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Technical and Creative Infrastructure
High-tech Infrastructure and Equipment
What do international feature and television films like JAMES BOND - QUANTUM OF SOLACE, BRIDGET JONES: THE EDGE OF REASON, XXX, JAMES BOND – THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS, NAPOLEON, BEFORE SUNRISE and SEVEN YEARS IN TIBET have in common? They were all either completely or partly shot in Austria.
Austria as a film location offers a comprehensive technical infrastructure that meets the highest industry standards. Professional film and video cameras, lighting, rails, dollies, cranes, motion control, sound equipment, as well as services like film processing, scanning, tape-to-film transfer, video and film post production, computer animation, special effects, film compositing, TV-transcoding, and mass copying of videos are services available.
There are plenty of properly trained and experienced professionals in all specialty areas. Austria is a high-tech country and its creative talent has kept up with the furious pace of technical developments over the years – in some cases Austrians are even ahead of the curve. Some representative examples include Fritz Gabriel Bauer developed the revolutionary 35mm Moviecam camera, for which he has received three of the prestigious Technical Oscars from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. The Austrian company Brains & Pictures has created a series of innovative movie-tech gadgets: the remote-controlled wire-cam CAMCAT, a cable car system sought after internationally by sports and cultural events broadcasters and used on the HARRY POTTER set. In addition, Brains & Pictures invented a special 35mm timelapse camera.
Furthermore, Austria can claim some TV-tech innovations: The ORF (Austrian Broadcasting Corporation) was the first European public television channel to broadcast Dolby Digital programming when airing the 2003 New Year’s Concert live from Vienna. Even the environment profits from Austria’s technical innovations: The Vienna-based film and video service company Synchro, was the first company in the world to use recyclable liquid chemicals for film processing.
Equipment Rental
Most Austrian film equipment rental companies provide convenient one-stop shopping: An assortment of electronic cameras in all currently used formats (Beta SP, Beta SX, Digital Betacam, DVCPRO, MII, etc.) can be rented as well as sound equipment such as Magras, mixers and microphones, tripods, lighting equipment and broadcast vans, all from one company.
A number of rental companies are specialized in the areas of lighting (HMI, lighting units, stage spotlights, control systems, etc.), or camera support systems (cranes, dollies, car rigs, etc.), audio equipment (from high quality studio equipment to PA systems), or stage presentation technology (e.g. video projectors, monitor walls, stages, big screens etc.).
Film: Materials and Labs
Suppliers are concentrated in Vienna. A Kodak branch is located in Vienna where all types of commonly used film stock (color-negative, Super-16mm, 35mm, black and white) is available.
Major labs in Vienna provide film processing and scanning. In addition, these companies offer facilities for digital video editing, screening rooms, non-linear editing, compositing, and 2D/3D computer animation.
Post Production
Austrian post production companies have established an exemplary international reputation. Facilities with state-of-the art hardware and software have found as much recognition as the highly-skilled Austrian film and sound editors and 3D specialists. Bernd Angerer from the Tirol, former Lead Character Animator for the California Special Effects Factory Digital Domain and now Art Director at Sony Pictures, was responsible for the virtual passengers in James Cameron’s TITANIC, and worked on other blockbusters such as I, ROBOT and the SPIDERMAN franchise. In the area of feature film, the post production for Michael Haneke’s successful French-Austrian production THE PIANO TEACHER was handled in Vienna.
In the area of commercial film production, the telecommunications giant Hutchinson contracted a Vienna-company for the 3D-animation for their commercial spots.
Sound Studios
Austria’s largest state-of-the art sound studios, some of which are registered users of THX and Dolby Digital, are in Vienna. In addition, there are a number of other digitally equipped studios throughout Austria that provide high quality work and are geared toward international productions. The range of services covers professional film sound mixing in Dolby Digital, Dolby Surround, 2-channel stereo and mono, voice and sound effect synchronization, 16mm, 35mm and DigiBeta projection.
Authors: Gerry Weichselbaum, journalist, and Ernst Pohn, journalist of the Austrian trade publication media biz
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