Disney Digital Studio Services

Welcome to the Digital Studio Center

Leon — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 05:16:23 +0000

12/12/12 at 12:12 PM

From left to right, Michael Jedlicka, Leon Silverman, Jeff Miller, Jamie Voris

Cutting the Ribbon to Open the New Digital Studio Center

It’s official! On December 12, 2012 at 12:12 PM, a new era in the history of the Walt Disney Studios was inaugurated with the cutting of the ribbon for the new Digital Studio Center. Our new future-focused, next generation, digital on-lot infrastructure, was opened by Walt Disney Studios Studio Operations President Jeff Miller, Walt Disney Studios CTO, Jamie Voris, Vice President Technology and Strategy, Michael Jedlcika and General Manager, Digital Studio Leon Silverman.

12/12/2012 @ 12:12 PM

At Disney Digital Studio Services we’re all about “On Time” delivery. And of course, that extends to the opening of our new Digital Studio Center, which will absolutely open on time at precisely 12:12 PM on December 12, 2012.

WE DID IT !

Our new Digital Media Center and centralized digital file-based workflow hub occupies approximately 8,000 square feet of space on the Ground Floor. In addition, we built out the entire Second Floor of approximately 17,000 square feet to house our new Creative Editorial, Sound Design and Global Collaboration Center.

Our new Digital Studio Center was designed to provide a home to the many technical functions that are increasingly part of today’s digital media production, post production and distribution workflows. This new facility will serve to prepare files for all phases of the Walt Disney Studio’s content life-cycle, as well as house a new modern home for our filmmakers and their new increasingly integrated and collaborative creative editorial and finishing workflows.

Digital Media Operations Center – Ground Floor

The Ground Floor Digital Media Operations Center is built for today’s digital file-based workflows, but was also designed to adapt as technology changes. The Digital Operations Center houses a number of flexible technical utility rooms and central workflows areas and acts as center of our digital operations. The DMC features the latest digital file technology and staff trained to offer services including ingest, encode, transcode, transport, validate, edit, conform, sync, QC and media review in a wide array of file types and resolutions. From our centralized open Digital Operations Center, we can monitor the status of all activity in the facility as well as initiate a host of media transformation tasks.

In addition, each of our flexible technical utility rooms, large client focused QC environments and our Digital Review Theaters are built on an isolated concrete slab, with double wall “room within a room” construction to ensure that each of our technical spaces (which can all monitor in 7.1 sound) offers the truest and most accurate image and sound reproduction available – free of image or sound distractions. Each room can monitor in either 2D or 3D with the latest in industry reference monitor technology as well as 4K projection in our Digital Review Theaters. The Ground Floor of the Digital Media Center connects to specialized production and work-in-progress local storage as well as centralized secure storage for media operations. The Digital Operations Center will focus on content preparation and asset validation to ensure the validity of Walt Disney Studio’s library content stored in our multi-Petabyte Media Deport archive “private cloud” service and storage infrastructure. Disney Digital Studio Services is focused on the future of our Studio as a leader in digital content creation, distribution and archive. In our new home, we are well equipped and prepared to help make this future happen.

Creative Editorial, Sound Design and Global Collaboration Center - Second Floor

As technical as is the Ground Floor, the Second Floor of our new Digital Studio Center is all about creativity – enabling it, nurturing it and supporting our filmmakers with the environment needed to finish films in today’s complex and collaborative workflows. Today’s films demand that picture, sound, pre vis, VFX, post supervisors, coordinators, and creative filmmakers need to interact with each other in ways that most facilities simply were not designed to accommodate. In our new Digital Studio Center, we built our infrastructure to not only be filmmaker friendly, but designed to truly accommodate the way films and their teams work today.

The Second Floor is anchored by an open lobby, pantry and conference area. The lobby leads directly to a series of four editorial pods with secure private entrances, pantries, open spaces and spacious editorial rooms or filmmaker’s offices – all with windows and with the ability to completely black them out for screenings. Each room is also built on a concrete slab with double wall “room within a room” construction for complete sound isolation for critical image or sound editorial.

Each room in the editorial facility can be controlled by individual temperature controls, which, in the past has been a huge issue for editorial spaces where one room might house significant technical equipment and others might not, leading to uncomfortable ‘too hot’ or ‘too cold’ adjacent rooms. Each room has been pre-cabled to allow easy access to technical infrastructure and secure networked connectivity to a host of media processing and storage services. A pipe grid along the ceiling of each room allows speakers, projectors, monitors or lighting to be easily reconfigured for individual preference of room orientation. In addition, as the size of a production grows, the size of the pod can also grow by opening up dividing walls to create a “super pod” which can accomodate the post production needs of even the largest tentpole films.

Two Sound Design pods compliment the editorial spaces and provide for complete integration of picture and sound creativity. The ease in which filmmakers will be able to literally walk down the hall to complete sound post production during the critical and increasingly tight deadlines of the film finish will greatly enable Director’s and Editor’s abilities as release dates loom. These rooms can be interconnected with the picture and sound editorial rooms, the feature film mixing Stages and sound support facilities on the Walt Disney Studios lot and through our sophisticated network collaboration capability – to other sound facilities all over the world. These rooms will also help to lower the cost and increase the efficiency of final mixing. Work, that in the past was done on more expensive, larger Pre-Dub stages, can now be accommodated in these new rooms. This work can then feed directly into the sound editorial and mixing workstations and consoles for final mix. The new Digital Studio Center has been designed to enhance the picture and sound creative process through effective and efficient space design and proximity to talent and tools.

