In film production, the term “Digital Intermediate” describes a process used to facilitate the making of movies using high-end computers, high-speed storage networks and sophisticated software programs. The first movie to utilize the process from beginning to end was “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” and in recent years, more and more movies have been getting the full blown, beginning to end DI treatment including “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Bourne Supremacy.”

Pre-DI: The Building of the Pyramids

To understand how the Digital Intermediate process is changing the way a movie goes from the camera to the screen, it is best to travel back to the late 1980s.

As an independent filmmaker for over 20 years, I remember how it was when I made my first movie. Low budget. Credit cards. Tapes. The whole shebang. We shot it in 10 days in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. It wouldn’t be long before we were on our way to fame and fortune. We thought opportunity had knocked on our door but when it opened…there stood post production. Ten years later we finished our movie and it was shown on the Independent Film Channel.

How did we get it done so quickly you ask? It was a process. First, we transferred our footage to 3/4" tape, then to VHS tape. We didn’t have the experience or money to edit on the new-fangled, hi-tech modern 3/4" decks then, so we transferred the movie to VHS and did a super rough cut using VHS to VHS. Along the way we taught ourselves a little about editing and became experts at stacking VHS tapes to the exact dimensions of the Egyptian Pyramids.

Once we had managed to whittle down the raw footage to a manageable length, we were ready for a rough cut. We went back to the 3/4" tapes and began financing edit sessions with a top of the line 3/4" editing system. Many long nights of tape to tape editing brought us to create our rough cut sub-master tape which allowed us to host a small screening in Hollywood.

The audience reaction was crystal clear: we still had a lot more work to do. We found someone who cut actors reels on a computer. A computer! Great Scott! Just in the nick of time. We convinced him to let us cut on his fancy AVID computer in the evenings. Voice-overs and credits each had their own tapes. Additionally, there was a process and a tape for sound tracks, for music, for screenings, and for trailers. With each edit session, came a new tape, and another screening. After each screening, we had new ideas. And with each new idea came a new edit session. And with each edit session…a new tape! More and more my office resembled the Giza Plateau.

Once we were creating our final edit, technology had developed to where we could do most of the final edit on a new high-speed computer. Along the way we could fix some of the problems we had with individual frames in some scenes. And although I did not know it at the time, this was our first taste of “DI.” DI was using a computer to create a clean master of our movie.

Efficiently Changing the Way Movies are Made

As computers have evolved into the power machines of today, their use in the process of filmmaking has evolved. The role that computers play in the filmmaking process has gone from taking some wires out of a single shot to swallowing whole every second of the raw footage and spitting out a finished movie. This includes the creation of dailies, visual effects, speed changes, color correction, titles, credits, voice-overs, sound, music, and trailers.

While some say that the DI process involves only the color correction phase of filmmaking, the actual process that is DI is in a constant evolutionary state. Neil Smith, Managing Director of Hollywood-DI (link to - http://www.hollywooddi.com/) thinks the DI process involves more than just color correction and image manipulation in post production.

“DI is now the place where movies are finished and put together before being sent out into the world,” says Smith. “All elements of the final product—images, sound, VFX and music are pieced together to produce the finished polished movie.”

Smith is recognized as one of the pioneers in DI and his vision for the future includes more than just post production. According to Smith, shooting a movie with DI in mind allows directors and DP’s to shoot either on film or digital cameras and produce a great looking movie in post.

“DI puts high production value on the screen where it is needed most. Efficient workflow is the key here,” adds Smith. “Being able to leverage digital technology in production and post production can save producers thousands of dollars, and at the same time increase a director’s creative choices.”

The nice thing about DI is that any source format can be run through the DI process and configured, formatted, and prepared for any level of distribution— from theatrical to digital cinema to DVD.

According to Smith, DI can not only increase production value ten fold but smooth the work flow dramatically. “Tweaking the project to the last minute can now be cost effective. We’ve done up to five editorial screenings before locking the picture. DI facilitates a flexible, cost effective and creatively fluid filmmaking process.”

Essentially, the DI process is involved in all phases of filmmaking, from capturing an image with a digital camera to taking it through a 100% digital post production process. This results in the creation of a single high quality digital tape in a format called a HDCAM-SR. A single HDCAM-SR tape that allows the filmmaker to output his movie to any form of distribution including film, Web, digital cinema, HD, SD, PAL and DVD.

Did you catch that? One tape! An HDCAM-SR digital master! The Holy Grail! How will filmmakers learn the art of making Giza pyramids out of tape? It will be a lost art for sure.