RaveHD used for STARSHIP TROOPERS 2

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 SpectSoft's RaveHD helps bring Tippett Studio's "Starship Troopers 2: Hero
of
 the Federation" to life!

 Oakdale, Ca. - April 6, 2004 -- SpectSoft, LLC today revealed that the
 upcoming film, "Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation", used the
 SpectSoft RaveHD system in the production pipeline at the famed Tippett
 Studio. "Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation" is a sequel to the
 original "Starship Troopers" and is the first film directed by Tippett
Studio
 founder and visual effects legend Phil Tippett -- a man who has won Best
 Visual Effects Oscars for films like Jurassic Park and Star Wars: Return of
 the Jedi.

 Early during the planning phase of the movie, it was decided to shoot the
 movie completely digital - yet another first for Tippett. It was at this
point
 that Tippett Studio decided to utilize RaveHD to capture all the visual
 effects plates for the entire film. One major concern was the fact that,
since
 the movie was shot with both the Sony Cinealta and Panasonic Varicam HD
 cameras, Tippett would need a system that worked in both 1080p24 and 720p60
 formats used in each of the differing cameras. RaveHD was able to fulfill
this
 requirement as it has complete HD (1080p24/25/30 and 720p60) and Varicam
 (Active Frame Flagging) support.

 Over the course of the eight month post production process, visual effects
 plates were captured as sequential images onto the local disk array and
 exported via NFS, the standard Unix file sharing method, into the Tippett
 workflow. The images were then converted from the native Rec.709 Y'CbCr HD
 color space into a floating point RGB color space designed by Tippett for
use
 by their artists.

 Since the plan for the film was a direct-to-video route, Tippett decided to
 final the visual effects shots as high definition video with the RaveHD
box.
 This process consisted of rendering out at 1080p24 and converting back from
 the Tippett floating point format back down to Rec. 709 Y'CbCr. Again, the
 frames were moved onto the box via NFS onto the disk array. Once on the
array
 the clips were immediately playable.

 "Taking on Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation was a challenge for
 Tippett Studio. We had no infrastructure to deal with HD plates and the
 production was going to use both the Sony CineAlta and the Panasonic
Varicam
 systems.", comments Dan McNamara, Head or Operations at Tippett Studio,
 "Because the project was low budget we needed a HD DDR system that was
 flexible and cost effective. After evaluating the existing DDRs and looking
 into building something in-house we decided that going with the SpectSoft
 RaveHD system was the way to go".

 RaveHD is a second generation, open source, Linux based, hybrid digital
disk
 drive recorder and video editor geared toward the high end film and
graphics
 industries. It utilizes open standards and protocols to achieve a products
 that is elegant, easy to integrate, and totally customizable. It features a
 data agnostic core that allows it to work with today's uncompressed
standard
 and high definition video as well as tomorrow's super high datarate video!

 With features like frame oriented, standard file system storage and
 centralized database asset tracking, RaveHD is the first DDR to really
focus
 on the problems faced in working with film. Other features like RP188
 (embedded timecode), Varicam support, real time color correction,
programmable
 cadence (2:3, 3:2:3, 2:3:3:2, etc), and RS422 machine control are standard
as
 well. For more information on RaveHD, visit: http://www.rave-hd.com

 About Tippett Studio: Located in Berkeley, Calif., Tippett Studio was
founded
 in 1983 by Phil Tippett and his partner, Tippett Studio President, Jules
 Roman. The studio employs more than 225 artists, craftsmen and engineers. A
 visual effects and animation studio for feature films and award-winning
 television commercials, Tippett Studio has received Academy Award
nominations
 in visual effects for Starship Troopers, Dragonheart, Willow, Dragonslayer,
 and Hollow Man, and won numerous awards for its "Carl & Ray Pet Shop
Campaign"
 for Blockbuster Entertainment. Tippett Studio has also received an Academy
 Award for Technical Achievement for the development of a Digital-Input
Device
 for motion capture. Phil Tippett won two Academy Awards for visual effects
on
 Return of the Jedi and Jurassic Park and two Emmys for Dinosaur! and Ewoks:
 The Battle for Endor. The studio is also preparing to expand into producing
 full-length animated feature films and mixed live-action and CGI features.
For
 more information on Tippett Studio, visit: http://www.tippett.com

 About SpectSoft, LLC: Founded in 1997 to specialize in Linux-based software
 for use in the film, media, and broadcast industries, SpectSoft has quickly
 become a leading industry innovator. Since it's inception, SpectSoft has
 worked on technical projects with some of the industries biggest and
brightest
 companies like Dreamworks Animation (Glendale, CA) and Tippett Studio
 (Berkeley, CA) that both pushed the envelope and furthered the state of the
 art in the film pipeline process. Throughout the years, SpectSoft has been
 able to maintain a relatively small footprint, the family values, and
 ownership that make it so unique. For more information on SpectSoft, visit:
 http://www.spectsoft.com

 ###








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