Toronto’s DAVE (Dome Audio Video & Effects) is offering a new tool for its URSA Gold telecine system and one of the most sought-after talents to operate it.

dave recently became the first shop in the city to install TWiGi from u.k.-based Innovation TK in its URSA Gold telecine system, an upgrade which counters the creation of ‘visual noise’ in the analog-to-digital conversion of scanned material. ‘TWiGi gives us even quieter pictures than we have now,’ says dave senior colorist Bill Ferwerda. ‘We can go further now.’

The unit sends cleaner images to the color corrector, which means a cleaner base from which to manipulate images.

‘We stretch things,’ says Ferwerda. ‘Like pushing whites and crushing blacks. Starting with a cleaner signal you can push things even further.’

Rather than a means of reducing or filtering noise, TWiGi represents a re-engineering of ursa’s digital conversion stage, which reduces noise production during this stage, improving picture quality without altering the performance of the rest of the system.

Recently, dave’s high-end commercial and music video clients have been clamoring to access not just the shop’s high-end URSA Gold/Da Vinci equipment setup but Ferwerda’s particular expertise and Zen approach to the job. Reluctant to fly his own colors high, Ferwerda says part of his skill is a matter of having a sensitivity to material and understanding how to manipulate a picture.

Ferwerda has been honing his craft as a colorist for the past 11 years and has been at dave since the shop acquired its approachable moniker in late ’95.