Filmmaking has become global. And even when it’s local, members of the filmmaking team seem to be spread out all over town. During certain times of the filmmaking process, it seems one literally needs to be in multiple places at once to finish the film. In our new Digital Studio Center we can actually make that happen. Our Global Collaboration Theater has been designed so that you can literally plug into image Review and Approval, Color/Digital Intermediate, Picture and Sound Editorial and creative collaboration all over the world. We are literally defining and designing the ability to talk to, look at, and create with multiple global creative collaborators in one place. Conference rooms with tele-presence cameras are good for certain kinds of meetings and collaboration, but we hope that our new Global Collaboration Theater will re-define how work with partners, vendors and creative staff can take place over secure high-speed, high-quality, network connections that will allow you and your team to transport themselves into one virtual room. Now that’s cool!

Of Dreams and Magic

Our new Digital Studio Center has been thoughtfully and specifically designed as a space and place to do our best work. We are looking forward to sharing more of our vision with our colleagues and filmmakers as we build this next chapter in services and technical infrastructure here at the Walt Disney Studios. Our team is proud to have inherited Walt Disney’s legacy which drove him to build his Burbank Studio with a dream to create a special place to make films filled with magic and creative innovation. We plan to make our new home one that will continue to fulfill that dream well into the future.

4873

Wreck-It Ralph

Leon — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 23:09:58 +0000

Walt Disney Animation Studio’s newest release – Wreck-It Ralph is a computer-animated tale directed by Rich Moore about an arcade game “bad guy” who wants nothing more than to be the “good guy”. Wreck-It Ralph, which hit theaters on November 2, 2012, is being released in over 42 languages and 71 markets worldwide. To win the game of today’s complex global releases, there are many teams of “Good Guys” across Disney that have a hand in preparing the various aspects of a film as it takes its own journey from creation to release.

DDSS is charged with backstage technical and operations roles in helping to create and deliver elements across many of our films and Wreck-It Ralph was no exception. We played an important role in ensuring the delivery of language masters, localized title cards and the audio deliverables necessary to create world-wide elements for Theatrical, DVD, Blu-Ray, Video on Demand and Electronic Sell Through. In addition, at a number of steps along the way from Audio Language elements, to Digital Cinema versions and files for downstream servicing, Disney Digital Studio Services provided QC Services - those Disney “Golden Eyes and Ears” that make sure that audience see and hear the quality for which Disney is known.

Releasing a film like Wreck-It Ralph literally takes a global village. Digital Studio Services is part of the Studio Operations team at the Walt Disney Studios. Our Studio Operations President, Jeff Miller built the operations organization on the foundation of his vision for world-wide release featuring local star talent and ways to deliver a film that literally speaks to the audience in the language they understand with the quality that audiences have come to expect from Disney. Through this vision, and a lot of hard work over the past 24 years, Jeff and his team literally created the industry model for world-wide theatrical releases. When you think about what it really takes to get a film into 71 countries and in 42 languages it boggles the mind. From coordinating the logistics in partnership with our International territories, to hiring translators, casting local voice talent, working with our international vendors to record these voice tracks and then mixing or (“dubbing” as it is known) to match all of the levels and characteristics of the music and sound effects so that the local language track sounds like the one the filmmakers created for the domestic version, creating specialized localized language inserts, as well as subtitles for those countries where there is not a “dubbed” track, and then creating all of the film and digital elements that create each local version – and have all of this ready so the film can be released all over the world, mostly on the same day – well, that is a game our Studio Operations team plays to win.

The players at Disney Digital Studio Services work proudly as part of our Studio Operations team with other groups within “Studio Ops” such as Disney Character Voices International. DCVI handles all of the local translations, including making sure that the nuances of the script are translated into the local idiom, to the point that when certain comedy or story points quite literally get lost in translation, appropriate local references that respect the creative filmmaker’s intent are developed to make sure international audiences understand the story points. DCVI oversees all of the talent casting, recording and dubbing. This is the team that helps to make sure that we sound our best in every language.

Disney Digital Studio Services also works closely with our Library and Technical Services team who oversee and coordinate all of the various elements that become the masters that service the deliveries of the film and home entertainment elements all over the world. As our “Library,” they keep track of, service, and are responsible for the long-term archive so that generation after generation can continue to enjoy our films in the most pristine form possible. These “Good Guys” also oversee the amazing restorations of Disney’s classic animated films and through our re-mastering efforts, make sure that the live action films of the recent and not so recent past look and sound sometimes better than they did on they day there were released.

We also parter with another part of our Studio Operations team, our Motion Picture Operations team who handle our “supply chain” including the global operations that facilitate deliveries to literally every place on earth that receives, sells, distributes and exhibits our films. They make sure all of the domestic and international versions, with dubbed tracks and subtitles are made on film, digital cinema, DVD, Blu-Ray and other digital delivery elements. They oversee the extremely complex process of getting these elements to the theaters, warehouses, stores and online portals so that audiences never have to worry about how our content got there – they just enjoy our films anywhere and in any form.

