Thomsons Technicolor will be opening its first studio-based digital intermediate (DI) facility, built at Sony Studios in Culver City, California.
The new Technicolor facility, its first on the Westside of Los Angeles, will allow for dramatic expansion of Technicolors DI service offering to filmmakers wanting to stay on the Westside of Los Angeles to do post-production and film finishing work -- as well as for those projects that will be completed at Sony Studios world-renowned feature sound-mixing stages. The proximity of the new Stage 6 DI facility to Sonys theatrical sound mixing stages will accord filmmakers the option of working in one location while finishing both look and audio mix of their films.
Our new Culver City location is a great addition to our post-production service offering, stated Ahmad Ouri, president, Technicolor Content Services. Our location on the historic Sony Pictures Studio provides the opportunity for filmmakers based on the Westside to benefit from our industry-leading DI workflows - as well as the opportunity to work alongside one of the industrys premiere theatrical sound-mixing operations.
"With the opening of this state-of-the-art facility, in partnership with Technicolor, we can now finish our films entirely on the Studio lot, with easy access to our sound stages, editing facilities, dubbing stages and scoring stage through completion," stated Gary Martin, president of Production Administration for Sony Pictures Ent. "As the time to complete films is constantly being reduced, our filmmakers have more time to be involved in all aspects of the final process."
Since the doors were opened to the new Technicolor facility in the late fall with its soft launch, the company has completed its first group of DIs, including director Nancy Meyers THE HOLIDAY and Lee Tamahoris NEXT. STOMP THE YARD, which was the first DI to go through the new operation, premiered over the weekend of Jan. 12 as the number one film in the North American theatrical marketplace.
The facilitys new dailies and mastering capabilities will be performed in two new high-definition suites. Further, Technicolor will also continue to service the industry with expanded film mastering, restoration and preservation capabilities.
Technicolor first launched its digital intermediates business in late 2001 with director David Finchers PANIC ROOM. The hit film was followed shortly thereafter with a string of successful DIs that include Disneys PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL; SEABISCUIT; MR. AND MRS. SMITH; THE AVIATOR; CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE; MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA; and more recent projects including: SUPERMAN RETURNS; THE DEPARTED; FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS and LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA, for director Clint Eastwood; and THE GOOD SHEPARD.
Thomson (www.thomson.net) provides technology, services and systems and equipment to help its Media & Ent. clients (content creators, content distributors and users of its technology) realize their business goals and optimize their performance in a rapidly-changing technology environment. The Group is the preferred partner to the Media & Ent. Industries through its Technicolor, Grass Valley, RCA and Thomson brands.
Part of the Services division of Thomson, Technicolor Content Services (www.technicolor.com) provides world-leading, state-of-the-art preproduction, production, post-production and post postproduction services to major Hollywood film studios, independent filmmakers, cable and television networks and commercial advertisers. With facilities located in major film, cable and television production centers around the world, Technicolor Content Services offers a wide range of capabilities, including DVD compression, authoring, menu design, and localization; video on demand (VOD) encoding; episodic television and commercial advertising completion; digital intermediates, high-definition dailies processing; 2D and 3D visual effects; digital previews; videogame development, design and localization; sound design, recording and mixing; multilingual subtitling, captioning and localization; and film and audio restoration and preservation.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
