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MillimeterNAB 2006
Mar 5, 2006 12:30 PM, By S. D. Katz, D. W. Leitner, and Dan Ochiva
More for Your Digital Dollar
Kodak Look Manager System
Digital Intermediate
DI is the fastest-growing area of postproduction, touching Indie desktoppers and Hollywood feature films. By delivering efficient work styles and improved interactivity, DI has an impact on the entire production process, from art direction and acquisition through to final film out.
It also happens to come at a time when production formats, system architecture, and theatrical distribution face radical change. Under these conditions, investment in a DI system raises serious upgrade issues, including keeping up — without bankrupting yourself — with the transition from a 2K to a 4K, and even 6K, pipeline.
Simultaneously, with alternate methods of digital cinema delivery becoming a growing issue over the next three to five years (including 4K projector installations), investment in DI requires very precise analysis of what customers want and when. Add in the fact that all high-end postproduction — where the financial risks are greatest — must respond to the assault of a competitive desktop culture and you have a big opportunity that has considerable risk attached.
This leaves some people with the cold sweats and others with a sense of unlimited possibility. In any case, NAB is the best clearing house for points of view and a chance to have your assumptions challenged. Let's face it: With talk of the exclusive theatrical window being questioned, all bets are off. Facility decision makers with checkbooks may also want a pen with disappearing ink.
The massive system requirements for realtime DI are good news for companies like Da Vinci and Quantel. At NAB, Da Vinci will showcase its expanded DI line with a trio of new products: Resolve FX, Resolve DI, and Resolve RT.
Resolve FX is an entry-level system for short clips; Resolve DI is a full-featured DI system for facilities handling large volumes of color correction and look development; and the top-of-the-line Resolve RT provides realtime, multi-layered color correction of 2K film data. New this year for Resolve DI and Resolve RT is the PowerPlant programmable hardware acceleration system.
PowerPlant uses Aspex Semiconductors and the Linedancer hardware platform, essentially programmable chips that fit into a standard PC chassis. Think of this as old iron meets desktop efficiency. The system is scalable and programmable, so that Da Vinci can introduce chip-level upgrades without requiring customers to replace large multi-processor systems. PowerPlant systems are designed to work with file-based 2K data.
Expect to hear more about multi-processor support for DI, since desktop systems are unable to provide realtime performance on full-rez images. (The move by Intel and AMD to dual-core CPUs and beyond powers the new generation of DI workstations.)
Another entry in the multiprocessor support game is Autodesk Incinerator 1.0, a new modular realtime solution for Lustre systems in a networked, workgroup environment. Using computing cluster technology, this allows for realtime primary and secondary color correction as well as realtime visual effects for HD, 2K, and accelerated 4K productions.
All this multi-processing is a boon to companies selling processing power and storage, but with 4K and 6K scans and workflows being discussed is this too much of a good thing? Having completed DI on a Nucoda system with 1K proxies, and having looked at these proxies compared with 2K source material, I've found the additional perception of detail does not necessarily translate into more accurate color decisions. Clearly, if effects are being added in the DI stage during look development, more of a case can be made working at the full 2K resolution.
But will it stop there? Imagine a time in six or seven years when 4K may be the new 2K. 4K requires four times (not double) the storage capacity required for 2K files. Unless projected, what color-calibrated monitor provides 4K resolution? Of course, anyone selling the idea that directors need to be working in 4K, or even 2K, are catering to a clientele that is making multi-million dollar event pictures. Restraint is not part of that world. The point is that in the digital realm, the tendency is always towards bigger and faster.
In addition to changing delivery requirements, the DI process is also changing traditional definitions of art direction, cinematography, and postproduction, once clearly separate aspects of production. As previsualization becomes more common, the ability of the art director and cinematographer to establish a mood and look for a picture in a precise format blurs the lines between design, photography, and postproduction. Kodak is responding to this trend with two products; the first one, Look Manager System, is aimed at cinematographers.
Released earlier this year, Version 2.0 of Kodak's Look Manager System (LMS) enables cinematographers to import and organize shots by date or scene for sharing on a calibrated color system. LUTs can be applied to the images allowing the cinematographer to communicate very detailed and specific grading and look strategies before, during, or after principal photography. The software can be used to simulate combinations of Kodak film stocks, in-camera effects, lighting, gels, filters, and postproduction effects. Other members of the production team using LMS software with calibrated monitors will see exactly what the cinematographer has in mind.