Working with Disney Character Voices International and Library Technical Services, our DDSS Audio Mastering Team ensures that audio deliverables meet the immediate demands of worldwide Theatrical Film and Digital Cinema as well as the soon to follow Home Entertainment release. Utilizing a Disney developed technology called Transfer Manager, all of the international language tracks are delivered through a high-speed connection that automatically checks that the files are named correctly, so that hey can be “checked into” our Library and are in the proper format for the next step. Transfer Manager delivers these sound files directly to our Digital Studio Services Digital Audio Mastering team who begin the work to conform and transform these language tracks so that they are ready for Digital Cinema and Home Entertainment. The DDSS team prepared and then performed quality assurance and quality control checks on the 245 audio elements that will service Wreck-It Ralph’s theatrical and home entertainment releases worldwide.

To help our international audiences have a deeper and more meaningful experience with our films, Main and End Tittles as well as language related on-screen items are localized so that to international audiences it appears that the film was literally made in their language. Disney Digital Studio Services Film & Digital Services’ Title / Graphics team collaborated with Wreck-It Ralph art director, Ian Gooding to create localized title cards, the End Crawl and all of the localized inserts for the film.

The DDSS Film & Digital Services’ Title / Graphics team also played a critical role in the design of localized inserts for Wreck-It Ralph. An insert is comprised of any word, banner, or sign that is critical to the story that needs to be translated in a foreign language. There were several instances in Wreck-It Ralph where an insert was needed. One such instance involved a scene where the character Q’bert holds up a small sign that reads, “Game Unplugged.” Because the sign was vital to the story, a decision was made to translate it into multiple languages. In total, Disney Digital Studio Services created over 170 inserts for ten territories.

The End Crawl, also known as “Closing Credits” are added at the end of a movie and serve to credit the major contributors of the film including the actors, the production crew, the technical crews and many others. In a sense, the crawl is its own special ending and may include artwork, bloopers, and/or teasers to set up a sequel. In the case of Wreck-It Ralph, the end crawl was artful and followed themes inherent in the film. The Crawl had to be conformed to artwork that lived on the edges of the screen and was divided in sections that pertained to the different “Lands” in Wreck-It Ralph. Each land had a unique look with artwork that ranged from straight, diagonal to curvy lines and text to match. Unique to Wreck-It Ralph was the creation of a new 8-bit font, designed by our Film & Digital Services’ Title / Graphics team. After experimenting with several different fonts, the Title Graphics team designed an entire alphabet to match the style of the movie that was not only used in the end credits but also in several of the inserts for Wreck-It Ralph. (The section headers in this article were made using this “WRECK-IT RALPH” font.) Matching the End Crawl to the artwork in the film and the design of the custom “WRECK-IT RALPH” was an artistic process and a collaboration between the DDSS Film & Digital Services team and the Feature Animation production crew.

Digital Studio Services also played a key role in the creation of more than 220 HD files that will serve as the source for DVD, Blu-Ray, Video-On-Demand and Television elements for world-wide servicing. Utilizing our Digital Media Center, the DDSS team created masters that include each of the dubbed and subtitled foreign language tracks conformed with the HD digital image and “packaged” as a digital file, which will be used as a source to create all of the downstream elements. Dozens of inserts for areas of the film that contain English text were replaced in these master files with the appropriate languages so that when these master files are serviced in those territories, those elements will be in the local language. We truly want our films to travel the world and still make the film and audiences feel “at home.”

Those Disney “Golden Eyes and Ears” provided Quality Control services at every step of the way in the delivery of Wreck-It Ralph. Upon receipt of the final Digital Cinema as well as home entertainment master packages, the QC team provides assurance that the image and sound conform to Disney’s own high standard of technical excellence. The QC team is comprised of experts in image, sound and technical specifications and perform comprehensive evaluations to ensure that our audiences experience the films that our filmmakers make with such artistic craft in the way in which they intended. It is only when these elements pass the rigor and high-bar standards of our QC team, that these elements are ready for next step servicing and can then be checked into the Library and Archive, with confidence that these elements can truly stand the test of time.

As part of the larger Studio Operations team, our goal at Disney Digital Studio Services is simple, which is to help make all of these complex processes transparent to both our audiences and to our colleagues across our organization. As players on this larger Studio Ops team, we “pass the baton” to each other many times across the milestones of motion picture production, post production, finishing and delivery. By complimenting each other and making the seemingly impossible, difficult – but doable, the players in this game score a huge win for our Studio and our audiences. Enjoy Wreck-It Ralph no matter where you are in this big wide world. Disney Digital Studio Services sure had fun playing this game.

