Cinesite : Services : Scanning & Recording

Scanning & Recording

Cinesite’s Scanning and Recording service provides world-class, high quality imaging services to international feature film, television and commercial industries.

Services

Cinesite provides highly adaptable scanning and recording services for feature films, trailers and commercials. Our service forms a vital part of the digital intermediate and visual effects pipeline for companies all over the world. We scan from either 35mm or 16mm and record from any data source.

As a Kodak company, Cinesite understands the idiosyncrasy of film emulsions. As a cutting edge digital imaging company, we are also pioneers in digital processing technologies. This unique combination gives us unprecedented knowledge and expertise in the merging of these two complementary technologies.

Super2K

Our universally admired “super2K” process ensures the very best 2K scanning and recording for the ultimate quality in the most manageable file size.

This proprietary process gives film-makers the superior quality of 4K scanned or recorded images, whilst only having to deal with a normal 2K sized file. In simplest terms, this involves scanning images at over 4,000 lines of resolution and downsizing to approximately 2,000 lines. While much of the original 4K image quality is retained, file sizes are far more manageable.

Cinesite’s proprietary process also converts the images back up to 4K in the recording process. Most importantly, practically no difference in quality is discernible between a full 4K pipeline and one using “super2K” images.

In addition, our image engineers are constantly pioneering innovative new code to optimise image quality.

History

Cinesite has been scanning and recording film since 1992 when we set up with prototype Kodak Lightning 4K scanners and recorders. Since then, we have been responsible for creating:

The first film to be entirely scanned to digital files – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first film to be entirely scanned to digital files, restored/graded and then recorded back to film again.

The first film to have significant sections digitised – Pleasantville was graded and recorded back to film.

The first film to be entirely digitised, graded and filmed out – O brother where art thou? set the stage for today’s current practice.

The first production to adopt a Digital Intermediate workflow. Band of Brothers, the award-winning HBO series, became the workflow template for modern feature digital post production.

We continue to lead the field with innovation in scanning and recording services for both DI and visual effects, with Los Angeles based sister company Laser Pacific continuing the DI tradition with Digital Grading, Intermediate and Mastering Services.

Cinesite currently uses Filmlight’s “Northlight” scanners and Arri’s “ArriSpeed” Laser Recorders. Building on our long tradition of research and development in this field Cinesite uses unique database management and image processing software, developed in-house, to control the various processes involved.