The Ring, Hitchcock’s sixth film, was his one and only original screenplay and tells the story of a love triangle between a fairground boxer and his lover who falls for the charms of a professional fighter.

Deluxe 142 have been working in partnership with the BFI (British Film Institute) to digitally restore nine of the great director’s earliest works, of which The Ring is included.

Paul Collard, who is leading Deluxe 142′s on-going three year national restoration project for the BFI, said: “As would be expected with films that were made nearly nine decades ago they have seen a fair amount of wear and tear. The celluloid degrades and parts of the film get lost or become unusable”

“In places where the original celluloid has deteriorated too far we have seamlessly replaced it with copy material. The key to our work is not to try to improve or enhance the original in any way but to present it authentically, in the way it would have been seen by our grandparents and great-grandparents.”

Trevor Brown, Colourist elaborates: “We had several attempts at creating the opening title sequence for The Ring which the team at the BFI National Archive in Berkhamstead had meticulously reconstructed from the original artwork and supplied to us as a 35mm neg. We scanned, graded and reinserted this to match the original which was badly damaged. The result is an extremely sympathetic repair, almost indistinguishable from the original”

“We spent many hours on the grade with experts from the BFI in attendance, grading in a way which was considered to be period specific. 20′s images would be much less “punchy” with softer contrast than a contemporary film”

As would be expected with restoring a film from this era many different challenges presented themselves in the restoration process as Lisa Copson from the digital restoration team explains: “The source material was very dirty and unstable with a number of severely damaged and broken frames. Some sections had prominent scratches running throughout but by far the most challenging aspect of restoring The Ring was the persistent warping and distortion over several frames that ‘flashed’ repeatedly from start to finish”

These defects were digitally restored both by hand and semi automatically using a range of the latest bespoke, restoration software, each individually selected as the most efficient and effective tool to correct the damage.

The beautiful, digitally restored images are now once more available to view, as they would have been appreciated by audiences nearly 90 years ago.

For those unable to make the screening in Cannes, the UK Premiere will take place on Friday 13th July as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. Soweto Kinch, multi-award winning British jazz alto saxophonist, hip hop artist, rapper and MC will unveil a new score performed live by the Soweto Kinch Sextet.

For further information and tickets to the UK Premiere, go to www.bfi.org.uk/hitchcock/events.html

Deluxe 142 are delighted to be working together with the BFI to restore, preserve and present the Hitchcock 9 for generations to come.

Celebrating the cream of British programming and with winners and sponsors all in attendance, the awards were last night dished out across 16 categories and we were thrilled to see some of the projects we have worked on at Deluxe 142 winning awards.
Critically acclaimed period drama Great Expectations claimed ‘Best Drama One Off or Serial’ whilst Fresh Meat won ‘Best Comedy’ and Have I Got News For You were placed second for ‘Best Panel, Quiz and Chat Show’.

Support from the 142 camp came in the form of sponsoring the award for Best Documentary Series. Vanessa Myrie and Becky Start hosted on 142’s behalf and the Bulldog was won by the fantastic team behind BBC 1’s Frozen Planet.

Men’s and women’s five a side teams from companies across the industry get together to battle it out for the title of ‘Best Broadcast Industry Footballers in Britain’

Deluxe have a total of five teams entering across the group; with one from Deluxe 142, one from Company 3 and three from Deluxe Digital London all with their eyes on the prize.

The Vision Charity raises funds for the benefit of blind and visually impaired children, funding projects throughout the UK and providing equipment, activities and skills to broaden their horizons and engage with the community.
Best of luck to all of our teams!

The annual awards, which were this year hosted by comedian, actor and writer Alan Davies at The Brewery in east London, honour the behind-the-scenes professionals in TV Production.

The award was one of three BAFTAS awarded to the team behind Great Expectations which was produced for BBC One by BBC Productions and Masterpiece.

This adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic was screened last Christmas to critical acclaim, Deluxe 142 are delighted to have provided full picture post services for the 3 part drama.

London 8th May 2012. Deluxe 142, the flagship post production facility within Deluxe Entertainment Group Europe, today announced the completion of full picture and audio post production for the second series of British/American TV sitcom ‘Episodes’.

