Important Developments at the NFI Filmlab

HDR monitor, new processing machines – important developments at the NFI Filmlab

The NFI Filmlab is the most experienced film laboratory in Hungary that provides overall post-production service for motion picture, combining the purely digital procedures with the digital intermediate and the traditional laboratory services in a well-synchronized technology.

NFI colleagues are qualified professionals with extensive international experience operating top-of-the-line workstations in a comfortable environment. The company is located in Buda, in one of the most pleasant and green districts of the capital, very close to the city center. During the last few decades, the NFI Filmlab has become a well-respected lab in the region by collaborating in hundreds of Hungarian and foreign productions.

NFI provides on-set post-production services such as data backup, color grading, VFX supervising, conversion for digital dailies managing all kinds of camera formats. Editing can be done on several Avid Media Composer workstations. Baselight color correction and screening is done in 2K or 4K resolution, just like DCP creation. NFI’s digital intermediate services consist of telecine transfer using Spirit HD DataCine and daVinci 2K, and editing with Northlight II 2K/4K/8K film scanning. The NFI Filmlab offers image recording with Arrilaser and optical sound recording on MWA LLK3 laser optical sound camera for the production of traditional 35 mm prints.

Adapting to the new standards of streaming service providers and productions shooting in 4K with growing requirements of quality and storage capacity, important technical developments were carried out at the Filmlab in 2021. For the creation of high dynamic range motion picture, we purchased a 4K HDR monitor, moreover, NFI developed our color grading capacity by introducing a Filmlight Baselight Two system. This system handles RAW footage directly and has 220 TB of storage capacity.

NFI also pay special attention to renewing analogue technology. NFI installed new copy machines and purchased three new, modern, and ecological processing machines by 2023, providing the possibility of shootings on film for the long term.