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Local Color

Apr 1, 2004 12:00 PM, By Michael Goldman

DI in London, New York, and Montreal

Sidebars
DI Tech: QuickTime for DI
DI Tech: NAS for DI

When Denys Arcand's Quebec-made film, Les Invasions Barbares (The Barbarian Invasions) earned a Best Foreign Language Academy Award this year, it marked a major triumph for the film industry in Quebec. It also marked a triumph for the region's filmmaking infrastructure, as well, because Invasions became the first Canadian feature film to benefit from the digital intermediate process.

The film's DI, however, was not performed entirely in Montreal — it was essentially a virtual job passed back and forth between Technicolor's Montreal and Burbank units. The front-end processing and answer-printing work, as well as the basic look of the piece, was crafted in Montreal during the digital dailies process. The actual color timing, however, was done at Technicolor Digital Intermediates (TDI, formerly Technique) in Burbank, which also later printed the movie to film on an ArriLaser recorder. Technicolor officials say the project therefore essentially qualifies as a 2k, high-end digital intermediate.

“Thanks to our company's global (high-bandwidth data network) called TPN (Technicolor Production Network), which came online (in late 2003), we can still print to film or access other aspects of our sister company services in Burbank or Technicolor New York,” explains Peter Alves, director of operations for postproduction services at Technicolor Creative Services, Montreal. “This way, for instance, we don't need to add more laser film recorders here in Montreal. In the case of Barbarian Invasions, we exploited that ability and worked with TDI virtually to finish that project, and it greatly benefited the picture.”

That accomplishment illustrates a unique capability of the Technicolor structure — the ability to tailor DI services to the needs of regional filmmakers while also taking pieces of the larger DI workflow virtual, since the film moved from Montreal to Burbank as, essentially, a data stream.

The DI model used on The Barbarian Invasions, however, is not the typical model used at Technicolor Creative Services, Montreal. According to Alves, for most local, modestly budgeted projects, the facility specializes in the so-called “HD DI” approach.

“The technique and benefits of DI are something our filmmakers are every bit as interested in as anyone in Hollywood, but the budgets and other considerations are, of course, different,” says Alves. “Therefore, in Montreal, we provide DI services working strictly at HD resolution. HD is certainly less costly than 2k, and for this market, it makes more sense for most projects. It helps them test and sell their film, and it can help them with their broadcast deliverables at a cost that makes sense for this market. At the same time, with TPN, we can still bring the advantages of our sister facilities to the table, if a particular project requires it.”

Technicolor Montreal scans images using a Thomson Spirit, manages that data with a Discreet infrastructure built upon Backdraft data management software and a Switchable Storage workflow environment, and color-grades material with da Vinci 2k-plus color correctors. Linkage to the rest of the Technicolor empire via the TPN system, however, gives the facility the kind of reach not available to typical regional facilities.

Still, although most DI players don't have Technicolor's assets and global reach, they do share the company's goal of tailoring the emerging DI feature-film paradigm to the needs of local filmmakers. This tactic is targeting both high-budget and low-budget projects, studios and independents alike, and has resulted in the development of a wide range of pipelines, technology choices, and philosophies on how best to make digital intermediates a financially viable business in markets outside of Los Angeles. The range of business models approaching this issue include, but go far beyond, the obviously key root issue of how to bring the cost of a DI down for independent and low-budget projects. (See “Indie Intermediates,” in the February issue of Millimeter or go millimeter.com for a report on facilities offering lower-cost DI options in Los Angeles.)

In that spirit, in this month's DI report, Millimeter takes a regional approach to examining digital intermediate developments by focusing on the strategies of a few key players in the New York and London markets.

