Handsome Harry, experimental Director Bette Gordon’s new feature, played the Tribeca Film Festival to a sold out house this past week.

The Master HDCAM of the film had been shipped just a few days before the screening by Cineworks Post Production Supervisor Bradley Greer who had headed up in the 2K conform and the final color correction.

Handsome Harry brought producer Jamin O’Brien back to Florida since his successful Boynton Beach Club was processed at Cineworks Digital Studios in 2003 and exposed Bette Gordon and her Australian based cinematographer Nigel   Bluck to their Digital Intermediate process that Cineworks has perfected in the last few years.

Handsome Harry was shot in 2K Arri Raw data using the Arri D21 camera.  Bradley Greer, having dealt with two major data projects back to back, is looking forward to his next one,“Something that I can really sink my teeth into.”

The Directors Film Co.  under the supervison of Executive Producer Richard Coll rolled into Miami this week on an exciting international project for Moscow agency DDB who handles the Tropicana account for Russia and all aligned countries. Shooting 35mm film on and about our beaches this promotional commercial will tie in a free trip to Miami for the lucky winner and give away thousands of Tropicana beach bags.  Directed by English director Martin Brierley, now living in New York, and DP by Massimo Hannozet who now calls Miami home, the commercial will be rough cut  at 2150 by Michael Coe with the whole creative group in attendance.
Kudos to Exec. Producer Richard Coll for keeping the work in Miami.
Andrey Lukyanov, creative director for DDB Moscow and his client Segey Stepanov, enjoyed their PAL color correction session with Matt Perrin in Studio TK1 on the controls of his  Davinci 2KPlus, but as Matt said, “this is what I love to do, color correct the beach. There is nothing i know better.”  words from a tried and true surfer.

Director William Kaufman started his second feature Sinners and Saints which he co -wrote with Jay Moses, with an early call. Using  the back drop of New Orleans  Kaufman  spins a story of a young detective Sean Reilly, played by up and commer Johny Strong, who, while working for the elite “Street Crime”  task force, loses his partner on a routine warrant serve.

The film shot by DP Mark Rutledge, is being filmed on 35 MM  three perf.

Cineworks is doing the developing and dailies to HDCam  with a simo DVcam.  Colorist Ralph Perez is doing the color correction and nighttime  New Orleans  never looked more foreboding.

Christmas day  2008  saw the opening of Marley and Me which, believe it or  not, started shooting  in the Miami area in this spring .  How quickly do they get these movies out.  With the cast of Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston, this David Frankel directed jewel  was a great Christmas present for parents and  dog lovers, and anyone like me, who can’t get enough of Jennifer Aniston. Based on John Grogan’s novel and shot in 35MM  by Florian Ballhaus, the picture was edited by Mark Livolsi.

Film developing and HD transfers by Cineworks Digital Studios, Inc. !

Cineworks Digital Studios provides film recording services for productions produced on either film or video formats. Today, there are a myriad of choices for production and post production formats, both in the high end professional world and in the independent world. Because there are so many choices, it is confusing as to how to prepare for film recording. This document will try to provide some guidelines.

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Cineworks Digital Studios has made a solid commitment to supporting the Red One camera from production all the way through post and digital intermediate finishing.  In addition to partnering with CineVideoTech (cinevideotech.com) of Miami for full service camera rental packages fron 35mm, S/16mm and RED with proper industry 24/7 support, Cineworks has developed workflows for editorial based on either Avid or Apple Final Cut Pro platforms that allow for efficiency and flexibility.  We can provide file conversion services and secure data storage if needed, as well as projection of dailies directly from the Red files (r3d) in our Digital Intermediate screening theater.  For final finishing, we can create essentially any deliverable format as needed - everything from HD video (including HDCam SR) to Digital Cinema and 35mm prints - through our Digital Intermediate Theater.  The DI theater is built around Assimilate Scratch, the most “Red friendly” DI system available, and currently the only one that can read Redcode Raw files directly, allowing for unparalleled flexibility and control of the Red images.  Coupled with an NEC is a 2K projection screening room set up for DCI compliance, film deliverables can be created in either 2K or 4K resolution that retain the richness, detail, and color values achieved in the screening room and on the video and Digital Cinema deliverables.

Cineworks has upgraded its digital infrastructure considerably this year to handle digital cinema at all levels.  A Bright Systems Storage Area Network (SAN) - specifically designed for the digital media industry - has been added to allow for expanded data storage, reliable preformance, and seamless sharing of data across diferent rooms and platforms.  A digital recorder (the Rave HD) has been added to allow for more efficient and seamless integration of video and multiple formats of digital media, and of course we have multiple Final Cut Pro and Avid systems.  The digital intermediate theater itself has been upgraded for full real time performance even with multiple levels of secondary correction and multiple windows.  Red represents the wave of the future, and as our name implies, Cineworks Digital Studios is embracing that future.  We congratulate Red for delivering the Red One, and we’re excited about helping to bring the highest quality digital images to screens big and small.

Courtesy of  InCamera - October 2008

Actress Christina Christian portrays a young Celia Cruz in the biographical documentary Celia: The Queen. Photo courtesy of José Luis Vázquez

Celia Cruz is widely recognized as the most popular and influential female in the history of Cuban music. When she passed away in 2003, Joe Cardona, Mario de Varona and José Luis Vázquez had already been working on a biographical documentary of Cruz’s life for more than five years. Now their project, Celia: The Queen, is coming to fruition. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and there are plans for theatrical distribution. Vázquez was born in Cuba, raised in New York City and lives in Miami. He had a boyhood interest in photography and graphic arts but a fascination with movement in visuals led him to a job as a promotions cameraman at the Univision network in Miami. “I realized then that what really fascinated me was the way light affects an emulsion on a frame of film,” he says. “That’s when I became a cinematographer.” (continue reading…)