Sri Lanka’s first digital film coming soon

Tuesday, 10 January 2012 00:43 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Asia Digital Entertainment, a part of the Asia Capital Group announced that one of Sri Lanka’s most prominent film directors has committed to join with the company to produce Sri Lanka’s first ever digital film. Seen as the future of the global cinema industry, digital films are soon expected to completely replace traditional celluloid films.

According to Asia Capital Group Chairman Manoharana Nanayakkara, Dr. Lester James Peries has agreed to produce his next film digitally with his wife Sunethra Peries agreeing to recut the film for commercial distribution.

With the production being digital, it is estimated that the entire film will only take six months from the time filming starts to the time it opens in cinemas, bringing about a significant saving in production time and cost. The launch of the film is expected to take place in June-July 2012. This will be the first ever film to be captured digitally in Sri Lanka with all post production and subsequent distribution being done locally.

“We are very happy and proud that Dr. Lester James Peries and his wife Sunethra Peries have agreed to join with us to make their next movie completely digitally, which will be the country’s first ever digital film to be produced completely locally.

We are confident that based on the success of this movie other directors and producers will see the vast untapped potential of going digital and come onboard to take Sri Lankan film making to the next level and closer to international standards,” Nanayakkara stated. Asia Digital Entertainment is no stranger to digital film production having already produced the internationally acclaimed film Flying Fish which was a huge hit in Europe; Yaal, the Tamil version of Road From Elephant Pass for which the company has got rights and expects it to be released in the next quarter; and A Common Man, starring Sir Ben Kingsley, an Indian based film, shot completely in Sri Lanka.

Nanayakkara stated that the cost of production of Flying Fish has already been recovered within eight months of its launch internationally.

In India, Asia Digital works with Gemini Films Corporation, who in 2007 entered into an agreement with the National Film Corporation of Sri Lanka to produce the Sinhala film Sanda Diya Salu, which was the first Sinhalese film to be screened abroad. On the advisory panel of Asia Digital Entertainment is renowned Hollywood producer Paul Mason and Sid Sheinberg, the man responsible for discovering cinemas most iconic director Steven Spielberg.

Explaining the advantages of digital film production over traditional methods Nanayakkara stated that the main advantage was that digital cameras used common lenses for all cameras. This would result in a huge saving in cost when producing a movie and also completely replaces traditional celluloid films. Furthermore since the movie is recorded digitally, editing and cutting for commercial distribution takes significantly less time than using celluloid films so movies can be produced much faster.

Digital cameras also allow far greater flexibility in creating CGI and other special effects bringing them on par with international standards.