Brazil. Afinal Filmes, a Brazilian post-producer, has integrated a Cintel scanner into its work dynamics for the restoration of archival documentaries.
Afinal Filmes is recognized for its post-production contribution to a wide variety of award-winning documentaries, particularly for its film restoration capabilities. In addition to Nelson Pereira dos Santos, his client portfolio includes work in collaboration with famous directors, for example Walter Salles, Eduardo Coutinho, João Salles, Eduardo Escorel, Miguel Faria Jr. and Silvio Da-rin. Likewise, the company relies on the restoration process to organize the wide variety of archival material, so the integration of Cintel was fundamental to its growth and success.
"We had used the telecine to digitize the films, but the quality was affected during the conversion. Ideally, we needed the files in RAW format to be able to truly correct the images. Knowing this, we started looking for a scanner that would provide optimal quality with real-time performance and, of course, within the available budget," said Marcelo Pedrazzi, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR of Afinal Filmes. "When Blackmagic announced the launch of Cintel, we found that it not only provides an excellent appearance, but also works in real time, something unprecedented. It was exactly what we were looking for."
Pedrazzi explained that, thanks to the fact that this team allows projects to be delivered with much faster and more quality, he now has the possibility to expand his work to include outstanding digitization opportunities. "By having Cintel, you really open the doors to participate in bigger and more important projects. One of the first orders we were given was to digitize some of the classics of Nelson Pereira dos Santos, legendary director, for the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. Thanks to Cintel, Afinal is participating in more debates and is receiving more offers."
Instead of spending hours digitizing content, the team now has the ability to process every minute of film in one minute in real time. Pedrazzi added: "Before incorporating this new device, it required three times more time, since we had to use the telecine, and then convert the material to a better resolution before starting its restoration. With Cintel, we're skipping the long steps of scanning to generate real-time RAW files with a lot more color information that we can work with."
Afinal Filmes uses isolated rooms to carry out each stage of the restoration. In the main studio, to start the process, the team scans the old material with the Cintel scanner, captures it using a DeckLink 4K Extreme card, and then sends it to a Mac Pro computer for editing and completion in DaVinci Resolve Studio.
"Since we work with a lot of archival material, before Cintel, I had to refer the processing of a lot of the content to other facilities," Marcelo added. "Now, we can carry out the whole process in our own room. We have even contacted many archival institutions, such as MoMA, and owners of old films, in order to work with them to restore and remaster these films in our facilities. The scanner is already helping our business grow, so we don't know what the future holds."
