Digital cinematography
Encyclopedia
Digital cinematography is the process of capturing motion pictures as digital image
s, rather than on film
. Digital capture may occur on video tape, hard disks, flash memory
, or other media which can record digital data. As digital technology has improved, this practice has become increasingly common. Many mainstream Hollywood movies now are shot partly or fully digitally.
Many vendors have brought products to market, including traditional film camera vendors like Arri
and Panavision
, as well as new vendors like RED and Silicon Imaging
, and companies which have traditionally focused on consumer and broadcast video equipment, like Sony
and Panasonic
.
Digital cinematography's acceptance was cemented in 2009 when Slumdog Millionaire
became the first movie shot mainly in digital to be awarded the Academy Award for Best Cinematography
and the highest grossing movie in the history of cinema, Avatar, not only was shot on digital cameras as well, but also made the main revenues at the box office no longer by film, but digital projection. In 2010 the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
, El secreto de sus ojos
, was won by a movie shot digitally.
began marketing the concept of "electronic cinematography
," utilizing its analog Sony HDVS
professional video camera
s. The effort met with very little success. In 1998, with the introduction of HDCAM
recorders and 1920 × 1080 pixel digital professional video cameras based on CCD
technology, the idea, now re-branded as "digital cinematography," began to gain traction in the market.
In 1994 Sony executives approached "Party of Five
" (FOX) producer Ken Topolsky and director of photography Roy H. Wagner
, ASC, in an effort to photograph side by side tests with Sony's prototype High Def camera and 35mm film. This resulted in one of the first network broadcast television series, FOX Pilot PASADENA
(2001), directed by Diane Keaton
, photographed by Wagner. The results were so successful, shown to directors and Industry decision makers at the Directors Guild of America
and Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers
(SMPTE) meetings, that many were encouraged by the film like images. Soon many series were considering HD originated image capture.
In May 2001 Once Upon a Time in Mexico
became the first well known movie to be shot in 24 frame-per-second high-definition digital video
, using a Sony HDW-F900 camera, following Robert Rodriguez's introduction to the camera at George Lucas
's ranch whilst editing the sound for Spy Kids 1. In May 2002 Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
was released having also been shot using a Sony HDW-F900 camera. Two lesser-known movies, Vidocq
(2001) and Russian Ark
(2002), had also previously been shot with the same camera, the latter notably consisting of a single long take
(no cuts).
In parallel with these developments in the world of traditional high-budget cinematography, a digital cinema
revolution was occurring from the bottom up, among low budget filmmakers outside of the Hollywood studio system
. Beginning in the mid-1990s, with the introduction of Sony's DCR-VX1000, the digital MiniDV format began to emerge. MiniDV offered much greater quality than the analog formats that preceded it, at the same price point. While its quality was not considered as good as film, these MiniDV camcorder
s, in conjunction with non-linear editing software that could run on personal computer
s, allowed a large number of people to begin making movies who were previously prevented from doing so by the high costs involved with shooting on film.
Today, cameras from companies like Sony
, Panasonic
, JVC
and Canon
offer a variety of choices for shooting high-definition video with less than $10,000 worth of camera equipment. Additionally, some under $1,000 digital SLR photo cameras from vendors like Canon and Nikon
have added 24, 25 or 30 frame per second video modes in HD (1920x1080) resolution.
At the high-end of the market, there has been an emergence of cameras aimed specifically at the digital cinema market. These cameras from Sony
, Vision Research
, Arri
, Silicon Imaging
, Panavision
, Grass Valley
and Red offer resolution and dynamic range
that exceeds that of traditional video cameras, which are designed for the limited needs of broadcast television.
. While there is no clear technical distinction that separates the images captured in digital cinematography from video
, the term "digital cinematography" is usually applied only in cases where digital acquisition is substituted for film acquisition, such as when shooting a feature film
. The term is seldom applied when digital acquisition is substituted for analog video
acquisition, as with live broadcast
television programs.
or CCD
sensors, usually in one of two arrangements.
