Digital Vision, leading manufacturers of image enhancement and mastering systems for film and television post production, has announced that its Nucoda Film Master was fundamental in the successful delivery of “The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader.” Digital Vision made significant contributions to the in-house facility created by Anschutz Film Group/Walden Media for productions from the mini-major studio.
Housed in the London offices of Walden, the facility is built around three Nucoda Film Masters in color grading, stereoscopic and conform environments. At the start of the “Dawn Treader” production, the first Nucoda Film Master was utilized for dailies on-set color grading, and subsequently incorporated into the DI pipeline. The Walden team in concert with Digital Vision utilized the on-set tools to help streamline color for the DI workflow.
Before production began on the highly anticipated “Dawn Treader,” Walden had plans to create an internal DI pipeline from dailies to final delivery to control the complex post production process, including scheduling and budget. In 2009, Walden purchased three Nucoda Film Masters to accomplish their plans. That pipeline, successfully implemented for “Dawn Treader” will now be used on a number of Walden’s international productions.
Jonas Thaler, Walden Media’s VP of Post Production, said, “Given the demands of ‘Dawn Treader,’ replete with complex and extensive effects and a demanding post delivery schedule, it was imperative that we keep the post process in our control. Creating an in-house facility was the best way for us to do that. The Nucoda Film Masters were a critical part of our ability to build this pipeline. In truth, I don’t believe that any other company would have been willing or able to support our goals for this facility and project the way that Digital Vision did. They joined our team, dug in with us and created a dynamic pipeline, with a level of skill and nimbleness that I have not experienced before.”
Simon Cuff, CTO at Digital Vision, outlined Digital Vision’s technical contributions, commenting, “‘The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader,’ was the first episode of the Narnia stories that was shot to disk rather than film. This opened up a totally new way of working where color decisions could be tracked from the shoot right through to final master grading. Our product design philosophy that is based on support of open standards meant that we became the eyes through which the project was viewed. Grading was overlapped with editorial, VFX and stereo mastering allowing the production ultimate team flexibility and provided the time to finesse and fine tune the look of the movie. I’ve seen the theatrical release and I must say that all involved have produced a stunning motion picture.”
Thaler concluded, “The Nucoda Film Master toolset is powerful, easily capable of meeting our extremely high creative and technical standards. While price is always a key consideration, the critical difference with Digital Vision - a really important core philosophical differentiator - is their profound commitment and talent to evolve their product. The dedication of their team was unheard of. They understood and accommodated our very real and sometimes unrealistic needs. In the thick of production and post, there was not a moment when I didn’t believe that we had made the best choice. The Digital Vision team, their friendship, talent and support are incredibly important to the success of our workflow.”
Posted on Thu, 01/13/2011 - 03:16
