Deeper into the digital domain: manufacturers never tire of telling us that digital intermediate offers a panacea for film post production. In practise the process is not without its workflow problems, but as Richard Dean reports, solutions are in sight.(digital intermediate)

Scanning film footage into the digital domain has obvious advantages. All the grading--or "colour timing" in laboratory parlance--can be done before the final "film out", where the edit master is recorded back to film. This eliminates the conventional optical copying process, and all the losses that go with it.

Computer grading is far more versatile than traditional chemical processes, with global changes to specified skin tones or shapes for example, and decisions can be instantly assessed on a video screen without waiting to see what comes back from the lab. ...

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