Single chip cameras designed specifically for the digital cinematography market often use a single sensor (much like digital photo cameras
), with dimensions similar in size to a 16 or 35 mm film frame or even (as with the Vision 65) a 65 mm film frame. An image can be projected onto a single large sensor exactly the same way it can be projected onto a film frame, so cameras with this design can be made with PL
, PV
and similar mounts, in order to use the wide range of existing high-end cinematography lenses available. Their large sensors also let these cameras achieve the same shallow depth of field
as 35 or 65 mm motion picture film cameras, which many cinematographers consider an essential visual tool.
Other cameras use three 1/3" or 2/3" sensors in conjunction with a dichroic prism
, with each sensor capturing a different color. Camera vendors like Sony and Panasonic, have leveraged their experience with these designs into three-CCD cameras targeted specifically at the digital cinematography market. The Thomson Viper also uses a three-chip design. These designs offer benefits in terms of color separation, and rolling shutter
, but are incompatible with traditional cinematography lenses and are incapable of achieving 35 mm depth of field unless used with depth-of-field adaptors
, which result in some loss of light. New lines of high-end lenses such as the Zeiss DigiPrimes have been developed with these cameras in mind.
, which is 1920x1080 pixels), digital cinema formats are usually specified in terms of horizontal resolution. As a shorthand, these resolutions are often given in "nK" notation, where n is the multiplier of 1024 such that the horizontal resolution of a corresponding full-aperture, digitized film frame is exactly
pixels. Here the 'K' has a customary, improper meaning: it should be the binary prefix
"kibi
" (ki) instead.
For instance, a 2K image is 2048 pixels wide, and a 4K image is 4096 pixels wide. Vertical resolutions vary with aspect ratios though; so a 2K image with a HDTV (16:9) aspect ratio is 2048x1152 pixels, while a 2K image with a SDTV or Academy ratio
(4:3) is 2048x1536 pixels, and one with a Panavision
ratio (2.39:1) would be 2048x856 pixels, and so on. Due to the "nK" notation not corresponding to specific horizontal resolutions per format a 2K image lacking, for example, the typical 35mm film soundtrack space, is only 1828 pixels wide, with vertical resolutions rescaling accordingly. This led to a plethora of motion-picture related video resolutions, which is quite confusing and often redundant with respect to nowadays few projection standards.
All formats designed for digital cinematography are progressive scan
, and capture usually occurs at the same 24 frame per second rate established as the standard for 35mm film.
The DCI
standard for cinema usually relies on a 1.89:1 aspect ratio, thus defining the maximum container size for 4K as 4096x2160 pixels and for 2K as 2048x1080 pixels (either 24fps or 48fps). When distributed in the form of a Digital Cinema Package (DCP), content is letterbox
ed or pillarboxed as appropriate to fit within one of these container formats.
In the last few years, 2K has been the most common format for digitally acquired major motion pictures however, as new camera systems gain acceptance, 4K is becoming more prominent (as the 1080p format has been before). During 2009 at least two major Hollywood films, Knowing
and District 9
, were shot in 4K on the RED ONE camera, followed by The Social Network
in 2010.
paradigms are used for data acquisition and storage in digital cinematography.
. Upon ingestion, a digital video stream from tape is converted to computer files. These files can be edited directly or converted to an intermediate format for editing. Then video is output in its final format, possibly to a film recorder for theatrical exhibition, or back to video tape for broadcast use. Original video tapes are kept as an archival medium. The files generated by the non-linear editing application contain the information necessary to retrieve footage from the proper tapes, should the footage stored on the computer's hard disk be lost.
(array of computer disks) connected to an editing system. Once data is copied from the on-set media to the storage array, they are erased and returned to the set for more shooting.
Such RAID arrays, both of "managed" (for example, SAN
s and NASs) and "unmanaged" (for example, JBoDs on a single computer workstation), are necessary due to the enormous throughput required for real-time (320 MB/s for 2K @ 24fps) or near-real-time playback in post-production
, compared to throughput available from a single, yet fast, hard disk drive. Such requirements are often termed as "on-line" storage. Post-production not requiring real-time playback performances (typically for lettering, subtitling, versioning and other similar visual effects) can be migrated to slightly slower RAID stores.
Short-term archiving, "if ever", is accomplished by moving the digital files into "slower" RAID arrays (still of either managed and unmanaged type, but with lower performances), where playback capability is poor to non-existent (unless via proxy images), but minimal editing and metadata
harvesting still feasible. Such intermediate requirements easily fall into the "mid-line" storage category.
