Jake Fruia
With the recent resurgence in film, there’s one often over-looked Blackmagic Design product that we’ll probably be hearing more and more about: the Cintel Film Scanner. The scanner converts 35mm and 16mm film up to 30fps in Ultra HD resolution. For example, Cinema Arts of the Vasallo Vision Group has used the Cintel Film Scanner to restore “more than 20 Mexican film classics for distribution on Spanish-speaking channels Cine Nostalgia and Cine Estelar.”
The Vasallo Vision owned channels broadcast films multiple genres from the 50s to the 70s on cable in HD. However this obviously requires a great deal of work in converting the old film to HD for broadcast. Mexico-based Cinema Arts was tasked with the conversion, using Blackmagic’s Cintel Film Scanner to convert and restore the film. As Cinema Arts CEO Carlos Vasallo explains, “It’s not just about restoring a film. Our goal is to present the highest quality and be faithful to its artistic and historical work as envisioned by the original producers, directors and screenwriters.”
Cinema Arts is no stranger to restoring old films, with half of the 2,000 films in the Cine Nostalgia and Cine Estelar vaults having been converted from 35mm to HD. They seek to finish their project by the end of 2016, using the Cintel Film Scanner (“one of the first owned in Mexico”) to help speed the process along. From Carlos Vasallo:
“With Thunderbolt support and seamless integration with DaVinci Resolve Studio, the Cintel Film Scanner offers a much faster film restoration workflow than comparable products. Within the first few weeks of owning the system, we were able to successfully restore more than 20 movies. That’s more than twice the speed in which we had been restoring the previous films. This was echoed by the people who attended our Cintel training. Many had experience with other film scanners, and they were absolutely astounded with Cintel’s realtime performance! Once we add the Cintel’s 16mm and audio gates, our results will be even better, exponentially speeding up the project to make our goal.”
You can find out more about their work in the press release below, and more about the Cintel Film Scanner at www.BlackmagicDesign.com/Products/Cintel
Fremont, CA – March 3, 2016 – Blackmagic Design today announced the Cintel Film Scanner was used by Cinema Arts, a subsidiary of the Vasallo Vision Group, to restore more than 20 Mexican film classics for distribution on Spanish-speaking channels Cine Nostalgia and Cine Estelar.
Also owned and operated by the Vasallo Vision Group, Cine Nostalgia and Cine Estelar feature a number of movie genres, including comedy, classic western, drama and action from the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s, streamed in HD over cable platforms DirectTV, AT&T, Verizon, Cox and Frontier, as well as America TV and Canal 41 Miami. Cinema Arts, which is located in Mexico, was tasked with bringing the channel’s large volume of Mexican 35mm film classics to digital HD.
“It’s not just about restoring a film,” states Cinema Arts CEO Carlos Vasallo. “Our goal is to present the highest quality and be faithful to its artistic and historical work as envisioned by the original producers, directors and screenwriters.”
Over the last three years, Cinema Arts has restored 1,000 of the 2,000 films stored in the Cine Nostalgia and Cine Estelar vault, from 35mm to full HD, with a goal to complete the HD migration before the end of 2016 with help from the Cintel Film Scanner. Cinema Arts invested in the Cintel Film Scanner, one of the first owned in Mexico, to meet the accelerated timeline.
“With Thunderbolt support and seamless integration with DaVinci Resolve Studio, the Cintel Film Scanner offers a much faster film restoration workflow than comparable products. Within the first few weeks of owning the system, we were able to successfully restore more than 20 movies. That’s more than twice the speed in which we had been restoring the previous films,” notes Vasallo. “This was echoed by the people who attended our Cintel training. Many had experience with other film scanners, and they were absolutely astounded with Cintel’s realtime performance! Once we add the Cintel’s 16mm and audio gates, our results will be even better, exponentially speeding up the project to make our goal.”
Cinema Arts’ intensive film restoration workflow is based on the Cintel Film Scanner, DaVinci Resolve Studio color grading and Thunderbolt technology. First, staff physically remove the film’s visible damage, then use Cintel, connected to a Mac desktop system via Thunderbolt, to scan the film in realtime. Cintel’s extensive calibration capabilities let staff tweak digital elements to output a DPX file that is equivalent to the original film quality.
“The Cintel calibration tools take into account the photo and color quality of the original film, and thus we have been able to correct 70 to 80 percent of the film defects due to wear and tear,” says Vasallo. “Once the scanning has been registered according to the parameters set up by the production and post teams, files are downloaded and digitalized to a DPX extension to begin the color grading part of the workflow using DaVinci Resolve Studio. No re-uploading or transferring needed.
Cinema Arts’ film restoration project features Mexican favorites, including films from the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema, with actors like Andrés García, Jorge Rivero, Sasha Montenegro, Maribel Guardia and more.
