CRITERION PURCHASES SECOND CORRECT SYSTEM
Leading DVD producer invests in additional system and upgrades systems to HD to restore classic films
Providence, Rhode Island, October 20, 2003…MTI Film, a leader in software based image processing applications for the emerging tapeless workflow, today announced that Criterion, New York, NY, has purchased its second MTI Film CORRECT System, and has now upgraded both systems from Standard Definition (SD) to High Definition (HD).
The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films, is dedicated to gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions that offer the highest technical quality and award-winning, original supplements. The collection includes the work of such masters of cinema as Renoir, Godard, Kurosawa, Cocteau, Fellini, Bergman, Tarkovsky, Hitchcock, Fuller, Lean, Kubrick, and many others.
Each film is presented uncut, in its original aspect ratio, as its maker intended it to be seen. For every disc, Criterion tracks down the best available film elements in the world, uses state-of-the-art telecine equipment and a select few colorists capable of meeting its rigorous standards, and take time during the film-to-video digital transfer to create the most pristine possible image and sound. Whenever possible, Criterion works with directors and cinematographers to assure that the look of its releases does justice to their intentions. Criterion’s supplements enable viewers to appreciate Criterion films in context, through audio commentaries by filmmakers and scholars, restored director’s cuts, deleted scenes, documentaries, shooting scripts, early shorts, and storyboards.
Criterion has taken an important lead in performing in-house restoration using MTI Film’s CORRECT system. Originally starting with MTI’s SD system, Criterion has moved both to HD, as most of its work is now done in High Definition. If SD is needed for a particular project, then it can be easily down-converted to SD from HD. Criterion evaluated other systems, but found MTI’s CORRECT system was the best choice for its needs, and it particularly wanted a cost-effective, easy-to-use system. Criterion also considers MTI’s algorithms for repairing an image while keeping the film grain the same to be the best in the business.
In addition, CORRECT integrates well with Criterion’s other equipment, easily controlling the HD decks and supporting Criterion’s future expansion into data. It works especially well for difficult fixes and more tedious work. CORRECT’s ease of use makes it simple to train users, which is important as Criterion trains local film students to work on its collections providing them with invaluable experience.
Criterion has utilized MTI’s CORRECT system to restore numerous black/white movies that were degraded and scratched. In addition, on Monterey Pop, there was blue debris on the 16mm original; Criterion took out the scratches on the right side of the image and cleaned the film, but at the filmmaker’s request kept the blue artifact to stay true to the original. Criterion is sharing costs with a UK company on Richard the III, which has significant amounts of debris, dirt and jarring edits, to fix those difficulties. Japanese films that were shot in cinemascope, such as The Hidden Fortress and Red Beard, had nasty splices in every edit, which Criterion was able to fix with CORRECT. With Solaris, all the splices had bad frames and Criterion repaired every edit before and after every cut with CORRECT; this was the only way it could be done, as it couldn’t be handled during the in-transfer process.
Lee Kline, Technical Director at Criterion, says, “Our relationship with MTI Film has been a strong one. Both are small independent companies with the bottom line in mind. There’s been an easy, friendly exchange of information; we ask for something and they provide feedback. Sometimes they incorporate features immediately, sometimes further down the road. We’ve worked well together. Unlike other post-production companies, we don’t re-bill the service to another company. Everything we do is in-house, so we need products that allow us to accomplish our mission in a cost-effective manner. MTI Film does that.”
“The Criterion Collection and Janus Film have been more than customers, they have been partners. Their technical product feedback during beta testing was invaluable and their support of MTI Film in marketing has been priceless. We are very excited that Lee and his team at Criterion have supported us so well and have added a 2nd High Definition CORRECT system. And, we are most excited to help Criterion in turn to restore and release more classic titles”, adds Brian Gaffney, VP of Sales and Marketing for MTI Film.
About CORRECT:
CORRECT is a resolution independent, cross platform software bundle for Intel based workstations. Based on the award winning DRS(tm) (Digital Restoration Service) solution, CORRECT comes complete with MTI Film’s integrated CONTROL VTR emulator for capture of video and audio at all supported broadcast video standards (NTSC, PAL, and HD), and it supports interlaced and progressive frame rates (23.98, 24, 25 and 30 fps). CONTROL also supports the management of the captured material in an-easy-to navigate bin for video with timeline playback as well as support for data files up to 8K in resolution.
With CORRECT, customers selectively detect and remove dirt, blemishes, chemical stains and persistent vertical scratches with incredible precision and reliability. It has a new easy-to-use DRSTM interface. Preset parameters enable automated processing with little or no operator intervention using the AutoFilter mode. Customers can automatically remove dirt and dust artifacts from full frames areas or areas defined by an operator specified mask.
Optional modules for CORRECT provide modes for Noise and Grain reduction, provide image Flicker correction, plus Aperture correction with filtering for flexible image sharpening and softening, allowing customers to adjust the image intensity selectively (non-uniformly) across each frame.
About MTI Film:
MTI Film is a leading multi-platform, multi-resolution solutions provider. MTI leads the industry in delivering solutions for video post-production and for HDTV and digital cinema mastering. MTI’s widely used digital restoration (DRS) software remains a cornerstone of MTI IntelliDeck(r), an array of software modules that are custom-tailored for the motion picture industry, spanning tasks from telecine data capture to creation of virtually every distribution format. www.mathtech.com
All trademarks used herein, whether recognized or not, are the properties of their respective companies.
Best Regards,
Sharon Adcock
The Adcock Group
PO Box 2017
Manhattan Beach, CA, 90267-2017, USA
Office Telephone: +1.310.545.9731
Fax: +1.310.545.5939
Mobile: +1.310.567.8692
Email: [email protected]