217d

It’s a Dog’s Life

Leon — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 22:09:17 +0000

If talking dogs are what you want, then a Fiesta is what you will get! After two hits, the Chihuahuas are back for Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3: Viva La Fiesta! This third installment of the direct-to-video franchise follows beloved Chihuahua, Papi (played by George Lopez) and his family on a journey that is sure to be fun for all. The canines are lead by acclaimed director, Lev Spiro who directed such television hits as Ugly Betty, Arrested Development, Weeds, Everybody Hates Chris and Are We There Yet. In a world where being fashionably late was never in style, Disney Digital Studio Services showed up to the Fiesta early and rendered both technical and creative services that helped the project arrive in home theaters on time and on budget. DDSS recently sat down with Spiro and his producer, Sara White to talk about their experience working on the lot and the advantages of DDSS’s on-lot services.

Editorial Rooms & VFX Rooms

Disney Digital Studio Services provided editorial facilities equipped with high speed fiber infrastructure and a secure Unity Server Environment for the editorial crew and visual effects team. Having editorial and VFX so close in proximity to each other proved to be an enormous benefit and lent to greater collaboration and efficiency. Producer Sara White was very happy with the set up and wouldn’t have had it any other way. “I’m a firm believer that you get as much as you can close together. It allows for spontaneous meetings; being able to pop in and out to see how their doing is key.” David Yrisarri served as the head of VFX on the project and Patrick Neighly was his coordinator. “David had ideas at one point that we needed to bring the overall number of talking dog shots down, “ recalls Spiro, “When David and Patrick had ideas, they would pop into my office and ask how I felt about it or they would ask about combining shots. Conversely, when Matt and I would have ideas, we could pop into VFX. I can’t imagine having them in a different building. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

We’ve got “Connections”

Another advantage to working with Disney Digital Studio Services is the high-speed fiber “Connections” services, which enables one to send and receive files globally through a network of multiple, 10 gigabit per second fiber optic connections with key vendors and telecommunications portals. Often unseen, Spiro and White were very aware of the advantages of “Connections”. “I was aware that editorial functioned very smoothly,” recalls Spiro. “At one point I had four different avid rooms running plus the visual effects department and I was never aware of having to wait. For me that’s kinda the wheels turning under the surface. Also, for screenings, we would send the entire film to the Digital Media Center (Bldg 95). That was pretty impressive with such big files.” This was due to the enterprise class connectivity that DDSS put at the shows disposal. Connecting to DDSS networks afforded Spiro the type of world class connectivity that enabled the production to work internationally with ease.

Sound
Sound played a very important role in BHC3 and helped to create an environment that supported the story. “Sound is an enhanced character in our movie,” White says. Digital Studio Services helped to liven up that character, providing ADR and Sound Mixing Services. Once again, proximity paid off with Re-Recording Stage A and ADR Stage B only a hop skip and a jump from the Editorial and VFX Rooms.

ADR – Stage B Equipped with the latest in digital playback technology and a world-class microphone collection, an even bigger draw of Stage B is Academy Award Nominated DDSS Mixer, Doc Kane. Doc recorded all of the voices of the talking dogs on all three of movies within the BHC franchise. “Doc was-amazing,” recalls Spiro. “We actually recorded ADR at four other studios and Doc was by far the best ADR mixer. He was wonderful with the talent and amazing with the whole procedure of it.” BHC3 was offered the flexibility of 2 channel recording. Doc used two different microphones: The U87 and the Schoeps which allowed for greater flexibility, with the Schoeps mic having more of a production sound.

Re-Recording Stage A The premier re-recording stage on the Walt Disney Studios lot, Stage A provided an excellent acoustic environment for BHC3. “The stage (Stage A) was amazing,” recalls Spiro, “right down to the ping pong table.” Spiro worked with Sound Supervisor, Tom de Gorter, Emmy Award Winning DDSS re-recording mixer, David Fluhr and re-recording mixer Chris Minkler to perfect the mix. “In this case,” says Spiro, “I wanted the film to be grounded in reality. There is a conceit that when dogs talk to each other, they are talking with human language but when humans are around, they just hear dogs barking. But there are a lot of scenes in the film where you have both in the same scene, so it’s very tricky. So what do you hear?” de Gorter and Fluhr helped to fashion those moments so that they had a realistic component to them and felt more grounded in reality.

From collaborative workspaces to Digital Media Services to Sound Services, the Walt Disney Studios was a one stop shop for Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3. “For me it was wonderful working on the lot,” says Spiro, “The facilities here and the personnel are top notch. Every aspect of being on the Disney lot was simply wonderful.” Never one to arrive to a party empty handed, DDSS showed up with technical services that greatly improved efficiency and creative services that lent to the magic of “talking dogs”. A fiesta on the screen is what everyone will see, but know that the party started long before and Disney Digital Studio Services was happy to arrive early with services fit for a Chihuahua!

2b85

Digital Studio Services Helps Timothy Green Grow

Leon — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 16:52:55 +0000

The Sound Life of Timothy Green

Disney’s “The Odd Life of Timothy Green” is the whimsical, heart-warming story of how one very special boy changes the lives of everyone with whom he comes into contact. Blending elements of fantasy and nature, Timothy Green comes to life in an unusual way that not only sets the tone for this fantastical tale, but also creates a unique opportunity for the sound team to do some of their best work.

Digital Studio Services sat down with Re-Recording mixer David Fluhr and music editor, Jay Richardson to talk about their experience working on the studio lot, what it was like working with Academy Award Nominated filmmaker, Peter Hedges and the role sound played in “The Odd Life of Timothy Green.”

