Library General
History:
Last Updated
January 31, 2010
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| 1838 | Charles Wheatstone is the first to describe Stereopsis and explain binocular 3D vision. He created stereo drawings and the first Stereoscope to view them with. | ||
1880 |
Frenchman Maurice LeBlanc describes a mechanical scanning system using mirrors for telegraphic transfer of an image. | ||
| 1884 | German engineer Paul Nipkow discloses details of his spinning disc that contained small holes around the perimeter, which could scan a still picture on to a light sensitive cell as a series of lines. Nipkow was the first person to realise that moving pictures might one day be scanned line by line, fast enough to take advantage of the persistence of vision. |
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1892-1896
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Edison's Kinetoscope, the first modern cinematic machine to employ film arranged images in a loop.
The earliest Edison motion pictures were filmed at
the "Black Maria", which was a film studio built in 1893. |
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| 1894 | British William Friese-Greene files a patent for a 3-D movie process using two films projected side by side on screen while the viewer looks through a stereoscope to converge the two images. | ||
| 1922 | "The Power of Love" shown in Los Angeles and is the first 3-D movie shown to a commercial audience. | ||
| 1927 | Baird Television Ltd is founded. The company eventually becomes Cintel. Baird patents the worlds first ever Video Recording, on a 78rpm, 10 inch shellac gramophone record. | ||
1928
1933 |
John Logie Baird and the German Post Office, commence a series of regular television broadcasts using a flying spot system that he had invented. The black and white images had a resolution of 30 lines and were transmitted at 5 frames per second. John Logie Baird first descriobes his flying spot system in the BBC Annual Report |
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| 1937 | John Logie Baird publicly demonstrates two color, 120 line television system (British) Television Advisory Committee drop the Baird mechanical system in favour of the electronic Marconi-EMI system which broadcast 405 lines at 25 frames a second. |
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| 1938 | John Logie Baird introduces the world’s first telecine to scan film for television broadcast. Amongst other things it used a Farnsworth Image Dissector and gears from a Mecanno set. | ||
| 1940 | Baird Television Ltd goes into receivership, but a new company Cinema Television is formed. The name eventually gets shortened to Cintel. | ||
| 1946 | Cinema Television produce the first 35mm Twin Lens Continuous Motion Flying Spot Telecine - the Mark 1. It runs at 25fps to avoid visual hum, and so cannot be sold in the USA. The twin lens is needed to scan each frame twice, to get 2 fields of video. | ||
| 1950 | The first flying spot telecine is installed at the BBC's Lime Grove studios | ||
| 1956 | April 14, 1956 Ampex demonstrate the first VTR, the VRX-1000. at the National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters Convention. The VRX-1000 was renamed the Mark IV and sold briskly at $50,000. There is a 1958 version of the VRX-1000 on show in the reception of DR Byen, a television broadcaster in Copenhagen, Denmark. |  |
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| 1964 | Cintel Ltd produce a 16mm Telecine - The Mk II. 16mm was commonly used for news gathering. | ||
| 1967 | BBC begins the first color TV broadcasts in the UK on BBC2 | ||
| 1969 | BBC1 and ITV switch to color transmissions in the UK on 15 November | ||
| 1971 | Sony U-matic vtr introduced | ||
| 1975 | George Lucas opens Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) to work on the effects for the Star Wars films | ||
| 1975 | Rank Cintel Ltd launches Mk III flying spot telecine. Revolutionary benefits include 525 and 625 line operation and 16mm and 35mm film on the same continuous motion transport. |
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| 1978 | Rank Cintel Ltd introduces TOPSY, a remote control programming system the Mk III telecine. | ||
| 1979 | Bosche launches fdl 60 CCD line array telecine. | The telecine I trained on, back at Telecine Ltd. London. | |
| 1980 | VTA develop the Wiz color corrector, which became da Vinci Classic | ||
| 1983 | Amigo, a highly sophisticated controller and pre-programmer for the Mk III is launched | ||
| 1983 | Sony Betacam vtr launched | ||
| 1984 | da Vinci Classic color corrector launched | ... and my secoond color corrector | |
| 1986 | Imax starts showing non fiction films in 3D | ||
| 1987 | Sony D1 digital component vtr introduced | The begining of uncompressed digital! | |
| 1987 | Rank Cintel Ltd. launches Digiscan 4:2:2 to give digital outputs from the Mk III telecine. | ||
| 1988 | Digital Vision formed. | They revolutionizedreal-time noise reduction. Many of us believe they have always been the best. | |
