The studio hopes the system will help distinguish it among its competitors and bring in new business.
Since the recent installation, Milagro Post has used the Spirit 2K digital imaging system to post produce a variety of commercials that were shot on 35mm film. The Spirit is used to scan the film into the system for color correction, compositing and other visual effects work, using the Grass Valley Bones digital intermediate post production software system. Bones allows Milagro to control the Spirit 2K directly.
“The Grass Valley Spirit 2K Datacine has allowed us to streamline our workflow and complete projects much faster by scanning and storing the film negative as 2K digital data files,” explains Michael Suggs, president and co-founder of Milagro Post. “The data conform from the Spirit allows our colorists to grade an entire project at 2K resolution, in the proper sequence with heads and tails, all cut to timing with audio. This was not possible before. By separating the scanning process from the grading process, when you arrive for your session you are grading film, not hanging film.”
“The detail, depth and color of pictures from the new scanner are breathtaking,” adds DI colorist Rick Unger.
Suggs says the studio aims to exploit the fact that the are the first commercial post facility in the US to combine digital intermediate technologies and workflows that are centered on Grass Valley’s Spirit 2K realtime film system and Quantel’s Pablo on iQ 2K grading suite.
“And with the Spirit system’s impressive horsepower, we anticipate opening several more grading suites, all supplied with images from the same Spirit 2K system,” he adds.