The move is designed to widen the range of Korda's (www.kordastudio.hu) services. A production shooting in its Etyek-based studios will now be able to send its high-resolution masters (HD, 2K and 4K) via optical fibre connection to Budapest for the rushes to be scanned and transferred at Colorfront, and receive the corrected moving images on the same high-speed broadband link.
The Budapest branch of digital intermediate (DI) and visual effects post (VFX) facility, Colorfront (www.colorfront.com) was founded in September by Hungarian brothers Mark and Aron Jaszberenyi, known for developing a color manipulation technology that was used for digital grading on The Lord of the Rings.
They also developed a digital intermediate system, Autodesk Lustre (Autodesk acquired Colorfront's intellectual property in 2005) which was used on high-profile blockbusters such as Pirates of the Caribbean and King Kong. It is now the leading DI technology with more than 200 systems in use worldwide. Colorfront offers film scanning and recording, DI grading, digital dailies, online and offline editing, VFX, and cinema sound mixing and mastering, among other services.
However, Universal executive (www.universalpictures.com) Chris Symes, who whose Hellboy II: The Golden Army just completed principal photographyat the new Korda Studios, will not be making use of the offer. The studios, 25 kilometres outside of Budapest in Etyek, was launched in June with the shooting of Hellboy II.
"Post-production usually moves to the U.K. because it is a way to access financing there," he told FNE.
Since the Jaszberenyis set up shop in Budapest, they've been also negotiating with UK post houses wishing to outsource. Colorfront fills a market niche in that there is apparently no similar post facility in a 1,500-mile radius in Europe.
Other notable companies offering visual effect, post-production and laboratory services in Hungary are FocusFox (www.focusfox.hu), the Hungarian Film Laboratory (or Magyar Filmlabor, www.filmlab.hu) and VFX facility Cube FX.
