American Cinematographer - May 2006 - 88

Near
runs

right: Day
for his life

in War of the

Worlds,

a scene

that mixed

miniatures,

green-and
bluescreen, and
CGI. Far

right:

Special-effects
supervisor
Darryl Lee uses
a

leaf blower to

help destroy his
model. Below:
Mitchell lines
up

the next
shot.

not have the

graded by colorist Arnold Ramm. Tools in

didn't

the suite include

highlights banding. That
necessarily show in the transfer
[of "Movie of My Life"], but by the time
we went through the process of render¬
ing those images, getting the Targa files
in 8-bit and everything else, some of
those things did band, even though we
kept it uncompressed the whole way."
"Movie of Your Life" has been
honored with two DV Awards, one for
Best Music Video and another for Best

Visual Effects. The video

can

be viewed

online at www.SeanMitchell.net.

a

10-bit da Vinci 2K Plus

color-correction system with six layers of
windows and two defocus boards, SGI

SAN,

DVS Clipster, 7.1 surround sound,

a

four Discreet Infernos, two Discreet Fires,
four HD

Spirits, two DRS suites, a Barco
digital projector and a Kinoton
35mm film projector. In addition to
Ramm, Ascent Media Group has more
than 20 colorists on staff, among them
Steve Porter, Gareth Cook, George
Delaney, Chris Jacobson, Laura Jans2K DLP

Fazio and Kevin Kirwan.
Ascent Media is not

a newcomer

to the Dl field. Another of its

subsidiaries,

Encores New Dl Suite

by Tricia Louvar
Encore

Hollywood, part of Ascent
Group, recently enhanced its
postproduction offerings by opening a
digital-intermediate (Dl) suite that
features a 18'6"-wide x 12-high screen
in its theater. "Speed, versatility and
creativity are the advantages of using a
Dl
you see the effects [of your
choices] immediately," says Clif Gordon,
Encore Dl producer. "Instead of viewing
the effect on a computer screen in a
different color space [than 35mm film],
Media

format." (The project was shot and
finished in the 1.33:1 aspect ratio.) At
that

point, Michael Crane stepped in as
editor and lead compositor, and once the
edit was completed with all of the visual
effects, the video was taken back to Spy
Post for a final color correction with Spy
Post colorist Chris Martin. The finished

product was then output to HDCam.
"This was the first opportunity the school
had to finish anything in HD," notes
Mitchell.
As for

November 2005, and one of the initial

project we did, which was also a music
on going to HDCam SR
just so we'd have 10 bits per channel and
84

May 2006

Hollywood option to comple¬
capabilities at Company 3 [in

Santa Monica], We also wanted to lever¬

evolution. Barbara Marshall, Encore's

nuisance at times. "For the next

video, I insisted

a

ment our Dl

setting."

about six months
building the Dl suite in an empty room on
the upper floor of the Fountain Avenue
facility. The suite opened for business in

a

provide

Encore spent

customers can see it 15 feet tall in a

theatrical

working with HDCam
through the post pipeline, Mitchell was
pleased overall, but he observes that the
format's limit of 8 bits per channel could
be

Media Creative Services. "We wanted to

Encore's workflow knowledge, exist¬
ing technical infrastructure, and deep
talent pool for the feature market."
Since the Dl process was intro¬
duced six years ago, it has become
increasingly common. For Encore, a fullservice Dl suite was part of a natural

-

our

Company 3, has operated two Dl suites
since May 2005. "We built out the suite
at Encore to meet a growing demand,"
says Bob Solomon, president of Ascent

filmmaker Timur
Watch, shot by
cinematographer Sergei Trofimov and
was Russian
Bekmambetov's Day

projects

age

managing director, reminisces, "A Dl
suite was kind of like the idea of having a
kid
it's in the back of your mind for
some time and you think it's something
you might like to have one day."
As in many business decisions,
location and existing services were major
-
American Cinematographer - May 2006

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