Cinesite Europe invest in second Northlight film scanner

FilmLight, a world-leading pioneer of digital film technology, have installed a second Northlight film scanner to Cinesite.
The new machine represents a significant expansion in Cinesite’s scanning capabilities, which the company is finding are becoming increasingly in demand as the market accelerates.
“We’re seeing exceptional demand,” explained Head of Imaging, Mitch Mitchell. “Up until January 2004 we had scanned six million frames in our 11 year history of scanning. Last month alone we put through 240,000 frames and we will scan over one million frames for one of the productions we’ve currently got underway.”
The majority of work is scanned at 4k, with vfx work usually being down-rezzed to 2k by the Cinesite proprietary super 2k process. Recently the company scanned 6k resolution from the original interpositives of Stanley Kubrik’s opus for a forthcoming high quality art book from Taschen.
Projects put through the Cinesite Northlights so far include 'Alfie', 'The Brothers Grimm' and 'Troy' vfx shots, 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban' and 'Alien vs Predator', while currently on the slate are 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire', 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', and vfx shots for 'Batman Begins', 'Sahara' and 'The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy'.
Mitchell cites several reasons for choosing another Northlight, chief amongst them being the need to match the high quality of Cinesite’s existing equipment and deliver pristine scans.
The company now has three scanners, the third being a Kodak legacy machine, all of which are identically calibrated, allowing for projects to be shared across all three machines with confidence.
FilmLight, www.filmlight.ltd.uk
(SP)