entire production.

The first film, "Silence Becomes You" shot earlier this year with actress Alicia Silverstone, also used the DFR.

"Silence" comes out this year, while "Le Poulain" is to be released next spring.

For Yves Ringer, producer of "Le Poulain" and brother of the film's director Olivier, the DFR had proved its usefulness.

Ringer said it was ideal for shooting animals because it allowed a scene to be shot again and again at no extra cost.

"We avoided the typical: 'Oops! There go a few thousand euros (in film stock) because the horse did not do what it was supposed to do'," he said.

Olivier Ringer said he chose the DFR rather than Sony's SRW-1 recorder and its HDCAM-SR tape because he found it did a better job at preserving the image quality.

The SRW-1, seen as the closest rival to the DFR, is popular with Hollywood directors who shoot with digital cameras.

Michael Mann used it with the Viper FilmStream camera by France's Thomson for "Collateral", which starred Tom Cruise.

Although it is just as cheap and practical as the DFR, Ringer said the HDCAM-SR tape was not as sensitive as the DFR in picking up the subtle variations in light and colour.

With a speed of 3000 megabits per second, the DFR could even pick up different shades of white -- an important feature when it came to touching up images in the editing room, he said.

"It gives you more room to play with," he said.

"Nobody has anything this fast," said Danys Bruyere, technical director of Groupe TSF, a film equipment rental agency in Paris, when asked about the DFR.

With a slower bandwidth of up to 880 megabits per second, the HDCAM-SR loses some of the image's quality because it has to compress it -- however slightly -- while recording, said Ringer.

Richard Lewis, chief engineer for Sony's business division in Europe, said the compression was so mild that it did not make any noticeable difference. "You'd never see it."

Despite the reluctance of some Hollywood directors to try new technology for fear of putting big-budget productions at risk, S.two managed to convince at least one to give the DFR a try: David Fincher, best known for "Seven" and "Panic Room".

After using the DFR for a Heineken beer commercial with Brad Pitt, Fincher is using it with the Viper FilmStream for his latest film, "Zodiac".