LaserPacific Mastering Minority Report in 4K, Blu-ray Coming in 2010

LaserPacific Media Corporation, a Los Angeles post production company, has built a new end-to-end 4K workflow for mastering and re-mastering feature films. The company is currently preparing a "true and complete 4K master" of the Steven Spielberg film 'Minority Report' for Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox for release on Blu-ray next year. LaserPacific's 4K workflow is based on FilmLight's Baselight EIGHT colour grading system and also features FilmLight's Northlight scanner. In order to handle 4K media efficiently, the Baselight EIGHT installation includes a massive 96 TB of local storage. LaserPacific took delivery of its Baselight in January and began using it for mastering projects in June. 'Minority Report' is the first film that LaserPacific is grading entirely in 4K. For "Minority Report", the entire film was scanned 6K to 4K on Northlight and is now being graded in 4K on Baselight. Additionally, LaserPacific is using a combination of off-the-shelf and proprietary tools to perform dust and scratch removal and other restoration processes at 4K resolution. "Minority Report is a true 4K master. We scanned to 4K, 4K goes to Baselight-everything is done with 4K files," noted Levinson. "When we do the final render, it will be straight 4K to HD. There are no intermediate steps. No proxies." While 4K mastering will surely yield spectacular results for home theatre, LaserPacific believes that the high resolution medium will have an even greater impact as an archival tool. The company expects to remaster films in 4K as part of a process of creating new film negatives in order to preserve films in an optimal state for decades to come. LaserPacific has coined the term "DI Restoration" to describe this process. "Our goal is to be able to scan negatives in whatever format and condition, restore them through a 4K restoration process and ultimately use the new 4K master to output a brand new negative," explained Ron Burdett, general manager of LaserPacific's film mastering department. Burdett added that he believes 4K will be the standard mastering medium for A- list, film-originated features within a few years. Hollywood film studios are showing increasing interest in 4K mastering both as a way to create the highest quality product for home theatre release and for archival purposes. The challenge for post houses seeking to tap into this market has been to build a workflow capable of processing 4K media in a time- and cost-effective manner.
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BlackLightShark009  » Sep 11, 2009
Right on!

Seretur  » Sep 11, 2009
This is great, great news on a number of levels: doing the digital archiving right is SO important. But even more importantly, more Spielberg films are FINALLY coming to Blu-ray!

kvisser  » Sep 11, 2009
Bring on JAWS!!!

dobyblue  » Sep 11, 2009
Schwing!!! This is awesome news, almost missed it!

lgans316  » Sep 11, 2009
Great news. Hope they don't suck the grain and add EE.

fdm  » Sep 11, 2009
Yay!!

tru blu  » Sep 11, 2009
Love it. A must own for me.

Born2BeBlu  » Sep 11, 2009

This sounds intriguing, yet, like someone mentioned above, does this mean an end to image grain? You'd think it would actually add onto the grain with the scan being all the more enhanced. Keep the grain no matter what - that's what makes for the true theatrical experience, especially films from the 80's. Also, it's interesing they're starting off this new process with a film shot by Janusz Kaminski. Kaminski has his own style - a bit washed out, almost dream-like. So it'll be interesting to see other films he shot for Spielberg mastered in 4K, especially SAVING PRIVATE RYAN one day!

RickD  » Sep 11, 2009
Great movie! I hope they get Spielberg's input on the final result.

stodgers  » Sep 11, 2009
I was just wondering when this film would make it to blu, and it sounds like it will get a royal treatment in the process. I felt the film was a bit overrated on the critical front when released, but still an incredibly solid true sci-fi film. Like others, I'll be interested to see how grain issues are handled in these types of archival transfers.

doctorD  » Sep 11, 2009
Finally! It's good to see that it is getting good treatment in preperation for Blu ray.

Ernest Rister  » Sep 11, 2009
This is one of Spielberg's best. Looking forward to the BR, not looking forward to the grain haters jumping on this title like a trampoline...

aramis109  » Sep 11, 2009
Wow, this is awesome news. Not only do I love the movie, but this means that lots of other films can be scanned and stored and archived for years to come. Really pretty exciting news for film as a whole, and not just for this movie.

Mr. Cinema  » Sep 11, 2009
Bring it on!

merrick97  » Sep 11, 2009
I loved this film. One of my favorite Spielberg films. Cant WAIT!!!

clownface  » Sep 11, 2009
I've been waiting for an announcement for Minority Report and it sounds like they are preparing to set a new standard.

Neil_Luv's_BLU  » Sep 11, 2009
Minority Report is a film that is definitely deserving of a 4K remaster! The original DVD copy of the movie is in a terrible state... You thought the grain in "300" was bad?... you ain't seen nothing yet! Bring on the Blu-ray!!! Can't wait to hear those "sonic concussion weapons" in DTS-HD MA

spam.curitiba  » Sep 11, 2009
about damn time...I would have thought this would have been on of the first blu's...

Paul.R.S  » Sep 11, 2009
I look forward to a press release from Par re the MR BD. Meanwhile, a bit of Journalism 101: BD.com should cite its sources for these kinds of largely cut and past postings instead of self-referentially citing itself as the source of the information. http://www.broadcastnewsroom.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=840458

nathanp  » Sep 11, 2009
Finally, more Spielberg, and a great one at that!

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