DFT Digital Film Technology, provider of high-end film and digital post production solutions that preserve, manage, and deliver your pictures, announces that Spice Shop, Bangkok, Thailand, is the first commercial post facility in Southeast Asia to install a SCANITY film scanner.
In addition to providing a full range of post production services for the local and international television and cinema commercial markets, Spice Shop has recently unveiled it's newly renovated facility which enhances its service offerings to support feature film post production including on-set and post grading, 3D DCI mastering, as well as archive & restoration work. The SCANITY high-speed 4K/2K film scanner complements Spice Shop’s existing and upgraded data infrastructure and supports the overall non-linear system of solutions that allows Spice Shop to have a smooth and efficient online and offline workflow.
SCANITY’s scan-once approach to film scanning allows Spice Shop to generate all required content from one 2K digital negative scan. Whether the content is for offline work using QuickTime or MXF files, or online work that requires uncompressed HD files with low resolution proxies for editing, the high speed and efficiency of SCANITY means Spice Shop only has to handle the film once. The flexibility of the scan-once approach lets Spice Shop quickly access images across its fibre optic network to easily accommodate last minute editorial changes, re-framing, zooms etc. Since all files are available digitally at 2K high resolution, there is no need to re-scan any frames. This unique workflow saves Spice Shop’s clients time, money, and provides quality improvements throughout the entire post production process.
In addition to the pure efficiency of this model, the scan-once approach minimizes risk of damage or accumulation of dirt on precious film.
A typical 2K commercial workflow at Spice Shop involves using SCANITY for 35 mm scanning to a central DVS storage network. A one light grade using a Filmlight Baselight 4 is executed while scans are still being performed in the background. After grading, QuickTimes or MXF files are rendered for offline editing after which, the final EDL is loaded into Baselight for conforming with the one light grade applied. The final grading is performed at 2K and then rendered at HD. At this stage, the files are ready to be accessed by the visual effects and CGI department who use Autodesk Flame visual effects software and various CGI, compositing and finishing tools including; Maya, Houdini, Nuke, After Effects, and 3DS Max to finalize the project. For digital cinema commercials, Spice Shop utilizes a DVS Clipster for DCI mastering and final deliverables creation.
“Within a few days of installation we have already used SCANITY for both local and international productions and we are highly satisfied with its user and workflow advantages and our clients were astounded at the improvement in picture quality,” states Matthew Szabo, Director of Operations at Spice Shop. “Our infrastructure and services have always been centered on flexibility and speed, and SCANITY stands alone when it comes to speed, quality, and overall system efficiency. In addition, the fact that we also generate a 2K digital negative with SCANITY provides our clients with a sense of security and peace of mind.”
“In addition to our television and digital cinema commercial work, we have a keen interest in the archive and restoration market,” states Pawadee Chantanom, General Manager and Executive Producer of Spice Shop. “There is a strong cultural demand to protect and restore our social history and heritage and we already have the toolset required to support archive work. Now that we have SCANITY, our archive & restoration toolset is complete.”
“We are making positive inroads into the Asia Pacific market and Spice Shop’s purchase reaffirms the fact that SCANITY is the fastest and most versatile film scanner available today,” comments Stefan Kramper, Managing Director of DFT Digital Film Technology. “Whether SCANITY is used for traditional post production film scanning, or the archive market, it serves many scanning applications and provides facilities with an all encompassing toolset.’
