Archive notice: This article was originally published on September 27, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
The support for ARRI’s new digital recording format builds on the real-time ingest of stereo image streams that Quantel presented at NAB. Thanks to the performance of Quantel systems, which can process and display all resolution formats, Mscope can be integrated into the Quantel workflow. All tools available in Quantel systems can be used for the creative processing of this material.
“Mscope is an innovation developed for ARRI’s D-21 digital film camera that, for the first time, makes it possible to combine anamorphically captured footage with the efficient image-recording technology of HD sensors,” explains Milan Krsljanin, ARRI’s head of development, who considers the new format highly significant. “For generations, film directors and cinema audiences have been accustomed to anamorphic Cinemascope images and associate this look with the experience of films on the big screen. The breadth and clarity of the Cinemascope image, the shallow depth of field, and the nuanced rendering of lights and backgrounds outside the focus area—all these characteristics of anamorphic images have become deeply embedded in the collective subconscious of cinema audiences.”
“Most other digital cameras with their 16:9 sensors are not ideal for anamorphic lenses. Images in the ARRI Mscope format contain around 80% more lines than a Cinemascope image with a 2.40:1 aspect ratio recorded by a conventional 16:9 HD sensor,” Krsljanin continues. “The first company to support our Mscope format and implement the Mscope workflow so efficiently and directly is Quantel.”
“It is important to us to offer creatives more options so they can work exactly the way they want,” says Steve Owen, Quantel’s head of marketing. “Mscope gives cinematographers who prefer to shoot anamorphically the opportunity to benefit from the quality of digital recording technology. We are very pleased that, working with ARRI, we have succeeded in integrating Mscope seamlessly into the Quantel DI workflow. A crucial prerequisite was the flexibility and performance of our system architecture, which allows post-production creatives to get the best out of this new format.”