Working At the Walt Disney Studios

A sound industry veteran and a Walt Disney Animation favorite, Dialog and Music Re-Recording Mixer David Fluhr, CAS has mixed several movies for the Walt Disney Studios including Enchanted, Step Up 3D, Tangled, Princess & the Frog and Tinker Bell to name a few. The Studio has been like a second home to Fluhr, with his first project dating all the way back to 1986. “My first film was White Fang 2,” Fluhr recalls, “I continued to work freelance on Disney films until the opportunity came in 2004 to be a resident mixer on Stage A.”

Stage A, Disney’s premier dub stage, was originally built as a scoring stage and has scored such films as Mary Poppins and Sleeping Beauty. A re-recording stage since 1987, Stage A has been the dub stage for projects such as Good Will Hunting, Rescuers Down Under, Pirates of the Caribbean, Princess & the Frog, Tangled and most recently, The Odd Life of Timothy Green. “This stage (Stage A) has such a pedigree,” Fluhr says, “There is so much legacy and history that has come out of the sound department here in general.”

[image source_type="attachment_id" source_value="3383" title="Walt Disney Studios Stage A" align="center" icon="zoom" lightbox="true" width="620" autoHeight="true"] Walt Disney Studios Stage AMusic Editor Richardson is also no stranger to the Studio. “One of my first projects here, The Other Sister was in 1997,” Jay remembers, “then, it was Freaky Friday, Parent Trap, Sky High and College Road Trip. It’s always nice to come back and work with familiar faces, like Monica Zierhut in the music department and then mixing with David is also a big plus. It’s nice to have that comfort of an established rapport.” Richardson and Fluhr have collaborated quite a bit over the years on Disney projects including College Road Trip. Richardson nods in agreement as Fluhr shares some of his sentiments on working at the Walt Disney Studios. “You know the thing that I love about Disney,” Fluhr says, “The lot itself has a college campus kind of feel. It’s not the largest (acreage) around town but it’s one of the most intimate, family friendly lots. It’s really comfortable for clients and a terrific creative environment. Being here has been a treat.”

On Working with Peter Hedges & The Odd Life of Sound

A novelist, screenwriter and director, Peter Hedges is the renowned filmmaker behind such notable projects as What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Pieces of April, About A Boy and Dan In Real Life. His most recent project, The Odd Life of Timothy Green features music and sound design that explore the strings of unique instruments but are also guaranteed to tug at the strings of the human heart.

From the quiet melancholy that permeated the film before Timothy’s arrival to the dramatic way that he enters the world, it is clear early on that sound plays a very important role in the film. In a recent panel discussion at the Walt Disney Studios, Peter Hedges expounded on his vision of the sound in the Odd Life of Timothy Green . “I’m a big lover of the hand-made, made-by-humans sound and feel. These are ordinary people experiencing extraordinary things.” Fluhr pointed out that every single sound that went into the film was well thought out and a collaboration between the director, sound designers, Michael Kirchberger, Roy Waldspurger and the entire sound team. “There are large sections of dialog and some music montages,” David points out, “but then there are some areas where the sound effects really direct our emotional viewpoint.” From the environmental wind sounds to the crickets, most of the sound effects were indigenous to the area and were the real thing. “It wasn’t just library cue number 8 or crickets cue number 2,” Fluhr remembers, “It was custom design stuff.”

According to Fluhr, creative choices were made early on that the ‘performance was king;’ a little bit of noise in the track would be accepted if there was a performance that worked. “The actors are the ones actually speaking the words and creating the characters,” says Fluhr, “our goal is not to color that.” When the dialogue track and production sound are recorded in different locations under difficult circumstances, it can be a real challenge for the re-recording mixer to preserve the performance.Through careful planning and thoughtful consideration of location, the production mixer, Whit Norris, CAS provided the sound team with a superior recording from which Fluhr and Waldspurger were able to make a velvety smooth dialogue track. “You could really hear the words and we were able to preserve most of the performances,” says Fluhr. Fluhr was fortunate enough to have the demo tracks of the music fairly early on. “Those tracks provided by music are not usually flushed out with the real orchestra yet,” Fluhr points out, “But the sound designers were able to work with those tracks. We were lucky that we had the pre-planning and collaboration on the sound track and the time to fashion the track and really detail it.” Both Fluhr and Richardson refer to the process as sort of like playing an instrument. The goal of the entire sound team is to make music with the sound.

A very important aspect of the sound in OLTG is the combination of music with the other sound elements. As the film really doesn’t fit into the box of one particular category or genre, choosing the right music for the film was a challenge. “It was really interesting and exciting to find a specific voice for the music that felt organic to the film,” says Richardson. A combination of so many elements including drama, fantasy and comedy, finding the musical voice wasn’t so easy. According to Richardson, Emmy Award Winning composer Geoff Zanelli, worked incessantly early on and did a great job in finding a sound that inhabited the tone of the film which is not a typical tone. “He (Zanelli) came up with a beautiful highly melodic score and themes,” says Richardson, “Another aspect of the score that was important was finding some interesting colors and instrumentation and orchestration for it and that kind of played into this moment, the magical moment when Timothy Green comes to life.”

