The recent introduction of the digital intermediate (di) has turned film pro-duction into a truly hybrid analog-digital process. In the di process the whole film is digitized, including the scenes where no digital effects need to be added, so that the workflow, including editing, special effects, compositing
and color grading takes place entirely in the digital environment. Only when the di is completed with the definitive editing, the added special effects, the required compositing scenes, and the desired color grading, is the film
print-| 45 ed back onto one or more un-spliced film negatives. Without any splice
(physi-cal joints between cuts) the negative is sturdier and is at less risk of damage when handled or used to produce further duplications in a printer.
The di process allows a significantly better integration of cgi and digital
compositing effects. The new negative is sturdier as an object and it allows for the creation of a smoother narrative line because special effects are evenly spread along the film and are less conspicuous than before, when cgi-loaded scenes and narrative flow were literally alternating with one another. As dis-cussed below, since the introduction of the di process the use of digital effects is in general much better integrated in the film. This is also true for digitally-corrected colors.
The film-to-digital-to-film workflow via the di process is becoming common practice today, even for films without special effects or compositing scenes.42 The main reason for its success is that it satisfies the needs of all the players in the film production chain, from the creators of special effects to the post-pro-duction technicians, from the people responsible for the film’s color character to the directors of photography. As Douglas Bankston points out in a special issue of the American Cinematographer dedicated to digital film grading:
The DI process was born out of a rather recent marriage between visual effects and motion-picture film scanner- and telecine-based color grad-ing. (Bankston, 2005:1)
Color grading is the practice that has been affected the most by the introduc-tion of the di process. Traditional analog grading requires that before a film negative is duplicated into a projection print (or any other intermediate film element), certain color values are defined for each scene in the film. This pro-cess is carried out by a grader, usually in the presence of the filmmaker or the cinematographer, on a viewing table equipped with a video camera (a so-called Color Analyzer) that shows a video image of the film negative to be graded. The grader defines a value for each color component (red, green and blue) accord-ing to the filmmaker’s wishes with respect to the overall light and color tem-perature. These values are then applied to the colored lamps used in the film printer. While duplicating the film, the printer will adjust the color balance for every single scene according to the values established during grading. Other elements, besides the intensity of the color lamps, influence the final color character of the graded film print, namely, the type of film stock and the way the film is chemically processed. Quite interesting techniques have been applied in order to modify the color appearance of films and not only by experimental filmmakers. An example is the relatively recent Three Kings (USA, 1999), for which Director of Photography, Newton Thomas Sigel, used a
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film stock originally developed for still slides and had it processed with a so-called “bleach bypass” where the film skips one bleach bath, in order to leave a layer of silver in the emulsion and obtain a higher contrast and de-saturated colors.43
It should be noted that in a photochemical process it is practically impos-sible to match perfectly the appearance on a Color Analyzer with that on the final film. As Paul Read points out: “the grader has no accurate method of demonstrating to the client what a print will look like before it is made” (2006:
114). On the contrary, with a digital workflow, matching of the appearance during grading to that of the final product is theoretically possible.
Undisputedly, the di process allows a greater control of the grading of the colors. Differently than in traditional analog grading, digital grading allows the altering of each color component (red, green and blue, as well as their complementary colors, yellow, cyan and magenta) independently from each other. In addition, only in the digital domain is it possible to selectively change the color of a single element in a frame. In most cases, digital grading
allows the printing of all subsequent elements (e.g. intermediate positives, duplicate negatives and projection prints) with one light, that is to say, with-out any additional grading adjustments as is the case with photochemical
grading processes where the original negative does not reflect the final color and lighting character that is meant for the projection prints. This is obviously a great advantage for future archivists, who will be able to determine a film’s look from a negative even when no reference print is available. For these rea-sons, as will be discussed in the second part of this chapter, digital grading
offers a solution for the restoration of color faded films that could not have been attained with photochemical tools.
