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Tupac: Resurrection was digitally mastered at HD resolution at PostWorks, N.Y., using Avid's DS Nitris system.

The recent Paramount/MTV Films documentary on rapper Tupac Shakur,
Tupac: Resurrection, is believed to be the first wide-release
feature film to be digitally mastered using Avid's new DS Nitris
system. Although not strictly an independent film since Paramount
released it, Tupac evolved out of the MTV documentary division
under the stewardship of director/producer Lauren Lazin and was put
together “indie style” on a limited budget and turnaround
schedule. Therefore, the digital mastering process used on the project
at PostWorks, New York, according to Billy Baldwin, president of
PostWorks, reflects a workflow that he claims will become increasingly
affordable for independent and limited-budget productions in the near
future.

Among other things, the project raises the issue of how digital
intermediate should be defined. The job came to PostWorks when the
company was still beta-testing Nitris — a multistream, 10-bit, HD
mastering tool — and it required editor Rich Calderon to combine
footage from dozens of video and film formats and sources into a
pristine HD master.

Baldwin admits that the project does not fit the definition being
used these days for DI: a project acquired on film, mastered entirely
in the digital universe, and then shot back out to film. But he says
that definition is beside the point when looking at Tupac:
Resurrection, which started with material from almost every
possible format and was mastered to HD resolution before going out to
film.

“The term ‘digital intermediate’ is getting thrown
around a lot these days, but when you think about it, a DI simply means
the use of a digital medium to master a project prior to going out to
film, without having to cut negative,” he says. “This job
met that definition, and more importantly, it illustrates the concept
that technology for performing a DI is becoming accessible for indie
films, documentaries, and more straightforward narratives that are not
effects intensive. In such situations, the requirement to work at true
2k or 4k — more expensive workflows — is not there. This
accessibility is important because on this job and on future jobs like
it, the need to create multiple versions at broadcast resolution is
more simply accomplished using Nitris. We had to simultaneously build
the theatrical version, a 4×3 pan-and-scan version, and so
on.”