With the help of Toronto’s Command Post and Transfer and the facility’s Quantel Domino digital optical system for film, the cbc will be stirring the competitive and patriotic cockles of moviegoers’ hearts with a moving spot for its planned coverage of the Atlanta Olympics this summer. The Domino allowed a collection of film and video footage from a variety of sources to be turned into a big-screen-quality, 100-second spot which will air in movie theaters beginning June 7.

The feel-good spot captures those poignant sporting moments with a montage of competitors in peak form, covering the whole thrill to agony spectrum. A musical version of the Swifter, Higher, Stronger Olympic motto provides added inspiration.

Footage was culled from previous Olympic Games and world championship events as well as from material shot with a blue screen two years ago at Wallace Studios and is woven together with effects for maximum emotional impact. Effects were done in-house at the cbc’s post facility.

‘It’s an amazing recreation of videotape for the big screen,’ says Jeff Gruen, senior producer, broadcast promotion at the cbc and the spot’s producer and director.

Command Post partner and editor Steve Robinson, who worked on the project, says the spot’s mixture of elements provided challenges beyond the usual film-to-video-to-film cinema commercial exercise.

Typically, commercials shot originally on film utilize a 3/2 pull-down to adjust the speed from 24 to 30 frames per second for video. When these spots become destined for the theater, the 3/2 pull-down is removed. The different film and video elements in the cbc spot meant there wasn’t a normal 3/2 pull-down that could be pulled out to get back to film format, says Robinson.

The Domino rose to the challenge with its ability to correlate fields within frames, smooth edges and turn out a clean frame. The Domino varied the speed to make the transition from 30 to 24 fps, and the entire spot was then slightly defocused to remove its ‘video edge’ and give it a more filmic look. Resolution was increased to full film and the material was sent through the film recorder in the Domino system.

The process cost roughly $12,000.

Graphics were done in high resolution at the cbc and titles were added directly on the Domino.

The whole process took about eight hours plus another 30 hours for film recording in the Domino.

Gruen effuses abou;t the results: ‘The Domino enhances the video, smoothes it out, and makes it ready for film without a loss of quality,’ he says. TI