NEW YORK—Technicolor Creative Services (TCS), headquartered in Burbank, Calif., recently completed installation of the backbone for its Technicolor Production Network (TPN) in London and North America, where TCS has locations in New York, Montreal, Burbank, Hollywood and Glendale, Calif.
This pipe, a 45 Mb long-distance connection supplemented by a 100 Mb local loop, is being used to roll out the first applications to be offered on the network. The varied applications involve moving clients’ material around the network for purposes including review and approvals, collaboration and digital dailies. With commercialmakers as its primary clientele, TCS’ New York office, TCS-NY, is looking to deploy these new capabilities to augment and enhance its creative services.
Next year, TCS plans to extend the TPN to reach its office in Rome; it has not yet been determined when TPN would connect to TCS’ Singapore base. In addition to the aforementioned applications, the global network would enable the sharing of capabilities between sites around the world. For example, the network is already being used to send jobs from Montreal—where they are digitally color graded—to New York, where an Arrilaser film recorder is used to output the completed projects to film, noted TCS-NY VP/general manager Alfie Schloss. TCS plans to launch additional network services in early 2004. Among those currently in development is a method of sending material to another facility for rendering.
Schloss also reported that TCS is looking to develop a method of doing long-distance color correction sessions. John Dowdell, chief imaging officer/senior colorist at TCS-NY, reported that TCS is currently testing encoding and decoding options for the service. One of the challenges to such a system is the need to have perfectly calibrated monitors at both locations. "There is a way to set up a [Thomson’s Grass Valley] Spirit Datacine so that what you see is what get," said Schloss, "but normally monitoring is different from facility to facility. [TCS studios] are all using the same new Sony monitors, which we will be able to calibrate so that we can be looking at what is truly coming off the telecine."
THE DI PROCESS
There are other unique processes that are being developed for the commercial industry at TCS-NY. Notably, Schloss is working to introduce the digital intermediate (DI) process to the advertising community. Filmmakers generally define DI as the process of transferring film to video, handling conforming, color grading and mastering in the digital realm, and returning the finished product to film. This is the basic process TCS-NY uses for cinema ads.
For commercials created for broadcast television, TCS-NY uses a similar process that Schloss calls "virtual telecine." At TCS-NY, this typically involves a transfer from 16mm or 35mm film to HD video on the Spirit. The material is then run through Kodak’s new Telecine Calibration System for a first round of color correction, and the spot is roughly assembled. Next, the spot is color graded in HD resolution using the da Vinci 2K Plus. From there, a client may choose to do the final conform at TCS, or send the material to an editorial house for completion. The HD master is used to create all deliverables, including NTSC and PAL. Schloss reported that TCS-NY will begin to offer 2k digital color timing later this month.
"I think [DI/virtual telecine] is going to become more common in commercials," predicted Schloss. "We are trying to introduce the concept and change the paradigm. It opens a whole new realm of possibilities for the clients."
Among the advantages that these processes offer commercialmakers, according to proponents, is that a color correction session involves grading a complete spot, rather than individual shots. The company scans the film at night, and then during the client session, "the agency clients can work on and see an edited spot," related Dowdell. "Color correction goes faster, and they can try many looks. There are no changing reels, so you don’t lose focus."
"That is going to open up a whole new realm of creativity for commercials," added Schloss.
TCS-NY has already performed the "virtual telecine" process on several spots for NTSC and PAL distribution, including Bank of Iceland’s "Moments," via agency Allen & Gerritsen, Reykjavik, Iceland. Larus Jonsson of Reykjavik-based Saga Film directed, and August Jakobsson DPed. The spot was cut by Alex Frowein of New York-based Fluid. At TCS-NY, Joe Gawler was the colorist, and Fire editor Cecil Hooker did the conform.