Technicolor New York

Like its siblings in Los Angeles and Montreal, Technicolor Creative Services, New York, is geared toward the requirements of the local filmmaking community. Officials at the company point out that New York City has never been the center of the feature filmmaking universe, but it has long been a major focal point of commercial production. Therefore, they argue, it would make little sense to exactly replicate TDI's high-end approach in Burbank all the way down the DI chain. Instead, the facility has developed a DI approach designed to reduce costs, offer local filmmakers ways to build HD masters to use to sell their films for either theatrical or broadcast release, and to cater to — even nurture — the growing local propensity toward shooting in the Super 16mm and 3-perf 35mm formats, among other things.

Charles Herzfeld, senior VP of sales and marketing at the New York facility, in fact, suggests the whole “preview” aspect of building DIs in the HD format has served both the local filmmakers and the facility well because it has increased potential DI services and revenues beyond the standard concept of “finishing” a film.

“Many of our customers work in 16mm or shoot 3-perf, and in the past, they have always had to cross a path to either blow up a film in the optical sense or finish it with a DI just to present it to potential distributors to try and earn a sale,” says Herzfeld. “Those customers are learning there is a greater tolerance now for digital presentation of films to distributors and festivals and major film markets, so this reduces their need to do an optical blowup in most situations, and they can, instead, on a relatively modest cost basis, present a quality finished product digitally and have that HD preview master in hand. That might be all they need if they only get a broadcast sale, and if they get a theatrical sale, they don't have to go back and re-cut their negative to finish it. The negative is wholly untouched.

“This is the issue — increasing flexibility while lowering costs, and in our marketplace — New York — we have seen a great deal of interest in this.”

Herzfeld adds that a growing number of local projects shot in HD or mixed video formats — such as two recently completed projects at the New York facility, Marie and Bruce and Metallica — can also benefit from the same pipeline and procedures, minus the film-scanning part of the chain. This, once again, helps Technicolor expand its slate of services, potential customers, and “flexibility,” all under the general DI umbrella.

John Dowdell, a senior colorist at Technicolor Creative Services in New York, points to another recent indie project — Tony ‘n’ Tina's Wedding — as an example of how a local, modestly priced project can “increase its options” using this DI approach.

“That film was shot Super 16mm (by director Roger Paradiso and DP Giselle Chamma),” says Dowdell. “We scanned it (on a Spirit Datacine), and after it's edited in (Discreet's) Fire, it comes back to me to color-correct on the da Vinci, which I do, random-access fashion using Backdraft, and then when we're all done, we shoot it to film on the ArriLaser. But the thing is — the film (at press time) isn't sold yet. So they have a 24p master, and they'll air it at the Tribeca Film Festival. But they can do all that without investing in an expensive filmout. When they get a distributor — and they will — they'll pay for the filmout. If the distributor wants changes, we can go back to the high-def master and easily make editorial changes — no re-cutting. That's an organic way to work. It's perfect for the filmmaker and it's a nice, growing business for us.”

Of course, deciding which services to emphasize and which clients to pursue leads to a host of technology choices that likewise depend largely on the nature of the local market, according to Christian Zak, technical director at Technicolor Creative Services, New York. Zak points out that Technicolor was, at press time, believed to be the only New York facility to work fully in data throughout the entire DI chain on longform projects. Recent success has, however, brought more filmmakers to the facility seeking to jump on the DI ship, and this has led to “lots of data wrangling” at the New York facility.

“We have about 20TB of RAID arrays set up for near-line storage, and it's all switchable,” says Zak. “We can therefore easily move data in and out of the system when we are working on projects, and we use Backdraft and da Vinci's I/O for disk-to-disk color-correction work. But the problem has been what to do with data leaving our main system — the archival issue. (Shortly before press time), we acquired a Sony HDCAM-SR recorder, to make that our video archive format when the project is all done. But until we do filmouts, everything we bring into our facility stays in the virtual world. DPs love this, and they get the random access to find stuff as soon as they ask for it. But long-term, archiving data to make space for new features will be a challenge facing people who do this kind of work.”

Dowdell reports that Technicolor New York, at press time, was also investigating installation of a Gigabyte Serial Network (GSN) in order to improve scanning time from the Spirit onto the company's network.

