Of course, a digital artist’s vast expertise does not always lend itself to the type of color manipulation typically employed by a telecine colorist. Comments agency producer Noel Tirsch, "The job probably would have been a lot easier if we’d shot it on 35mm as originally anticipated. Problems began there because of the dirt elements. But the Spirit session was phenomenal. We felt like astronauts landing on the moon, trying to figure it out as we went. Monetarily, even though Spirit work is expensive, if you’re approaching the commercial with economies of scale, you can do a fantastic job for not a huge amount of money."
Schloss points out that transferring the material to data with the Philips Spirit DataCine "opens up the avenue of introducing colors that would be difficult or excruciatingly expensive and time-consuming in the conventional digital film optical world, and impossible in the conventional film world." Filmmakers thus have the familiar toolset of video telecine, along with the power of digital technology. "Since the DataCine is capable of transferring at reasonably high resolutions, it’s possible to do even non-effects sequences that way, and it opens up the possibility of shooting in 16mm or Super16 even if you’re releasing in 35mm without optical blow-ups that introduce noise and dirt," explains Schloss, who says that pin-registered transfers may soon be an option as well.
Tape-to-film transfer is hardly a new practice. Facilities such as Tape House Digital Film, E-Film in Hollywood, and Computer Film Company in London and Culver City have been doing them for several years. But Schloss points out that this process is merely another way to apply video postproduction tools to a film project. Director/cinematographer Sam Bayer of HSI Mars shot Reebok’s "Breakout" commercial campaign (designed by New York agency Berlin Cameron & Partners) in 35mm, and then postproduced the spots with the latest digital telecine, effects, and editing tools at The Mill in London, where it was finished in PAL D-1. For projection in movie houses, Tape House Digital Film took the PAL D-1 master and, using their proprietary interpolation software, recorded it onto Kodak 5245 negative at 2K resolution. Says Schloss, "The result is a really wonderful reproduction of what was created for television, with a contrast level that is appropriate for motion picture film," says Schloss. "When Sam [Bayer] saw the film screened at Technicolor in New York, he was ebullient. He said it was beyond anything he thought he could see in film. Within this technique, he saw a way of getting more on film than he could ordinarily get with the conventional method of shooting and then going to the lab."
"Our role is to see that the materials produced for TV will translate properly to cinema," Schloss adds. "This is a tried-and-true technique, but it’s one that people are gravitating to more and more as they realize that the powerful digital tools used in video postproduction can be transferred to the film world. We’ve taken the best of one world the film-to-tape transfer and postproduction techniques used in video and successfully applied the same methods to motion picture techniques."
Postscript
In past years, the large file size of film-resolution images impeded their easy handling in the digital world. Now, however, the powerful tools being used to fashion digital effects have helped to breach that barrier. As massive amounts of storage and computing power become more commonplace, the ability to treat film images as just so much data will become increasingly routine. Some pioneers, such as those described in this article, are already testing the possibilities and limits of applying video postproduction techniques to film. As their experiences open new creative doors, others are sure to follow, making digital postproduction an arena that merits further scrutiny.
