BMD Acquires Assets Of Cintel

[mikeburton]

See the press release here
http://blackmagicdesign.com/press/pr...eleaseID=31407

I don't want to assume but this statement makes it sound as if BMD is going to try to do to the film scanning market what they did to the Color market...
"The film market is in the middle of massive changes and how film is used is changing everyday. What hasn’t changed is the acknowledgement that film is an extremely creative way to capture images. This acquisition gives Blackmagic Design the ability to combine our vision and expertise with Cintel technology to provide the best technology for artists using film, more efficient and affordable ways to bring film into a digital workflow and better ways to archive and restore existing archive film worldwide,” continued Petty."

It will be interesting to see what comes of this for sure. The film scanning / telecine services are incredibly expensive which usually becomes the deal killer with shooting film on a lot of sets. But with film cameras being as inexpensive as they are now and film processing being very affordable and of course BMD owning DaVinci Resolve which you could capture LOG DPX's directly into the system this makes for quite an interesting acquisition to say the least. Exciting times for filmmakers of Digital and Film mediums. Its all about choices friends.

[Dave Blackham]

Ive always thought Cintel have always played second Fiddle ever since Spirit emerged and prior to that may have done film more of a disservice than benefit due to some of the less well presented transfers on their equipment, Fixed pattern noise being one issue.

It seems an odd acquisition on the face of it but Grant has made good moves so far, I think we need to see what happens.

[Michael Romano]

Could be some kind of patent buyout. That seems to be the flavor of the past few years in businesses like these.

[jake blackstone]

Hm, I have to admit, this is a head scratcher for me. There is got to be something there, that isn't obvious at the first glance, like the wealth of Cintel's IP portfoloi. Cintel had been at this game longer, than pretty much anybody.

[Dave Blackham]

I think it will be something around the diTTo Film scanner unless theres something else in the cupboard. Lots of archive film to be remastered. Cant see that being $1,999 though.

[mikeburton]

What the whole plan behind the curtain at BMD is unclear but after reading Grants statement regarding the acquisition it appears at first glance they are trying to democratize the film scanning / recording business similar to what they did with Resolve. That said, this is pure assumption coming from someone hoping that will be the case as I do own an Arri 435es (my favorite camera ever made) and if you create a "desktop scanner" so to speak it actually becomes quite affordable to shoot film again.
Example: I just shot a 400ft test of 5219 a week ago for a short film and processed through deluxe at a VERY reasonable price .08c/ft to dip the neg. The scans on the other hand were $160/min plus an additional $175/hr data transfer fee. If we were to have Deluxe telecine to ProRes first then send an EDL back to scan those fees go way up because of all the manual labor it takes to scan just the choice frames from your conform. So as you can see if you have a 10 minute movie scans are almost completely out of the question. Now there's other more reasonable facilities that will scan your neg at .02c / frame at 2K Log DPX it's still adds up to the point of making film unaffordable.

This scanning / telecine world has been the major bottleneck in the pipeline of shooting film for many. Make the scanners themselves accessible to small post facilities and even individual users opens up that door again and makes shooting film a "no there's no way we can afford it on our budget" conversation to a "we ran the numbers and it may be an option".
It will be interesting to see what comes of this that's for sure.

[Jason Rudd]

BMD is doing what Digital Vision did with "Golden Eye", to replicate what Baselight has had in place for a long time with their Northligh scanners.

A complete system, so they can sell their $30K davinci systems and be more competitive in the high end markets. Most of the high end post houses still have film scanners in house. Film acquisition is not dead - it's going to have a life span far longer than film distribution.

[Dave Blackham]

Its an interesting move. Some years ago when there wasn't a means of shooting high speed HD I was berated for saying S16mm is perfectly OK for HD if transferred properly on a Spirit Telecine. You could get good results and there wasn't a viable means of shooting high speed then. The issue was the S16mm film was good 3 perf 35mm much, much better but the quality of the transfer was critical a poor Tk trasnfer could compromise the whole image chain. Things improved of course with Launch of Panasonic's 27f and h and other cameras and to date we have arrived with Epic. There is a huge legacy of poorly transferred film out there that would benefit a high quality scan and regrade giving those images a new lease of life. Then of course theres newly shot film.

But then this may not be anything to do with BMD's plans at all.

[Peter Moretti]

Maybe film isn't dead yet, it just needs a better doctor.