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HD Hits West Texas: United Supermarkets Made Decision for the Future
Courtesy of I/O Parners, March 2004

Dallas, TX - In 1916, when H.D. Snell opened the first United "Cash Store", he had a simple philosophy of offering customers the finest in quality, value and service. Acting on this simple premise, one store grew into the present number of 47 United Supermarkets and the affiliates of Market Street and Market Supermercado that service the south and southwest.

Eighty-eight years later when Admarc Southwest, the broadcast agency of record for United Supermarkets, was asked to create ten :60 spots with a similar philosophy that would stand the test of time, the decision was made to produce classic spots and finish them in high definition.

Gary Bain, Creative Director for Admarc, stated, "Because our client is technologically aggressive and wanted us to produce classic, timeless spots, it was logical to transfer and finish on HD. And since these spots will be utilized years from now, the pristine video image of this format worked favorably within this idea. The quality of the image was stunning, almost 3D.

"Two out of the ten spots, 'Heartland' and 'Foreman's Choice', will be finished in early March and the remaining eight will be completed in a few months' time. Pony Pictures shot the footage in Alpine, Texas and other locations around the state, including aerial footage of Hell's Gate at Possum Kingdom Lake. Shooting 35mm film then transferring to 16x9 ratio with the Spirit 2K (colorist, Steve Franko) at Video Post & Transfer made the footage look awesome. We edited both spots on Discreet's fire HD.

"The day we took the chopper out to Hell's Gate at Possum Kingdom Lake, the headwinds were peaking at 70mph. We noticed a bit of camera instability during the film transfer so we asked our capable editor for advice. Mark Sullivan, fire artist for VPT stated, "I used the Stabilizer feature in fire to seamlessly eliminate the unwanted camera movement, and the fire Autopaint feature did a bang-up job of cleaning up other inconsistencies in the film." Baines continued, "We went to VPT because we knew they would be able to handle a project of this magnitude and we were correct, for our client was extremely happy with the outcome."

Chief Marketing Officer for United Supermarkets and Executive Producer on the spots said, "Given the wide range of distribution channels available nowadays for the rich media projects we produce, I can't imagine mastering in anything but HDTV. It's a simple formula for us - maximize the shelf life and return-on-investment by capturing 30 and 60 second movies on 35mm film that feature timeless content."

Baines added, "We're excited because we know the day is soon coming when everyone will have an HD set. United is planning to have HD screens in all their stores and is adding an additional marketing initiative of theatrical unveiling. Releasing in movie theatres is a fantastic idea because we not only have a captive audience, but also know the way these spots were produced will hold up well on big screen theatres in United Market's local areas."

United Supermarkets is not only planning a continual expansion of stores in the southwest but is quickly becoming a huge contributor to charitable events and outreaches. In the fall of 2005 United will sponsor the United Texas Tour, the longest professional cycling race in U.S. history with a record purse of $175,000.00. The proceeds will benefit cancer research and help to redefine survivorship. The race has the endorsement of The Lance Armstrong Foundation.

Video Post & Transfer is a leading post-production facility in Dallas, Texas that is at the forefront of high definition television offering HD film-to-tape transfer/tape-to-tape colour correction as well as HD editing and compositing solutions and audio facilities. VPT is a one stop shop for all HD needs and handles all formats and frame rates.

I/O Partners, Inc. is a high performance systems integrator, based in Irving, Texas with field offices around the U.S. Its solutions target advanced enterprise demands for custom networking, storage and advanced computer integrations for media and non-media companies. I/O Partners is proud to represent an extensive number of leading edge, technically-oriented companies including Discreet, a division of Autodesk, which considers I/O Partners one of its largest integrators. I/O Partners has been distinguished as one of the fastest growing companies in America by Dunn and Bradstreet's Entrepreneur publication, and is recognized as the leader in television production, broadcast integrations, storage and network innovations.