The companies have acquired da Vinci's Splice, a telecine device that allows them to offer high resolution color grading and finishing services for film projects. Splice will be paired with the companies' existing Spirit 2K film scanners, and will also allow the facilities to offer nonlinear, in-context color correction for SD, HD and theatrical spots. The DI pipeline will also employ Grass Valley/Thomson's LUTher technology for color management.
"These new resources will help us to tap into two significant trends - the growth of independent filmmaking and the expansion of HD and theatrical advertising," says Filmworkers Club president Reid Brody. "We made a close study of available technology and chose systems that give us maximum flexibility to meet the needs of our growing and diversifying market."
Splice acts as a bridge to allow da Vinci 2K color correctors to function in a nonlinear manner. For advertising work, the system allows the ability to color spots in cut order, saving time and enhancing creativity. For film projects, the system facilitates the preparation of a high resolution, graded master ready for output to film. Grass Valley's LUTher color space converter is a complementary product for film work, allowing the user to monitor grading work on an HD display, confident that the image will match the film output.
In conjunction with the initiative, Filmworkers Club/Astro Labs has hired Carol Schaffner to serve as DI coordinator. Schaffner most recently held a similar position with I-cubed and has broad experience in DI, as well as an in-depth knowledge of independent filmmaking. Her role will be to educate the film community about the resources and talent available through Filmworkers Club.