Created by Cinematographer Justin Lovell
Our first 8mm scanner was frankensteined together back in 2003, designed for me and a small collective of cinematographers to have full control. I had no intention of starting a business. I was fed up with getting digital transfers back that didn’t show the true beauty that I was capturing on film. When my films started doing the festival circuit, the quality of my scans always stood out. Which led to people asking me to scan their films, It’s only because of the requests from people like you that Frame Discreet was kept alive. So thank you.
After building 3 different film scanners including the first 2K raw data film scanner in Canada, we ultimately invested in the groundbreaking Lasergraphics 4k HDR Scanstation which supports 8, 16 & 35mm. It captures the subtle details and impressive dynamic range in film that many other scanners fail to achieve. We’ve done extensive testing and tweaking to optimize our scanstation to achieve these results. It’s been a journey to get where we are today. The relationships we’ve made along the way make it all worthwhile.
Why use Frame Discreet?
Frame Discreet’s Lasergraphics 4K HDR Scanstation has a specifically enlarged gate. By overscanning the frame, our system effectively shrinks the film grain giving you a sharper, crisper image.
Just because a lab says they do “4k” doesn’t mean much. Your iphone can shoot 4k but would that 4k image be in the same league as an Arri Alexa Digital Cinema Camera? Our scanner’s sensor is only one small piece of the secret sauce we have developed here.
COMMUNICATION: Our fast, prompt communication is important to us and sets us apart from other facilities. Regardless of the size of your project, we treat you as we would want to be treated.
HDR: We Multi-flash each frame of film twice “HDR” -High Dynamic Range – once for the highlights and once for the shadows to give you additional detail in the shadows/highlights
STABILIZATION: We manually adjust between Optical Perforation Registration OR Edge Guided Registration to ensure that we deliver the most stable scans. This kind of control is not available on many other scanners and often overlooked.
AUDIO: We have separate optical and mag sound heads for perfect sync and incredibly accurate sound quality
SPROCKETLESS TRANSPORT: Means no claws touch your film. Got torn sprockets, warped film, shrunken film? No Problem. Film is optically stabilized using algorithms that no other scanner has. The BEST in the business.
PLAYBACK SPEED: 16, 18, 24 fps or any other speed… your footage is timed to play back at the exact frame rate it was intended. No ‘charlie chaplin’ scenes here (unless that’s what you want!).
EVERY SCAN IS SUPERVISED: All scans are monitored by our transfer technician. Our colourist provides scene by scene colour correction, this ensures that your film has accurate colour balance. Faded and colour shifted film can be restored back to its original look.
WE JUST SCAN FILM. THIS IS OUR SPECIALITY – THAT’S WHY WE DO IT SO WELL.
