Paris, France —Feb 8, 2006
First European feature film encoded, packaged and encrypted in DCI compliant
format
Éclair presents the DCI compliant JPEG2000 master of “Les Bronzés 3, amis pour
la vie” at IDiff in Cannes
Éclair Laboratoires, the leading post-production house and lab in France, and
Éclair Digital Cinema reached a new industry milestone – preparing the first DCI
compliant JPEG2000 master of a European feature film: “Les Bronzés 3, amis pour
la vie”, produced by Les Films Christian Fechner and distributed by Warner Bros.
France.
This French blockbuster was shot in 35mm, post-produced and colour corrected at
Eclair Laboratoires using a 2K digital intermediate and mastered for digital
projection following the recommendations of DCI v1: JPEG2000 encoding, MXF
packaging and AES 128 CBC encryption. The encoder used is a Doremi DMS2000
mastering station.
This digital version premiered at IDiff with a projection for 200 cinema
professionals, using a Doremi DCP2000 server and a Cinemeccanica CMC3 D2 2K DLP
Cinema™ projector.
“Les Bronzés 3, amis pour la vie” has subsequently been released by Eclair in
35mm – the largest 35mm release to date in France – as well as on digital
screens equipped with servers compatible with the MPEG-2 MXF Interop format.
“We are proud to be the first post-production house in Europe to be able to
master films in DCI compliant format. We would like to thank Les Films Christian
Fechner and Warner Bros. for giving us this opportunity to demonstrate our
digital know-how. The JPEG2000 compression rate is amazing; we are very
impressed by the improvement in image quality and colour rendering in comparison
to MPEG-2! Éclair has remained the leader in France by guaranteeing the best
picture quality from post-production to the theatre. With this new format, we
are confident that we can bring to the audience the exact equivalent of the 2K
digital intermediate.” said Philippe Reinaudo, C.T.O. of Eclair Laboratoires.
“The DCI specifications define a high level technical standard for digital
motion picture releases, which guarantees the best possible image and sound for
the audience and very strong content security for the distributor. This level of
quality should not be reserved for US blockbusters: European films must benefit
from it too! As the digital cinema roll-out approaches, it is our role to show
the European creative community that they can rely on the digital know-how of
their local historic partners to ensure that their motion pictures –
blockbusters like “Les Bronzés 3, amis pour la vie” or small-budget art films –
are fully rendered on digital screens as well as in 35mm.” said Gwendal Auffret,
C.E.O of Éclair Digital Cinema.