[image source_type="attachment_id" source_value="3329" title="Geoff Zanelli and his instruments" align="right" icon="zoom" lightbox="true" width="445" autoHeight="true" quality="100"] Geoff Zanelli and his InstumentsIn addition to string orchestra and rhythm types of instruments, Richardson points out that there was an great combination of other instruments including a Mellotron and a Dulcetone, which resembles an early 20^thcentury keyboard. Another master collaborator that was on board was the scoring mixer Dennis Sands. According to Fluhr, “He (Sands) provided us with exactly what we needed to make the music work in the movie. He integrated it all into the master score.”

Like most films, sound is a critical part of telling a story, and of course collaboration amongst the filmmakers and the creatice sound team is crucial. But in order to tell a magical story like “The Odd Life of Timothy Green,” another type of magic is necessary, and that is the magic that happens when creative colloborators come together. “Convention was left at the front door.” Fluhr Asserts, “this project was not a cookie cutter, not painted by numbers and reminded me of why I got into the business.” Added together, a speccial film about a special boy that comes to life, and the team that helped bring this film to life is really what Disney magic is all about. And Disney Digital Studio Services is proud to be part of that magic.

3980

Preserved for the Future

Leon — Sun, 20 May 2012 17:14:04 +0000

Looking to the Future by Protecting the Past
The Disney Digital Studio Services Film and Digital Services Department is coming to the conclusion of an important 5 year project. Under the watchful eye of a knowledge-rich team including Theo Gluck, Director – Libary Restoration, Sara Duran-Singer, Senior Vice President, Studio Operations, Joe Jiuliano – Director of Disney Digital Studio Services Film and Digital Services, and Dave Bossert – Creative Director of Special Projects at the Walt Disney Animation Studio; over 16 million frames of deteriorating Nitrate Negative from the Walt Disney Studio’s library is now safely preserved for generations to come.

This complex and important task included 394 shorts and 18 feature films made between 1928-1952, that had been carefully stored in temperature and humidity controlled vaults at the Library Of Congress (LOC). Before 1952, all Disney projects were shot using a Kodak film stock commonly known as Nitrate. As the name suggests, the nitrate based negative stock ) which shares chemical characteristics of “guncotton”) is highly volatile, combustible and become perilously unstable as it decays.

In 2006, The Walt Disney Studios made a decision to work with the Library of Congress to actively restore and preserve the film within these vaults. Because Disney had always attempted to store its historical film legacy to the best of its ability, Disney and the Library of Congress undertook a project to scan each of these negatives as digital data. To begin the process, the negatives were shipped from the Library of Congress site in Dayton, OH in two separate refrigerated trucks to the old RKO nitrate vaults, which are still in operation in Van Nuys, CA. From there only small batches of the negatives were inspected by Kodak’s ProTek to ensure their integrity and then they were scanned at a facility selected by Disney’s Library Restoration team. After the completion of the scanning, the film was sent back, again in two trucks, to the Library of Congress’s new vault and facility located in in Culpeper, VA.

Sequential Exposure (SE)

The original three-strip Technicolor process utilized three-color records to create a single color image. Rather than use this three-strip Technicolor method, which used three separate pieces of film, Disney pioneered a method of recording the components of color images, successively on a single strip of black and white film. This method places the three-color records in succession (next to each other). So each single color frame that you see on screen is in fact a “triple exposure” of the three successive frames of negative. This method is ideally suited to filming animation which shoots individual frames, as opposed to the bulky “3-strip” cameras that are designed to move films at 90 feet per minute (at 24 frames per second)

Instead of having three Y-C-M (actually captured as Red-Green-Blue) linear records (three rolls of film), an SE negative can best be described as: Y1-C1-M1-Y2-M2-C2-Y3-C3-M3 and so on (albeit through RGB filters). This means that the linear length of an SE negative is three times that of the print that it generates.

The two key advantages to shooting SE as opposed to three-strip photography is that the optical path is far simpler resulting in a single focal plane for each frame, and the alignment of frames back into color from a single strip of film as opposed to three separate records is far easier and considerably more accurate, especially when working with negatives that could be as much as 80 years old.

Digital Files Scanned to Film for Long Term Preservation
Once scanned, this digital data was compared against the best-preserved picture print of the same title, to make sure that all the frames were preserved within the digital file. Once the digital image data was verified, a new Black and White/Successive Exposure (SE) negative was created from the scanned data by the Disney Digital Studio Services Film and Digital Services Department.

The Disney Digital Studio Services Film and Digital Services group has been hard at work creating SE negatives of not just our historical library, but also has employed the SE process as an important aspect of the Studio’s long-term archive strategy for films that have been finished digitally. The digital image data is separated into the digital equivalent of the film Yellow, Cyan and Magenta “records” for output onto a single piece of black and white negative film using a Laser Film Recorder. Just as in the original film process, in the digital SE process, each color record is written using an laser in succession onto black and white negative stock. What makes this process so important to our archive strategy is that that this single continuous strand of black and white stock, when properly stored, has proven to last over 100 years. There is not any digital media storage format that currently holds this same promise, and thus, the ability to convert our aging and deteriorating Nitrate film as well as our currently digitally finished motion pictures to a single stand of black and white negative, may be one of the most important steps we can take today to preserve our library for the future.

