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NEW YORK, August 6, 2003 – The filmmakers behind Lakeshore Entertainment's Underworld were able to maximize cutting edge film/digital hybrid technology in great part because of services provided by ARRI's state-of-the-art post facility in Munich.

The new vampire thriller, starring Kate Beckinsale and directed by Len Wiseman, was shot on location in Budapest, Hungary by cinematographer Tony Pierce-Roberts in the 3-perforation, Super 35 format and finished in a totally digital environment. This method is growing popular with people who desire the image quality of 35mm film but intend to finish digitally because it slashes 25% off the cost of raw stock without compromising image quality. By converting the film images to digital formats it allows productions the best of both worlds—the immediacy of digital production and the image quality of film-originated material.

Lakeshore's technical supervisor in charge of the project, James McQuaide, envisioned a work method where negative would be transferred to 25p HD format as 'digital dailies,' which could be projected to cast and crew on location and simultaneously transmitted to the eager executives in Los Angeles. The concept worked on paper, but the most important question was whether any facility in Europe could provide this kind of service. There are only a handful of places even in the US that were set up for this kind of work, and in Europe that number is smaller still. Thanks to an early discussion with LA-based Thomas Nickel, ARRI's international representative for Film & TV Services, McQuaide's concerns were quickly laid to rest.

The shoot commenced last fall. A full supporter of the 3-perforation format, ARRI Munich's rental department proved to be one of the best sources of 3-perforation camera equipment in Europe. By the end of each shooting day the film footage was sent to the ARRI Lab in Munich for processing and then passed on to their post facility for transfer to the 25pHD format. The Sound and Picture Post Production of the film was to take place in Europe so the initial telecine transfer was made at 25fps. This facilitated the down covert to 25fps PAL AVID cassettes and made the later sound post easier. The 25p HD material was then compressed into 24p HD MPEG2 data format using technology ARRI had just acquired from Cohen Communications/Heuris, which is a leading provider for HD dailies solutions. Brian Quandt, President of Heuris traveled to Munich and Budapest to assist in the installation of the new encoding and playback systems.

The HD MPEG 2 data was in a 25Mb/sec file format, synchronized with metadata from the telecine session by the Heuris RUSHPLAY software and shipped on USB 2.0 Drives. ARRI provided software that transformed the 25fps FLEX file into a 24fps ALE file. The hard disc drives were flown to Budapest and projected for cast and crew using the Cohen Communications/Heuris HD Dailies System and a JVC G-150CL DILA digital projector. The fact that these dailies were coming off a hard drive meant they had full random access to scenes in any order desired. "What was truly exceptional with Underworld," says McQuaide, "was that it was the first time we'd used the drive-based dailies system from beginning to end. To be able to sort in any manner imaginable (i.e., take, camera, etc.) and skip from take to take, day to day, not only expedited dailies screenings—which on a film with days as long as ours was a godsend—but turned these screenings into the kind of decision-making sessions usually reserved for the Avid."

Meanwhile standard definition MPEG2 files were also sent over the Internet via FTP to Lakeshore Entertainment’s headquarters in Los Angeles, so that the Lakeshore execs could see the dailies a day or two faster than would have been possible if film or tape media had to be shipped to them all the way from Munich.