Filmlook, Inc.

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This article focuses on the Burbank, California company. For the general video technique used by Filmlook, Inc. see Film look.

FILMLOOK Inc. is a post-production company based in Burbank, California.[1] Established in 1992, it specializes in a form of image processing used on television programs, commonly known as film look. The company has won an Emmy Award for its technical achievements.[2]

History

In 1987, company founder Robert Faber began developing the company's process.[3] By 1989, the company was founded and introduced to the industry.[4]

Details

The Filmlook process affects three main features to achieve the appearance of film: motion characteristics, gray scale/contrast, and grain pattern.

  • Motion characteristics – With some video cameras, you see 60 interlaced pictures per second versus 24 in film. The Filmlook process attempts to replicate the feel of film. Newer digital cameras can shoot at a progressive 24 frames per second.
  • Greyscale/contrast – Filmlook alters the gray scale, color, and contrast to approximate the typical film characteristic – the "film density curve".
  • Simulation of grain pattern – A generated grain pattern that can be varied in intensity and attempts to imitate film grain by remaining static for the duration of each (imaginary) film frame (two or three fields).[5]

Background

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).

List of television productions that use/have used Filmlook

This film, television or video-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it with reliably sourced additions.

†Denotes series that were previously or otherwise broadcast with unprocessed video.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Watson, Jack (August 31, 1995). "Hellooo, Dolly!". MovieMaker. 
  2. ↑ staff (September 1, 1992). "1992 Emmy Winners". New York Times. 
  3. ↑ http://www.filmlook.com/
  4. ↑ http://www.filmlook.com/
  5. ↑ http://www.filmlook.com/

External links

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