Contact: John Constantine
CELCO
(909) 481 4648
john@celco.com

ILM'S Scanning Department Compiles Motion Picture Credits with CELCO Film Recorders

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, CALIFORNIA (June 15, 2000) - The scanning department at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), the celebrated visual effects studio in San Rafael, California, uses a complement of CELCO digital motion picture film recorders to output effects shots for numerous features to film.

"We record out to film on CELCOs," says scanning department supervisor, Josh Pines. "They just work and work for us. Some of our shots are 2,000-3,000 frames long, and the CELCOs handle them with no problems."

ILM's scanning department currently has two CELCO Nitros and three MPRs which are expected to be phased out in favor of additional Nitros. "When I joined ILM we had film recorders from other companies," Pines recalls. "They were aging so about five years ago we did some comparison tests. We're always testing new products, but we don't upgrade equipment if there's no substantial reason to do so. Quality drives any new purchase.

"We projected filmouts for our effects supervisors -- who are our facility's 'eyes' -- and they decided the CELCO MPRs had a much sharper image," he says.

Pines had a long tradition of working with CELCO film recorders at other studios including Elmsford, New York's Magi, which did a lot of computer graphics for the groundbreaking film "Tron;" Manhattan's noted R/Greenberg Associates; and Hollywood's DeGraf/Wahrman which used CELCOs for special-venue projects.

If the CELCO MPRs were seen as superior to other film recorders, the CELCO Nitro proved "far and away even better," Pines reports. "Here was a cost-effective CRT-based solution for recording out onto fine-grain 5244 intermediate stock. Previously, no CRT-based device could expose 5244 worth a darn, and, in my opinion, laser technology has been suspect in terms of reliability and consistency and is a high-cost investment."

In addition to its ability to expose 5244, CELCO's Nitro also offered a significant speed increase over other models increasing the throughput of ILM's scanning department.

Effects shots for hundreds of feature films have been output by ILM on its CELCO film recorders. Credits include Star Wars Episode I, "Saving Private Ryan," Woody Allen's "Deconstructing Harry," "Mighty Joe Young," "October Sky," "The Mummy," "The Wild Wild West," "Bringing Out the Dead," "Sleepy Hollow," "Galaxy Quest," "Magnolia" and "Mission to Mars."

"There were over 2,000 shots in 'Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace' and all but about 170 were effects shots," Pines points out. "We even scanned in those non-effects shots for continuity. So 'The Phantom Menace' was a two-hour CELCO filmout from beginning to end."

The Woody Allen-directed "Celebrity" marked the first time the ILM scanning department dealt with scanning and filming effects in black-and-white.

Most recently ILM's scanning department filmed out effects shots for the summer releases "Space Cowboys," "The Perfect Storm," "Impostor" and "The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle."

"CELCO customers run the gamut from CG houses that might not know a lot about film to companies like ours which want some degree of customization in the product," Pines notes. "CELCO has been very supportive of customers setting up the systems to meet their needs and fit their pipelines. CELCO is very good at catering to all different levels of customers' needs."

For more information on CELCO’s eXtreme Film Recorder products, please contact Jim Darby at (909) 481-4648, by fax at (909) 481-6899 or by e-mail at info@celco.com. Visit CELCO’s Web site at:: http://www.celco.com/