Warner goes digital to bring new life to films

(AFP)
Updated: 2007-06-27 19:15

SAN FRANCISCO - Hollywood's shift away from celluloid continued on Tuesday as Warner Brothers Entertainment revealed its film editing and archives have gone digital.

Warner said it worked with US computer giant Hewlett-Packard to build a sophisticated digital editing "infrastructure" used to craft recently-released "Oceans 13" and rejuvenate classics such as "The Wizard of Oz."

"It is part of our studio mandate to create a digital end-to-end system," a Warner spokesman told AFP. "Every studio will go there if they are not there already."

Warner says its editors use HP Media Storage to access digitized raw film via their computers to manipulate sound tracks, special effects or other aspects in a way that cuts costs while providing quality on par with celluloid.

Films are then ready for "digital cinemas," mobile devices, DVDs, or Internet television. Master copies of films as rich in data as celluloid are preserved on HP machines in Warner digital archives.

"The world is changing," HP director of broadband and media solutions Peggy Dau told AFP. "This is becoming more and more widely used in a continuous transformation from the old celluloid world to the new digital world."

HP works closely with DreamWorks Studio to customize computer systems for increasingly vivid and realistic animated films such as "Shrek 3."

Palo Alto, California-based HP said it is creating systems for film makers in India's flourishing "Bollywood" as well as in legendary Hollywood, and "opportunities are being pursued" in China.

"The goal is to push this into as many different types of entertainment industries as possible and be a key tool for studios and broadcasters," Dau said.

"With so much going digital, it opens up a whole new world for how you manage the post-production film process."

Warner said it's using the new technology to "mine" pristine reels of classics such as "Gone With the Wind" and "Robin Hood" to make digital versions with more visible detail than the original celluloid movies.

"This goes way beyond basic dirt and scratch clean-up to enhancement of what is there," the Warner spokesman said. "As a movie buff, I'm very happy about that."