| 1989 | The all-digital Rank Cintel Ltd URSA telecine makes its first appearance, at Montreux, with simultaneous launches in New York and Los Angeles. Rank Cintel Ltd tried unsuccesfully to force customers to use their purpose built ARCAS grading system to control it. ARCAS was never popular and failed to rival the big two hardware telecine controlers from da Vinci and Pandora. | I moved to SVC Ltd. London to work on the second URSA to be delivered. This was truly a major advance in telecine technology. The Ursa was probably the first telecine that transferred negative and inter-positive films without difficulty. | |
| 1989 | da Vinci introduces Kilovectors | This was a major feature set back then, everybody else was limited to 6 secondaries. | |
| 1990 | The Rescuers Down Under – First complete feature-length film to be recorded to film from digital files; in this case animation assembled on computers. | ||
| 1991 | Apple launches Quicktime |  |
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| 1991 | da Vinci launches 888 digital color corrector for SD video | Not the first digital color corrector in the world (that was Copernicus) but it was my first. | |
| 1991 | Bosche launches fdl 90 CCD line array telecine. |  |
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| 1992 | EFilm used their proprietary film recording technology on Disney's Honey I Blew up the Kids | ||
| 1992 | da Vinci introduces Power Windows and Custom Curves | Soft edged windows! How on earth did we get by without them? | |
| 1992 | Rob Lingelbach starts the Telecine Internet Group (TIG), a mailing list dedicated to active colorists and telecine engineers. The TIG is still probably the best resource available for colorists, those who wish to be colorists and those who want to be colorists |  |
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| 1993 | Sony Digital Betacam vtr launched. | ||
| 1993 | Rank Cintel Ltd. introduces URSA Gold. |
I worked on a proto type Ursa Gold with guru Paul Grace at Rushes, London | |
| 1993 | Rank Cintel Mk III HD high definition telecine goes into service at Universal Studios in Hollywood. | ||
| 1993 | Kodak introduce Cineon for 2k and 4k digital intermediate work. The system includes a film scanner, workstation and film recorder.
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| 1993 | Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – First film to be entirely scanned to digital files, manipulated, and recorded back to film. The restoration project was done entirely at 4K resolution and 10-bit color depth using the new Cineon system to digitally remove dirt and scratches and restore faded colors. | ||
| 1993 | Quantel launch Domino a complete digital film in, film out editing and effects system. It is criticized for being only 8 bits but is an affordable alternative to Kodaks Cineon. | ||
| 1994 | da Vinci wholly aquire Time Logic which make the best telecine to tape controler on the market. The product is known as the TLC (Time Logic Controller) and is integrated into the new DUI interface | ||
| 1994 | BTS, formerly Bosch, introduces flh 1000 HD a revolutionary new High Definition CCD telecine that will become the Spirit. | ||
| 1995 | da Vinci launches DUI interface for 888 color systems. The upgrade replaces the on board CPU with an SGI Indy computer. The Indy later became obsolete and was replaced by the SGI O2, which was affectionately known as the Toaster. | I was a beta tester for the DUI while at Online Video in Zurich. |
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| 1996 | Philips in collaboration with Kodak introduce the Spirit Datacine for SD, HD and data | Up until now Rank Cintel had monopolized commercial facilities. Spirit changed all that. | |
| 1997 | Sony HDCam vtr launched. | ||
| 1997 | Rank Cintel Ltd. introduces URSA Diamond. | ||
| 1997 | Kodak discontinue Cineon. However the file format .cin and its derivative .dpx continue to be used as the most common format for digital intermediate systems | ||
| 1998 | Pleasantville – The first time the majority of a new feature film was scanned, processed, and recorded digitally. The black-and-white meets color world portrayed in the movie was filmed entirely in color and selectively desaturated and contrast adjusted digitally. | ||
| 1998 | da Vinci introduces the 2Kcolor corrector for SD, HD and data.It is controlled by an SGI O2 computer. |  |
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| 1998 | da Vinci Academy formed by Kevin Shaw | I had been doing da Vinci training for many years, and in 1998 they invited me to Florida to start up a dedicated colorist training facility. | |
| 1999 | ILM develop OpenEXR, a multi channel 16 bit half float file format | ||
| 1999 | da Vinci announces Power Tiers for 2K systems | Read Layer It to learn more about Tiers, Channels and Layers | |
| 1999 | Philips, formerly BTS, formerly Bosch, introduces Specter as the first virtual telecine | Hardware DI. | |
| 1999 | Sony launch the Vialta Telecine. Multi format (16 mm, S16 mm, 35 mm, S 35 mm), multi standard (601 SDTV, HDTV and data) field array ccd device with internal primary color correction. Formerly known as FVS 1000. Ceased production around 2004. | ||
