The industry-wide acceptance of the Digital Intermediate (DI) and related DI-style processes makes ’06 a pivotal year for postproduction as the industry looks toward the annual National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention, which will be held April 22-27 in Las Vegas.
DI is essentially a process of scanning film into data for all postproduction tasks, including color correction, to complete a digital master that would be used to create all video and film deliverables. In the feature industry, more than 50 percent of major studio motion pictures are now finished using this post method.
For advertising production, related processes introduce a new way of working in a datacentric environment that offers nonlinear, random access color correction. Essentially the film is scanned into the data realm, and can be worked on in a nonlinear environment–meaning that spots can be color corrected and viewed in shot order.
What makes this topic so complex is that it is not about a new box, but a new process that is still evolving. So more customized workflows are developing with combinations of film scanners/telecines, film recorders, color correction systems, compositing and finishing systems, storage, infrastructure, networking and asset management tools. Some pointed out that this is giving some manufacturers an expanded “consulting” sort of role. Interoperability and compatibility between systems is a critical area that requires attention. But for short commercial post cycles, also highly important are computing speed and storage requirements.
COLOR CORRECTION There is a large number of developing software-based color correction systems–disproportionate to the size of the market most believe–that will be on display at NAB. Some are strictly designed for color correction, while others combine DI/finishing tools.
Many of these products bear familiar names, such as Newbury, U.K.-headquartered Quantel’s iQ and eQ systems, London-based Filmlight’s Baselight, Miami-headquartered Assimilate’s Scratch, Munich-headquartered DVS’ Clipster, and Montreal-based Autodesk Media and Entertainment’s Lustre. This year, system makers will be focused on demonstrating refined toolsets and implementation in workflows with partners.
The developments that will be emphasized are being largely driven by the feature industry, which is bringing requirements for developing DI workflows, as well as digital cinema delivery requirements, to the manufacturers’ tables.
Many in the industry have identified a universal need for an image interchange framework to exchange color information between technologies from different manufacturers. Among those working on this initiative is the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) technology committee’s DI subcommittee, which is developing what it calls an ASC CDL, or “color decision list,” which would essentially act like an EDL to communicate color information.
Bicoastal Post Logic Studios colorist Lou Levinson, who chairs the DI subcommittee, reported that a CDL committee draft has been distributed to color correction technology vendors in order to move this effort forward. “There are [companies that] are already partially compliant,” Levinson related, adding that he and other committee members would quietly be conducting some testing of these developments during NAB, in an effort to move closer to implementation.
Meanwhile, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers’ (SMPTE) Digital Cinema (DC28) committee has an ad hoc group working on a variety of color issues. One responds to the new digital cinema specification developed by the seven studio consortium Digital Cinema Initiatives (whose recommendations look poised to become a SMPTE digital cinema standard later this year) that asks for deliverables in an X’Y’Z’ color space. Today’s DI and color correction processes are normally conducted in an RGB color space.
“So what DC 28 recommends is that the output of the DI be converted from RGB to X’Y’Z’ through a linear color conversion matrix or a 3D look up table (LUT),” explains Glenn Kennel, director of technology development, Texas Instruments DLP Cinema, who also chairs the color ad hoc group of SMPTE’s DC28 committee. “It’s a challenge because [most] color correction systems today do not provide outputs in that color space. For many, adding this additional feature doesn’t appear to be too difficult to implement — It would just be a new output mode.”
Kennel and others reported that the industry will likely see X’Y’Z’ support in some color correction systems on display this year at NAB, included among those are the aforementioned Baselight, Clipster, and Lustre.
Today this feature is really the focus of the motion picture industry and has no immediate impact on the commercial industry. However, some expect that cinema commercial deliverables will also be required in X’Y’Z’ color space as digital cinema-equipped theaters begin to grow in numbers. Today there are an estimated 300 digital cinema theaters in the U.S., and that number is expected to exceed 1,000 by year’s end.
