Toronto-based Telegenic Programs is taking its first steps into the technological domain as the exclusive Canadian representative of a new video/film transfer process known as asiva.

Created by Shapiro Consulting Group of Austin, Texas, asiva is a digital video enhancement program that gives a production shot on videotape the look and feel of something originally captured on 35mm film.

The system converts the video source – analog or digital, ntsc or pal – into 10-bit D1, processes the video in accordance with a variety and range of user selectable parameters, then outputs the enhanced video to the original video source format and standard.

All enhancements are processed digitally using proprietary algorithms and advanced multiprocessor technology.

It is in post-production that the asiva comes into play. Once the rough edit is done, it goes through the process.

When it comes to shooting, the best results are achieved when film-style rather than flat lighting is used and the makers recommend shooting digital rather than analog.

According to Michael Taylor, president and coo of Telegenic, there are two major advantages to using the new system: projects can be shot under more extreme conditions than when shooting on film, and it affords significant cost savings.

Over the course of producing a 22-episode one-hour weekly series on videotape using asiva, Taylor claims the savings would be in excess of $1 million, or about 70% less than the cost of shooting on 35mm.

Telegenic will launch the process this fall and will be offering demos to the likes of Alliance Atlantis Communications, Nelvana and Cinar Films as well as independent producers.

Telegenic itself is gearing up to use asiva on its new children’s series Higgly, Wiggly, Wonkers & Snout, coproduced with Toronto’s JAMS Productions. The 26 half-hour, live-action show about four little piglets will be shot on a farm north of Toronto in the spring using either Beta sp or Digital Beta.

‘We will be able to get into low levels of light and more extreme conditions in a more cost-effective manner and it will help speed up the process,’ explains Taylor. ‘It won’t take as long to light scenes as it would if we were shooting on film.’

Telegenic’s first foray into the technological realm isn’t intended as the start of a new business stream for the company, Taylor emphasizes.

‘We focus on distribution, licensing, merchandising and working with producers to help them produce programs,’ he says, ‘and if we can help to bring down the cost of what it takes to greenlight a project by going through this process, then it’s great.’

Telegenic gained Canadian rights to asiva as the result of a long relationship with Richard and Esther Shapiro Entertainment, an l.a.-based production company, which hooked up with asiva developer Kevin Gordon and Jack Mayesh about four years ago to form Shapiro Consulting.

On of the first to take advantage of the new technology was Steven Spielberg.

During the research stages for Schindler’s List, Spielberg videotaped Holocaust survivors and used the asiva system to make the footage look like it was shot on film before donating it to a Holocaust survivors foundation.

According to Taylor, feedback from Spielberg was that if he hadn’t been standing over the dop’s shoulder during taping, he would have sworn it was shot on film. ‘And if he is satisfied with it,’ says Taylor, ‘others may be too.’