American Cinematographer - April 1993 - 53

scene

by eliminating

some unat¬

tractive underarm hair with the

help of a digital workstation. That
electronic shave might have been
the most expensive haircut in his¬
tory, serving as an example of a
problem which might have easily
been

fixed

before

it

got to

postproduction.
Those are the types of
problems which will eventually be
resolved with time and experience.
The good news is that if it is intel¬

ligently applied, digital postpro¬
duction technology could revolu¬
tionize filmmaking in both prac¬
tical and creative ways. Allen
Daviau, ASC (Bugsy, The Empire of
the Sun, E.T.: The Extraterrestial,
Avalon, etc.) refers to an analogy
made by Ansel Adams, who com¬

pared the moment of photography
to

composer creating a concert,
making prints to a conductor
interpreting the score.
Adams believed photog¬
raphers should do both, and he had
a

and

the artistic muscle to exercise that
sort of control over the integrity of
his own work. Even when his
books were published, Adams had

approval

over the printing plates
and the first press run.
Daviau envisions that
same

creative latitude for cinema¬

tographers in the swiftly emerging
world of high-resolution digital in¬
termediate technology. He believes
it will someday become common¬
place for cameramen to shoot film,
and later get a second crack at the
footage at an image computing
workstation where they will be able
to

alter contrast, tweak colors, and

even

manipulate apparent sharp¬

ness

for artistic rather than techni¬

cal

when they alter contrast or colors,
and de-focus or sharpen images.
When they see an image they like,
the processed digital frames can be

stored on digital media and later
recorded on a high-resolution color
intermediate film, which will inter¬

seamlessly with the live-action
footage.
When will this type of ca¬
pability become feasible? "It is fea¬
sible now, though it isn't yet prac¬
tical for every purpose," says Ed
Jones, president of the Cinesite digi¬
cut

tal film center in Burbank, Califor¬
nia. Cinesite

opened as a beta
digital film
system in late September. Jones
says that Cinesite has already
handled a wide array of practical
applications, including scanning
and recording film images, scene
salvage, wire removal, restoration
of both damaged and aging foot¬
age, and digital compositing.
For example, in one cur¬
feature release, the director's
favorite take of a scene was flawed
rent

by the reflection of
crew

an image of a
member in the shiny surface

of a piano. A little digital sleight of
hand solved the problem. The spe¬
cific frames where the reflection
was visible were scanned into
digi¬
tal format, and an electronic paint

used to remove and
replace the reflection with picture
program was

information cloned from another

part of the frame.
The processed frames
then output to Eastman EXR
5244 color intermediate film. The
were

internegative was intercut with
footage from the scene.
"It's virtually transparent, not only

live-action
to the

audience, but also to the di¬

rector,

reasons.

In the digital domain,

was

test site for the Cineon

producer and crew,"

says

members of the creative team. The

Jones. "It's almost impossible to
pick out the corrected frames."
In another recent film, a
speed rail was used to attach a
backlight to a car. During one short
take, a small part of the rail was vis¬

image can be manipulated in vari¬

ible in

these

all of
things can be achieved in an

interactive and collaborative pro¬

involving the cinematogra¬
pher, the director, and/or other

cess

High-resolution digital
film systems aren't real-time, but
they are interactive, and they are
fast enough to be responsive. Cin¬
ematographers can actually see
ous

ways.

what

happens

on a

video monitor

a number of
key frames.
"The shot was taken with a moving

camera on

extension

the business end of an
of a crane," says

rail, but the actor turned his head
and

exposed it. The

didn't

see

cameraman
the rail until he viewed

dailies."
The editor wanted to

use

that

particular footage. It was no
problem excising the piece of speed
rail. "We converted the analog im¬
ages into binary digits representing
the analog picture," says Jones.
"Then we removed and replaced
pixels until we created a new pic¬
ture without the speed rail."
Accurate representation of
an
analog picture in digital format
requires as many as 40 Mbytes of
data per 35mm film frame, accord¬
ing to Jones. This provides 10 bits

under the worst circumstances,"

Jones explains.

"Say
scene,

you

underexpose

a

and it is too dark," he contin¬

"The visual information is way
down in the toe of the exposure
curve of the film. If
you have 10 bits
ues.

color, you can slice the digital
picture into approximately 1,000
parts. This allows you to stretch the
tonal range. With eight bits of data
per color channel, you have around
a
quarter of the visual information,
and a much flatter picture."
Jones says the Cineon sys¬
tem being beta tested at Cinesite
provides a choice of either eight or
ten bits per color per pixel, depend¬
ing upon the application. If you
want to put your finger on the crux
of the technology challenge facing
filmmakers anxious to integrate
this technology today, it comes
down to an equation of "so many
pixels, so little time."
The types of applications
Jones discussed are already being
rapidly integrated as everyday el¬
ements in the grammar of filmmak¬
ing. Give Jim Cameron some of the
credit. When he was directing Ter¬
minator 2, morfing (as the process is
spelled at ILM), 3-D graphics and
per

digital compositing were the more
glamorous applications, and they
captured the attention of the media.

ing the

However, Cameron felt that

head of

April 1993

scene
an

by video assist. The
was
blocking the

actor

Digtal

"leaving sufficient headroom for
manipulating the digital picture

Jones. "The operator was monitor¬

arm

Technolgy

of data in each of the three color
channels making up every pixel,

of the most

American

exciting work

Cinematographer

some

was

be-

51
American Cinematographer - April 1993

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