Spec Sheet: CINECITT DIGITAL FILM LAB

For decades, Italy's famed Cinecittà (Cinema City) studios have served as a second Hollywood, a favorite for directors ranging from Visconti, Renoir, Fellini, and Coppola to Scorsese, who used the 99-acre studios for his latest film, Gangs of New York. But the studios also contain Europe's largest film lab and an increasingly busy postproduction department, which was recently transformed into a fully digital post operation.

After assessing what would be needed to bring the facility into the digital intermediate age, consultant Steve Shaw decided a high-speed network was key — one capable of handling all the bits and pieces of the posting of a feature film or commercial. “We tried various products, including Thomson's Spectre, 5D's Cyborg, and Discreet's Inferno,” says Shaw, principal of Hertfordshire, England-based Digital Praxis, his digital post consulting company. “But we needed something that could create a central hub, something capable of dealing with entire films.”

That missing piece turned out to be Quantel's iQ, two of which now serve to organize and finish all feature film and commercial projects passing through Cinecittà Digital's D-Lab. (Perhaps that choice isn't surprising, since Shaw once worked for Quantel.)

Flexibility was a requirement, something the iQ does well, says Shaw. For the recent release of Roberto Benigni's Pinocchio, for example, scanned footage was first transferred at SD resolution for offline selection of rough selects. The chosen takes, retransferred at 2K, were then projected in a screening room with a quick color grading done directly on the iQ. The operator, working from the iQ, transferred files for dust busting, if needed, and to other specific post gear for further work. “No other system can play back full resolution 2K digital film files in realtime, regardless of their work state or mixed media position,” says Shaw.

iQ workstation with 4TB working storage
Arrilaser film recorder
Kodak Genesis Scanner
Thomson Spirit DataCine with dedicated Ciprico array (1TB)
Da Vinci and Pandora color correctors 6 multi-terabyte RAID disc arrays
SGI Octane/Thomson Phantom Transfer Engine
Sony DTF2 data tape backup 100MBps -1GBps switched Ethernet hub Switch hub (HD/SD video, audio, and RS-422)
HD and SD VTRs (for recording out) “Film look” HD and SD monitors

Avid Symphony
Discreet Inferno
Kodak Cineon
Apple Shake
Pinnacle Commotion
Variety of 3D software
Film restoration render farm