November 2, 2004

WETA DIGITAL PURCHASES ARRISCAN FILM SCANNER

NEW YORK - Nice Shoes (www.niceshoes.com) has expanded its New York facility in response to an increasing demand for film transfer services. The studio has added a fourth telecine suite, equipped with a Spirit Datacine and a Da Vinci 2K color corrector. It also has shared access to the company's recently acquired Grass Valley Specter FS (FilmStream) Virtual Datacine.

To staff the new suite, Nice Shoes has promoted Lenny Mastrandrea to day colorist. Mastrandrea, who has lengthy credits in coloring commercials, has been a night colorist at the post house since 1997. His background also includes time at Post Perfect and SMA Video.

"Our film-to-tape unit has been booked to capacity," notes Nice Shoes managing partner Dominic Pandolfino. "To accommodate our clients, we have added a new room with the same top tier technology as our other suites and one of the most talented young colorists in the business."

Nice Shoes principal/VP of engineering Joe Bottazzi adds that the rising demand has in part been fueled by the company's recent acquisition of the Specter, which is routed to each of the company's four telecine suites.

"Specter allows color correction to occur in a nonlinear environment and that represents a revolution in post production, especially for commercials."

Nice Shoes is the only East Coast facility to feature the Specter, and has recently used it to post spots for American Express, AT&T, Coke, Fed Ex, Pepsi, Tylenol and Yahoo, among others.