American Cinematographer - September 2013 - K12

“No one has
ever asked us
to make fi lm
look more like
digital.”
When Paul Korver founded
Cinelicious in 2008, he had only
one thing in mind — to move
the state of fi lm post production
forward.
Korver’s Cinelicious is a post
production studio, with locations
in Hollywood and Santa Monica,
offering a full slate of fi lm and
digital services. The company
believes in respecting the craft
and tradition of celluloid fi lm,
while leveraging all the benefi ts
of the digital present. Cinelicious
has been involved with high-level,
fi lm-based projects for directors
such as Steven Spielberg,
Christopher Nolan, J.J. Abrams,
and Andrew Stanton, as well as
studios including Paramount,
Disney, Pixar, and Warner Bros.
Cinelicious “likes digital”
but “loves fi lm.” Why is fi lm so
important to you?
I have great childhood
memories involving Super 8
cameras, but mainly I just like
looking at it better. I believe
that humans respond to
celluloid when they see it in
motion. It resonates with them
emotionally. We say, ‘respect
the past and embrace the future.’
It’s important to know where
we come from, so we don’t get
kodak.com/go/motion
@Kodak_ShootFilm
KodakShootFilm
KodakMotionPictureFilm
lost on the path to where we
are going. We strive to stay
rooted in how digital decisions
derive from a photochemical
process. No one has ever
asked us to make film look
more like digital. As a creative
community, it’s important to
have a choice of tools.
SCANITY. It sees a full 3.5 fi lm
density of dynamic range, so it
can scan the full dynamic range
of KODAK VISION3 Film stocks
and print fi lm as well. I come
from a love of Super 8, so we
also wanted to see at least a 2K
DI approach to scanning small
format fi lms. We just purchased
LASERGRAPHICS’ ScanStation,
the fi rst optically pin registered,
2K Super 8, regular 8mm, and
9.5mm scanner, so we’ve upped
our investment in small format
as well.
The newest old adage is: it’s
cheaper to shoot digital. Is that
true in your opinion?
You need to look at the big
picture with this question.
Beyond acquisition, you have
to consider the cost of digital
archive, which is often left out
of the budget conversation.
Shooting 100 hours 2D with
bonded data triplication, you can
easily be over a half-petabyte
of digital information on a 4K
feature. If anyone has priced
out a half-petabyte recently,
it’s ridiculous to say that most
of these 4K digital cameras
would be a legitimate option
for an indie fi lm. True ‘digital
archiving’ requires a disciplined
How does a producer put a
value on how a project will be
received?
The recent democratization of
cinematography has its plusses,
but we must not forget that we
stand on the shoulders of 100
years of celluloid acquisition,
tradition and discipline. Film
festivals have become a sea
of similar looking, mediocre
digital content. Consequently,
fi lm stands out. Just look at the
past two Sundance Festivals:
movies shot on fi lm have won
100 percent of the U.S. Jury
Prizes in the dramatic and
cinematography categories. Is
it worth spending a little more
on acquisition to shoot fi lm for
an independent project? I’d ask
the producers of Beasts of the
Southern Wild or Fruitvale Station,
both of which were shot Super
16mm, sold for millions, and
launched careers.
What trends are you seeing
in post production?
I’m seeing an opportunity to
There’s an old adage that
says: all post companies have
the same equipment, only the
talent and service differ. Is that
still true?
Not at all. Many companies
have sold off their fi lm
equipment, are letting it age,
or never had it to begin with.
We’ve made fi lm technology
a priority. When we wanted to
be able to scan fi lm at 4K, we
chose to invest in the [DFT]
and expensive commitment
to proper storage, LTO tape
migrations, and time-consuming
data integrity checksums every
fi ve years. On the other hand,
we’ve been working on a nitrate
restoration of a Biograph fi lm
from 1909. From an archival
perspective, this producer from
104 years ago has paid no
money and now has a stunning
4K, 16-bit RGB fi lm record. It
looks amazing.
push fi lm forward. People think
that all the R&D is being done
with digital cameras, but exciting
new things are happening with
digital fi lm technology too. A
pure digital workfl ow from fi lm
is an exciting development
to me and many of the DPs I
work with. If you shoot with a
pin registered camera, and you
scan once on a pin registered,
high dynamic range scanner at
4K resolution, you actually see
all of the beautiful celluloid at
its purest. When you take that
straight out to high bit rate, 4K
DCP, you get a new language
of fi lm storytelling that hasn’t
been explored before because
technologically it wasn’t
possible.
What’s your sense of the
future of fi lm?
People talk about needing to
fi nd a replacement for fi lm, but
why? It’s not a broken medium.
It’s here, it’s viable, and it’s
beautiful.
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© Kodak, 2013. KODAK, EASTMAN, VISION, VISION2, VISION3, and the fi lm numbers are trademarks. OSCAR is a trademark of the
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American Cinematographer - September 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - September 2013