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| SPIDER-MAN 2 SET TO DELIVER THE SHARPEST, CLEAREST MOTION PICTURE IMAGES EVER SHOWN IN THEATERS |
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Columbia Pictures engages EFILM to produce industry-first all 4K digital intermediate, fully optimizing the capacity of motion picture film and delivering to theaters the exact quality captured in the camera.
HOLLYWOOD, California (June 29, 2004) When Columbia Pictures releases Spider-Man 2 this week, moviegoers around the world will be introduced to the sharpest, highest quality images ever delivered to theaters, courtesy of EFILM, the premiere digital film laboratory in Hollywood. EFILM's digital colorist Steve Bowen worked with cinematographer Bill Pope, ASC, director Sam Raimi and Columbia's production crew to produce the industry's first all 4K digital intermediate of a full feature production.
Previous to Spider-Man 2, digital intermediates were completed using 2K technology, which contains 2,000 horizontal lines of resolution per frame. Now, with 4K scanning and recording, there are 4,000 lines of resolution per frame, representing a 400% increase in pixel count. The resulting dynamics of Spider-Man 2 represent a noticeable on-screen difference because there is more information on the film. This increased texture is apparent in the particularly sharp detail in the Spiderman suit and gives an overall better visual presence to movie.
In creating the digital intermediate for Spider-Man 2, Pope worked with EFILM's digital colorist, Steve Bowen, to color time the feature. At this point, 800 different visual effects, created by Sony Imageworks under the guidance of visual effects supervisor John Dykstra, were inserted into the digital intermediate. "The print looks beautiful. The digital color timing at EFILM is great," said Dykstra.
Pope got Raimi's support right away on the decision to do a digital intermediate. "John wanted to come to EFILM, and I wanted to as well, and that's all the voices Sam needed to hear," noted Pope. In order to convince the studio to do a 4K, a blind test was done showing three scenes: a 2K scan with a 2K film out, a 4K scan with a 2K film out, and a 4K scan with a 4K film out. The test was shown to the director, the editor, the producer and the editing staff. "Every one of them picked the 4K scan and recognized that it was superior to the other samples.The point is, it looks great and it's indistinguishable from film. With the film capture and the 4K film out, it's just impeccable. The amount of control I had is impossible for me to pass up,"Pope added.
"We had a great experience working on Spider-Man 2. Everyone involved from the filmmakers to the studio were fantastically supportive and that made the finishing of the film straightforward," said Joe Matza, President of EFILM. "That's not to say that working in 4K wasn't a big challenge. 4K is four times more data than the 2K industry standard, so things like storage, processing and networking require many times the resources as compared to a 2K environment. EFILM's staff made it all happen and we are all thrilled to be part of the Spiderman 2 team that created ground-breaking firsts like a 4K digital intermediate, nine first generation negatives and true RGB video deliverables. These accomplishments ultimately provide the theater-goer with a better image and a more enjoyable visual experience."
"I am pleased with what we have achieved on Spider-man 2 using EFILM's unique systems. What is most important is that 4K digital intermediate offers the maximum quality for the project and more creative options to the cinematographer. It also gives the opportunity to strike release prints from 1st generation negatives which provides the best release print quality," said Bob Beitcher, President and CEO of Panavision.
EFILM's technological capabilities are unrivaled in the industry and include proprietary software-based color timing system, high resolution scanners, 13 ARRI laser film recorders, more than 150 Terabytes of storage capacity provided by SGI, and a close working relationship with Deluxe Laboratories®, one of the world's largest film labs. "We at Deluxe Laboratories are very excited about the release of Spider-man 2," said Cyril Drabinsky, President of Deluxe Laboratories. "The image quality will set a new standard for films scanned, color-timed, and recorded back to film at 4K."
Spider-Man 2 used more than 40 Terabytes during the digital intermediate process. Considering that one Terabyte equals the storage capacity of 200 DVDs, imagine that the data file for this feature was comparable to 8,000 DVDs. To illustrate this another way, if one megabyte was represented by the height of an average male,
the amount of storage on Spider-man 2 would equal approximately 9,000 times the height of Mt. Everest.
About the company:
EFILM, LLC, located in Hollywood, California is owned by Panavision Inc., and Deluxe Laboratories, and has been providing digital laboratory services to the motion picture industry since 1993. Utilizing proprietary digital color timing systems and image processing tools, high resolution scanning & recording technologies, and a high speed network, EFILM's services include digital intermediate, high-resolution scanning and recording for the visual effects industry, digital opticals for features, trailers and commercials, and tape-to-film services including 24p HD, DV, NTSC, and PAL.
Recent credits include digital intermediates for "The Day After Tomorrow", "Van Helsing", "New York Minute", "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", "Silver City", "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers", and "The Passion of Christ". Motion picture sequences include "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" (winner of the 2004 Academy Award for best Cinematography), and "Starsky and Hutch", as well as tape-to-film recording for "Riding Giants" & "Imelda" and visual effects scanning and recording for "I, Robot" and "The Chronicles of Riddick". |
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