Cinecittà Digital and iQ change the rules

Cinecittà Digital’s pioneering development of a Quantel iQ-based digital intermediate laboratory at its facility in Rome has opened a new world of possibilities to the moving picture industry, bringing the power and interactivity of digital technology within the reach of every level of film budget.
Cinecittà Digital has already brought the digital intermediate process to bear on the full gamut of film, HD and SD work. “iQ is used to edit and create features, both digital and film-originated, promos, trailers, commercials, visual effects – in fact, just about everything,” says David Bush, Cinecittà Digital’s visionary founder. In the first six months of operation, while proving and refining of the digital intermediate process was still in train, Cinecittà Digital produced over one and a quarter million film frames through the iQ.
Incredibly for these trying times, the line up of projects for the next nine months includes more than 18 films, and many thousands of visual and optical effects. Success breeds success, and more than the two present systems will probably be needed for the upcoming workflow.
“We are also seeing the gradual adoption of electronic acquisition, and this is changing the rules once again,” Bush continues. “We have a Thomson Viper camera at Cinecittà and we’re taking the footage direct into the iQ. The full 10 bit log digital dynamic range is captured in dual stream HD with uncompromised and totally uncompressed quality. Directors of photography are discovering that with exposure latitude close to that of film, and much more data and resolution than previous HD systems, the results are extremely impressive on the big screen. Some are even toying with the idea of shooting and post producing at the same time for future projects. In such a world, resolution co-existence* is a ‘must’; with the iQ, we’ve got it.”
(GB)