Technicolor, obviously, is not the only New York-area company building such a DI service center, though it is the region's most mature DI infrastructure right now. As more companies begin offering budget-conscious, tailor-made DI services to local filmmakers, though, many locals visualize a time when movies large and small are routinely made — concept through filmout — in New York.

Dowdell points to indie guru John Sayles, who, he claims, “loves this workflow.” Since Technicolor introduced him to Kodak's fine-grain Super 16mm stocks and the DI concept, “John has vowed to keep working like this,” adds Dowdell. “He's doing his latest, Silver City, with us right now.”

Dowdell's colleague, senior colorist Joe Gowler, adds, “Even the bigger-budget guys can stay here now, if they want. There is no reason that someone like Spike Lee, who shoots in New York but does his DI in Los Angeles (most recently at EFilm), couldn't keep the DI entirely in New York now. They do their editorial here. Why wouldn't they enjoy keeping the digital finish here if they could?”

VTR, London

A growing DI player inLondon is Soho's VTR, a company born 17 years ago to provide post services for commercials. Over the last 18 months, the company has aggressively pursued a digital intermediate strategy of servicing local, modestly budgeted feature films, in addition to using the same infrastructure for its traditional commercial clients. Unlike the typical, low-budget HD/proxy approach, however, VTR's strategy does not include working at HD resolution. Instead, VTR manipulates all projects at 2k resolution, regardless of budget or project size — an approach built upon the company's philosophy of speeding up the scanning process.

Central to this effort is VTR's adoption of nearly realtime data transfers from its Thomson Spirit DataCine and Specter Virtual DataCine via one of the first fiber-based GSN interfaces in operation anywhere for DI work.

“The whole idea is to shift data between suites as fast as possible and have one of the fastest scanning operations in the world,” explains Rod Shelton, senior producer for the company's DI department. “To that end, the GSN network allows us to scan frames about eight to 10 times faster than we could before (currently about 18fps). By doing this, we can push data to our colorists much faster and bring in more projects, both longform and commercials. This means we can make 2k an affordable option for the medium-budget projects because they don't have to spend as much time here. We can scan an entire cut negative from a feature film within a day, and then our colorists work in realtime, not in proxy, and not having to render overnight. Those productions that shoot 16mm or 3-perf can reduce enough costs on the front end to afford this process, in most cases.”

Laurent Treherne, the company's technical supervisor, argues, “Speed is the whole key in making DI affordable. Scanning the movie in a day, rather than several days or weeks, and having a true, realtime grading system gets you to the end of the process sooner. The turnaround makes the process faster and more affordable.”

Shelton points out that VTR has, thus far, used such technology as Spirit, Specter, and the GSN system to work on “medium-budget films,” such as Mike Binder's upcoming Upside of Anger and Paul Morrison's Wondrous Oblivion. The company also recently ran the documentary, Deep Blue, through its system — repurposing, re-conforming, and re-color-grading hours of 35mm and HD material originally shot for an award-winning BBC documentary. For that project, in particular, the company's scanning approach paid off, according to Treherne, because of the volume of material involved.

“We started with some HD and video footage in addition to the film stuff, but the producers wanted more film when they saw the difference, and so, we ended up having to re-scan a lot of footage while working on that movie,” he says. “It was really important to be able to scan it through quickly for a project that size and budget.”

Once scanned, VTR conforms and color-grades material directly through Specter at 2k using its Pogle Megadef system, viewing the images on monitors calibrated with Truelight calibration hardware, and shooting out tests to film on its ArriLaser Recorder as needed before eventually printing to Kodak 5242 Vision stock.

“Shifting data — that's the key point,” adds Shelton. “Compositing, rig removals, scratch removal — all that stuff can be done outside the Specter suite in Smoke or Inferno or Combustion, whatever works best for the project. Recording back to film, of course, is much slower than the scanning system we have, but we are so fast in other areas that, overall, the process is still faster. It's a much different approach from what other facilities are doing in the sense that we put so much focus on the fast scan and the quality of the grading.”

