Press Release

Film and digital lab FotoKem is boosting its image processing and color correction capacity with the addition of a second Quantel Pablo Suite, responding to rising demand for digital intermediate work on feature films and trailers.
“We do digital intermediate for feature film and a tremendous amount of trailer work,” says Bill Schultz, Senior Vice President and General Manager of FotoKem Digital Film Services. “Pablo is the ideal system for the kind of quick yet sophisticated image processing we do on a constant basis for our clients.”
When FotoKem acquired its first Pablo Suite two months ago, it decided at that time to also convert its existing Quantel iQ system to a second full-blown Pablo Suite. This was a major undertaking; the Pablo Suite is based on all-new hardware, including disk architecture and media processing. “It’s a forklift upgrade for our original iQ system,” Schultz explains.
Quantel’s Pablo combines powerful, new-generation image-processing hardware with highly versatile color correction software in a totally integrated color grading environment. It was designed by colorists for colorists and builds on Quantel’s ground-breaking QColor in-context grading option for iQ and eQ. Pablo’s intuitive heads-up interface and vast toolset make color correction a fast, creative and highly versatile process.
Because the Pablo Suite is built on the foundations of Quantel’s eQ and iQ systems, it is also a complete digital intermediate system with a proven a business model. The Pablo Suite also taps the enormous extra power and creative tools of Quantel’s new Eiger hardware and software, and the revolutionary Time Magic facility, which takes the waiting out of rendering.
Quantel’s color correction toolset was used by FotoKem on such films as Lord of War, The Lords of Dogtown, Serenity, The Devils Rejects and Hoodwinked.

“FotoKem’s decision to upgrade to Pablo is based on the increased demand for digital intermediate for features and tremendous amount of new trailer work,” says Schulz. He adds that Pablo will be used immediately on projects for Universal, Sony Pictures and Warner Bros., among others.
Each Pablo suite can be loaded with several projects simultaneously. With multiple shifts of digital artists working around the clock, Pablo can greatly contribute to volume of work FotoKem produces, and to the facility’s overall efficiency. Now with two Pablo Suites in-house, “we can work on even more projects at the same time,” notes Schultz.
“Pablo is a tremendous color correction system,” he adds. “It also has advanced conform capability, and Quantel’s QScribe provides a useful graphics adjunct. One of the best features of iQ is that it’s an integrated solution for virtually all the needs of trailer production or DI. No other machine out there is as full-featured as this.”
With the addition of the second Quantel Pablo suite, FotoKem becomes an undisputed leader in the digital film community. “It definitely puts us at the top of the scene in terms of technical quality and it allows FotoKem to provide the best creative experience for our clients,” says Schultz.