News: Tunnel Post Supercharges Throughput with Film Master

Digital Vision grading and finishing system anchors high-performance DI workflow

(Stockholm, Sweden--April 21, 2008) Digital Vision, the premier provider of picture enhancement systems for film and television post-production, announced today that Los Angeles based Tunnel Post has purchased its Film Master grading and finishing system and DVO image enhancement tools.

The new system is the foundation of Tunnel Post’s high-performance, high-efficiency Digital Intermediate (DI) workflow developed for its independent film, television, and commercial clients.

Known for its efficient post-production processes built on general purpose computing technology, Tunnel Post operates an 8,000 square foot facility in Santa Monica, handling everything from creative editorial to graphics, cleanup and DI. The company chose Film Master to anchor its DI workflow, which starts with fast, pin-registered 2K/4K scanning on the Cintel Ditto and finishes on the Cinevation’s real-time, direct-to-print film recorder, Cinevator. The company has implemented Film Master in its main DI suite to handle conforming, colour grading, and image enhancement, and expects to move the system to a brand new DI theatre, currently under construction. Tunnel Post, which turns around an average of twenty to thirty film projects per year, along with multiple television series and projects, expects to put the Film Master system to use first on independent features including “Across the Hall” and “Penthouse,” and other projects.

“Film Master has the fastest performance of any system we looked at and the best conform capabilities that worked well with our proprietary file management process,” said Alan Pao, co-founder of Tunnel Post. “Those capabilities, along with a user interface that’s easy to learn, teach, and use – for any of our operators – made the Film Master the ideal choice and a logical step for our business. Also, their roadmap for stereoscopic, distributed rendering and DVO on the GPU meant that we are investing in technology that will meet our clients’ needs down the road.”

Simon Cuff, Digital Vision President and COO, said, “Tunnel Post has developed a smart pipeline for DI that gives them the creative and technical flexibility to handle everything from feature films to commercial and at the highest possible quality. Film Master’s architecture and openness makes it a perfect fit for today and is totally scalable to grow with them as they expand their services.”

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