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The Intimate Link Between Movie Trailers And Digital Video
Movie trailer production is not a process you'd instantly associate with digital video equipment. However, in Los Angeles, trailers and digital video are intimately linked. In fact, as we look at three major trailer studios-Aspect Ratio, Intralink Film Graphic Design, and Skip Film-- we'll clearly see how trailers and digital video are one of the happiest marriages in Hollywood.
This said, these same three trailer studios also find themselves heavily committed to 3/4inch tape, despite their heavy investment in digital video production. In fact, most receive their raw footage on 3/4-inch, master their trailers in digital, then dub back to 3/4-inch for shipment back to the studios. The reason: each trailer's actual 'finishing' to film or digital tape, as it's called, is usually done elsewhere.
Asped Ratio: A Convert To Final Cut Pro
When it comes to producing trailers, Aspect Ratio has an impressive resume. Among their past trailer productions are the original Men in Black, Stuart Little, The Mummy, Armageddon, Independence Day, There's Something About Mary, Charlie's Angels, and Shallow Hal.
As for current projects? Although Aspect Ratio IT/MIS Director Phil Gershwin says that most of his company's in-production trailers are "hush-hush," he will admit to Charlie's Angels 2, and Final Destination 2.
To produce these trailers, Aspect Ratio's team uses 28 workstations and a "massive storage facility," all connected by a custom-built fiber optic network. As for hardware, since the major Hollywood studios insist on sending out 3/4-inch tapes, Aspect Ratio still has 3/4-inch VTRs on the premises. Also found there are 1/2-inch S-VHS, D1, D2, and DigiBeta tape machines. "Tape is 1950s technology," Gershwin observes. "We should be transferring electronic files to people."
Of course, whatever comes into Aspect Ratio on 3/4-inch eventually becomes electronic files; specifically digital files, which are edited and mixed using nonlinear systems. So what can you find on Aspect...