Cinema Gotika, a digital film restoration and mastering facilities based in Argentina, recently completed the re-mastering of almost 250 features films for the Argentinian Film Institute and is currently working on the restoration of hundreds of hours of film for the Malaysian Film Institute. The company relies on Digital Vision’s Phoenix Finish restoration tools to manage the work.
“Integrating restoration and color grading empowers our artists to work on parallel paths, creating beautiful images and solving the wide range of needs that come with these archival films at the same time,” said Sergio Rentero of Cinema Gotika. “Phoenix Finish has unbeatable speed and processing, which is absolutely critical in projects of this size.”
The work for the Malaysian Film Institute presented a number of challenges for the team at Cinema Gotika, in addition to the sheer quantity of assets. Rentero explained that the first part of the work for the Malaysian Film Institute included more than 120 hours. “We performed high-end image and sound scanning, restoration and mastering,” he said. “It was great footage, but the entire project had to be turned around in less than 10 weeks.”
“The combination of the talent of our artists with the powerful grain reduction, color grading, and Phoenix restoration toolset, meant that we were able to complete a massive assignment, beautifully, in a very tight timeframe,” Rentero explained. “I don’t believe that any other system except Phoenix Finish could have done it.”
Cinema Gotika’s decision to go with Digital Vision tools came after careful analysis of the options. “We tried almost all the possibilities and analyzed them carefully. There were clear differences in the quality of the final output and the integration of toolsets. After close inspection, we felt strongly that Phoenix Finish was right for us.”
“Cinema Gotika is doing beautiful work and we’re delighted to support their efforts,” said Schel Kuehnert, Digital Vision’s head of American sales. “Digital Vision has seen a marked increase in sales in Latin America over the past six months, and the marketplace is vibrant with companies, talent and content.”
Kuehnert highlighted recent sales of Nucoda Film Master, Phoenix and Golden Eye to TV Globo, Universidad de Panama and Estudios Churubusco.
