American Cinematographer - September 2004 - 16

Cinecitta Plants Its

Flag in New York

by Debra Kaufman
The eternal

I been

a

city of Rome has always

favorite vacation destina-

I tion,
of

but Carole Andre-Smith, head
communications for Cinecitta

Studios, hopes to make it a destination
for the

postproduction of independent
that plan into action
by bringing on New York's Offhollywood Digital as a representative for
Cinecitta, with the mandate of luring
indie filmmakers to Italy.
Though Cinecitta already has
representation in Los Angeles and
London, the focus of these reps is to
bring film productions to Cinecitta's
films. She has put

split between indie films and TV,
including commercials. Offhollywood
Digital's connection to the advertising
world was tantalizing to Andre-Smith,
who hopes Cinecitta can attract
commercial productions.

film that cost $2 million, that's 10

Cinecitta, but

percent of your budget. We're aiming
to get some of that business." For the

the issues related to

"Post in Rome"

project, Andre-Smith
"Just bring your director, cine¬
matographer and editor over for two

says,

three weeks. Rome is

historic lot, which features 22 sound-

or

stages. The New York connection is

cheap place to live,
compared to New York."

aimed at

bringing in new kinds of
production business. "Advertising
agencies travel outside of New York to
South America, Portugal, Canada,"
Andre-Smith says. "We want to be one
of the cities on the map."
With the newly enhanced
Cinecitta Digital, however, AndreSmith also has postproduction on her
mind. When Cinecitta was privatized
in 1997, $5 million was invested in

Cinecitta

Digital. Linder the initial
direction of David Bush (Lamberto
Mancini is currently general manager),
the facility partnered with equipment
manufacturers, including Quantel, to
beta-test gear for filmmakers. Its digi¬
tal intermediate (Dl) capability is based
on multiple Quantel iQ workstations
with digital projection. Cinecitta also
offers an on-site film-processing lab
and film scanning, film recording,
telecine, editing, color correction and
computer graphics.
Andre-Smith notes that New

14

Digital. Because most Italian films are
made for the $3-$5 million budget of a
U.S. indie production, Andre-Smith
compared post prices between
Cinecitta Digital and New York, factor¬
ing in the costs of travel and accom¬
modations in Italy. "We saw there
was an interesting difference," she
says. "If you could save $200,000 on a

The search for the

perfect
representative in New York
driven by the idea that New

the

indi¬

worried

quality of service at
are

concerned with all of

working in a
foreign country. "We thought we could
help clients by having someone local
that they could get information from
immediately, someone who speaks
their language," she says. "We're
confident that once clients get here,
we have everything to satisfy them.
But first, we have to get clients to
come

was

son

over." Adds Pederson, "As a liai¬

for Cinecitta,

Offhollywood Digital

York's indie filmmakers and Cinecitta

will be able to connect the U.S.

Digital's post prices were an ideal
eventually zeroed

producer with the right people in the
right departments and do a lot of the
groundwork."
Andre-Smith also hopes the
Offhollywood Digital connection will

match. Andre-Smith
in

on

the

13-month-old company

Offhollywood Digital, founded by
Mark Pederson and Aldey Sanchez.
"With digital filmmaking, production
converges with post," says Pederson.
"It's become almost insane to start

a

production without establishing or
testing your post workflow first."
Offhollywood Digital offers
encoding, interactive multimedia
(custom Web applications and data¬
or interactive CD-ROMs or
DVDs), online editing with the Avid
Adrenaline, online color correction in
SD and HD, visual effects and
compositing with Alias Maya and
Pixel
Farm's
Track, production
management, production and postpro¬

bases,

duction

makers who will

rentals. The

September 2004

pretty

about

Cinecitta

York is the ideal market to find film¬

gravitate to Cinecitta

a

especially

Andre-Smith's research
cates that filmmakers aren't

supervision, and office-space
company's business is

be

a source

of feedback about what

clients would like to

"All of the

new

see at

Cinecitta.

services we've

imple¬

mented in the past five years have
been because of input through our

representative offices," she says.
Though Cinecitta now has beachheads
in two major U.S. cities, there are no
plans to create a brick-and-mortar
asset: "What we want to become is a

European hub."

■
American Cinematographer - September 2004

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