In the future, these digital black and white negative will be able to be scanned and then digitally recombined to create new masters from these archival elements. Throughout its history, The Walt Disney Studio’s has indeed treated its library like the “crown jewels” that it is. The result of this foreword thinking care has meant that generation after generation have been able to enjoy classics from the Walt Disney Studio library and for generations to come, will be able to enjoy our future classics.

Bringing 20,000 Leagues Sound Back from Under the Sea

Leon — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 01:33:51 +0000

As Disney’s 1954 film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea prepares for its voyage into the deep sea of digital restoration, one is reminded of the words of the hit film’s narrator as he boarded the Nautilus for the first time: “There is great genius behind all this.” With restoration of picture completed successfully under Studio Mastering’s Theo Gluck and Jayson Wall, the project was carefully handed over to the audio experts, the Digital Studio Services’ Audio Migration team. Through careful deliberation and thoughtful collaboration, audio was restored to its 1954 glory and an experience was delivered for modern listening. Here’s how it was done!

The Goal
The goal of the audio migration process was to accurately reproduce the original, physical recordings in order to make the audio available for today’s digital formats. To start, the original 35mm, 4-track stereo magnetic film masters, created in 1954, were recalled from storage and cleaned in preparation for a final, critical transfer to digital audio wav files. Once prepared, the 35mm mag masters were transferred to ProTools at 24 bit, 48khz. To ensure the success of the transfer, the mag masters were played back, utilizing the Sondor mag playback machine. The transfer was performed under controlled monitoring conditions.

The Research
Sound Engineering was also consulted on the project. Through the historical research efforts of Chief Engineer, Steve Boze, the original recording curve was confirmed, resulting in an accurate reproduction of the original recording. With all of the research notes from Sound Engineering in mind, initial evaluations were done with Brian Saunders and re-recording mixer, Dave Concors in the critical listening Suite of Animation 1. According to Concors, “The research paved the way for a track that was more realistic in its high frequency response.”

The Restoration
During the initial evaluation, it was decided that only minor editorial fixes that distracted from the content would be made. Essentially, the effort was to smooth reel joins, remove larger optical and/or digital “ticks” and repair dropouts as needed. This was handled by audio migration editor, Randy Babajtis. Concors deliberately kept original levels, track layouts and perspectives intact. To ensure the integrity of the original recording, only equalization curves and occasional minor digital noise reduction were part of the mix. According to Concors, “No additional information was added to the show to enhance the surrounds. The original track used surrounds sparingly and we used that original track and split it with a phase- coherent plug-in to create a “stereo” field.”

Video restoration + Audio migration = Fantastic Results
The audio migration would yield fantastic results! For those who got the opportunity to see the newly restored 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, it was like seeing and hearing it for the first time in 1954. The Mastering team in particular was very pleased with the audio restoration and was blown away when they experienced the true sound of the original recording. Jayson Wall was impressed with the sound and couldn’t have been happier to collaborate with the Audio Migration team. “The research your team performed on getting the correct vintage sound back into the film is simply astonishing,” Wall acclaims, “and it fully complements the original look that Theo and myself put back into the image on our 4k restoration of this classic. I really love how Dave got that nice warm tube mix sound along with applying the original RCA curve back into the track as it sounded in 1954/1955, and I couldn’t be happier! Wow, this track is awesome!!!”

Welcome back to “The mightiest motion picture of them all!”

A standing room only crowd enthusiastically received “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” safely back into harbor in all of its original visual and audible splendor during the TCM Classic Film Festival screening at the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, CA on Friday, April 13, 2012.

In attendance and speaking to the crowd about the production was Kirk Douglas, who starred in the show as Ned Land. Douglas is seen in this photo along with Theo Gluck, Director: Library Restoration and Preservation, The Walt Disney Studios (left) and Jayson Wall, Project Manager, Library Mastering, Disney Digital Studio Services (right).

2607

John Carter Premiere Event – LA Live

marissa — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 02:26:50 +0000

The latest Premier to be supported by the Disney Digital Studio Services’ Projection team was the LA Premier of John Carter held at Regal’s LA Live Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles.

On Wednesday, February 22, 2012, a gala Hollywood Premiere event was held in a 800+ seat venue, in 3D for VIP guests, film makers, and studio executives on Regal’s huge 70 foot wide screen.

Simultaneously, two additional theaters were filled with D23 members. fans and radio ticket winners.

Behind the scenes, and for several days before, our Digital Studio Services team coordinated the technical and logistical projection support for the event. Each venue was calibrated and set to the high and exacting standards that make the Disney Digital Studio Services Projection team our Studio’s and filmmaker’s projection support partner of choice. When the show just has to be perfect and when the show must go on, Digital Studio Services has been and continues to be an important part of making sure the images and sound are perfect.

