Academy Sci-Tech Awards To Celebrate ARRISCAN Designers

In recognition of the critical role played by science and technology in the moviemaking process, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will next month honour 15 key achievements at its annual Scientific and Technical Awards presentation. The ARRISCAN film scanner has been selected as one of these achievements and three of the ARRI innovators who were responsible for its development have been singled out for commendation. This will mark the 16th Academy Award to have been bestowed upon ARRI and its designers.

The recipients of the Scientific and Engineering Award will be Michael Cieslinski, Dr. Reimar Lenz and Bernd Brauner. Each of them has been recognised for “the development of the ARRISCAN film scanner, enabling high-resolution, high-dynamic range, pin-registered film scanning for use in the digital intermediate process.” Cieslinski is credited with designing the sensor and serving as project manager for the scanner, while Brauner was responsible for the film transport and Lenz developed the micro scanning feature.
Representing the first step in transferring film images into the digital realm, the ARRISCAN enables practically limitless creative possibilities in the DI. It utilises a specially designed CMOS area sensor mounted on a micro-positioning platform and a custom LED light source. More than 100 ARRISCANs are in use worldwide, scanning film for major motion pictures, commercials, archive restorations and digital dailies applications.
Recent productions that have utilised the ARRISCAN include The Blind Side, Up in the Air, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and many more.
At the other end of the DI process is the ARRILASER film recorder, which transfers the final edited and graded images from a computer back onto 35mm film for viewing in theatres. In 2002, Franz Kraus and Dr. Johannes Steurer of ARRI, along with Wolfgang Riedel of the Fraunhofer Institute, accepted a Scientific and Engineering Award from the Academy for “the design and development of the ARRILASER film recorder."

Since 1930, AMPAS has conducted a program for honouring artisans whose contributions have made it possible for the movie industry to exist and evolve. Approximately 45 people constitute the Scientific and Technical Awards Committee, representing cinematography (production and technical), digital imaging, electronics and research, film and laboratory, lighting and equipment, mechanical or optical effects and engineering, production, projection, exhibition techniques and sound.

The Scientific and Technical Awards presentation takes place on Saturday 20th February, in Beverly Hills.
 

Photos: