Mediating digital intermediate: the number of features scheduled for posting using DI this year has reached a record high. But debate rages beneath the fragile consensus over just about every stage of the process--from the way images are scanned, the DI format to be used, and to a lesser extent how images are recorded back to film.(digital intermediate)(Arnold & Richter)

Anybody reading about the benefits claimed for digital intermediate (DI) could be forgiven for wondering what all the fuss is about. It all sounds so much better. Why would anybody want to go back to posting on film?

Instead of chemically copying and colour correcting the original camera negative (OCN) through a series of inter positives and inter-negatives, with DI, the footage is scanned into the digital domain and all subsequent manipulation done electronically. The final master is then printed to a DI negative, from which theatrical prints are duplicated in the normal way.

...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.