The new high end of post digital intermediates - Technology

Post, August, 2003 by Claudia Kienzle

The digital intermediate is a process that allows directors and cinematographers to extend total creative control over the look of their movie beyond the camera into post production. Working at near film resolution, the digital intermediate process enables filmmakers to manipulate the color, mood, lighting and virtually any other attribute of their imagery with unprecedented precision to tell a better story,

Regardless of whether' the movie has been shot on 35mm film, 24p HD or even the PAL DV format--or fabricated within the CGI environment--the digital intermediate can benefit the project creatively from film scanning, color correction, editorial, audio mixing, visual effects, even defect fixes, through to the final recording onto 35mm film,

While the intent of the digital intermediate is to prepare a feature film for theatrical release, it can serve as a universal master from which to create all video deliverables--for the DVD, airline, international television, HDTV and home video markets--in a very efficient and cost-effective manner. This is because, once the colorist has established the aesthetic look for the theatrical film, he or she can ensure that the same look translates accurately to all the video versions as well.

CINESITE WELCOMES THE REVOLUTION

"We're seeing exponential growth in the digital intermediate business," says Dan Lombardo, president/GM for Cinesite (www.cinesite.com) in Hollywood. "Last year, there were 25 films done using digital intermediates, this year there are going to be 50. He believes that "next year, we'll see 100 films and the year after that 200 films. And, within five years, 60 percent of all motion pictures will be done using the digital intermediate process."

Calling the digital intermediate trend "a revolution," Lombardo adds that Cinesite, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Eastman Kodak Company, restructured in June 2003 by consolidating its digital intermediate, digital film mastering and film restoration services in Hollywood and moving all of its 3D visual effects business to its London facility.

"Today, the digital intermediate process costs eight to 10 times more than traditional color timing in the lab. But demand for digital intermediates will grow as prices come down and equipment gets faster and more cost efficient to operate," says Lombardo.

But considering that movies like Pleasantville and O Brother Where Art Thou could not have achieved their classic looks without leveraging sophisticated, realtime digital color correction (provided by Cinesite/Hollywood), the benefits still outweigh the costs. Jerry Pooler, Cinesite's executive creative director, says, "Color correction was integral to the storylines of Pleasantville and O Brother Where Art Thou. Only in the digital world can you isolate a certain area within a frame and manipulate the colors, lighting and mood within that isolated area, without affecting the rest of the frame."

For Hart's War, a feature finished at Cinesite/Hollywood, an interrogation scene was darkened and the colors "dialed back" to give it a cool, menacing feel that could not be captured in production. In the movie Traffic, Cinesite/Hollywood applied color correction to a 40-minute segment, shot on location in Tijuana, Mexico, to give it a hot, dusty, sepia-toned look that helped set the mood of the scene. Also, for movies where the storyline calls for settings in the decades of the 1950s or 1960s, Pooler says color correction can mimic the film stocks of those time periods so the illusion rings true with viewers.

Currently, Open Range (with Kevin Costner) and S.W.A.T. (with Colin Farrell) are in Cinesite's digital intermediate pipeline, which includes several Kodak Cineon Lightning scanners and Lightning II laser film recorders. A Northlight film scanner, manufactured by FilmLight in London, using a Kodak light array capture component, has recently been added for film scanning of up to 6K resolution.

POST LOGIC'S DIGITAL THEATER

For Post Logic Studios, the digital intermediate process is a natural extension of its high-quality digital mastering of motion pictures for television, after-market video and DVD. Now, in its new Post Logic Cinema Digital Theater, film directors and cinematographers can apply digital color correction and other electronic processes to a universal file for unprecedented creative and technical control over the theatrical product.

"The digital intermediate does not happen in a vacuum, nor does it reside in the film laboratory," says Barry Snyder, president/CEO of Post Logic Studios (www.postIogic.com) in Hollywood.

"It is primarily a digital process, born through the advent and application of innovations in video and now applied to film, that intertwines the artist's vision more intimately with the final delivery form. It is also integrally connected to other post production functions, including editing, visual effects, video versioning, audio and quality control."

With its 24-by-10-foot screen and (AC-3) stereo surround sound, Post Logic's (MPAA-compliant) Cinema Digital Theater provides an ideal setting for comparing and evaluating every aspect of a motion picture as it moves through the digital intermediate process. This is because the plush, 20-seat space offers one-touch remote control of projectors, room settings and virtually every component in Post Logic's full-service digital intermediate pipeline.