Thinking in Color: New ideas for 2K and HD Telecine

Right now, the transfer/color process is one of the most dynamic areas ofpostproduction and has become a touchstone for new business, technical, andartistic ideas. That is in large part because of its position in thepostproduction pipeline. The transfer point is where film-captured imagesenter the digital domain and digital filmmaking can begin. The transferpoint is also where both film and video-captured images become data, readyfor life as a multi-format master or a multi-purposed asset.

So it's not surprising that across the production spectrum from corporateto features, people are creating new transfer and color correction servicesand solutions. These new ideas, though far from accepted, raise thepotential for greater artistic success and ultimately more efficientworkflow.

One of the most thrilling of the new ideas is developing around telecine atthe very high end. In Los Angeles, Cinesite and Rainmaker Digital Pictures,are completing rooms and systems that are designed to give feature filmdirectors and DPs the ability to manipulate footage for color the waycommercials directors do. The artistic and storytelling implications ofbeing able to paint with color were tantalizingly clear in the eleganttests that Roger Deakins did in collaboration with Cinesite. But, as theysay, this is only a test.

At the moment, says Forrest Fleming, Vice President Conversion Services atCinesite, directors and DPs who test drive the room immediately get thepoint. And almost as quickly they have to face reality-from a producer'sPOV this new capability looks like an invitation to noodle on a giant scale.

Of course, Fleming has a case to make to producers about what they get fortheir (typically) $400,000. The process, which Cinesite calls "DigitalIntermediate Mastering," is based on a Philips Spirit DataCine and a daVinci 2K desk. While the filmmaker watches on an HD monitor (soon to be aDigital Projection projector and screen), a colorist can dial in selective,shot-to-shot color corrections in realtime, change densities fromhead-to-tail of a shot, and even slightly recompose a shot by enlarging ita field or two. During the conversion process, images can be sharpened,de-grained, and re-grained. The digital master is created in the 10-bitCineon file format, making use of Kodak's calibration expertise and look-uptables that were perfected on Pleasantville. The output to an IP (or IN)provides a single pristine source for all subsequent releases in film andvideo formats and serves as an archival master. The digital data filebecomes the master for downconversion to HD or other video formats.

But there's more. "Let's model the savings, " Fleming offers. First, hesays, filmmakers will only need to telecine once and color once. Videoreleases do not have to be re-colored. "There would still need to berepositioning, but color is 70 percent of the work of preparing a videorelease," he notes. Material for trailers and titles is immediatelyavailable in digital format. "If you match your light correctly throughCineon you won't have to do color timing, which also represents a savingsin answer prints." Simple opticals such as dissolves and wipes can becreated in the color session, he says, adding that for complex visualeffects, the process eliminates all the scanning and recording thatnormally falls to the visual effects sub.

"For most jobs, scanning and recording is bundled into the effects bid andrepresents about 20 percent of the total cost. You could potentially savethose costs," he says, but he acknowledges visual effects houses would haveto come to trust the process, which won't happen overnight.

Perhaps one of the most persuasive cost savings and quality-controlarguments comes for films that require bleach bypass or CCE. These chemicalprocesses would no longer be applied to each print, but would be done once,in the color session. Deacons' test also highlights how a filmmaker whowants to apply color effects to a single shot or grade an effect over asequence can execute such effects selectively and interactively inrealtime. This eliminates the iterative testing process to achieve the lookwith chemical-based effects, or the render time required for digitaleffects. The digital intermediate process also streamlines the process oftranslating Super 35 onto the screen and eliminates one generation loss.And, Fleming has one more card to play-the digital intermediate processprovides an efficient way to do simple restoration tasks, such aseliminating the reel-long scratch that turned up on one filmmaker's project.

At the moment, the digital intermediate process begins with scanning aconformed negative with the Spirit. Fleming envisions a time whenfilmmakers will scan in selects and conform electronically, minimizingnegative cutting.

For all his enthusiasm Fleming agrees that introducing this new service isan educational process. He points out that the savings don't readilycorrespond with traditional budget line items. Rather the savings show upin reduced costs on services such as tests that are often lumped with otherbudget items.

And, although filmmakers are understandably drawn to the artisticpotential, they retain a basic suspicion of video, even HD, standing in forfilm. "We have a lot of experience in the color space and translating it tothe Vision color stocks," Fleming says reassuringly. "But there's no doubtit's been an application learning curve."

For demos call Alison Caiola at (323) 468-2144.Rainmaker Digital's Peter Sternlicht agrees that color calibration is thefundamental challenge of this new process. He's referring to both thechallenge of translating the color session from video back to film and thechallenge of creating accurate working environments for colorists. "Justlike people's hearing is slightly different, their color perception isdifferent." Sternlicht says the suite is tuned individually to thecolorists' eyes so that they can feel confident with the relationshipbetween the digital image they see and film.

"It's still an interaction between digital technology and photo-magnetictechnology-it's truly digital film. You have to be able to relate the filmand the digital in the same space."

Sternlicht echoes Cinesite's comments about the potential savings of theprocess, the value of a flawless IP, and the flexibility to supportmultiple formats with a single master. But at Rainmaker the process isbased on slightly different technology. Most notably, Rainmaker is Philips'official beta test site for the Specter Virtual DataCine. Sternlicht saysthat once the Specter was on board he couldn't resist the pull to developthis kind of transfer/color system for feature films. Through months ofcollaboration with Pandora, SGI, Ciprico, Digital Projection, Panasonic,and Sony, Rainmaker helped bring the various technologies together into aworking system. "The Specter is the core, but it has to be part of a totalsystem of data management." (Sternlicht also points out that although atthe moment a Spirit is the engine behind the Specter, the system would workequally well if fed by a C-Reality telecine.)

One of the most important elements of the system is the SAN aspect, whichallowed for the creation of two suites fed from one telecine. One of thesesuites looks very much like a standard telecine suite-but with a high-defmonitor. The other is a mini theater with a Digital Projection projector."At different stages of the process we work in one suite or the other,"Sternlicht explains, noting that the Specter (along with Philips' SpatialInterpolater) can deliver the same footage to multiple locationssimultaneously in multiple formats.

Sternlicht emphasizes that in addition to the system's role for newfeatures, it is a powerful restoration tool that will give more films asecond life electronically, even as it allows both new and old films to bedistributed and repurposed in multiple media from one transfer.

And while there are compelling reasons for this system to attractfilmmakers now, Sternlicht sees this investment in light of a longer rangeshift to a completely digital film distribution system. "On the short side,five years," he speculates.

In the meantime, these new systems at Cinesite and Rainmaker offer anartistic promise that many directors and DPs will find hard to resist oncethey see it.."