Image Processing Reference
In-Depth Information
Manual
editing
process
Traditional
Film Camera
Optical
printing
Grading
Scanning
Film
Laser
exposed
film
output
HDCAM
Digital Movie
Camera
NLE
editing
Digital
grading
Figure 4-28
Digital intermediate workflow.
the all-digital workflow. You can see there are opportunities to move from the traditional
workflow to the digital intermediate form whenever you need to.
The digital revolution is pervading and affecting every aspect of film and TV pro-
duction, and video compression is critical to the success of the industry from one end to
the other.
A significant advantage of the digital intermediate process is that an archival copy of the
film is retained in a digital form. Since this was scanned from the original pristine footage,
there is very little likelihood of damage, dust, scratches, or other artifacts being introduced.
The colors in the picture will not fade over time the way the film emulsion would. Archiving
becomes easier and repurposing to other formats such as DVD is a much simpler process.
This also facilitates the migration to D-cinema and the electronic delivery of movies.
Archiving over hundreds of years is becoming an issue with digital content, and
some current studies are examining the aging of storage media and the most reliable file
formats to interface with systems that won't even exist for several hundred years. This
might seem an odd subject to be talking about in a topic on video compression, but it is
quite important that future generations be able to decode the material that we store today.
You should bear that in mind when choosing a codec for archival purposes.
4.15
Summary
This chapter has touched on a lot of different aspects of how filmed images work. There
are, however, many film formats that have not been covered here. Studying this topic on
the Internet reveals a large number and variety of Web sites that describe some very odd
film formats. In addition, you will find some information in the appendices about frame
sizes and formats.
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