LMS depends on color consistency and is optimized to work with Kodak Display Manager System 4.0. This hardware and software system calibrates electronic display devices in combination with Kodak's 3D LUTs to emulate film looks, and is integrated into the Look Manager System. The new version is now available for several operating systems including OS X, Windows 2000/XP, Silicon Graphics IRIX 6.5, and Linux.
Calibration is important, but is useless unless the display system being used is capable of accurately replicating the data. This is particularly important for desktop operations that taunt big-iron solutions with sub-$1,000 software that can color correct in 16-bit color and process with floating point precision. Reality sets in when it becomes clear that the 23in. cinema display doesn't provide grading-quality color, while a 2K monitor with serious precision costs more than a seat of After Effects with a few dual-processor workstations thrown in.
A one-stop solution for display, scopes, and calibration hardware and software is Cinetal, a company that provides comprehensive display solutions, not just monitors. The Cinemáge product family combines IDS (Intelligent Display Server) technology with 2K-calibrated LCDs. One useful option is the integration of the OmniTek XR waveform monitor/vectorscope, which turns the LCD into a dual-purpose system allowing for color judgments visually or by the numbers for HD-SDI or HD-SDI dual-link signals in YpbPr or RGB linear and logarithmic at 8 bits or 10 bits.
While desktop products with 2K capability are just now coming to terms with the storage and processing requirements of low budget DI, 4K is rapidly becoming the target — or at least the preferred — resolution that the D-Cinema Consortium, SMPTE DC28, and the ASC might agree is acceptable for the next generation of theater installations. 6K scans and higher are also part of the eventual strategy for top of the line DI data management, an inevitability because storage, processing, and silicon march on. Mark Cuban's plan to install 4K projectors in his Landmark Theaters is just one announcement that points to an enhanced theater experience to compete with HD in the home.
Quantel's Pablo DI system, first shown in late 2005, makes its official launch at NAB. This turnkey software and hardware system continues the tradition of Quantel's plug-and-play straightforwardness, yet the power is there, with three configurations that deliver up to realtime 4K performance without proxies.
Pablo, based on the iQ, includes all the conforming, mastering, and effects capabilities of iQ4 and iQ2. The real news, however, is that Pablo takes on Da Vinci and Pogle, delivering a serious color correction system far beyond the initial Qcolor in-context grading option.
Based on the recently released Eiger hardware and software platform, Pablo features what Quantel calls “resolution co-existence.” Versions can be turned out without rendering or filling the workspace with different-format copies of the same clip.
Another nice feature: 16-bit or higher processing in RGB and YUV with Dynamic Rounding, a trademarked term for a process that keeps multiple generations intact without clipping, whatever the source.
On the scanning and recording side, both Imagica and Arri will be showing new products in Las Vegas. Imagica will showcase the Imager HSX that scans 35mm film at 3fps for 2K and 1fps for 4K. Do the math: This means that a two-hour movie takes 16 hours to scan at 2K and 48 hours for 4K. The Imager HSR high-speed recorder is calibrated for Kodak 5242 color intermediate film for INs and IPs at a speed of 3fps. Only recently, a 2K record required weeks; the Imagica HSR now has the turnaround for a feature down to a day.
Arri introduced the Arrilaser HD last year, but this year the company will be touting its Arri Color Management System. The system, which is based on the ICC (International Color Consortium) standard, is designed to allow a video monitor to be matched to a film-projected image. The system does this by converting images to the Arri CMS prior to recording on an Arrilaser device.
DI as a postproduction process is now established routine. But look development and color correction as a primary concern of directors, production designers, and cinematographers expecting to exert control up until a film is projected in a theater is a new concept that is still a work in progress.
That the theatrical experience is itself in the midst of being redefined only postpones the time when a limited number of tried-and-true solutions reach a level of acceptance and routine comparable to the film mastering that labs practiced for decades.
Without the studio system, and with every movie given the opportunity to set new rules for production, this is a very exciting time for directors, but a challenge for facilities and production companies. At the moment, a “top this” attitude prevails; it's what wins awards for work from directors and places companies in financial risk. The stakes are high for DI purchasing decisions; fortunately, the technology creates new business opportunities for those with a vision.
— S.D.K.
