Kodak Features 800-Speed Film, Conversion Technology

Kodak demonstratrated an array of narrative, TV commercial, documentary and other film content on HDTV and NTSC monitors at its exhibit at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention, April 19-22 in Las Vegas.""More than ever, film is the medium of choice for the origination of content for broadcast, cable, satellite and home video,"" says Margaret Clark, worldwide television and commercial segment manager for Kodakís Professional Motion Imaging division. ""Approximately 75 percent of the primetime schedules on broadcast and cable channels consist of dramatic and other content produced on film, and those figures are even higher for national and global commercials.""Clark notes that virtually all one-hour dramas and movies-of-the-week, and a growing majority of situation comedies are originated on film.Kodak is highlighted its latest camera negative and conversion technologies for transferring film to digital format for postproduction and distribution.""Our new 800-speed negative film is being used to produce dramas and commercials in situations where the filmmakers are working in near darkness, or when they want to record images at high frame rates for dramatic impact,"" Clark says. ""We want to show just what it can do in a variety of challenging situations."" On the show floor, a number of telecine manufacturers, including Cintel, Philips Digital Video Systems and Sony, demonstrated the capabilities of their equipment by scanning a demo reel of Kodakís color negative films prepared expressly for NAB. The Spirit DataCine utilizes proprietary, state-of-the-art CCD imaging technology for which Kodak received two technical EmmyÆ awards in 1998.""Film gives you a tremendous ability to record incomparable resolution, with multiple layers of colors and contrast,"" says Clark. ""We developed an imaging head and supporting technology for the Spirit DataCine, which is designed to optimize the conversion of the film-look to digital video format at either standard or HDTV resolution. That is important, because the richness and subtleties inherent to a film-look are integral to story-telling, whether it is a TV commercial, a narrative film or a situation comedy.""Clark attributes the prevalence of film as an origination medium to a number of factors. She says audiences have rising expectations for production values. They also associate the film-look with high-quality dramatic episodic content.""DTV will provide more options for viewing, so producers put a high value on the creative, flexible and unique looks they can only get from film,"" she says.Clark notes that the emergence of HDTV is also motivating producers to originate valuable programs on film because they trust it to be future-proof.""Producersí film libraries are their most valuable asset,"" she says. ""They want to be sure their library is compatible with all present and future television program distribution and display standards. Past and present film content will look and play better than ever on tomorrowís HDTV screens. It is highly likely that the majority of video content in libraries will be obsolete in terms of expectations for image quality.""That is an over-arching factor in an industry where deficit financing is commonplace, and producers anticipate making their profits during syndication. There is no built-in obsolescence with film, and, according to Kodak, the new 800-speed emulsion provides a significant technological breakthrough that requires no investment in upgrading or replacing cameras or other hardware.""In contrast, last year at the NAB, the industry was told that 1080 progressive, 24 frames per second was the way of the future for electronic imaging for HDTV,"" she points out. ""Now they are being told that is already an obsolete notion. The new 1080 progressive, 24 frames per second digital video cameras and recorders being showcased at NAB are an improvement over previous electronic imaging systems, but they are still electronic imaging systems that render a fundamentally different look than film. It is also a comparable impermanent archival medium at the point.""Kodak scientists are continuing to investigate many aspects of film, digital and hybrid imaging technologies for origination, postproduction and display. The Kodak PREView system was featured at NAB last year and is being increasingly used by cinematographers and production designers.The PREView system includes a Kodak digital still camera, software, laptop computer and printer. The system enables cinematographers to preview looks that would be rendered on various Kodak film stocks using different combinations of filters and special laboratory film developing processes. Sill photos recorded with the system during location scouting allow cinematographers to compare different looks and locations. Production designers are using the system for previewing how different combinations of colors affect the environment on sets and locations.""We have a deep well of experience and technology,"" Clark says. The PREView system is just one relatively small example of the digital and hybrid imaging technologies we are successfully developing for out customers. The key factor is that all of our research and development efforts are customer-driven. The feedback we get at NAB will help drive our planning for the future.Professional Motion Imaging is a division of Kodakís Entertainment Imaging business unit.