PRODUCT NEWS Providence, R.I.-headquartered Mathematical Technologies Inc. (MTI)–at its first NAB under the leadership of newly named CEO Larry Chernoff–will unveil Control Dailies 2K, a new version of its post workflow system with 2k support that encompasses color correction and the ability to create SD and HD deliverables.
The system was developed in partnership with Silicon Color, the San Diego-based developer of Final Touch color correction software. Chernoff explained that MTI has licensed a version of Silicon Color’s toolset designed to run with Control Dailies and dubbed Control Color.
A beta version is scheduled for NAB, with shipments set to begin in Q3.
MTI will also demonstrate the new version 5 of its Correct, a 64-bit restoration system that could accommodate resolutions as high as 4k data. The system is scheduled for NAB availability.
Paris-headquartered Thomson’s Grass Valley’s booth visitors might be surprised to see some significant advancement in the new version 2.5 of its Bone postproduction software–with new functionality the company now describes Bones as a “complete DI” system. Grass Valley reported that the new software version would support the ability to import and export the aforementioned ASC CDL, as well as include new color correction functionality, advanced matte tools, image tracking and stabilization tools. The company will also show the latest version of its LUTher color converter.
Stockholm-headquartered Digital Vision will be showing Nucoda Film Master version 3, which incorporates a refined user interface designed to enhance productivity and make the system more user friendly.
The company will also show the DVNR 2K image processing and restoration system, which provides full aperture 2k RGB processing at 15 frames per second over HSDL links, as well as real-time processing in the video domain. The system supports Digital Vision’s film grain and electronic noise reducer, its automated film dirt, dust and random scratch concealment system, and its adaptable aperture corrector.
Iridas will be on hand with its FrameCycler DI, an application for conform, review, and remote collaboration; and SpeedGrade HD color grading and conforming system that includes tools for provides primary and secondary color grading, as well as pan & scan; it is available for Mac OS X or Windows XP platforms. The company will also show SpeedGrade OnSet, a look creation application designed for cinematographers.
Coral Springs, Fla.-based da Vinci will have its product line, including software-based color correction system Resolve, on hand. It will also host its third annual Master Colorist Awards, which honors colorists in three disciplines: Commercials, television and features.
SCANNING AND RECORDING
Film scanners (telecine) and film recorders are also a critical component of the DI process and many will be on hand at NAB. Paris-headquartered Thomson’s Grass Valley will of course show its industry leading Spirit as well as Specter systems, and Munich-headquartered ARRI will show the latest version of its Arriscan.
Meanwhile, the sector will be watching the launch of version 2.0 of London-based Filmlight’s popular Northlight film scanner. And Tokyo-headquartered Imagica will show a new wetgate for its XE Advanced Plus (which is expected to be in beta at Burbank-based IVC before NAB), the HSR high speed film recorder, and a prototype version of the HSX Scanner, which is being groomed to replace the XE line.
Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.-based Celco will demonstrate its Firestorm 2X film recorder, which outputs a frame of film in 1.4 seconds, 15 percent faster than its Firestorm 2, and incorporates Celco’s FilmOut Pro digital film recording software. FilmOut Pro is Celco’s film recorder and image control software used in its latest Fury and Firestorm systems.
Meanwhile, Mountain View-Calif.-based SGI–which has its high-end products in use at many of the leading DI facilities in Hollywood–will showcase storage and network lines, as well as the new blade architecture of the SGI Altix and SGI Prizm product. The company will also show InfiniteStorage 6700, a 4Gb Fibre Channel high-performance storage system. Prism will be demoed with applications including The Pixel Fram’s new PFClean image clean up application.
Montreal-based Maximum Throughput will emphasize its bandwidth scalability and storage clustering technology with the debut of MAXcluster, a storage cluster management and file system technology designed specifically for the digital content creation market. Max-T will also show its Sledgehammer with HD Dual Stream support, as well as new backup tools. Sledgehammer will also be shown with new throughput and network connectivity options, Lastly, the company will show version 2 for Xstoner, with support for Windows clients.
