Multimedia
Blogs
Forum
Affordable HD
Whitepapers
Newsletters
Events
Advertisers
Blogcast
MillimeterDI: NYC
Feb 1, 2004 12:00 PM, By Michael Goldman
Back to Cover Story
Indie
Intermediates
 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.”
Continue the discussion on “Crosstalk” the Millimeter Forum.