Eastman Kodak Company has divided its Hollywood-headquartered Cinesite postproduction and visual effects business into three separate divisions-Digital Mastering/Preservation and Restoration, Cinesite Visual Effects, and Film Scanning and Recording. The latter is in the process of broadening its geographic reach via strategic alliances with six postproduction houses-San Francisco-based Monaco and five foreign shops: Digifilm, Stockholm; …clair, Paris; Dfilm/ Atlab, Sydney; Videolab, Johannesburg; and Chile Films in Buenos Aires and So Paulo.
Specifics of the business arrangement werent disclosed, but in broad strokes, Kodak will make a multi-million-dollar investment in state of the art digital post resources at the six sites in exchange for a stake in the revenue they generate from the high-end services. The half dozen facilities will be able to offer film-to-digital and digital-to-film conversion to their respective film communities. In Europe, cinema ad clientele represent one of the sectors that could benefit from having ready access to these services. Cinesite continues to maintain digital film scanning and recording facilities in Hollywood, New York and London.
Cinesite VP Forrest Fleming has been named to oversee the Film Scanning and Recording Division. His counterparts are Kodak motion image vet Fred Franzwa who was appointed general manager of Cinesites Digital Mastering and Preservation, and VP/head of production Gil Gagnon who becomes the head of Cinesite Visual Effects. Fleming, Franzwa and Gagnon all report to Cinesite CEO Aidan Foley.
Cinesite will help drive the rapid convergence of film, digital and hybrid motion-imaging technologies in innovative ways that will benefit our customers in the motion picture industry, says Richard P. Aschman, president of Kodaks Professional Motion Imaging business unit and chairman of the board of Cinesite, Inc.
Cinesite Visual Effects (formerly Cinesite Digital Studios) has made substantial contributions to several hundred motion pictures, and many TV commercials since it opened for business in 92. The company operates visual effects facilities with large creative and technical staffs in Los Angeles and London. While Gagnon leads the stateside operation, Colin Brown serves as managing director of the European shop.
And the Digital Mastering/ Preservation and Restoration division will offer spot conveniences to the long-form community. Filmmakers will have the same flexibility they currently enjoy in the telecine suite when they are working in commercials, contended Franzwa. They can create entirely new looks, for example turn day into night, and alter or manipulate any object or character to amplify a storyline. And complementing its proprietary technology with a Philips Spirit Data-Cine, the division has high-resolution capabilities to facilitate the emerging DTV market, including HDTV.
We believe it is important to give each of these divisions the freedom to operate independently, noted Foley. However, there is a common goal and a natural synergy in providing the imaging technology leadership that our customers expect from Kodak. Foley said he expects that the Cinesite expansion and its split into three divisions will prove to be an important milestone in our history.
