I received a huge response to last month's editorial about the need for establishing DI standards and an organization of DI artists. Richard Patterson of Illusion Arts wrote to report that the Advanced Technology Committee of the Science and Technology Council of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has been "working for two years on an effort to establish a recommendation for the industry for image interchange and color management." The committee includes people from most of the major facilities as well as Kodak and Fujifilm. (Look for a future DI Studio report on their efforts)
Among the responses, P.J. Severtson of Severtson productions noted the difficulties of getting equipment manufacturers to cooperate on a cross-platform standard. "An effective association may have some standardizing influence on methods and practices so that the industry titans can obtain at least some trans-platform standards," he said. "In this way, there can be an upward path from desktop to DI suite."
A couple of filmmakers wrote to describe their disappointing experiences in DI, working with facilities and colorists who couldn't deliver what was promised. Efilm colorist Mitch Paulson added that "the concept of a DI is still new to a lot of people and I've seen lots of people attempt them. Most of them went in with no idea of how to accomplish it! I feel that setting some standards and having a society where people could talk about DIs would be very beneficial to everyone."
Director/cameraman Scott Hello wrote that "there is a recurring theme in the cinematographer ranks that we are losing authorship of our images due to the newer/ever-changing work flows in post." Having shot film for 25 years and HD for 8, Scott wonders if professionals with his real-life experience in lighting could help bridge the gap between production and post, coordinating the vision from pre-pro to answer print.
And if anyone wonders where the next generation of DI artists might be learning their basic skills, look no farther than Chapman University, which has just spent $40 million on the new Lawrence and Kristina Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. The college, which includes sound stages, a Foley pit and a motion-capture studio, features an end-to-end 2K workflow. Professor/Dean Bob Bassett reports that new gear includes a Spirit 2K scanner and Assimilate Scratch on each one of the school's 136 workstations (which also include Avid Xpress Pro).
"We are indeed planning to teach the DI and the color-correction process," says Bassett. "We plan on integrating Scratch into our cinematography program. We have set up two complete Scratch Stations to do the DI work. In addition, both of our computer labs have the software loaded so that we can provide hands-on instruction."
Bassett is also planning a series of seminars in the spring with a "working colorist to train to a deeper level our cinematography students."
"We would be very interested in standards for DI," says Bassett, who says an on-staff digital assets manager will perform some color correction and manage and train student lab assistants to assist students in color correction.
The interest is there. Next month, DI Studio will lay out what AMPAS is doing to create standards and organize best practices.
Elsewhere in this issue, we take a look at DI gear debuting at IBC, DI news around town, and what happens when a documentary gets a DI.