DI Evolution
Phelan recalls that DI saw its beginnings with the introduction of Datacine devices such as the Spirit from Thomson. “A lot of films around the world were being put together with a large amount of vfx shots or sequences graded to an x degree, then cut traditionally via neg-cutting and then final grade applied traditionally at the film laboratory.

“Instead of using a telecine device to go onto PAL or NTSC broadcast quality videotapes, the DATA heads on telecine devices could and can capture more information: resolution (i.e., how sharp or detailed an image is) and also latitude (the brighter whites and the darker blacks and more of the nuances in between), and saved this information as DATA as opposed to video signals.”

Phelan says that the “other side” of DI was for those companies who wanted to use real scanning devices that work somewhat slower using pin-registered gates and “over-sample” the image being presented to them. “Or in some opinions, capture film resolution at its real definition/resolution without the need for ‘processing under the bonnet,’“ Phelan observes.

Phelan adds, “There is an ‘intermediate intermediate’ that has achieved great results — going from film negative (35mm, 16mm) and ‘mix-n-matching’ with possible tape formats, i.e., HD-Cam, DV etc. and resulting on HD-D5 (or similar tape format) such as the multiple award-winning Touching the Void — so this is to be considered a variant, but member of the DI family.”

Chapman recalls that there was a long learning curve with DI on Aardman Animations’ Chicken Run in 2000. © DreamWorks Pictures.

Learning Curve
Chapman remembers learning to work with DI on the fly — with animated chickens trying to fly.

“The first project was Chicken Run for Aardman Animation, released in 2000,” Chapman recalls. “It was a long learning exercise for everyone. This had specific issues with the film stock changing its response over the long time it was in a stop-frame animation camera, and with the number of neg cuts from cut-backs, which a traditional process would have required. Fortunately, the timescale of stop-frame allowed us to develop what would now be called a DI process on the job.">Chicken Run for Aardman Animation, released in 2000,” Chapman recalls. “It was a long learning exercise for everyone. This had specific issues with the film stock changing its response over the long time it was in a stop-frame animation camera, and with the number of neg cuts from cut-backs, which a traditional process would have required. Fortunately, the timescale of stop-frame allowed us to develop what would now be called a DI process on the job.

“The film, I think in the end looked wonderful, but we learned a lot about representation of color on different display devices on the way,” Chapman says. “I don’t think you could have chosen a much wider selection of shades than is used in this project — it’s like looking into a plasticine box.”

Phelan recalls that, after a good few years of research, Lip Sync Post’s first DI effort was a feature called Creep. “This was shot 3 perf 35mm, framed for 2.39:1 projection (often commonly referred to as 2.35:1) aspect ratio and was scanned on our pin-registered 6k Northlight scanners, with 4 frame handles — approximately 1,500 shots, then conformed in our first iQ from Quantel using its qColor grading tools, adding in vfx shots from outside and inside the building,” he says.

“Calibration for our first suite — after evaluation of the limited devices on the market — was provided by FilmLight’s Truelight devices, which basically emulate negative film-recording stocks and subsequent film-print stock characteristics, printed to rigid control parameters,” Phelan continues. “Likewise, for future deliverables for HD masters and subsequent PAL/NTSC masters the calibration tools come into play.”

Meanwhile, Prime Focus India Private Ltd. has been doing DI work since 2001, but since then has evolved from visual effects sequences to entire movies. Currently, Prime Focus is the DI specialist for Bollywood films. “In 2003, we completed the first entirely color graded film in India, Qayamat,” recalls Rohan Desai, DI supervisor, Prime Focus. “Over the years, since then we have completed 37 entire DI film projects, with each film duration averaging to 2 hours, 45 minutes.”

Post Logic Studio’s Lou Levinson offers, “It was not our first DI, but our work on Hotel Rwanda is a perfect example of how color correction, Power Windows and re-composition of the frame can be used to enhance not only image quality, but emotional nuance and dramatic impact.”