Archive notice: This article was originally published on January 18, 2010. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Together with university professor Dr Reimar Lenz, ARRI employees Michael Cieslinski and Bernd Brauner receive the “Scientific & Engineering Award” for the jointly pursued development of ARRISCAN, which has successfully established itself on the international market since the end of 2004.
Together with the “technical Oscar” already awarded in 2002 to ARRI board member Franz Kraus, Dr Johannes Steurer and Wolfgang Riedel for the design and development of the ARRILASER film recorder, according to company information both Digital Intermediate products have now received an Academy Award.
The now award-winning ARRISCAN enables high-resolution film scanning with exact image steadiness through pin registration for digital further processing (Digital Intermediate), it continues. It is regarded as the only film scanner to date capable of transferring all the data information contained in a camera negative to the digital domain without any loss of image detail (“one to one”), at up to 6K resolution and up to 16-bit quantisation, the company explains. According to company information, all renowned post-production houses now have an ARRISCAN.
More than 120 of these machines are in use worldwide, processing around 200 feature films each year. One of the first productions was Peter Jackson’s 2005 blockbuster King Kong. Further cinema feature films scanned with ARRISCAN included James Bond 007: Quantum of Solace, The International, New Moon, as well as current Hollywood titles such as The Blind Side and Up in the Air and German productions including Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, Pope Joan, The Baader Meinhof Complex and Krabat.
ARRISCAN is an essential component in carrying out the digital post-production process (Digital Intermediate) for film material shot on analogue film, the company explains. The scanner’s “core”, the light-sensitive sensor based on CMOS semiconductor technology, was designed for digital cameras by Prof Dr Reimar Lenz and his brother Dr Udo Lenz. At the end of 2000, ARRI technician Michael Cieslinski developed the concept for a new type of film scanner, likewise based on this sensor, in order to read the film material being scanned digitally at the highest possible speed, with precision and the best possible sharpness. The highly complex scanner is based on a software-controlled intermittent film-transport mechanism that enables precise image steadiness even during faster runs of 16 mm and 35 mm material.
The film transport adapts flexibly to the characteristics of the material in order to scan modern cinema productions as well as 100-year-old, heavily damaged archive material. The second component is an LED illumination unit, likewise digitally controllable, that ensures high colour separation and heats the film material being scanned as little as possible.
In addition to the red, green and blue colour components, the scanner also scans the film with infrared light. The third component is the aforementioned ALEV sensor, which is also installed in the ARRIFLEX D-20 and D-21 digital camera systems. All three components of ARRISCAN work together perfectly through highly complex, balanced calibration. This makes it possible to generate precise image scans at 2K, 4K and even 6K resolution, either using the rapid-scan method for digital dailies or as a high-quality scan for the Digital Intermediate process.
Film-technology company ARRI, founded in Munich in 1917 by August Arnold and Robert Richter, can look back on more than 90 years of company tradition. The company is now represented on every continent and, with the current technical Oscar, looks back on a total of 16 awards from the US Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The first Oscar went to Munich in 1966, to August Arnold and Erich Kästner for the design and development of the portable ARRIFLEX 35 mm film camera.
A total of 46 individuals contributed to 15 film-technology achievements being honoured by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with Scientific & Technical Awards in 2010.
The gala presentation on February 20 at The Beverly Wilshire near Los Angeles takes place two weeks before the generally known Oscar ceremony on March 7, 2010.
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