Pedro Almodovar movies restored on Digital Vision
Trigital, the exclusive distributor of Digital Vision products in Spain, has announced today that Telson, Madrid’s full service post facility specializing in digital intermediate and audio-video services for feature film and television, has completed the restoration and colour grade of four Pedro Almodovar movies.
The restoration and grade were completed using the DVO toolset integrated to the Film Master grading system. Telson has restored the two movies Carne tremula (Live Flesh-1997) andAtame (Tie me up! Tie me down!-1988) and is currently working on Kika (1993) and Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown-1988). Almodavar’s company, El Deseo's, specifically wanted the remastering completed in HDCAM-SR for archival purposes.
The Digital Vision Film Master is a comprehensive colour grading and finishing solution, for DI, television, feature films and commercials, from SD to 4K. DVO software options can be added to the Film Master, which are used to enhance, convert and restore images to the original quality envisioned by the director.
“DVO is a complete set of image processing options than enable us to enhance picture detail and automatically remove defects, whilst being totally integrated into the colour correction process. This is a unique approach, and one that no other vendor offers,” comments Felipe Muraca, Post Production and DI Engineer at Telson.
“Digital Vision has presented us with a flexible, end-to-end, integrated solution that can powerfully improve image quality; most of the time you see grading systems with very few additional picture enhancement tools”, adds Ximo Michavila, Telson's colourist.
DVO offers a wide range of restoration and enhancement features. For example, DVO Dust automatically removes dust and other small particles, while DVO Fix manually selects and repairs minor and major imperfections.
Another major tool that was used in these projects is DVO Grain, to change and control grain. The advantage here was that the operator could control which tool is applied and where in the timeline.
Digital Vision’s DVO toolset was instrumental in the restoration phase of each of these projects, while grading and remastering was achieved using Film Master. “El Deseo has been amazed by the outstanding results of the Digital Vision solution that offers an easy and automatic way of restoring and repairing movies (90% automatic versus 10% manual)”, confirms Ximo Michavila.
Digital Vision’s Film Master is an integral part of the Telson pipeline. In this case of restoring films the interpositive material is captured in the Film Master in HD 4:4:4 direct from the Telecine to a DVS-SAN. Then, the material is graded and the DVO tools are used as necessary for restoration.
“Due to the increased pressure to create high quality masters for a myriad of deliveries movies have to be remastered. As Blu-Ray comes of age and the growing implementation of HD broadcast, image quality is an even more critical concern and we have to answer that level of demand,” comments Felipe Muraca.
“Almodovar is a master at the use of colour in his stories, so grading is a key factor when working on his movies. It is extremely important to take into consideration image quality and the use of contrast and colour that he puts in his films,” explains the colourist Ximo Michavila. “Every picture needs to be immediately identifiable. Every shot, every scene has its own story to tell that we play with and the mastered version needs to be at the same level of quality and originality without any compromise. It’s an honour to work on these movies, and with partners like Digital Vision, we have been able to build the workflow that supports this caliber of work,” he concludes.
Simon Cuff, President and COO, Digital Vision comments: “Pedro Almodovar has made a massive contribution to the art of the cinema and we are proud to be involved in preserving his heritage and also delivering his movies for a whole new generation to enjoy. Adding the full DVO toolset to a Film Master provides the most complete and feature rich remastering solution available in the market today. It is the only solution that can conform, grade, restore and version and allow the presentation classics in same quality that were enjoyed by audiences of the original premier screening.”