American Cinematographer - August 2010 - 78

As part of the new True Blood workflow, colorist Scott Klein uses Autodesk’s software-based Lustre 2010 for color correction.

remembers the color values I set. That’s a huge advantage.” Klein suggests that there is a farreaching advantage for True Blood in making the post switch now, at a time when much of the industry is more directly focused on switching front ends from film to digital acquisition. “This is the workflow of the future,” he says. “As resolution requirements increase, the way we’re making this show will allow us to work on [episodes] in 2K resolution later on. We’ll be ready for it when the call comes.” Although the dailies and delivery processes still involve tape, Dunn believes they will see an all-data conversion in the very near future. “I imagine that by next year, we’ll be fully tapeless, outputting [dailies] to whatever media is preferred [for viewing],” he says. “I’d say we are just months away from saying goodbye to tape.” Post News MTI Film Automates Hollywood Facility with ContentAgent MTI Film, a provider of high-quality image-processing tools to the broadcast and postproduction markets, is expanding both its business and its physical footprint. The company recently moved into a new facility in Hollywood, through which it now offers television post services. MTI selected Root6 Technology’s ContentAgent software to streamline the digital-deliverables workflow at the new facility. MTI CEO Larry Chernoff enthuses, “ContentAgent not only gives us the work78 August 2010

flow tools, but thanks to its enhanced metadata controls, it allows for an extended level of automation.” ContentAgent incorporates expansive metadata organizational tools, enabling metadata to play a key role in defining and directing workflows. With budgets constantly shrinking, MTI views automation as the only way to manage any volume of file-based deliverables. John Stevens, CTO of MTI, notes, “ContentAgent gives us all the deliverables within one box with a fantastic user interface.” Chernoff adds, “MTI Film seeks to become a unique company that embraces all sides of the postproduction customer spectrum. Through our services facility and continued research and development for film restoration and workflows for digital acquisition, we will be uniquely positioned to improve industry standards, which we will share with both our service and technology customers. … We endeavor to partner with other technology companies like Root6 who share similar values of cooperation that result in improving our industry at a time when change is rampant and postproduction requires new standards of workflow.” For additional information, visit www.mtifilm.com and www.root6technol ogy.com. Cinesite Expands with Nuke Visual-effects company Cinesite has heavily expanded its compositing department by investing in a site license of The Foundry’s Nuke compositing software, allowing the facility to host a significant number of additional seats for its visualeffects artists.
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The investment is part of an overall strategy by the company to double in size by late 2011; the strategy was devised following the commission of such projects as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, John Carter of Mars, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and Battle: Los Angeles. “As a result of the high demand for our services, we evaluated the number of licenses for all the software tools we use,” says Antony Hunt, managing director of Cinesite. “Nuke is a powerful compositing tool and we’ve been using it in our pipeline for over 6 years. By expanding our seats, we’re able to work faster and more efficiently turn around our clients’ projects.” Bill Collis, CEO of The Foundry, adds, “We’re delighted that Cinesite has invested in a site license and has chosen Nuke as its primary compositing tool. The company works on extremely creative projects and their talented artists showcase to the fullest what our tools can do.” For additional information, visit www.cinesite.com and www.thefoun dry.co.uk. Pro8mm Adds 4:4:4 Workflows Burbank, Calif.-based Pro8mm has introduced two popular 4:4:4 workflows, allowing customers who originate on Super 8mm, 8mm, 16mm or Super 16mm film to post their projects in 444 RGB 10-bit uncompressed and 4444 ProRes. The original film is scanned with Pro8mm’s 4K Millennium II scanner and encoded directly to the facility’s 8TB SAN system; customers can walk out of a telecine session with the files in hand and ready for editing. Pro8mm’s SAN also supports the playback of various data file formats to tape for clients who need to migrate from file to tape. Since implementing the SAN system and file-based workflow, Pro8mm has experienced such an increase in efficiency that the company has lowered the prices of certain workflows and eliminated docking charges. For pricing and additional information, visit www.pro8mm.com. ●

http://www.cinesite.com http://www.thefoundry.co.uk http://www.thefoundry.co.uk http://www.mtifilm.com http://www.root6technology.com http://www.root6technology.com http://www.pro8mm.com

American Cinematographer - August 2010

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