da Vinci's Nucleas DI Suite chosen for 'Thunderstruck' post

Da Vinci Systems' new Nucleas digital intermediate (DI) product suite, in conjunction with Snell & Wilcox's MetaShare engine, was used by Digital Pictures Sydney to complete DI post-production tasks on the new feature film 'Thunderstruck'.
The Digital Pictures staff relied on the product integration to digitally ingest, conform, colour enhance, and format material from the film, which is scheduled for release in 2004.
"The film's director, Darren Ashton, and producer, Jodi Matterson, wanted the flexibility that comes with the digital process and is lacking at a lab. We brought on da Vinci's Nucleas specifically for our work on Thunderstruck," said Digital Pictures Head of Film and Telecine Siggy Ferstl. "With a wide range of advanced tools combined with 4.5 terabytes of storage, it became the hub of our digital intermediate process."
Thunderstruck follows the adventures of a group of friends who pledge during a 1991 AC/DC concert that if one of them dies before the age of 40, the others will bury his body next to the grave of singer Bon Scott. The movie was filmed in 4-perf Super 35mm, which, with the DI process, allowed the use of spherical lenses instead of anamorphics and produced a first-generation anamorphic negative without the typical optical blowup.
Using an EDL for accuracy, the Nucleas system integrated seamlessly with Digital Pictures' Spirit DataCine to capture the 2K data scans. The Digital Pictures staff then used Nucleas to conform the 2K scans into six film spools, rendering dissolves, speed changes, and freezes.
(GB)