Canadian Film Digest (Dec 1976)

A new post-production centre claiming to offer the most advanced filmto-tape system available in North America has been set up in Toronto and is scheduled to swing into full operation early in 1977. The company, Motion Picture Video Corporation, intends to serve film producers as an electronic optical house. It offers a new frame-by-frame videotape editing facility and a system of transferring film to tape that allows for fine-tuned colour corrections and razor sharp image control. After extensive renovations the third floor of Magder Films was converted to accommodate the new venture. Commercial producer and cinematographer Zale Magder is a chief investor in the $2 million project, but MPVC president Bob Sher emphasized that the company is in no way a division of Magder Films. Operations manager of the company is Jack Sinclair. Both Sher and Sinclair used to head up the Toronto office of California’s /mage Transform and Sinclair was directly involved in the electronic end as a technical producer. One of the key pieces of equipment in the system is a flying spot scanner (basically a telecine system) developed by Rank Cinte/ in London, England. According to Sher, MVPVC will be the first in the North American market to own and operate the $100,000 piece of equipment. With a single beam the device scans a frame of film and translates what it receives into electronic information for transfer to tape. Because of the single scan source there is accurate colour registration in the transferred image and no added noise from the system. The machine is equipped with both 16mm and 35mm gates and the manufacturer is currently developing adapters for Super 8 and standard 35mm stills. The transfer process is carried out ELECTRONIC POST-PRODUCTION in what's called ‘“‘the clean room’”’ — an environment controlled room suspended on data flooring and maintained at positive pressure to keep dust particles, smoke and other impurities outside. The space is air-conditioned and humidified and its atmosphere is recycled once every ninety seconds. Cost of installation of the room — probably somewhere between $12,000 and $14,000 said Sher. The flying spot scanner has been used in England and Europe for many years. There the conversion is easier because of the standard 25 frames and 50 cycles per second in films shot for TV. It is only recently that the system has been adapted to the North American TV standard of 24 frames and 60 cycles per second. The equipment was officially intro Bob Sher in “‘the clean room.” by Linda West duced on this side of the Atlantic at the National Association of Broadcasters convention held in Chicago March 20 to 24, 1976. But Sher first saw it at a trade show in Switzerland the year before. Another piece of the Rank Cinte/ package is the colour corrector. Three controls, each with red, blue and green gradations, are used to adjust the three tonal areas — dark shadow, bright white and middle range. These adjustments are made on a remote colour console hooked into the scanner system. Each scene is colour-corrected and then transferred. The third key element in the process is the computer assisted editing equipment designed to MPVC’s specifications by Ampex of Canada Limited which is acting as contractor for the entire package. “With the editing system,” said Sher, [> Photograph by Frank Anzalone. z canadian film digest 57