IVC DIGITAL FILM CENTER, a Point.360 Company, provided the Digital Intermediate (DI) and filmout services for the theatrical and DVD releases of the critically acclaimed and edgy comedy film, Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic.
Sarah Silverman is outrageous, brilliant and painfully funny in her skewering of subjects that might ordinarily be deemed as taboo and off-limits, offering viewers an opportunity to laugh at things without guilt or repercussion. The New Yorker called her, “the hippest comic working today.” Written by Sarah Silverman and directed by Liam Lynch, the release of the DVD will mark a significant benchmark in her career and will be available from Visual Entertainment in its original unrated, uncut, theatrical version for $26.99 on June 6, 2006.
Los Angeles-based Roadside Attractions handled the theatrical release of Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic and tapped the talent and technology of IVC’s Digital Intermediate (DI) infrastructure to prepare the film for its run, which began in late 2005 and still continues in select markets. Eric d'Arbeloff, Co-President of Roadside Attractions, says, "IVC's proprietary Digital Filmout was part of the magic of the theatrical release of Sarah's movie, especially considering the film was shot in standard definition video, the color and sharpness of the images are some of the best we've seen. The film went out on sixty prints, all made directly from the IVC filmout negative. It did very well at the box office, and there's no question the press attention it received theatrically was far greater than if it had gone directly to DVD. We look forward to the opportunity of using IVC’s DI filmout system on future projects."
Director of Photography, Rhet Bear, said, “I was blown away by the overall technical quality of the filmout.” The standard definition original edit was converted by IVC to a High Definition D5 23.98 DI master, using proprietary video noise reduction and other enhancement processing to further improve picture quality. Before the filmout, the final color correction and look was done in IVC’s DI Mastering Theater, which is equipped with a Barco DP-100 cinema projector, a DaVinci 2K color corrector, a 24′ screen and surround sound. Necessary corrections were easily seen on the large screen and made expediently. The theater DI is matched to the filmout system and the film stock selected. In the case of Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic, Kodak 35mm color intermediate Estar stock, Type 2242, was used to create the fine grain “original” negative for both the feature and its trailer.
The heart of IVC’s proprietary digital filmout system is the only film recorder currently available that is optimized for taking High Definition 23.98 / 24p content (HD 24p 4:2:2 -or- 4:4:4) directly to 35mm. No scaling is involved and each pixel of a High Definition image is transferred to film with maximum sharpness and minimum flare. The facility’s proprietary look-up tables also ensure that the filmout negative will accurately reproduce the color that was originally set by the colorist. The digital filmout system was originally conceived by IVC founder and noted video engineer Ken Holland, and developed by Chief Engineer Jim James. Two complete systems are now in-place at the facility.
“For the independent producer and filmmaker, an IVC HD DI delivers an exemplary and lower-cost filmout, as opposed to the time and expense of working in 2K,” concludes Haig Bagerdjian, CEO of Point.360. “Our process is ideal for titles that are character or narrative driven, such as Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic. We welcomed the acclaim for the theatrical release and look forward to success of the DVD.”