| 2000 | da Vinci adds Defocus options to 2K systems | ||
| 2000 | Philips announces voodoo VTR | ||
| 2000 | Quantel launch the IQ platform, a hardware system for editing, compositing and grading SD, HD and digital film. | ||
| 2000 | O Brother, Where Art Thou? – The first time a digital intermediate was used on the entirety of a first-run Hollywood film which otherwise had very few visual effects. The work was done in Los Angeles by Cinesite utilizing a Spirit Datacine for scanning at 2K resolution, a Pandora MegaDef to adjust the color and a Kodak Lightning II recorder to output to film. |  |
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| 2001 | da Vinci introduces PowerGrade (a memory library) and Gallery (a built in still store) | This was all my idea, and I later got a similar feature into Film Master | |
| 2001 | 5D launches Colossus software color correction licensed from Colorfront after it has been used to grade Lord of the Rings part 1, aka The Fellowship of the Ring | This was the first time hardware colorists realized that software was coming... | |
| 2001 | Cintel, formerly Rank Cintel, launches OSCAR a revolutionary optical dust and scratch removal system for their telecines. The product is later renamed OLIVER after complaints from the OSCAR awards people. | ||
| 2002 | Thomson, formerly Philips, formerly BTS, formerly Bosch, launches Viper electronic camera with 4:4:4 log output | ||
| 2002 | da Vinci 2K Plus color corrector introduced It is controlled by a Linux computer and has significantly better Primaries and secondaries. | da Vinci fix many of the flaws in the 2k. Now the best hardware color corrector that will ever be built | |
| 2002 | da Vinci adds Colorist Toolbox for all 2K systems | ||
| 2002 | Cintel launches DSX - the worlds first 4K data-cine, which includes Oliver, formerly OSCAR optical dust and scratch removal. Cintel International acquires the assets of competitor Innovation TK including the Millennium data-cine | ||
| 2002 | Cintel acquires the assets of competitor Innovation TK including the Millennium data-cine | ||
| 2002 | 5D ceases trading, Colorfront continue | ||
| 2003 | Sony HDCam SR vtr launched. | ||
| 2003 | Apple FCP introduces 3 way color tool | ||
| 2003 | Silicon Color formed to develop Final Touch, which later is bought by Apple and becomes Color in Final Cut Studio 2 | ||
| 2003 | ILM release OpenEXR to the public | ||
| 2003 | Nucoda Data Conform used on Harry Potter | ||
| 2003 | Autodesk licenses Lustre (previously 5D Colossus) by colorfront | ||
| 2003 | Thomson launches Spirit 4k datacine |  |
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| 2003 | Cintel launches updated Millennium 2, a CRT based 4K data-cine | ||
| 2003 | Cintel launches GRACE, an internal Film Grain Reducer option for C-Reality and DSX machines | ||
| 2003 | da Vinci announces Resolve software color corrector | ||
| 2003 | Quantel announce QColor, an in context grading solution for the IQ platform | ||
| 2004 | The Aviator – Martin Scorcese forced to use DI to recreate the Technicolor process that was de-commissioned in 2002 | ||
| 2004 | The Polar Express is released as IMAX 3D, which earns 14 times as much as the 2D version and causes renewed interest in producing 3D feature fims. | ||
| 2004 | Spider-Man 2 – The first digital intermediate on a new Hollywood film to be done entirely at 4K resolution | ||
| 2004 | Cintel launches dataMill fast data scanner based on Millennium 2 technology | ||
| 2004 | Cintel announces GRACE is now available as an external film grain reducer. | ||
| 2005 | Autodesk buys Lustre from Colorfront | ||
| 2005 | Digital Vision buys Nucoda, developers of Film Master. Digital Vision Optics (DVO) launched, providing software version of DVNR noise and dust tools. |  |
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| 2005 | Quantel launches Pablo DI grading system | ||
| 2005 | Cintel launches diTTo - a low cost 2K data scanner, with a 3K native sensor |  |
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| 2006 | 4 x dual core and 8 x dual core PCs available from Boxx and others | ||
| 2007 | 2 x quad core PCs available | ||
| 2007 | Quantel show Pablo with stereoscopic 3D toolset | ||
| 2007 | Apple introduces Color (formerly Silicon Color Final Touch) as part of the Final Cut Studio 2. | ||
| 2008 | da Vinci show new Impressario panels for Resolve | ||
| 2008 | Quantel show new panels for Pablo | ||
| 2008 | Digital Vision show stereoscopic 3D monitoring and Turbine, a background render booster that uses Blades, for Film Master. They also augment Phoenix toolsets for restoration projects |
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| 2009 | International Colorist Academy launched and the first system independent colorist courses happen. | ||
| 2009 | Black Magic Design buy da Vinci Systems, which was in danger of closing down | ||
| 2009 | Avatar becomes the fastest film to take one billion dollars at the box office. It took just 17 days. |
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source: www.finalcolor.com