SpeedGrade DI Anchoring
Disney Film Restoration Project
Price Pethel Uses IRIDAS to
Bring
Academy Award Winner Back to Life
Munich: May 29, 2008 ... SpeedGrade DI, the leading GPU-based film finishing system,
is at the heart of an ambitious new restoration project for
the Disney Company. Along with its well-known commercial
films, Disney made a number of critically-acclaimed
documentaries and educational films in the 1950's such as
Winston Hibler's "Men Against the Arctic" which won an Oscar
for Best Documentary in 1951. A selection of these films
from the Disney archives are now being digitally restored by
colorist Price Pethel and West Wing Studios. Color
correction, DI and finishing is being done in SpeedGrade DI.
"Men Against the Arctic" tells
the story of an icebreaker sent to relieve a military base
in the far north. The real adventure begins when the ship
becomes stuck in the ice for months. The film was originally
shot on anamorphic 16mm film and, like all Disney films at
the time, was put through an optical printer to create 35mm
RGB color separations, or "seps." The color negatives (YCM)
were put back through the optical printer, making it easy to
cut in animations for titling, maps and other illustrative
information. "Since the aim of restoration work is to get as
close to the original as possible, the first order of
business is to analyze the original production to determine
what the earliest existing elements are," explained Price
Pethel. "Once we have those materials, we do 4K scans and
the work can begin."
The first step is to create a
flat pass preliminary grade in SpeedGrade DI to match shots
from various sources and to provide basic orientation for
dustbusting and repair. Whatever cannot be repaired with
automated tools is then sent to West Wing's Indian facility
for frame-by-frame restoration. Once that is complete the
material returns to California for finishing in SpeedGrade
DI. "The last stage in our pipeline is like any other DI,
except that there is not the same pressure as when you have
a release date deadline," explains Price. Editorial, color
correction, conform, and final rendering are all being done
in SpeedGrade DI.
"SpeedGrade's versatility lends
itself to the many levels of tasks required for this type of
work." says Price. "As a workstation-based color correction
and assembly system, it's ideal for this project; a
conventional DI suite would be cost-prohibitive." According
to Price, the editing functions of SpeedGrade and the
ability to "drop pieces in and out of the timeline" were
invaluable.
Price Pethel is the subject of a
new artist profile on
the IRIDAS Spotlight web site. SpeedGrade DI is a part
of the SpeedGrade family of non-destructive grading
applications. To learn more, contact IRIDAS at +49 89 330 35
142, IRIDAS USA at (818) 951-8927, or visit
www.speedgrade.com.
About IRIDAS
IRIDAS pioneered desktop film-resolution playback
in 2001. Its FrameCycler products are now the industry
standard for frame-based image review. In 2003 IRIDAS
introduced the first non-destructive color correction
application. Today SpeedGrade and FrameCycler provide the
critical links in an end-to-end pipeline for uncompressed
content and color metadata. IRIDAS' applications are used by
filmmakers around the world and most major animation and
postproduction houses. IRIDAS is an independent, privately
held company headquartered in Munich, Germany. For more
information, visit
www.iridas.com.
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