New Logo Program Will Highlight Workflow Support in Products and Services Across the Industry

The Academy Color Encoding System (ACES), designed to preserve the creative decisions made by filmmakers throughout the production, post-production and archival process, launched today.

At the same time, a new ACES Logo Program has been introduced to highlight support for the system across the industry, from cameras to color-correction. Companies that have joioned the ACES Logo Program include ARRI, Assimilate, Autodesk, Canon U.S.A., Codex, Colorfront, Deluxe Media Creative Services, Digital Vision, Dolby Laboratories, FilmLight, FotoKem, The Foundry, Fujifilm North America, Light Illusion, MTI Film, Panasonic, Pomfort, Quantel, Red Digital Cinema, SGO, Shotgun Digital and Sony Electronics.

Productions that have used the ACES workflow to date include the feature films ChappieThe Lego Movie, Big Eyes, and Oblivion. StudioDaily originally reported on ACES back in 2011, when an episode of Justified shot by Francis Kenny, ASC, became the first TV program to be created using an ACES workflow. It was the initial culmination of an effort that had begun approximately five years earlier.

"A decade ago, the Academy recognized the need for a new set of infrastructure standards as the industry moved from film to digital," said Richard Edlund, Academy governor and founding member of the Academy's Science and Technology Council, in a prepared statement. "We made a deep commitment to the effort—coordinating hundreds of top industry scientists, engineers and filmmakers on years of research, testing and field trials—so we're both proud and excited to launch ACES 1.0 as the first production-ready release of the system."

 The open system for color management and image interchange will enjoy a coming-out party at NAB, where the Academy will exhibit in booth C9132. Two ACES presentations will be part of the conference. On Saturday, April 11, at 4:15 p.m., Science and Technology Council Managing Director Andy Maltz will present "The Academy Color Encoding System: A Digital Production Infrastructure Standard" as part of the Technology Summit on Cinema. And on Tuesday, April 14, at 3 p.m., an NAB Creative Master Series panel session titled "Coming to You Live: ACES 1.0" will discuss how speakers used ACES to manage complex issues on movie and television projects.