With the acquisition of the new Y Front from u.k.-based Innovation tk, Toronto-based Eyes Post has identified what it sees as the future of high-end color correction and has become the first shop in Canada to invest in the technology, installing it on its Ursa Diamond telecine.

The Y Front (aptly named for its shape and its position at the front of the front of the system) is touted as a significant re-engineering of the cell box used in the transfer process, addressing existing cell-box inefficiencies like light loss and poor scratch suppression and facilitating a much abbreviated light path resulting in a better picture.

To transfer film to video, explains Eyes Post president Izhak Hinitz, a flying spot scanner is used to discern areas of dark and light. In order to read the levels of blue, green and red and replicate color, a cell box is necessary.

‘The old cell box has been around for about 20 years, using a complex setup of glass, mirrors and a pickup device to translate light into color,’ says Hinitz. ‘The Y Front is a new-generation pickup device which reads the information in a more direct way. Light travels only about one-quarter of the distance it had to in the old cell box.’

The Y Front directs the light to a set of custom-designed photo sensors using a simplified, wide-angle lens system. This means there is a better signal-to-noise ratio because more light gets to the pickup device, says Hinitz. For editors and artists, this noise reduction makes keying less problematic due to cleaner edges.

Eyes chief engineer Jerry Wowk says the Y Front has been an important addition to the Ursa Diamond configuration at the shop, which also includes itk’s Scandal to reduce anti-aliasing and Twiggy to improve the signal-to-noise ratio.

‘It is the best economic option for the future,’ says Wowk. ‘The Y Front is one of the components that will eventually result in a resolution-independent telecine.’

Toronto-based dop James Gardner says he was impressed the first time he transferred using the system.

‘The pictures are so amazingly pure,’ says Gardner. ‘They stay looking like film. You have total control over color nuances and blowups.’

The color separation resulting from the Y Front is very similar to the color dyes of film, resulting in a film-quality look. Reds retain their original depth, blues are more true, which is significant to those on the artistic side of the industry or anyone with a discerning eye.

Says Eyes supervising colorist Judy Paul: ‘The color is cleaner. There is better color separation and color control. There is much less noise in the head end and the head-end color is better.’

Another difference, says Paul, pertains to blowups. ‘The blowups have excellent resolution and clients are impressed with the clarity.’

The Y Front applies flying spot technology to blowups, using 100% of its power on any given area of the picture, and has the capacity to zoom in 400% at full resolution.

The benefits to clients will be apparent, particularly when correcting potential problems, providing tools, for example, to correct exposure problems more efficiently, says Paul

Another prominent feature of the Y Front is its ability to conceal surface scratches on the base film layer through an optical wet gate. The conventional method of dealing with scratched film is called wet gating, a time-consuming process which typically involves the use of hazardous chemicals. The Y Front’s light-collecting technology eliminates this process, and minimizes the effects of scratches and shading problems caused by diffused and refracted light.

Eyes colorist Sue Chambers says the Y Front allows her to ‘push the picture.’

‘You can sit heavier with the blacks and mid range,’ says Chambers. ‘You can push the whites. It has more capacity for contrast.’

The Y Front’s ability to retain more detail in the blacks and whites allows highly contrasted images to be pushed in new directions while retaining original depth and interest.

Says Eyes colorist Stephen Kent: ‘There is better color separation at the front end, which means it’s faster. The color is so much cleaner, and there is less noise in extreme pictures.’

Hinitz says the new installation represents not just a picture improvement but an investment in the future of telecine technology.

‘We are allowed more manipulation of color inside the telecine before it goes to the color corrector and therefore a better picture to work with,’ says Hinitz.’ ‘The Y Front is the first step toward datacine, which is the future of film transfer.’

Laurie Myers is a Toronto-based freelance writer.