Matt LeBlanc, Tamsin Greig and Stephen Mangan return to our screens on May 11th in an episode set several months after the end point of the first series. With all parties still reeling as a result of Beverly’s brief fling with Matt they somehow have to find a way to work together, in spite of the dysfunctional situation they find themselves in, due to the imminent airing of their sitcom ‘Pucks!’

Deluxe 142, having previously provided complete audio and picture post services for the first series, were delighted to be approached to work together with the production team again for the re-commissioned second series of ‘Episodes’ which will be broadcast in 9 x 30 minute weekly instalments.

The Deluxe 142 team comprising Jet Omoshebi (grade), Adam Eddy (online), David Old, Louise Sinclair and Chris Roberts (sound) all returned to reprise their roles for this second series.

Colourist Jet Omoshebi who has graded both series in their entirety explains how she manipulated the look and feel of the project:
“Whilst the exterior shots were all shot in LA, most of the interiors were shot in UK. Series 2 differed from series 1 in that they moved away from complicated blue screen and CGI back to good old fashioned Hollywood special effects with back projection and Trans-Lites. My job was to inject some Californian sunshine and brightness to the studio sets and locations which I did by creating a warm sun filter and using sapphire plug ins on the NuCoder for lens flares and glow.”

David Old, Chris Roberts and Louise Sinclair worked collectively and collaboratively on the audio post services. Louise Sinclair, Audio Editor, found the experience of having worked across both series advantageous and explains:
“Although there were new locations in the second series, there were also the same locations from the first series which allowed me to use the same material and helped with continuity between the series.”
She adds:
“As we understood the nature of the show there wasn’t the same need for spotting sessions on every episode of the second series. We had a meeting before we started the first episode, to give us an insight into the series and we were able to take it from there.”
“The turnaround was extremely slick and pretty neat. There was a week to edit each episode and each following week David (Old) would start the pre-mix, final mix [with the clients] and M&E, all in the same week, before repeating the pattern with the next episode until finish.”

Adam Eddy, the Online Editor relished some of the obstacles that presented themselves during the course of the series. This as issues that historically may have require separate VFX sessions can now be completed within the AvidDS suite:
“Each episode had at least a couple of challenges. The Avid DS came into its own when dealing with numerous sky replacements, replacing unlicensed car number plates and other corporate branding. There were also a number of continuity issues that had to be fixed by changing objects such as golf buggies, to green from white and painting out extras in the background of shots – tracking and rotoscoping with finesse.”

Produced by Hat Trick Productions for BBC2 and written by David Crane (Friends) and Jeffrey Klarik (Mad About You) ‘Episodes’ is a hilarious portrait of life and producing content within a network television environment.

‘Spinning Around In The Air’ satirizes a 50thAnniversary Party that spirals out of control with the introduction of a dubious looking punch. Set in a Glaswegian bungalow, Lucas, a lifelong fan of the Scots duo convinced the Reid brothers to appear dressed as elderly ladies in an experience he promised “would be liberating”.

It was Lucas’ intention to produce a promo in the style of a home video, Will Coker who graded the project at 142 elaborates; “This was an interesting project to work on because of the intended style of the video. I implemented a grade that was in keeping with the slightly rough handheld look Matt wanted. He didn’t want it to appear like a professionally shot video and in some ways it was quite liberating not having to match every shot inch perfectly. I kept the colours quite warm and natural to fit with the overall feel of the video and tone down the HD look. Through the look of the grade I worked to convey the idea that the party progressed from mid afternoon right through to the early hours. When the lights go up at the end of the video you really know the party’s over.”

Richard Ellis the Deluxe 142 online editor for the project adds “The brief was to create an old home video camera look from rushes shot on a high definition camera. To achieve this I down-converted from high to standard definition, then back up to HD, This gave it a much softer, more standard definition look, still within the required HD format .To make it look even more like a home video, I created a little battery graphic and a REC sign in each corner of the frame, with the battery losing power as the song progresses. The end of the song features Matt Lucas in a small cameo role as a policeman turning off the camera, for this I had to animate a TV/camera power off effect to match the audio mix”

Alan Sallabank, the Dubbing Mixer responsible for the sound mix at 142 had the task of balancing atmos and effects together with the music and comments “Even though the promo is only 4 minutes long, there is still a story to be conveyed through sound. As well as plenty of visual gags the sound defines the location and mood change as the Golden Wedding Anniversary celebrations start to get out of hand. Atmos and spot fx were carefully used to help tell the story but not get in the way of the music. Knowing and loving Matt’s work I was very aware that we had to get the right blend”

‘Spinning Around in the Air’ is taken from The Proclaimers forthcoming album, ‘Like Comedy’, released by Cooking Vinyl Records on Monday 7th May.