Two early examples of the use of the di process and its greater power in obtaining color effects are Pleasantville (USA, 1998), the first Hollywood film to make use of it, and O Brother Where art Thou? (USA, 2000). In both cases the complete negative was digitized and the desired color character of the film was achieved in the digital domain. The choice for this process was dictated by the desire to obtain a particular color character that was difficult to real-ize through traditional photochemical processes. While in O Brother… digital color grading is merely functional for obtaining an overall color effect that would not be possible in the analog domain, in the case of Pleasantville a gradual switch from black-and-white to color makes color grading an essen-tial aspect of the film aesthetics and narrative. In a way, the use of color in Pleasantville becomes a (digital) effect in itself. As Scott Higgins points out:
Where Pleasantville brashly displays digital manipulation O Brother con-sciously strives to assimilate the technology into reigning norms. (Hig-gins, 2003: 10)
| 47 The choice of Martin Scorsese, “an older advocate of pure celluloid” in his own words, to use the di process for The Aviator (USA, 2005) was done with a differ-ent objective.44 Scorsese wanted to achieve a particular color for his Howard Hughes’ biopic to emulate the look of two- and three-strips Technicolor for the 1920s and the 1930s, respectively.
In an interview to the professional magazine The American Cinematogra-pher, Director of Photography Robert Richardson reveals:
Prior to my involvement, Marty designed a color timeline that influenced every creative department. He wanted the progression from a two-color palette to a three-strip palette to approximate the technological advances of the film industry at that time, but more importantly, he felt it would mirror the characters’ emotional evolution. The first act, which covers Hughes’s early career in Hollywood, was supposed to have Technicolor’s two-color look. With the second act, which begins after Hughes sets a speed record flying across the continental United States [in 1937] and goes with Katharine Hepburn to Connecticut, we transition to that vibrant, three-strip look that most of us associate with the glorious Tech-nicolor years. Then, when Hughes almost dies crashing the XF-11, we were going to cut into a more contemporary look without either Techni-color process applied. (Pavlus, 2005: 3)
The film’s Head of Special Effects, Rob Legato, and Director of Photography, Robert Richardson, were helped by Joshua Pines and Stephen Nakamura, Vice President of imaging research and development and Senior Colorist at Technicolor Digital Intermediates, to create the necessary software to obtain this effect. The final result won The Aviator, among others, the Oscar for Best Cinematography.
Scott Higgins, interestingly, compares the introduction of digital color
grading with that of the three-strip (i.e. three colors) Technicolor system itself:
This inauguration of new color technology strongly recalls Technicolor’s introduction of three-color in the 1930s. In that case, a single corpora-tion courted the film industry by offering a strongly defined aesthetic for binding color to classical norms. Early Technicolor features, particularly Becky Sharp (Mamoulian, Sherman, 1935), Trail of the Lonesome Pine (Hathaway, 1936), and A Star is Born (1937), served as aesthetic proto-types, promoting the new technology and testing options for integrating color as an attraction and as a narrative tool. Color consciousness was the way of thinking about color with an eye toward creating a stable place
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for the technology in the industry. The formal changes wrought by digital color, in particular the process of functionalizing this new technology, can be put in perspective by recalling the strategies worked out in Holly-wood’s first contact with full color-reproduction. Technicolor’s historical precedent casts some light on the current approaches to digital color.
(Higgins 2003: 3)
As will be discussed in the second part of this chapter, the di process and the work of digital colorists are becoming of crucial importance in the practice of film restoration. Especially the high flexibility offered by digital grading
and its predisposition to simulate other color techniques make this process extremely effective and suitable for film restorers. Once again, the simulation potential of the digital makes it particularly apt for the tasks of film restorers.
On the other hand, for some these advantages come at a high price, namely that of interfering with the indexical nature of analog photographic film (i.e.
its physical bond with the reality it represents). This conflict will be central to the theoretical discussion in Chapter Two.
Also, a new set of problems would come into play with the introduction of such a process for restoration, e.g. the calibration of all the different com-ponents, photochemical as well as digital, throughout the complete film pro-duction workflow. In fact, proper calibration is necessary to guarantee the integrity of colors from the beginning to the end. As Douglas Bankston puts it:
Maintaining image integrity in a hybrid workflow — in other words, pre-serving the intended look — is the digital nirvana that cinematographers seek. […] Film and its photochemical processes have their own tenden-cies. Over time and through technical development, the closed-loop sys-tem of film became manageable and consistent, with repeatable results.
However, the introduction of digital bits has thrown the traditional meth-ods of image control into flux: no two facilities are alike, no two processes are alike, and no two workflows are alike […]. (Bankston, 2005: 1)
The di process and digital color grading have been timidly adopted by film restorers in the last few years for a few restoration projects where the finan-cial means have allowed it. Examples of film restorations making use of the
di process, such as The Matinee Idol (USA, 1928) and Beyond the Rocks (USA, 1922), are analyzed in Chapter Four as case studies. The di workflow for film restoration is further discussed in the second part of this chapter.
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