The new high end of post digital intermediates - Technology

Post, August, 2003 by Claudia Kienzle

While Sonnenfeld believes that the digital intermediate process is the wave of the future, he points out, "To get a good product, it must be done in cooperation with the film labs, like Technicolor and Deluxe, because you're always having to run film prints. So digital intermediates will not replace the film labs, and the traditional method of color timing in the labs will continue to work well for some films. But for movies with hundreds of effects shots or complex action scenes, the digital intermediate helps you achieve a more cohesive look."

Also, Sonnenfeld says that the digital intermediate process can be very cost effective because many different formats and deliverables can be created efficiently and consistently from a single film transfer, which can benefit and support the marketing objectives of the movie studios.

STAYING THE 2K COURSE

Lastly, while the experts we spoke with said there are virtually no creative limitations to the digital intermediate process, they all agreed that the greatest technical challenge is storing all the movie data online so it's readily accessible for creative decision-making.

Ron Burdett of Sunset Digital estimates that, "At 2K resolution, a two-hour movie requires 5TB of storage, whereas at 4K resolution, storage demands increase four-fold to 20TB, including the selects, the out-takes and other imagery needed for reference. If you've got six movies in the works at once, that can require over 30TB of storage, which is very costly," Burdett says. "The math is staggering, which is why the digital intermediate process will likely remain at 2K resolution for the foreseeable future."