American Cinematographer - May 2000 - 109

The

Opposite: Bob

for an HD
preview system came from The Post
Group, which was exploring how the
high-resolution tools they'd been
acquiring could be used to improve
existing processes. According to
President Barry Nulman, the preview
process immediately stood out as an
arena that could be improved. "You
make a $30-million film, then bring a
work print without main titles or
concept

transitions

or

effects into

Rueland (David

Duchovny), a
recently widowed
architect, and
Grace

waitress with

screenplay). This
page: Grace
makes a hasty

theater and expect to get

[useful]
feedback," points out Nulman. "I
don't think that's right."
The Post Group's focus on
feature films didn't

nowhere. The

come

out

exit upon
that an

of

in film dates back to at least 1988,

adopted nonlinear offline
editing for feature films, and grew in
1994, when it created the Digital
Film Group to provide digital film

secret. The

gave them a down-converted cassette
for offline nonlinear cutting, and

then

they'd send us, via the Internet,
a list for a temp assembly for viewing

effects for feature films. With the

location," recalls Nulman.
"Meanwhile, we'd be working on

advent of HD, The Post

temp main

added

or

Group
Philips Spirit Datacine, an
online HD edit suite with digital
effects. The firm's existing Discreet
Fire is also capable of high-resolu¬
tion image manipulation.
a

The evolution from concept to

reality was, according to Markoe and
Nulman, of mutual interest from the

beginning. Markoe

was aware

that

already provid¬
ing HD dailies for feature films and
MOWs. He was also keeping close
tabs on electronic cinema, attending
demonstrations by several compa¬

The Post

nies. One

Group

was

Qualcomm demonstration

showing side-by-side compressed
and uncompressed HD satellite feeds
proved that "it didn't degrade the
image," says Markoe. "I had
exploratory talks with Barry, express¬
ing our requirements, and he said
they could make it work for us."
The first step of the process

on

titles, temp visual effects
pre-visualization' of visual effects

and titles treatments. The movie

was

eventually assembled in HD from the
dailies and the list from the cutting
and we'd add the other
elements, which had been created in

room,

Nulman also notes that the

final color-correction process for HD
takes place with the director of

photography present from start to
finish, unlike the photochemical
process, which takes three to four
days and results in an uncertain
product. After the picture is
previewed by the director and then
the studio, it is still easy to make
changes before it is previewed by an
audience

-

one

of the benefits of

working in HD tape,

say

Nulman

and Markoe.
The collaborative

relationship

between MGM's Markoe and The
Post

taking
the existing film and moving it to a
new format" via the Philips Spirit

solution made it

and DaVinci 2K. What followed the

point of view, one of the motivations
in being first to try it was that he

is "nothing unique

HD dailies

was new,

-

however. "We

could

dip a toe in the water without
buying the swimming pool. "I was
able to get a lot of manufacturers to
loan us equipment, which helped us
save more money than we would
have," explains Markoe, who says
Sony loaned the HDCAM decks and
projectors. "Because the process was
new, I couldn't get the studio to
commit to buying equipment, so
[the loans] helped."
However, Markoe's analysis
showed that

bought

high resolution."

would be HD dailies, which, Nulman
notes,

learning

unsuspecting Bob
plays a role in her

facility's involvement

when it

a

a

secret, fall in love
in Return to Me,
the directorial
debut of actress
Bonnie Hunt (who
also co-stars and
co-wrote the

movie

a

Briggs

(Minnie Driver),

Group in coming
a

up

with this

no-brainer for

MGM to be the first to try the
Cinema Process. From Markoe's

ment, it

even

romantic comedy
filmed on
location in

was

Chicago and
Rome, and dailies
were

viewed

on

high-definition
video.

if the studio

certain amount of equip¬
would realize a substantial

a

savings on each picture - with a
bigger savings on a bigger-budget
picture. Markoe pegs the savings at
around $200,000 per picture; The
Post Group ups that figure to
between $300,000 and $400,000.
How

is

money

saved?

Consider the expense of printing
thousands of feet of dailies and the
expense

of transferring sound for

those dailies

--

added to the notable

of hiring a film assistant
editor to synch them up. "That's
$100,000 right there," Markoe says.
"It could be even more, depending
on how much was budgeted for the
expense

assistant."
There

also be

savings in
opticals and titles, if the producers
were
planning on creating temps for
the preview. Also, the marketing
can

American

Cinematographer 103
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