American Cinematographer - December 1986 - 88

RONFORD
TRIPOD

do, we can do. Not only that, the
negative is touched less, less chance for
damage.

can

"We service animation

com¬

handle post-production for
on special ef¬
fects, and we have applied our process
panies,

we

features and commercials
to

the

new

television fall features, 'LA

Law,' and 'The Wizard.' We

are

able to

composite background effects used in
'The Wizard' show.
"The EPR system is capable
ultimately of working in 16mm, but at
this time there are so few calls for that
size work, that we have not fully devel¬

oped the pin registration features for 16.
The simplest application for it has been
for companies who do not want their
electronically generated titles to wiggle
Now in stock
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PANAVISION SIZE FILTERS
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against backgrounds." Chernoff avows.
The system is economical be¬
cause the same film footage which
would require at least five hours' work
in another facility, takes less than an
hour at Encore. Since work is usually
billed at a per hour rate, the savings are
astronomical, according to Chernoff.
"There are many inventions
which have made electronic post-pro¬
duction competitive and EPR is among
them because it has not only changed
the way we are doing things right now
but I can see the application far into the
future. For example, when we have high
definition television. The Rank Cintels
of the future will be part of a whole
age of
will be used

film production when film
as the recording medium
but electronic post production will be
the method by which things are com¬
pleted. High definition television will al¬
low us to do all effects on tape - all
film elements transferred to videotape
and then finished on tape and then
new

structure
workshop
A

2-Day Intensive

Conducte

SYD FIELD screenwrmteac^
■The
™osl soU?Ttie Hollywood Reporter
the world
in

-

ilsS*"**"

transferred back to film."
Chernoff envisions a time
when no opticals and no laboratory

prints will be involved. "We

are

headed

toward post production made easy in¬
stead of being something you lose your
hair over. Projection from film thereby
the onus of drastically chang¬
ing theater projection systems. Rank
Cintel has already developed a high def¬
inition prototype."
removes

SSr

iCall
F0rln formation i

SSBi
213-273-6432
86

Encore

with

Video

is

equipped

Within the

two

on-line edit

bays ISC

computer editors with motion control
are

employed. GVG 300 switchers,

Graham Patten stereo mix boards, ADO,
DVE and a 3M Datavision/dual channel
with Chyron IV/dual channel character

generators are also in use. The bays
have four Ampex VPR-6 one inch VTRs
dedicated to them and can be set up to
allow for a six machine configuration.
Two Ikegami ITC-82 high resolution
black and white cameras and one color
camera are also included in the bay.
The off-line bays contain Convergence
204 computers, Ross 524 switchers
and Sony BVU 800s.
Other ancillary equipment at
Encore Video includes the Ampex Va" 2track ATR, CD and Va cassette audio

decks, Dolby A units, Timeflex time
compression, Sony BVH 2000 and
5600s, VHS and Beta hi-fi decks. The

facility is 0-timed, thus allowing for sav¬
ings in set-up procedures as well as
editing expediency.
Encore has not only launched
its EPR with some success
though it
has only been available a few
months
the company has also de¬
vised a color correction system for vid¬
eotape called Prism. This application is
also a result of the genius of Michael
Kaye and permits an "as-you-view-it"
method of changing one color in a pro¬
duction scene without changing other
-

-

similar colors in the same frame.
"In color correction there are
two areas where we have applied our
research. One, of course, was the EPR,
but the Prism we consider to be a

revolutionary breakthrough on a level
digital effects for post production,"
says Chernoff. "Mike realized a while
ago that the standard color correction
that you can do in a telecine is not good
enough because the demands made of
those who produce commercials neces¬
sitate that we be able to distinguish
with

shades of color within the

able
a

to

scene

and be

isolate shades within the

scene.

"Basically if you were doing
print from a negative you'd have con¬

trol
ance

over

such

the parameters of color bal¬
as black and white balance

and the gamma. Then came secondary
color correction, in other words assum¬

Digivac image enhancement and

ing that color balance had already been

ratio manipulation which can be
held during zooms. Now in the develop¬
ment phase are such features as skip
framing, 48fps, and true reverse action.

achieved, (with the Rank scanning sys¬
tem) any further color correction (all
stored in computer so it can be called

aspect

December 1986

out on a scene to scene

basis)

can now
American Cinematographer - December 1986

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - December 1986
