FilmLight, a world-leading pioneer of digital film technology, announced today that top London film dailies house Midnight Transfer has purchased the complete FilmLight range of products. The investment in the Northlight scanner, Baselight Four and Eight grading and finishing systems and the Truelight colour management system is for Midnight Transfer’s new Digital Intermediate service. Called “DI from Day One” this new approach harnesses the skills and technologies of FilmLight, Thomson Grass Valley, Root6, DVS and Barco to provide DI from the first day of shooting.
Designed and implemented by Midnight Transfer’s leading team of film specialists, “DI from Day One” offers greater control and creativity for Directors and DoPs with cost effective and timesaving solutions for film productions.
Currently all dailies are telecined onto tape, with the ultimate destination for the tape being the cutting room. This means that the look, carefully established with the DoP during the shoot, is discarded at an early stage. For preview conforms many hours are spent regrading only for that work to be lost prior to the final DI process when the grading begins from scratch.
The benefit of Midnight Transfer’s approach of scanning from the outset, with the same equipment and colourists grading both the dailies and the finished film, is that all grading elements are preserved and developed throughout the process.
“You are completing your grade with the same colourists on the same machines, using the same files and in the same suite.” says Greg Barrett, Head of Production at Midnight Transfer. “This means that by the time you come to do the final grade, the whole look of the film has been firmly established in direct collaboration with the DoP, saving the production time and money while freeing up the creatives to do the work that really counts.”
The DI workflow at Midnight Transfer is inherently flexible and extremely fast. To produce high quality 2k dailies, the negative is run straight through a Thomson Grass Valley Spirit 4K film scanner, which scans maximum dynamic range 2k at real time and is also available for 4k scanning. This eliminates the rocking and rolling and general stress on the neg of the conventional dailies process. The data is then passed to a Baselight finishing system from FilmLight for grading. Pin registered scanning for 2k and 4k productions or VFX work is available via the company’s Northlight 16mm and 35mm film scanner. Final resolution grading for the theatrical release is achieved in a high end, purpose built grading theatre- designed by White Mark- and equipped with a powerful Baselight Eight system connected to a Barco DP100 2k projector from Bell Theatre Systems.
FilmLight’s Truelight film colour management system provides accurate calibration throughout. The Medialease financed workflow is the UK’s first real time 2k shared storage environment, utilising the SAN and 2 Clipsters from DVS, currently with 100TBs of storage, supplied by Root6, who also provided total system integration for Midnight Transfer’s requirements. Hugh Waters of Waters Technical Services developed and managed the project from concept to completion.
Apart from the dailies grade contributing to the final grade, the “DI from Day One” pipeline has several other advantages. Quality is an obvious one, as is the ability to supply multiple deliverables at any stage of the process. Footage is also available immediately for review, with Barrett estimating that the combined storage of the Baselights and the SAN will enable Midnight Transfer to keep more than 60 hours of 2k data online at any time and also several different assemblies.
“Having provided feature film dailies for over 15 years we feel we have a very good understanding of the diverse requirements of both production and post production. We have therefore evolved a unique approach to the DI process that not only gives production and editorial the fast turnaround of service they require for viewing and approval, but also retains all of the creative work that the dailies colourist has contributed. That work now forms the fundamental basis for the DI grade and with this technology the new dailies service will be more relevant and faster than the traditional method,” comments Neil Harris, owner of Midnight Transfer. “From our research both here and in the US we know that this is a workflow that producers will find both attractive and cost effective.”
Midnight Transfer’s DI facilities are open now, with the “DI from Day One” service scheduled to start in April.
Contact – Deepa Parbhoo ([email protected]) +44 20 7292 0400
About Midnight Transfer
Midnight Transfer was formed 15 years ago by Neil Harris to provide a comprehensive dailies service to the film industry. Now based in two Soho sites and at Twickenham Film Studios, Midnight Transfer has worked on some of the most prestigious films made in the UK and Europe The company has grown from a boutique telecine house to a full post-production facility offering hi-def telecine and conform suites, Avid on/off line, DVD authoring and Digital Dailies tm for high speed network delivery worldwide. It has over 30 rooms for film production offices and cutting rooms. Recent credits include Closer, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, Vanity Fair and The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. For more information visit www.midnight-transfer.co.uk.