Long-term archiving is accomplished by backing up the digital files from the RAID, using standard practices and equipment for data backup from the IT
industry, often to data tapes
(like LTOs).
s per second. To help manage this huge data flow, many cameras or recording devices designed to be used in conjunction with them offer compression
. Prosumer cameras typically use high compression ratio
s in conjunction with chroma subsampling
. While this allows footage to be comfortably handled even on fairly modest personal computer
s, the convenience comes at the expense of image quality.
High-end digital cinematography cameras or recording devices typically support recording at much lower compression ratios, or in uncompressed formats. Additionally, digital cinematography camera vendors are not constrained by the standards of the consumer or broadcast video industries, and often develop proprietary compression technologies that are optimized for use with their specific sensor designs or recording technologies.
.
compression. Inter frame
compression systems can further compress data by examining and eliminating redundancy between frames. This leads to higher compression ratios, but displaying a single frame will usually require the playback system to decompress a number of frames from before & after it. In normal playback this is not a problem, as each successive frame is played in order, so the preceding frames have already been decompressed. In editing, however, it is common to jump around to specific frames and to play footage backwards or at different speeds. Because of the need to decompress extra frames in these situations, inter-frame compression can cause performance problems for editing systems. Inter-frame compression is also disadvantageous because the loss of a single frame (say, due to a flaw writing data to a tape) will typically ruin all the frames until the next keyframe occurs. In the case of the HDV
format, for instance, this may result in as many as 6 frames being lost with 720p recording, or 15 with 1080i. An inter-frame compressed video stream consists of groups of pictures
(GOPs), each of which has only one full frame, and a handful of other frames referring to this frame. If the full frame, called I-frame, is lost due to transmission or media error, none of the P-frames of B-frames (the referenced images) can be displayed. In this case, the whole GOP is lost.
or in a High Definition format like Blu-Ray.
, a joint venture of Disney, Fox, MGM, Paramount, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal and Warner Bros. Studios, has established standards for digital cinema projection. In July 2005, they released the first version of the Digital Cinema System Specification, which encompasses 2K and 4K theatrical projection. They also offer compliance testing for exhibitors and equipment suppliers.
Distributors prefer digital distribution, because it saves them the expense of making film prints, which may cost as much as $2000 each. Digital projection also offers advantages over traditional film projection such as lack of jitter, flicker, dust, scratches, and grain.
Theater owners initially balked at installing digital projection systems because of high cost and concern over increased technical complexity. However new funding models, in which distributors pay a "digital print" fee to theater owners, have helped to alleviate these concerns. Digital projection also offers increased flexibility with respect to showing trailers and pre-show advertisements and allowing theater owners to more easily move films between screens or change how many screens a film is playing on, and the higher quality of digital projection provides a better experience to help attract consumers who can now access high-definition content at home. These factors have resulted in digital projection becoming an increasingly attractive prospect for theater owners, and the pace of adoption has increased.
In the UK 300 cinema screens were converted to digital projectors as part of a UK film council initiative, the Digital Screen Network (DSN) to advance digital theatrical distribution in the UK funded by National lottery money. The first film to be screened digitally on the DSN was King's Game, a Danish film.
will be used to print digital image data to film, to create a 35 mm internegative
. After that the duplication process is identical to that of a traditional negative from a film camera.
flex D-20
, D-21
and Alexa
, Panavisions Genesis, Silicon Imaging SI-2K, Thomson Viper, Vision Research Phantom, Weisscam
HS-1 and HS-2, GS Vitec noX, and the Fusion Camera System. Independent filmmakers have also pressed low-cost consumer and prosumer cameras into service for digital filmmaking.
With digital cinematography, however, on-set monitoring allows the cinematographer to see the actual images that are captured, immediately on the set, which is impossible with film. With a properly calibrated high-definition display, on-set monitoring, in conjunction with data displays such as histogram
s, waveforms
, RGB parades, and various types of focus assist, can give the cinematographer a far more accurate picture of what is being captured than is possible with film, where a final image cannot be viewed until the film stock is processed. However, some of this equipment may impose costs in terms of time and money, and may not be possible to utilize in difficult shooting situations.
