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MillimeterTechnical Color
Sep 1, 2003 12:00 PM, By Cynthia Wisehart, Editorial Director
I remember the first time I got a glimpse of what is now called Digital Intermediate. I was at the old Rainmaker offices in Burbank watching a carpenter cut a hole in the wall to accommodate a digital projector for a virtual telecine suite — for digitally coloring features. The system was to be based on some of the most expensive gear in the Thomson (then Philips) arsenal. I thought two things at the time: incredible artistic opportunity for filmmakers, incredibly impractical price tag. Consider the cost of the storage alone!
From an artistic standpoint, the idea was really kind of irresistible. This was the late 1990s when the cult of the colorist was at its peak in television commercials. Their powers seemed magical, and the technology was rapidly advancing to provide more creative tools. The resulting imagery ranged from stylish and surprising to subtle, clean, and beautiful. It seemed obvious that feature films could exploit the potential. Think of how pristine the color could be, and imagine the unique artistic experiments that might emerge. Though I saw the technical impracticalities, I imagined it could only be a matter of months before filmmakers were clamoring to get their hands on this new process.
In reality, I knew that there was no way that this new process was going to make it into any producer's budget, even if the technology worked perfectly (which it didn't). DPs and directors were not going to immediately get to sit in $600-an-hour suites under the unholy influence of master colorists agonizing over every striation in a dawn sky, or changing people's costume colors on a whim. Imagine if they got used to seeing their film digitally projected on a big screen, mixing color as if they were sound guys?
Rainmaker Burbank closed, but the idea of digitally coloring features didn't fade away. I next saw it at Cinesite a few years later, where they had in part leveraged Cineon into a process that Roger Deakins was tinkering with, and which of course grew into what is now a full-scale digital intermediate operation. The test that caught my eye was the last scene of O Brother, where Deakins had infused a steel ribbon of railroad track with a subtle, unearthly glow, making it look like it ran off the screen and straight to heaven. It wasn't a Pleasantville-style effect, it was more like Deakins had just been incredibly lucky with the light.
Gradually other digital intermediate stories emerged — David Lynch and Robert Benton at Technique, James Cameron at Modern Video Film, Robert Rodriguez at Post Logic. It's becoming clear that Digital Intermediate is not only a unique artistic opportunity, but also a gateway into new and more productive workflow. This month we continue our coverage of DI, with Kevin Costner, DP Jimmy Muro, and colorist Marc Wielage at Cinesite. Next month Robert Benton.