Still, Shelton emphasizes that VTR does not have major effects capabilities, and so, at least for the time being, the company is focusing on “beautiful films,” not major, CG-intensive fare from Hollywood. Still, despite a relatively high-end infrastructure, he considers the approach economical because VTR also uses the system on commercials, creates HD preview copies of movies finished elsewhere (Ella Enchanted, most recently), and color-grades individual sequences from other films and broadcast shows.

Treherne adds that VTR, like many other facilities, is also greatly concerned about the archiving issue relative to preserving data from finished projects. Currently, he says, the company is using the Voodoo Data/HD Recorder to preserve 2k data, or images on HD tape, depending on a client's needs.

Meanwhile, Shelton suggests that the London market has plenty of room for growth, with VTR, Framestore-CFC, Moving Picture Company (MPC), and Lipsync Post currently heading the London migration toward the digital intermediate space.

“We probably did six to seven full DIs on movies last year,” says Shelton. “That's a tiny bit of the British output, but we are already into our fourth movie this year, with demand clearly increasing. Frankly, I think it will be very unusual in a couple years for a film to not do a DI. What our filmmakers are learning is that they can work in 2k, and they can get not only their theatrical version, but their TV deliverables, as well, for a price not far above what they would pay to do the whole thing optically. The HD preview, things like that, are all part of the DI savings that people don't think about.”

Framestore-CFC

London's Framestore-CFC, meanwhile, has built a DI model in recent years that goes beyond regional considerations, and instead, pursues major Hollywood features with the same, basic approach as Hollywood facilities like EFilm, TDI, and Cinesite, among others. Most recently, the company performed the high-profile Cold Mountain DI (see the November issue of Millimeter), and at press time, it was in the middle of DI work on major studio features like Thunderbirds and Around the World in 80 Days and an indie film, Layer Cake.

Indeed, Framestore-CFC has a pedigree as one of the pioneering institutions for the process, going back to the late '90s when the company performed an early DI on the stop-motion animated film Chicken Run just months after O Brother, Where Art Thou? was acclaimed as the first complete DI on a major feature film (performed at Cinesite, Hollywood).

“Back then, we had to color-grade the whole thing in a computer,” recalls Adam Glasman, senior colorist, Framestore-CFC digital lab. “It was stop-motion animation, and the images therefore had a lot of issues we had to deal with, including flicker and cutbacks — bad frames, with reference frames in between, that we had to go back and fix — as well as color temperature problems, since the light bulbs change color temperature over the time it takes them to animate those sequences. We had to design just about everything from scratch for that project — nothing was off-shelf. We created a proprietary color-grading software for that job. We could do nice things changing color and exposure and contrast with it, but we couldn't key and grade to shapes too well. We didn't have to do that much, though, since it was stop-motion and they took great care lighting it, but there were limitations. These days, it's a lot easier to do. Back then, it wasn't even clear this would be a viable business — we graded the film just because it needed it, and we were already doing the effects.”

Since then, however, lots has changed, including the fact that the company is now a player on big Hollywood shows.

Framestore-CFC's setup revolves around Northlight scanners, Baselight color-grading software — working on half-resolution 1k proxies — CRT monitors, ArriLaser recorders, and a proprietary, Linux-based SAN with about 50TB of storage, according to Glasman. After projects wrap, data is generally archived to DTF tape.

Glasman says this setup and planned improvements in the coming months, including the introduction of digital projectors into the company's viewing environment, revolve around Framestore-CFC's goal of focusing on the “high end of the market.”

“In our case, we offer the same service to all clients, with a focus on the higher end of the market,” says Glasman. “We want to demonstrate we can do major features like Tomb Raider and Cold Mountain, and generally, pin-registered scanners like ours are a good way to do that kind of work. But with any approach, the real bottleneck comes in recording out to film, so we are always interested in adding more recorders or finding faster ones.”

© 2008 Penton Media, Inc.