American Cinematographer - November 2005 - 84

Technicolor's Real-Time Answer-Print Timing System
by Stephanie Argy
the timer must look at

image that is
fundamentally unlike that of projected
film running at real time, then mentally
compensate to envision how timing
changes will affect the print. Rattray,
whose background is mainly in film
printing and automation, says he was
an

stunned when he learned how timers
worked. "I told them, 'I'm amazed you

do anything.'"
Haggar says that for many timers,
that difficulty is part of the job's appeal.
"We've taken pride in being able to
understand the needs of cinematogra¬
phers and directors, and being able to
shoot from the hip with educated
guesses about color," he submits. As a
guys can

result, when he first heard about the

Electronic

engineer Harold
Rattray of
Technicolor tests
the Real-Time
Answer-Print

Timing System
designed,

that he

which allows the

cinematographer
and colorist to
the effect of

see

timing changes
instantly.

Traditionally, timing an answer print
1 has been a long, slow process. A cine¬
matographer's notes on how to adjust
density and color of shots and scenes
can be interpreted many different ways,
so honing in on the exact look and
producing it on film can mean making
print after print and waiting hours or
days while each new version is
processed. But Technicolor Film Services
has developed a new approach - the
Real-Time Answer-Print Timing System
which offers timers and cinematogra¬
phers a faster, more precise way to

the

-

communicate and to find their final color
and

density settings.
With Technicolor's system, a

film
print is projected onto a screen and plays
in real time. The light from the projector
passes through a series of light valves,
just like those in the lab's printing
system, which can be electronically
opened or closed to modify the image on
screen. This means that the cinematog¬
80 November 2005

rapher and timer can instantly see the
a change, exactly as it would
appear on a new print incorporating that
change. Terry Haggar, head color timer at
Technicolor, comments, "The big selling
tool with digital intermediates [DIs] is
that you're able to see what you're think¬
ing right then and there, and that's what
effect of

we're able to do

on a

film basis."

Harold

Rattray, the electronic
engineer who created the system, says
that timers have generally used either
Hazeltines or comparators to analyze a
film print and decide what printer adjust¬
ments need to be made to create the

look

a

cinematographer wants. A Hazelimage into an elec¬

tine converts the film

tronic version shown

on a

CRT monitor; a

comparator projects two strips of film
side

by side but can't show them in

motion, and it

lamp that is

a

uses an

incandescent

totally different color

temperature from those in conventional

projectors. Either approach

means

that

system, Haggar had reservations. "Being
an old-school timer, I thought, 'We don't
need this; it's a crutch!' But, once I saw
how it works, I thought, 'Well,
welcome!' It

was so

true to what we'd

always kept in

our heads and the way
timing."
Rattray says the idea for the
system initially came from Tim Reynolds,
senior vice president and general
manager of Technicolor's West Coast
film operations. After seeing the Arri
LocPro35 film projector, a portable
projector designed to show dailies on
location, Reynolds wondered if it could
be adapted into a tool for use during
color correction. "That wasn't an option
Arri offered or even thought of," notes
Rattray. "I thought, 'Let's throw it at the
drawing board and see what comes
up.'"
By April 2002, Rattray had a
prototype of the system. "We managed
to scrape together some equipment,
literally held together with duct tape,
just to see if it would work," says the
we

all grew up

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American Cinematographer - November 2005

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