Software Powers Efforts of High Hat Post and Periscope Film
(Los Angeles, CA) From riding the surf to diving to the ocean’s depths in a submarine,
‘s
Phoenix Refine restoration software
is helping to power the efforts of High Hat Post and Periscope Film. Currently, Phoenix is a crucial tool at High Hat Post in the restoration of a collection of vintage 16 mm surfing movies, as well as current productions. Periscope Film is using Phoenix to automate the restoration of the company’s acquired military footage. Both High Hat Post and Periscope Film attribute the success of their workflows to the unmatched features that Phoenix offers, including its ability to automatically remove dirt, dust, scratches and grain.
Craig Rogers, founder of
, worked at IMAX for 11 years “making images perfect.” When he launched his boutique facility a year ago, his previous experience with Phoenix on IMAX footage influenced his choice of tools. Since installing Phoenix in August, High Hat Post has been relying upon the software for a number of titles, including restoring renowned documentary film director/cinematographer Greg MacGillivray’s vintage surfing movies, originally shot on 16mm.
“I chose Phoenix Refine because it is resolution independent, has superior flicker removal, and after really looking at our options, found nothing on the market that came close to its ability to manage grain and keep image detail,” says Rogers. “To do the heavy lifting of scratches, dirt and grain, High Hat Post uses Phoenix Refine not just for old restoration projects but for today’s video productions too.” Rogers also turns to Phoenix for current productions, including the clean up of video noise in low light scenes for an indie film short.
Rogers adds, “I tried all of the competing software packages. With its combination of ease of use, the DVO Clarity tool, and customer support, Phoenix Refine stood apart. It will be an essential tool in restoring the MacGillivray-Freeman surf film library.” A sampling of titles include The Sunshine Sea, Five Summer Stories, Cool Wave of Color, and Free and Easy.
has amassed over 1,000 military films, mostly government training shorts, educational material, or propaganda pieces. The company’s “Operation Archive” library houses some of the most obscure, historic footage long thought lost. Since launching Periscope, owners and preservationists Doug Weiner and Nick Spark have restored over 40 titles, available on DVD or iTunes. Titles restored on Phoenix include the John Ford documentary Memphis Belle, and Secret Life of Adolf Hitler, which was given an “A” rating by iTunes. Periscope also licenses their collection as stock footage.
“Phoenix Refine offers the whole package – a good price for superb automated cleanup of dust and scratches,” says Weiner. “Furthermore, its ability to degrain while preserving just enough grain for aesthetics remains unmatched.”
Weiner says they will render entire films, usually ranging in length from 10 to 30 minutes, for scratches and dirt. “It’s our go-to solution across the board. We pride ourselves on unmatched quality, and Phoenix delivers. We ask the software to do the impossible and it does it automatically. We don’t have the manpower to paint out everything in these archival elements. Phoenix does the job and is uniquely qualified because of its capability for doing multiple layers on one pass in a mechanized setup that’s repeatable!”
Weiner adds that having Digital Vision in Los Angeles was vital to their decision. “It made training easy and local support was important to us,” he says. “We explored other options, but Phoenix Refine answered our need of addressing different, challenging workflows for our unique collection.”
Digital Vision’s Phoenix range of products, with awarding-winning DVO image processing, provides automated, semi-automated and manual file-based restoration capabilities. Phoenix includes tools for film restoration and repair, and a custom range of tools for restoring images from video sources.
For more information, visit
.
About Digital Vision
Digital Vision is the supplier of the world’s best colour grading, restoration and film scanning solutions for the broadcast, film, commercial and archive industries. Founded in 1988 in Stockholm, Sweden, Digital Vision has offices in London, Los Angeles, New Zealand, and LinkAping in Sweden. Digital Vision’s Emmy award winning technology and products include Nucoda and Phoenix colour grading, finishing, mastering and restoration solutions that are used to create much of the worlds’ high profile television, film and commercials media broadcast and distributed today. In addition to the Nucoda and Phoenix ranges, Golden Eye film scanners and the Vintage Cloud solution provide innovative tools to create the industry recognized highest quality in scanning, film digitization, preservation and archiving.
In April 2011, Digital Vision acquired Image Systems and is now a division of the Image Systems group of companies.
All trademarks used herein, whether recognized or not, are the properties of their respective companies.
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Digital Vision Marketing Contact:
Patrick Morgan |
| Tel: +44 20 7734 8282 | Mobile +44 (0) 7917674711
Digital Vision PR Contact:
ignite | Christine Purse |
| Tel: +1 818 980 3473 | Mobile: +1 323 806 9696
