Lowry Digital Helps Bring Benjamin Button Fantasy to Life

Film Garners 13 Oscar® Nominations

BURBANK, Calif., January 23, 2009 — Lowry Digital recently collaborated with award-winning director David Fincher on Paramount Pictures’ epic feature film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Lowry’s proprietary image processing techniques were utilized to fine tune the movie’s images; balance the look of film, digital capture and visual effects work; reduce noise; and bring out subtle details in the visuals.

“As the creative community continues to accept new media methods for their creative options, early adopters of electronic capture understand its advantages, but sometimes encounter limitations and compromises inherent in this developing technology,” says Lowry Digital’s Alan Silvers. “That creates a compelling need for Lowry Digital’s proprietary image processing, which is custom designed to compute away artifacts, manage grain and noise levels, expand dynamic range, and find and reveal greater picture detail – typical challenges that arise from electronic capture.”

Benjamin Button was captured on a Thomson/Grass Valley Viper FilmStream and Sony F23 HD camera, as well as 35 mm film. The images were delivered to Lowry Digital after an initial color correction pass at MPI. Patrick Cooper, Lowry’s supervising imaging specialist, employed automated processing that eliminated any noise, flicker or artifacts.

“We enhanced the pictures to achieve the desired amount of sharpness and noise throughout the film,” says Cooper. “Anytime you’re shooting in a variety of situations, there will be differences in detail and noise or grain levels, and we smooth those out by engaging a variety of settings and parameters we’ve developed. Afterwards, the files were sent back to MPI, where final color correction was performed.”

Benjamin Button Post Supervisor Peter Mavromates adds, “Even if David had shot all of Benjamin Button on film, he would have wanted to do the Lowry processing because it unifies the visual palette, making it more consistent. This film covers eight decades and jumps to different places on the planet, so the goal was not to unify everything; it was more about unifying certain sections of the story.”

Visual effects shots were also processed at Lowry Digital to remove noise and flicker, and adjust for consistent sharpness levels. Those sequences were then returned to the visual effects pipeline, where keying and compositing is easier with a noise-free image. Later, the composited effects have the desired noise added back in.

Cooper notes that the re-introduction of noise and the adjustment of sharpness levels require judging the images by eye, which was done to standards determined by preliminary testing and discussions with Fincher and Mavromates.

Lowry originally collaborated with Fincher on the 2007 feature film Zodiac. “When he saw that we could help unify the look of mixed media capture, and bring out fine detail that traditional noise reduction would just crush away, we became part of their standard workflow,” adds Silvers.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is nominated for 13 Academy Awards, 11 BAFTA Awards, an American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Award, and has received much critical praise and other industry recognition. Fincher was also named best director by the National Board of Review, and has been nominated by his peers in the Directors Guild of America as well as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

“Lowry Digital provides leading-edge noise reduction, detail enhancement and artifact removal postproduction services to all varieties of entertainment imaging,” says Lowry Digital’s Chief Operating Officer Mike Inchalik. “We specialize in the restoration and remastering of classic movies, the rejuvenation of classic television programming, the improvement of problematic footage from current movies or television programming, and the polishing of a wide range of content for Blu-ray, broadcast and download. To have had the privilege of working end-to-end on a new release of the caliber of Benjamin Button represents a significant milestone for us.”

Kees Van Oostrum, ASC, who develops membership programming for the American Society of Cinematographers and serves on the organization’s Board, comments, “Benjamin Button represents a turning point for me regarding the possibilities for digital cinematography. The final imagery sets a new standard of beauty and artistic use of a digital workflow.”

About Lowry Digital

Lowry Digital is a state-of-the-art postproduction resource that utilizes proprietary image processing science to deliver superior picture elements for a wide range of content owners and producers. Applications include film restorations, emergency image repair, digital blow-ups and digital intermediate enhancements. The company’s unique technology – The Lowry Process™ – is used to create unsurpassed image quality at every stage of the workflow for all outputs, including film, broadcast television, commercials, digital cinema, Blu-ray, or web-based video. Lowry Digital is a subsidiary of Adlabs Films Ltd., India, and a member of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. For more information, visit www.lowrydigital.com.

About Adlabs Films Ltd.

Adlabs Films Limited (www.adlabsfilms.com), a member of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, is India’s fastest growing film and entertainment services company. Adlabs has a dominant and comprehensive presence in film services: motion picture processing and DI, film restoration, digital mastering, studios and equipment rentals. Its facilities are spread across India and the United States.

Adlabs is also India's largest cinema chain with about 400 screens spread across India, the U.S. and Malaysia. It has a significant presence in the film distribution space with a nationwide presence across India as well as offices in London, New York, Los Angeles and Malaysia. Adlabs' television venture, Synergy Adlabs, is among the top players in the television programming industry.