Filmlook is the name of a form of image processing used on television programs, established in 1989. Since 1992, Filmlook, Inc. is also the corporate name of the post-production company which invented the process.
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In 1986, company founder Robert Faber began researching the differences between the qualities of film processed in telecine and standard videotape. His findings were that there are three main film aspects to isolate and reproduce for video: motion characteristics, contrasting and grayscale and grain pattern.
He began developing the actual design for the Filmlook process and built the prototype in 1988. The process was first unveiled at an open house presentation held at the Sheraton Universal Hotel (then the Registry Hotel) in Universal City, California in January 1989.
The basic idea of Filmlook is to give productions shot on videotape the look of film origination, and is intended on being money and time-saving alternative to shooting productions on film.
The Filmlook process affects three main features to achieve the appearance of film: motion characteristics, gray scale/contrast and grain pattern. By altering the gray scale, color and contrast, the video mimics the typical film characteristics and is given the vibrant feel of film.
Invented in 1989, the Filmlook image processing was first used in a test run in a 1991 episode of the ABC sitcom Growing Pains titled "Not With My Carol You Don't". However, the first television series to regularly use Filmlook was Beakman's World, a kid-oriented science series which ran from 1992–1996 on CBS. In 1995, Filmlook was used on the LL Cool J sitcom In the House. However, when the series moved from NBC to UPN in 1996, the series began using unprocessed video.
In recent years, Filmlook has become known for its use on nearly all Disney Channel Original Series made from 2002 to 2008 (except Phil of the Future which was shot on film). That's So Raven, which at one point was the channel's most-watched series, was the first Disney Channel show to use the processing. Since then, four other original series on the channel have had their taped product processed by the company: The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Hannah Montana, That's So Raven spinoff Cory in the House and The Suite Life on Deck. Filmlook processing has also been used on segments within the Nickelodeon series "The Amanda Show" for commercial parodies and the mock teen series "Moody's Point."
Some of the drawbacks to Filmlook process are it can be incompatible with some visual effects and it cannot process interlaced HD based material. The Disney Channel sitcom Wizards of Waverly Place, which heavily uses visual effects due to the show centering on three teen siblings with magical abilities, is the most obvious example. The show used the Filmlook imaging in the first three episodes produced: "You Can't Always Get What You Carpet" (possibly intended as the pilot but aired as the sixth episode), "Crazy Ten Minute Sale" (the first aired episode), and "First Kiss" (which was aired second), except for scenes that contained visual effects. All episodes produced afterward until the final episode of its second season had used the 30P frame rate, making Wizards the only videotaped Disney Channel sitcom to debut between 2003 and 2008 not using the Filmlook imaging regularly (though this changed when Wizards began production of its third season, which uses a 'filmized' appearance that has already been implemented on fellow Disney Channel series Sonny with a Chance and The Suite Life on Deck, as Disney's returning pre-2008 sitcoms convert to HD after 2009).
†Denotes series that were previously or otherwise broadcast with unprocessed video.