Modern adds three further Quantel Pablos boosting iQ fleet to six systems

Modern VideoFilm, a top post-production facility serving the Hollywood feature film community, has taken delivery of three 4K Pablo on iQ color correction/DI systems.
The purchase allows Modern to serve an ever-growing number of high-end projects with end-to-end digital intermediate processing in a choice of resolutions.
The three new Pablo systems are now operating alongside Modern’s three 2K iQs, raising the facility’s total Quantel DI arsenal to six. All six are being used on feature film post-production and DI work, according to Mark Smirnoff, President, Studio Services, Modern VideoFilm.
On delivery, the iQs were quickly put to work on the DI for ‘The Omen’ and the Ridley Scott-directed ‘A Good Year’. Both are 20th Century Fox releases and were kept at 4K resolution throughout the entire post-production process.
Other recent films on which Modern VideoFilm has deployed its 2K Quantel iQs include Warner Bros.’ ‘The Lake House’, Sony Pictures Entertainment’s ‘Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby’, and ‘Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties’, from 20th Century Fox.
"The major reason to keep a film in 4K throughout the DI process is to help preserve high resolution,” says Smirnoff. “The decision whether to go with 2K or 4K for the DI is both economic and creative,” he explained. “It depends on how important it is to get that additional resolution out of a project. If it’s an aesthetically driven, highly detailed, visual-effects-heavy movie, 4K may be warranted. The studio will make that decision as it weighs its options from a creative standpoint and a financial standpoint.”
Modern is also starting to make greater use of the Pablo for color correction. “We’re already using Pablo for in-betweens and trailer work,” says Smirnoff. “Right now, we’re using iQ’s QGrade feature, which allows easy interface with other systems, and we’re adjusting our workflow to fit Pablo more into the process.”
In addition to DI work, Modern’s Quantel iQs are also critical to such post-production tasks as pre-visualization, letting directors build timelines with placeholders, review shots, and see low-res 3D in context before CGI rendering. The iQs also allow easy integration of visual effects, whether created at Modern or imported from various high-end visual effects houses.
Modern’s end-to-end service starts with each film’s 35mm negatives, which are scanned in-house. Those files are then ingested into the iQ, where most of the DI work is performed. The resulting digital master is then turned into all the required deliverables, including the film-outs, which are recorded in-house at Modern, plus other versions, like the director's cut, culture-sensitive versions, digital cinema files, HD and SD broadcast versions, overseas formats, as well as DVD and other home video formats.
In addition to longform features, Modern also uses its Quantel iQs for trailer work, allowing it to keep a greater slice of the each feature film job while at the same time offering its clients creative consistency throughout all projects.
Modern was among the early adopters of iQ in the Los Angeles area.
(SP)