(CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. - May 31, 2007) da Vinci Systems announced today that Crash & Sue's post-production facility in Minneapolis, Minn., is relying on the company's 2K Plus® color enhancement suite to enhance the uniquely colorful look identified with the popular Target® Corporation commercials.
"As I have been doing SD transfers for Target for many years, the da Vinci 2K Plus has given me more control over color than earlier systems. Its real-time processing is a huge asset to me and to my clients, like Target," said Crash & Sue's Co-owner and Colorist Sue Lakso. "For film, I use the 2K Plus to color grade in HD and then downconvert the material for SD or lay off to D5 for HD, which provides more detail for keys and repositioning in post-production."
Lakso works closely with the offline editor, art director, and producer of the Target commercials. The offline editor sends an EDL to the negative conformer, who cuts the film and makes a color correction EDL for Lakso so she knows where the scenes are on the rolls. Lakso goes through key scenes with the team to set the look and match the color corrections, concentrating on the faces, skin tones, brightness, and amount of color. She then matches all of the scenes, including any repositioned scenes, to develop the striking and bold images for which the Target commercials are known. Finally, Lakso lays the film off to D5 and sends it to the edit house for final conform and effects. Target can then finish the commercials in both HD and SD for distribution.
The biggest challenge Lakso faces is keeping the images rich and colorful throughout the commercial while remaining within television standards. Because there are certain limits in color and luminance that cannot be exceeded when a spot is aired, Lakso is challenged to keep the images broadcast-legal in both HD and SD. She often "pushes" these contrast limits in the Target commercials, especially with red tones and luminescence on the models' faces. To achieve these effects, she uses the 2K Plus' Defocus™ feature to pull details back and adjust colors as needed. Lakso also leverages the 2K's Kilovectors™ for fine-tuning color vectors, and PowerWindows™ for vignetting and isolating specific areas or colors.
Crash & Sue's is a full-service post facility founded in 1990. The post house handles a variety of projects, including student and independent features, SD and HD commercials, long-format productions on film and various tape-to-tape formats, and HD finishes for feature films. Crash & Sue's added a da Vinci 2K® for color grading in 2000 and subsequently upgraded to the 2K Plus system it utilizes for the Target commercials today.
"Post facilities of all sizes continue to select our 2K Plus for precise, efficient color grading — and particularly now as demand for HD deliverables and digital intermediate workflow increases," said Bill Robertson, vice president and general manager of da Vinci Systems. "We're pleased to be associated with Crash & Sue's, as well as with the unique look of Target's successful commercials."
The da Vinci 2K Plus incorporates powerful real-time color-processing capabilities, including features such as PowerWindows for multilayered area isolations; Vector Plus™ for precise hue, saturation, and luminance qualifying; and Custom Curves™ for independent adjustment of RGB gamma. The 2K Plus supports resolutions of 2048 x 1080 10-bit RGB at 23.98 sF and 24 sF, standards used in today's DI environments, as well as 10-bit and 12-bit support for DCI projection standards. By adding da Vinci's Splice™ "virtual telecine" to the front end of a da Vinci 2K or 2K Plus, users gain a bridge to nonlinear workflow with pan, tilt, zoom, and rotate capabilities in real time.
More information on the da Vinci 2K Plus color enhancement suite is available at http://www.davsys.com
About Crash & Sue's
Crash & Sue's is an award-winning post-production house specializing in the seamless integration of CG, visual FX, animation, color correction, creative editing, finishing, and audio services. This facility provides the ultimate creative environment featuring premier talent and all-inclusive client services.
About da Vinci Systems®, LLC
da Vinci Systems, a JDSU company, is the leading provider of color enhancement and image restoration products used in post-production facilities worldwide. Incorporating the company's Emmy® Award-winning technology, da Vinci's products support SDTV, HDTV, data, and digital film. Since the introduction of the company's first color corrector in 1984, da Vinci has been a front-runner in the field of image enhancement, shaping color enhancement into the vital role it holds in post-production today. The company is headquartered in Coral Springs, Fla., with offices in Los Angeles, New York, London, France, Germany, and Singapore.
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