Digital special F/X are a given in this day and age. That’s why Richard J. Anobile, for one, can’t understand why more productions don’t go the step further and do all their picture post-production in the digital domain. The associate producer on Cypher (formerly Company Man), the US$7.5-million Pandora thriller directed by Vincenzo Natali and starring Jeremy Northam (Gosford Park) and Lucy Liu (Charlie’s Angels), recently pushed for the movie to be posted at Toronto’s Command Post/TOYBOX using the shop’s Cinema HD process.

Anobile, a native New Yorker and former Hollywood production exec, was hired on Cypher, which shot in Toronto last year, to work on the creative end of production. He had previously served as post-production supervisor on several MOWs and so got involved in Cypher’s post as well. He backed Cinema HD after seeing work TOYBOX had done on 52 minutes of the visually inventive Jennifer Lopez thriller The Cell.

Many in the industry are resistant to methods that deviate from the well-entrenched norm, and so Anobile recalls how Derek Rogers, Natali’s director of photography, was initially cold toward Cinema HD, due mainly to a longstanding collaboration with a particular film timer. However, after seeing a test, the cameraman could not differentiate color correction done in both the photochemical and electronic worlds and eventually embraced the venture. Natali was so impressed that he is employing the technique again on his latest feature, 49th Parallel’s Nothing, on which Anobile is a consultant.

Combining TOYBOX’s gear and staff expertise, the Cinema HD process begins after a production has a locked digital cut. The EDL is brought to TOYBOX for auto conform, and then the extensive palette offered in video is used for realtime interactive color grading and visual finessing, primarily using a Philips Spirit telecine. Once completed to the liking of the director and DOP, the movie is then output back to film using an Arri Laser recorder. Coming into play prior to output is a process the shop dubs TIPS (TOYBOX Image Processing System), made up of a series of proprietary software the shop’s R&D department has labored over for a couple of years.

‘It pretty much maximizes the data path,’ explains Andy Sykes, TOYBOX VP sales and marketing. ‘One of the big problems has always been color space conversion when you go from an RGB world to the film world. That’s one of the things that TIPS deals with. There’s also a gentle up-res at the same time that smoothes out [the image] and makes it look great.’

The traditional process entails having a negative cut made, working with a lab timer and potentially going through several costly optical procedures and prints. According to Anobile, this route could take up to 12 to 15 weeks. Sykes says that with Cinema HD, editorial can take three to four days, while the color correct can range from five to 15 days.

In the photochemical model, it becomes cumbersome for the creative team to go back and make any alterations, whereas with Cinema HD it can tinker to its heart’s content, as the movie only goes out to film when the director is satisfied. With the process, the final picture is then copied uncompressed to high-quality D6 tape, the sound is laid on and from there the negative is pulled – the one optical element in the otherwise digital process.

A burr in Anobile’s saddle is the budgetary waste that marks many a Hollywood production. He is proud that Cypher came in on budget, distribution elements included, which he attributes in part to Cinema HD, which might at first seem costly.

‘When pictures are budgeted, post-production is [factored into] production,’ he explains. ‘Cinema HD would push that number up somewhat – by maybe $100,000 to $150,000. But what Cinema HD does, in addition to offering you the opportunity to produce an incredibly beautiful visual image, is short-circuit the back end.’

Distribution is the area that sees the savings, since from the finished digital version a production can pull its 4:3 and 16:9 TV masters, a PAL version, and, down the road, a DVD.

‘You never again have to put the film back up in a transfer bay to retransfer it [to the various formats], and you’ve got the option of pumping out a pristine, single-strand negative any time you want another one,’ Anobile says. ‘It really shortens the time period between finalizing your picture and getting your distribution elements.’

Cypher is soon to be released in Europe, where Natali is a cult hero for the sci-fi flick Cube. Cypher will be released by Miramax Films in the U.S., although dates have not been confirmed.

Other projects that have used Cinema HD include New Line Cinema’s Jason X and The Guys, a 9/11-themed ContentFilm/Focus Features drama starring Sigourney Weaver that debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival.

-www.compt.com