Quantel helps FutureWorks complete first 4K DI in India

Mumbai’s FutureWorks uses Pablo 4K for vfx-heavy contemporary fantasy fable, ‘Drona’

Newbury, UK, 1 April 2008: With Bollywood movies increasingly looking to break into the mainstream global market, the Indian industry is rapidly embracing digital production technology in a move to boost production values and shave costs. So, it’s of little surprise that the first 4K DI has already been completed on the Subcontinent, thanks to the Quantel Pablo 4K. and Genetic Engineering workflow infrastructure.

The forthcoming release in question is Goldie Behl’s ‘Drona’, a heavyweight production that stars Abhishek Bachchan and is being produced by Rose Movies and Eros. Featuring 1200 vfx shots, very close to the highest Bollywood has yet attempted, and filmed in Prague, Namibia, Mumbai and Rajasthan, it’s the sort of production that promises to firmly establish India on the global scene and was therefore one that required the best image quality available.

David Bush was Visual Effects Producer/Supervisor on the movie. “We had seen some recent Indian blockbusters go the 2K route in 1:2.35 Cinemascope format, and we weren’t happy with the overall soft image that ensues at that resolution,” he says. “In fact, centre extraction of a 2K scanned image is really down to the equivalent of less than a thousand lines of resolution, and I personally think that this is inadequate for wide format films on the big screen.”

Together with Behl and DoP Sameer Arya, the decision was made to post in 4K at FutureWorks, one of Mumbai’s top film post production houses. FutureWorks installed a Quantel Pablo 4K next generation nonlinear grading and film finishing suite integrated with a Genetic Engineering shared workflow infrastructure, together with a Max assist station. As a result, FutureWorks is now in the vanguard of the new wave of high-end digital post production sweeping across India.

Bush was impressed with the Pablo system and FutureWorks’ facilities, certainly more so than some rival bidders’ ‘4K’ proposals. “Many were underestimating the sheer speed and volume needs for an effective 4K pipeline,” he says. “They based their proposals on unproven and theoretical workflows using proxies, down rezzing, still to be tried-and-tested storage area networks, and moving material around from editing to color grading systems backwards and forwards more or less continuously.”

The FutureWorks 4K workflow is much cleaner, genuinely 4K throughout, and features a Spirit 4K datacine and the Pablo 4K, sitting on the Genetic Engineering backbone, with a 4K ARRILASER film recorder as the final stage in the process.

Bush has overseen over 50 DI productions and is adamant that DI is about more than the grading, especially at 4K. “Deliverables have become one of the most important aspects, and these are better catered for on the Quantel platform than by others,” he says. “‘Drona’ is pushing the benchmark ever higher in the fast growing Indian film industry, and I’m proud to be part of the team actively pushing the quality envelope.”

Created on: 01/04/2008