Afinal Filmes emplea un escáner Cintel para restaurar y masterizar

One of Afinal Filmes’ most recent projects involved restoring ‘Como Vai, Vai Bem?’, a black and white Brazilian film from the late 1960s.

The Brazilian post-producer After All Movies has used a scanner Cintel and the DaVinci Resolve Studio program Blackmagic Design to restore more than 60 feature films and digitize almost 500 tapes, including the film How are you, are you doing well?, as well as 30 Hollywood silent films from the 1920s and 1930s.

Founded in 1998 by Marcelo Pedrazzi, Afinal Filmes has played a fundamental role since its origins in the field of film post-production and restoration in Brazil. By incorporating a Cintel scanner into the workflow in 2016, the company has improved the quality and speed with which it restores and digitizes the tapes.

One of Afinal Filmes' most recent projects consisted of restoring How are you, are you doing well?, a black and white Brazilian film from the late 1960s. The film is a comedy starring the popular actor Flávio Migliaccio, who recently passed away, and will be available through various platforms on the Internet and in movie theaters early next year. Likewise, Afinal Filmes will be in charge of the production and post-production of a documentary about the actor's life that will be released along with the film. This includes archival material from several Migliaccio feature films that have been restored with the Cintel scanner.

“As we did not have access to the original negatives of How are you, are you doing well?, el proceso de restauración fue un tanto diferente, ya que comenzamos colocando los positivos de 35 mm en el escáner”, explica Pedrazzi. “Todo el proyecto llevó unas cinco semanas, lo cual es bastante rápido”.

Estabilización

Según Pedrazzi, el escáner Cintel ha resultado ser de gran utilidad en Afinal Filmes, especialmente a la hora de perfeccionar la estabilización. “La función de estabilización automática del dispositivo es ideal para nosotros. Incluso al digitalizar material a 24 f/s, la eficacia de esta herramienta es impresionante, y ha facilitado muchísimo nuestro trabajo”.

As post-production began, once the film had been scanned, Pedrazzi and his team relied on DaVinci Resolve Studio to clean up some parts, reduce noise, remove dust and correct contrast of black and white images.

“When watching old black and white movies, such as How are you, are you doing well?, with high dynamic range, the viewer can appreciate all the details in the lightest and darkest areas of the image,” said Pedrazzi.

In addition to this project, Afinal Filmes recently received a file of more than 500 nitrate tapes recorded between 1917 and 1940, que fue encontrado en una finca en las afueras de Río de Janeiro. Al revisar el material, el equipo descubrió 30 películas mudas de Hollywood de los años 20 y 30, incluidas Simbad, el marino, His New Mamma y La cuarta alarma. Con el propósito de conservarlas, Afinal Filmes empleó el escáner Cintel para guardar una versión digital de las mismas, a fin de usarlas en el futuro. La empresa tiene previsto poder ofrecer este contenido a museos o bibliotecas, a efectos de preservarlo.

Además del escáner Cintel y el programa DaVinci Resolve Studio, Afinal Filmes también emplea diversos equipos de Blackmagic Design, incluidas varias tarjetas de captura y reproducción DeckLink 4K Extreme, DeckLink 4K Extreme 12G y DeckLink Studio 4K; un dispositivo Blackmagic Audio Monitor 12G; monitores SmartScope Duo 4K y SmartView 4K; matrices Smart Videohub 20×20; procesadores Teranex; y conversores Mini Converter SDI to HDMI 6G. Todos estos productos forman parte de una sala que la productora utiliza para digitalizar distintos tipos de materiales y guardar el contenido de videocintas en archivos de alta definición.

“El escáner Cintel y el programa DaVinci Resolve Studio son una parte fundamental de nuestra dinámica de trabajo en Afinal Filmes. Restaurar películas siempre es una experiencia gratificante, y este dispositivo facilita enormemente el proceso”, concluye Pedrazzi.