Big Interview: Pinewood Studios (Part 2)

As well as physically expanding, Pinewood is also advancing in the field of digital post production. How is this being achieved?
Giles – In recognition of the fact that our clients are acquiring and making their content digitally, we have provided very effective infrastructure for them to do so at all of our company lots. That translates as secure, high-speed data connection between all of our stages and all of our facilities, effectively linking production to post production, as well as linking the two main areas that we serve.
The first is production services that are linked to our content being made here on our lots, and the second is distribution services, which allows for that content to be reworked into different languages, or formatted for onward distribution.
Darren – One of the things we have invested in quite heavily is what we call digital production services, which puts us in the position where we become the digital lab.
Whereas previously you would take your film, process and telecine it to produce video images which could then be worked with, we are now able to provide the digital version.
The equivalent process is 'debayering'. Most modern digital camera formats use chips which compress the images using a bayer compression. So we de-bayer and transcode, and then we make the files required for the process of editing. And then ultimately we maintain the hi-resolution files, back them all up and can produce them when required.
We are also getting involved in colour management. With digital acquisition we have the ability to do this on set, near set, in the lab and then maintain all those colour decisions throughout the post-production process.
This has really changed the way DOPs and directors are able to work. In some cases it can even be a challenge for them, because they can lack the experience and it can be quite time consuming. But for those who do embrace the technology, it allows them to experiment to a much greater extent than they would have previously been able to.
Giles – As a consequence of the digital acquisition process being relatively new, there are of course a number of competing technologies that often require unique and specialised workflows. But rather than try to serve only one or two particular ways of working, we have decided to be agnostic to all, so to speak, and I think that is something that is rather different about the way we approach things here.
All this digital information has to be stored, of course. Is archiving a big issue with regards to the digitisation process?
Giles – Archival covers a multitude of formats, in a multitude of different states and over a multitude of different ages. Archiving isn't just relevant to a film shooting today, but also to films that were shot fifty or sixty years ago. The challenge, in broad terms, is to allow the media to be accessible and commercially exploitable for years to come. I think the biggest challenge is in stability of the formats that are chosen to store media.
It's probably fair to say that the only media that we know a lot about, in terms of long-term storage, is film itself. There are actually investigations going on right know which are looking into whether film is actually the most appropriate format for long term storage.
Darren – When we look at storing data for current production and we look at data acquired within our archive and restoration department, in other words restoring and digitising old media, there are certain elements that are in common, and certain elements that aren’t. The biggest thing in common is managing the data. Right now we are using LTO 5, we've previously used LTO 4 and at some point in the future we will use LTO 6. One of the challenges is, once we create digital archive material on the data tape, we have to continue to migrate it up the format chain, as it were. Unlike film, these formats do become obsolete in relatively short periods of time. For example, we have restored nitrate film in the last year that is over a hundred years old, from the original negative on which it was acquired. If we then ask ourselves whether or not it is likely that we will be able to play back an LTO 5 tape in a hundred years, I think most of us know that it is very unlikely.
It might sound to some people like digitisation can be more trouble than it's worth...
Giles – There is an element of truth to that. Whereas it was probably true a few years ago that the big companies were desperate to digitise everything, irrespective of what it was, the real costs of digital storage and management have caused many clients to think a lot more carefully about what they choose to digitise and why.
I think the real driver is the perceived commercial value of the media itself. And that is a challenge which all of those content owners are wrestling with.
Darren – But regardless of the challenges, it is a very exciting time for the industry. The digital world offers enormous opportunities for us to streamline the process of film, TV and game-making production. This means the budgets available can be invested into the product that ends up on the screen, as opposed to back-room processing. And I find that very exciting.
Read the article in the online edition of Regional Film & Video here.