Film cameras do often have a video assist
that captures video through the camera lens to allow for on-set playback, but its usefulness is largely restricted to judging action and framing. Because this video is not derived from the image that is actually captured to film, it is not very useful for judging lighting, and because it is typically only NTSC-resolution, it is often useless for judging focus.
Some more recent digital cinema cameras attempt to more closely emulate the way film handles highlights and are used by many high-budget productions intercut with film. A few cinematographers have started deliberately using the 'harsh' look of digital highlights for aesthetic purposes. One notable example of such use is Battlestar Galactica
.
Digital acquisition typically offers better performance than film in low-light conditions, allowing less lighting and in some cases completely natural or practical lighting to be used for shooting, even indoors. This low-light sensitivity also tends to bring out shadow detail.
Unlike a digital sensor, a film frame does not have a regular grid of discrete pixels. Rather, it has an irregular pattern of differently sized grains
. As a film frame is scanned at higher and higher resolutions, image detail is increasingly masked by grain, but it is difficult to determine at what point there is no more useful detail to extract. Moreover, different film stocks have widely varying ability to resolve detail.
Determining resolution in digital acquisition seems straightforward, but is significantly complicated by the way digital camera sensors work in the real world. This is particularly true in the case of high-end digital cinematography cameras that use a single large bayer pattern CMOS sensor. A bayer pattern sensor does not sample full RGB data at every point; each pixel is biased toward red, green or blue, and a full color image is assembled from this checkerboard of color by processing the image through a demosaicing algorithm. Generally with a bayer pattern sensor, actual resolution will fall somewhere between the "native" value and half this figure, with different demosaicing algorithms producing different results. Additionally, most digital cameras (both bayer and three-chip designs) employ optical low-pass filters to avoid aliasing
. Such filters reduce resolution.
In general, it is widely accepted that an original film camera negative exceeds the resolution of HDTV formats and the 2K digital cinema format, but there is still significant debate about whether 4K digital acquisition can match the results achieved by scanning 35 mm film at 4K, as well as whether 4K scanning actually extracts all the useful detail from 35 mm film in the first place. However, from 2000 to 2009, the overwhelming majority of films that used a digital intermediate
were mastered at 2K, independent of their budget. Additionally, 2K projection is chosen for most permanent digital cinema
installations, often even when 4K projection is available.
One important thing to note is that the process of optical duplication, used to produce theatrical release prints for movies that originate both on film and digitally, causes significant loss of resolution. If a 35 mm negative does capture more detail than 4K digital acquisition, ironically this may only be visible when a 35 mm movie is scanned and projected on a 4K digital projector. The most limiting factor when not using digital cinema however is the end of the exhibition chain: For mechanical projection, the SMPTE allows flutter and weave up to 0.2%, which reduces projected resolution down to 1K. Well maintained mechanical projectors however can operate at 0.05%, which can almost reach 2K resolution.
structure. Different film stocks have different grain, and cinematographers may use this for artistic effect.
Digitally acquired footage lacks this grain structure. Electronic noise
is sometimes visible in digitally acquired footage, particularly in dark areas of an image or when footage was shot in low lighting conditions and gain
was used.
Since most theatrical exhibition still occurs via film prints, the clean look of digital acquisition is often lost before moviegoers get to see it, because most major releases are in the 35mm film format and all film stocks have film grain.
workflow, where movies are color graded
digitally instead of via traditional photochemical finishing techniques, has become common, largely because of the greater artistic control it provides to filmmakers. In 2007, all of the 10 most successful movies released used the digital intermediate process.
In order to utilize digital intermediate workflow with film, the camera negative must first be processed and then scanned to a digital format. High quality film scanning is expensive (up to $4 a frame, although the costs of this are continually dropping). With digital acquisition, the scanning step is not necessary. Footage can go directly into a digital intermediate pipeline as digital data, although with some digital acquisition systems, it may need to be processed into suitable formats before it can be worked with.