Over 60 of the UK’s most prolific Producers, Director’s, Post Production Supervisor’s and Director’s of Photography braved the torrential rain and tube strikes to join us for the evening.

ARRI showcased their top of the range ALEXA Studio camera which has been created for cinematographers seeking a camera capable of combining cutting edge digital image making with the traditional elements of film cameras that they have known and trusted for generations. This was the first occasion after NAB where ARRI publicly presented Concept Anamorphic lens which opens new and exciting creative possibilities for filmmakers.

Deluxe 142 and Company 3 joined forces to offer 2 tours to our enthusiastic guests, one Feature and one TV workflow based.

The Feature film workflow tour included presentation and demos of the E Film colorstream calibrated on set viewing, on set dailies, calibrated projector/review deliverables and DI theatre final grading whilst the Broadcast workflow tour encompassed dailies workflow offline media generation, sound sync and rushes grading, conform and VFX and final grades in our film master suites.

…including a nod for Florian Hoffmeister in the ‘Photography & Lighting: Fiction Category’ when nominations were revealed this week.

BBC One’s adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic was screened last Christmas to critical acclaim and Deluxe 142 are delighted to have provided full picture post services for the 3 part series.

The awards ceremony will be held on Sunday May 13^th at The Brewery in East London, the very best of luck to all nominees from the 142 team.

The internationally recognised, London-based short film festival will be showcasing the best in new creative talent alongside established industry practitioners, across eight official categories. Work selected for competition will be screened at the ICA from 11^th to 18^th July with the winners being announced at the Awards Ceremony on Thursday 19^th July 2012.

UK FOCUSED CATEGORIES:

Short Film Award – live action work under 15mins, from long standing filmmakers

Newcomer Award – live action work under 15mins, from new filmmakers

FOREIGN FOCUS CATEGORY:

International  Award – live action work under 15mins, from new and long standing filmmakers

GLOBAL CATEGORIES:

Animation Award – animated work under 15mins from new and long standing filmmakers

Documentary Award – factual work under 15mins from new and long standing filmmakers

Music Video Award – promo work under 15mins from new and long standing filmmakers

Long Form Award – live action work under 30mins from new and long standing filmmakers

Pushing Boundaries Award – brilliantly creative, experimental work or branded content under 5mins from new and long standing filmmakers

Work can be submitted at http://entries.sohoshorts.com

The competition entry fee is £15. Students £10.

Rushes Soho Shorts has an open submissions policy for all programmes.

Work should have been completed between 1^st January 2011 and April 2012. 

Full terms and conditions are available on the entry site and further information can be found at www.sohoshorts.com

Facebook //

Final Call for entries to Rushes Soho Shorts: http://entries.sohoshorts.com Work selected for competition will be screened at the ICA from 11^th to 18^th July with the winners being announced at the Awards Ceremony on Thursday 19^th July 2012. The deadline for submissions is 5th April 2012.

Twitter //

Final call to submit to @SohoShorts 2012! Check the #RSSF website for full details http://bit.ly/w0zZsX

A fight for supremacy rages between the Gods and the Titans and the future of humankind hangs perilously in the balance.

Deluxe are delighted to have been so intrinsically involved with the project throughout the post production process. 

The team at Deluxe 142 worked in conjunction with Company 3 to set up the initial dailies pipeline and colour science and worked with the production team to provide an on-set rushes viewing environment in a mobile truck at Pinewood studios for the director and DoP. Company 3 also set up a dedicated 3D projected viewing environment at 142 for the stereographer and his production team to QC and converge the theatrical 3D version of the film as well as completing the full DI process which included theatrical delivery of 2D and 3D digital, 2D print and IMAX versions of the film.

Sister facility Method completed over 160 VFX shots with a team of 110 working on the project over a 6 month period in both London and LA, whilst Deluxe London created the film deliverables, Deluxe Digital provided Dcinema mastering services and itfc provided audio description and hard of hearing subtitles.

Stay tuned to www.soho-social.co.uk  as we will be releasing seats to an exclusive screening of ‘Wrath of the Titan’s’ film later this week.