11/04/2005

Louis-Philippe Capelle is a picture director who recently worked on Olivier Smolders’ latest film, Nuit Noire, shot entirely in high definition with the new Viper camera by Thompson —a small digital video camera, easy to handle and very sensitive, made especially for cinema. Together with editor Paul Englebert, Louis-Philippe Capelle has just created, in Liege, a new production company, HoverlordD. This name is a combination of the initials HD and the name of the American mission on D-day. The company itself aims at offering all types of services related to the use of digital technology, from pre-production to post-production, helping its partners with the choice of the material and the new techniques for cutting, shooting, recording, editing... HoverlorD, first company to provide such services in Belgium, is supported by XDC, a branch of the group EVS.

Digital technology is gaining ground in Europe, and EVS is definitely a pioneer. This Belgium company was created a few years ago as a specialist of sport events broadcasted in digital technology. Then, it gained a whole market by accepting to provide European exhibitors with the equipment necessary to play such films as Georges Lucas’. Indeed, since the first episode of Star Wars, the American star-director has always refused to convert his film into the 35mm format, which forced exhibitors to get the appropriate device to be able to play the film in its original digital version. The same requirements apply to Lucas’ next film, Star Wars Episode III : Revenge of the Sith, the release of which was scheduled for mid-May —eager spectators will unfortunately have to wait until Christmas to see the last episode of the great saga.Time for the European theatres to go digital ?

An interview with Louis-Philippe Capelle on Cinergie.be

(Translated from French)