Working with Regal Entertainment, and Dolby Labs., two auditoriums were permanently upgraded to the 7.1 audio standard that all Disney releases support for the fullest and most immerse sound experience available in theaters today. In addition, the images were calibrated to a new 3D light specification which allows a 3D film to be displayed at the brightest level that can be supported. Using the latest RealD 3D XL technology each auditorium exhibited images more than twice as bright as is typically seen in most 3D presentations.

On show day, our Disney Digital Studio Services were on hand and in the booth to support our Studio Special Events team to provide a perfect show that looked and sounded its best.

Disney Digital Studio Services Achieves ISO 9001 Certification

Leon — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 04:00:16 +0000

Be Our GUEST – Our Quality Policy Statement

As part of our embracing of the ISO 9001 standard, we have created a Quality Policy statement that is pure Disney! The Guest is the quintessential Disney Customer and GUEST as an acronym also describes our commitment to service delivery.

Growth indicates DSS’s willingness to be consistently innovative, growing and moving forward to meet our client’s and our own team’s needs.

Unifying represents our commitment to collaboration as we work across divisions, business units and with our customers to deliver results.

Efficiency represents our focus on quality, accuracy and right-first-time deliveries while also working within our client’s budgetary challenges and our own commitment to financial responsibility.

Satisfaction – customer satisfaction is something we just don’t talk about, we practice, measure and deliver.

Timeliness is our recognition that our industry runs on deadlines and our team is focused on delivery.

Disney Digital Studio Services has earned certification from an independent auditor that its management systems and approach to client services meet the rigid requirements for compliance with the ISO 9001 standard. ISO (International Organization for Standardization) 9001 specifies requirements for a quality management system focused on customer requirements, quality service delivery and a process and commitment to continuous improvement.

The service offerings that have been ISO 9001 certified are part of our new Digital Studio focus and specifically relate to image and sound digital workflows for work being performed within Building 95, the Sound Bungalow, and our Victory Digital Audio Operations and Technical Services Operations.

“Our entire team is committed to quality delivery and customer service – Its what we try to accomplish everyday,” said Digital Studio General Manager, Leon Silverman. “The fact that we were able to achieve this milestone of ISO 9001 certification is a special recognition of this team’s commitment to formalize our approach to putting our clients first.”

In short, the ISO certification signifies a commitment to excellent business practices, designed to provide products and services that meet and exceed the customer’s expectations while enhancing customer satisfaction.

Along with the many business practices we are incorporating as part of our management system, a key component of ISO 9001 is a Quality Policy Statement. Our Policy Statement is built around a statement which uniquely reflects our Disney Heritage and focus on service – “Be Our GUEST”. The word GUEST is an acronym for Growth, Unifying, Efficiency, Satisfaction and Timeliness which reflects our core commitments to our customers and our own business results.

A huge hats off to the entire DSS team for achieving this important goal of ISO Certification ! A very special recognition goes out Nimesh Narayan, Glenn Ragland, Julie Yeh, Brian Donohoe and our colleagues at Library Technical Services who inspired us with their ISO achievements and partnership.

To us, this is just the beginning. The real goal is for Disney Digital Studio Services to grow and excel as this commitment to Quality, Customer Service and Continuous Process Improvement manifests itself in how our clients view us and in how we serve them.

4a26

Digital Studio News and Information

Leon — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 03:34:30 +0000

Welcome to the Digital Studio Center

Its Official ! At 12:12 PM on 12/12/12, we cut the ribbon to open the new Digital Studio Center.

Wreck-It Ralph

It’s a Dog’s Life

Project Gallery

Leon — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 03:23:15 +0000

Wreck-It Ralph

It’s a Dog’s Life

Digital Studio Services Helps Timothy Green Grow

Disney Digital Studio Services hosted the mixing of the heartwarming new Disney Film “The Odd Life of Timothy Green.” Re-Recording mixer David Fluhr and music editor, Jay Richardson to talk about their experience working on the studio lot, and working with Director Peter Hedges to bring Timothy Green to life.

Preserved for the Future

Looking to the Future by Protecting the Past The Disney Digital Studio Services Film and Digital Services Department is coming to the conclusion of an important 5 year project. Under the watchful eye of a knowledge-rich team including Theo Gluck, Director – Libary Restoration, Sara Duran-Singer, Senior Vice President, Studio Operations, Joe Jiuliano – Director …

Bringing 20,000 Leagues Sound Back from Under the Sea

John Carter Premiere Event – LA Live

The latest Premier to be supported by the Disney Digital Studio Services’ Projection team was the LA Premier of John Carter held at Regal’s LA Live Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles. On Wednesday, February 22, 2012, a gala Hollywood Premiere event was held in a 800+ seat venue, in 3D for VIP guests, film makers, …

Once Upon A Time

Do you believe in fairy tales? In a world of Evil Queens, Jiminy Crickets’, Rumplestiltskins’ and Prince Charmings’ – the Digital Studio Services sound crew from Once Upon A Time helps to make us all believers. Fairy tales collide with the real world in ABC’s new hit series and the sound is just as epic …

Connecting with Man Up

Yes, it’s true that the world is shrinking but when you’re pressed for time, chasing production and sitting in rush hour traffic, your favorite colorist can seem worlds away. These days, it is increasingly important for post production facilities to serve up creative solutions to help filmmakers master these challenges. Digital Studio Services did just …