Pandora International was an Emmy award winning, English maker of hardware and software for telecine control and colour correction in post production film editing.
Pandora International began trading in 1988 led by Steve Brett and Martin Greenwood, [1] initially in Northfleet. [2]
Pandora's twin Motorola 68020 Pogle could control telecine machines such as the Spirit DataCine FDL 60, FDL 90 and Quadra, [3] and four video tape decks, for field accurate editing including three-two sequence control. Later versions used Silicon Graphics SGI Indy and SGI O2 computers. [4]
Pandora's DCP external colour corrector implemented Rec 601 [4] and was one of the first able to directly accept digital input from film or video tape, with support for NTSC and PAL. [5]
The PiXi colour corrector was launched in 1995, to replace the DCP and supported video resolutions up to 1920x1080 at 30 frames per second. A version of PiXi was incorporated into Picasso from Post Impressions and used by Industrial Light & Magic for "The Phantom Menace" and "Attack of the Clones". [6]
In 1997, Pandora introduced the MegaDEF comprising two PiXi with an additional multiplexer. It was the first commercially available system capable of 2048x1556 resolution in real time. The MegaDEF could be used with both Spirit DataCines and from 1999, the Philips Specter VDC-2000 virtual telecine and was controlled by a Pogle Platinum controller. 1998 movie Pleasantville included scenes where a MegaDEF removed selected colours. [7] [8] [9]
2000 movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? was scanned by Kodak with a Spirit Datacine and colour-corrected using a Pandora Pogle controlled MegaDEF at its Cinesite facility in Hollywood. The tree and grass backgrounds were changed from greens to a yellow/brown Dust Bowl effect. [3]
Pandora was awarded an Emmy in 2001, in recognition of its pioneering work developing the concept of digital intermediates. [10]
In 2001, Pandora International moved to nearby Greenhithe. It purchased Ingress Abbey as its headquarters but after a dispute with developer Crest Nicholson, sold it in 2012. [11] [2] [12] [13]
MegaDEF could be interfaced to the Quantel iQ using a proprietary optical fiber connection and systems were sold to Peter Jackson during his filming of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. [14]
The company's final products included Evolution, an updated Pogle colour suite telecine controller [15] and Revolution, a non linear colour corrector capable of 4096x3072 resolution in real time. [16]
Following a 2013 application by the Official Receiver, Pandora International was dissolved in 2016. [17]
Gamma correction or gamma is a nonlinear operation used to encode and decode luminance or tristimulus values in video or still image systems. Gamma correction is, in the simplest cases, defined by the following power-law expression:
Yasiin Bey, formerly known as Mos Def, is an American rapper and actor. A prominent figure in conscious hip hop, he is recognized for his use of wordplay and commentary on social and political issues, such as police brutality, American exceptionalism, and the status of African Americans in the United States.
Telecine, or TK, is the process of transferring film into video and is performed in a color suite. The term is also used to refer to the equipment used in this post-production process.
Digital intermediate (DI) is a motion picture finishing process which classically involves digitizing a motion picture and manipulating the color and other image characteristics.
Color grading is a post-production process common to filmmaking and video editing of altering the appearance of an image for presentation in different environments on different devices. Various attributes of an image such as contrast, color, saturation, detail, black level, and white balance may be enhanced whether for motion pictures, videos, or still images. Color grading and color correction are often used synonymously as terms for this process and can include the generation of artistic color effects through creative blending and compositing of different layer masks of the source image. Color grading is generally now performed in a digital process either in a controlled environment such as a color suite, and is usually done in a dim or dark environment.
Pleasantville is a 1998 American teen fantasy comedy-drama film written, co-produced, and directed by Gary Ross. It stars Tobey Maguire, Jeff Daniels, Joan Allen, William H. Macy, J. T. Walsh, and Reese Witherspoon, with Don Knotts, Paul Walker, Marley Shelton, and Jane Kaczmarek in supporting roles. The story centers on two siblings who wind up trapped in a 1950s TV show, set in a small Midwest town, where residents are seemingly perfect.
C-41 is a chromogenic color print film developing process introduced by Kodak in 1972, superseding the C-22 process. C-41, also known as CN-16 by Fuji, CNK-4 by Konica, and AP-70 by AGFA, is the most popular film process in use, with most, if not all photofinishing labs devoting at least one machine to this development process.
