George Ilko: Initially we were asked to pitch for Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The client insisted that it had to be recorded on an ARRILASER, and as we didn’t have an ARRILASER we unfortunately weren’t successful. As CFX are a proactive and client driven organization we decided to buy an ARRILASER for future work.
SD: So why did you decide to buy two?
GI: Because we were so impressed with the first! The sheer accuracy, fidelity and quality of the image produced were outstanding and client demand was clearly well established. We were also very impressed with the reliability, consistency and stability of the ARRILASER. Furthermore, a very well respected Colorist, Peter Doyle, advised us the ARRILASER was the best on the market.
SD: How happy are you with the machines, have they lived up to your expectations? Were you happy with the service you received from ARRI?
GI: So far, they have exceeded our expectations and we can’t fault the service we’ve received from the whole ARRI team. Let me give you some examples, we had a problem with the ARRISCAN image ingestion process, I telephoned Roman Gardner in Munich, and he was on site within four hours and quickly had the problem solved! We had another problem with a film recorder, telephoned ARRI (GB) in Uxbridge and within two and a half hours the Engineer was on site, the problem fixed and the film recorder was ready to shoot! As we operate twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, consistency and the ability to respond when problems occur are critically important. ARRI understand this.
SD: What advantages have you found using the ARRILASER?
GI: In a single word ‘efficiency’. They’re located in a carefully controlled environment and this ensures that they can perform to their maximum capacity. We have over engineered the film recording environment to ensure complete stabilization. Our film recording room has four air changes per hour to regulate humidity, we ensure the temperature remains constant, the whole room is isolated from vibration, positive air pressure is maintained to limit dust and hair particles and the room is monitored twenty four hours a day. We recently had a project which involved scaling up an image from 2K to 4K resolution and won the job because of our ability to achieve image sharpness, vividness of color and consistent quality. Due to the fact that we rely on ARRI technology for film scanning, color management and film recording you could say that without ARRI this would not have been possible!
SD: Do you do much 4K work?
GI: Yes, a great deal, we recently recorded multiple original version printing negatives and twenty one foreign versions of reels one, two and three for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at 4K, and have recently output the Sony distribution feature Stealth at 4K.
SD: Do you see 4K becoming the norm in the future?
GI: Increasingly more 4K work is coming through, we have recently installed an SGI GRIO SAN which is being used for isochronous real time 4K playback with the Sony 4K projector. With the ARRISCAN we are able to scan at 6K and so are well future proofed! We have just output a feature called Silence Becomes You, which was shot digitally and is the first fully digital feature film produced. I think this is very exciting and combined with 4K image quality bodes well for the Digital Cinema Initiative.
SD: What feature films have utilized the ARRILASER recently?
GI: Recently we have worked on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Batman Begins, Ripley Under Ground, Asylum, The Bridge and Dead Mans Cards, which were output on the ARRILASERs.
SD: Moving on to the ARRISCAN, what was your rational for the purchase?
GI: Consistency, accuracy, fidelity, and precision – we wanted to stay with the same manufacturer throughout our entire workflow. By utilizing ARRI products for scanning, color management and film output, we achieved great quality on each project. ARRI helped us to profile every device involved in our workflow and produce a LUT that achieved meticulous results. So, for example, if an image is being projected by our Barco DP100, the projector has a color profile and LUT to ensure faithful image representation.
SD: What advantages do you see with the ARRISCAN?
GI: Apart from the qualities mentioned already such as consistency, accuracy, fidelity, and precision, I would include simplicity. The ARRISCAN is extremely easy to use and has a very logical and intuitive GUI.
SD: How did the installation go, did you receive sufficient training?
GI: The installation went very smoothly, it was a very slick process. We are grading images as we scan them, which involves quality control throughout our entire workflow. ARRI have offered advanced training in Munich which we intend to take later this year.
SD: What experience do you have of rescans?
GI: We have recently completed a repair job on a Paramount production called Asylum. This involved rescanning the entire feature and color grading a more balanced result. The colors and geometry for rescanned sequences were absolutely perfect and look great in post production. The client was extremely pleased with the end result.
SD: The software, how pleased have you been with this?
GI: Very satisfied, again, like everything with ARRI, the GUI is very simple, intuitive and well designed.
SD: And finally moving on to the ARRI Color Management System (CMS). What is your level of satisfaction with the look up tables?
GI: We are extremely happy with the ARRI CMS. This is an area critical to our business, and many other post production companies. We researched several solutions from companies such as Kodak, Baselight/Northlight/Truelight, Rising Sun, we even held roundtable meetings with AutoDesk, Kodak, Barco, Bell Theatre, and encouraged open discussions with other post houses to achieve a greater understanding of color science and management. ARRI provided an extremely competent, efficient, elegant solution to a very complex problem. In my opinion that is a key differentiator between ourselves and all other post houses – together with ARRI we can provide end to end consistency from scanner to film recorder to ensure truly fantastic results.
SD: What color grading tool do you use with the CMS?
GI: We currently use the Lustre grading solution from AutoDesk and also have Smoke and Combustion suites. We are currently involved in the Toxic BETA program and are strongly allied with AutoDesk products.
SD: Do you use the CMS in the ARRILASER for video to film shootouts?
GI: Not as yet, but we have several projects on the go which we intend to use the ARRI CMS for. It’s great to have the CMS as another tool.
About Capital FX
CFX has the largest film recording capacity in Europe and can offer clients the following services:
- Creative services including title design by our award winning art department
- Digital visual effects and post production facilities utilizing industry leading applications such as Smoke, Combustion, Toxic, Digital Fusion, and Shake.
- Film recording services at 2K and 4K with the largest film output capacity in Europe including two ARRILASER film recorders.
- Scanning bureau services at 2K, 4K and up to 6K with the latest ARRISCAN.
- Full Digital Intermediate services in large screen preview theatre utilizing Lustre Color Grading suite, Barco DP100, Kinoton film projection and full Dolby Theatre Surround Sound all profiled via the ARRI CMS.
- Full HD bureau services.
- State of the art IT infrastructure delivering industry best practice full DI workflow.
- Laser subtitling services utilizing Titra technology.
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