Arri Group is a German manufacturer of motion picture film equipment. Based in Munich, the company was founded in 1917. It produces professional motion picture cameras, lenses, lighting and post-production equipment. It is cited by Hermann Simon as an example of a "hidden champion". The Arri Alexa camera system was used to shoot several films that won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, including Hugo (2011), Life of Pi (2012), Gravity (2013), Birdman (2014), The Revenant (2015) and 1917 (2019).
BMG Production Music is an American production music company based in Santa Monica, California owned by BMG Rights Management, a subsidiary of German conglomerate Bertelsmann. Founded in 1993 as Immediate Music, it is best known for specializing in high-end trailer music for commercial motion pictures. The company's music has been featured in film trailers such as those for Avatar, Alien vs. Predator, Terminator Salvation, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, The Ring, The Matrix franchise, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit franchises and the Harry Potter films.
The Fernseh AG television company was registered in Berlin on July 3, 1929, by John Logie Baird, Robert Bosch, Zeiss Ikon and D.S. Loewe as partners. John Baird owned Baird Television Ltd. in London, Zeiss Ikon was a camera company in Dresden, D.S. Loewe owned a company in Berlin and Robert Bosch owned a company, Robert Bosch GmbH, in Stuttgart. with an initial capital of 100,000 Reichsmark. Fernseh AG did research and manufacturing of television equipment.
A virtual telecine is a piece of video equipment that can play back data files in real time. The colorist-video operator controls the virtual telecine like a normal telecine, although without controls like focus and framing. The data files can be from a Spirit DataCine, motion picture film scanner, CGI animation computer, or an Acquisition professional video camera. The normal input data file standard is DPX. The output of data files are often used in digital intermediate post-production using a film recorder for film-out. The control room for the virtual telecine is called the color suite.
da Vinci Systems was an American digital cinema company founded in 1984 in Coral Springs, Florida as a spinoff of Video Tape Associates. It was known for its hardware-based color correction products, GPU-based color grading, digital mastering systems, and film restoration and remastering systems. It was one of the earliest pioneers in post-production products. The company was owned by Dynatech Corporation for the majority of its lifespan until being bought by JDS Uniphase in 2005 and by Blackmagic Design in 2009.
D6 HDTV VTR is SMPTE videocassette standard. A D6 VTR can record and playback HDTV video uncompressed. The only D6 VTR product is the Philips, now Thomson's Grass Valley's Media Recorder, model DCR 6024, also called the D6 Voodoo VTR. The VTR was a joint project between Philips Digital Video Systems of Germany and Toshiba in Japan. The tape deck module was designed and made by Philips in Weiterstadt, Germany, and the digital processor module designed and made by Toshiba. Since there is no data compression, after 20 tape copies of multi generations there is no noticeable loss of quality. As a very high-end, costly system about 70 were sold to high-end post houses from about 2000 to 2005. The VTR had a data record option. The data module could record and play back 2k DPX files at 6 frames per second over a HIPPI connection. The VTR came in a data only model, or with a switch module, so the record deck could be used for both video and data recording. The tape deck was also sold stand alone as a giga bit recorder to record and playback raw data. Toshiba made the video tape for the VTR. The high price of the video tape limited the use of the VTR.
Faroudja Labs was a San Francisco–based IP and research company founded by Yves Faroudja. Faroudja Labs shouldn't be confused with Faroudja Enterprises, Yves Faroudja's latest venture.
A color suite is the control room for color grading video in a post-production environment.
Spirit DataCine is a telecine and a motion picture film scanner. This device is able to transfer 16mm and 35mm motion picture film to NTSC or PAL television standards or one of many High-definition television standards. With the data transfer option a Spirit DataCine can output DPX data files. The Spirit DataCine is made by DFT Digital Film Technology GmbH in Darmstadt, Germany.
Christian Filippella is an Emmy Award Nominated and winning producer, cinematographer and director, current active member of the Producers Guild of America (PGA) and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS/NATAS).
The Primetime Engineering Emmy Awards, or Engineering Emmys, are one of two sets of Emmy Awards that are presented for outstanding achievement in engineering development in the television industry. The Primetime Engineering Emmys are presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), while the separate Technology and Engineering Emmy Awards are given by its sister organization, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS).
Sorry voor alles is a Belgian Dutch-language hidden camera game show.