Some filmmakers have years of experience achieving their artistic vision using the techniques available in a traditional photochemical workflow, and prefer that finishing/editing process. While it would be theoretically possible to use such a process with digital acquisition by creating a film negative on a film recorder, in general digital acquisition is not a suitable choice if a traditional finishing process is desired. However, traditional photochemical finishes have become extremely rare for Hollywood features.
is recorded to a separate sound recording device. Picture and sound are then synced up in post-production. In the past this was done manually by lining up the image of the just-closed clapper board sticks with their characteristic clap on the sound recording. Today it is often done automatically using timecode data burnt onto the edge of the film emulsion and timecode displayed on digital clapper slates.
Most cameras used for digital cinematography can record sound internally, already in sync with picture. In theory this eliminates the need for syncing in post, which can lead to faster workflows. However, most sound recording is done by specialist operators, and the sound will likely be separated and further processed in post-production anyway. Moreover, high-end dedicated audio recording devices typically can record better quality sound than the audio recording subsystems of cameras, so most higher end production uses dual system recording even with cameras that are capable of recording sound internally. On such productions, internal camera audio may be used to record "scratch tracks" as an aid to the editor when syncing with the separately recorded master audio, to allow footage to be edited or viewed with sound prior to being synced with the master audio, or as a backup in case something is wrong with the master audio. Like modern film cameras, digital cinematography cameras can typically accept timecode data from external devices and record it with each frame of footage. Digital clapper slates are also commonly used.
have predicted that electronic or digital cinematography would bring about a revolution in filmmaking
, by dramatically lowering costs.
For low-budget and so-called "no-budget" productions, digital cinematography on prosumer
cameras clearly has cost benefits over shooting on 35 mm or even 16 mm film. The cost of film stock, processing
, telecine
, negative cutting
, and titling for a feature film can run to tens of thousands of dollars according to From Reel to Deal, a book on independent film
production by Dov S-S Simens, based on his 2-day film course. Costs directly attributable to shooting a low-budget feature on 35 mm film could be $50,000 on the low side, and over twice that on the high side. In contrast, obtaining a high-definition prosumer camera and sufficient tape stock to shoot a feature can easily be done for under $10,000. Typically, costs for both methods are significantly less if the camera is rented.
Most extremely low-budget movies never receive wide distribution, so the impact of low-budget video acquisition on the industry remains to be seen. It is possible that as a result of new distribution methods and the long tail
effects they may bring into play, more such productions may find profitable distribution in the future. Traditional distributors may also begin to acquire more low-budget movies as better affordable digital acquisition eliminates the liability of low picture quality, and as they look for a means to escape the increasingly drastic "boom and bust" financial situation created by spending huge amounts of money on a relatively small number of very large movies, not all of which succeed.
On higher budget productions, the direct cost advantages of digital cinematography are not as significant in relation to the total budget, primarily because the costs imposed by working with film typically account for no more than a few percent of such large budgets.
Digital acquisition, however, offers numerous significant advantages on high-budget shoots, such as the ability to work faster (with fewer magazine changes and less concern over shooting large amounts of footage), to back up footage on set for additional safety, and to check important shots immediately, potentially avoiding costly reshoots. Digital workflow may also allow shots to be delivered to post production pipelines for color grading, visual effects work or editorial assembly even before principal photography ends. Some of these functions may even be performed on set so that, for instance, if a cinematographer has a specific stylized look in mind for color grading, he or she can see almost immediately how footage will appear with that look applied, and take this into account while shooting it.
Rick McCallum
, a producer on Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
, has commented that the production spent $16,000 for 220 hours of digital tape, where a comparable amount of film would have cost $1.8 million. However, this does not necessarily indicate the actual cost savings percentage, as the very low incremental cost of shooting additional footage may encourage filmmakers to use far higher shooting ratio
s with digital.
, the first school in the United States to offer only digital training, the issue is all but moot.
Digital cinematography accounts for a larger fraction of feature movie shooting every year, especially in A-budget productions, and seems destined to eventually eclipse film-based acquisition, much as digital photo cameras have largely replaced film based photo cameras in the still photography world. The majority of American episodic TV-series already are produced digitally.
Sales of mechanical cameras have been declining at least since 2007. The once market-leading manufacturers of mechanical cameras, Panavision
, Arri
and Aaton
, have only introduced and developed digital cinema cameras since then. All newly introduced cinema cameras since 2007 are digital. All new manufacturers of cinema cameras, silicon imaging, red, Sony, vision research only offer digital cameras. The Academy Award for Best Cinematography
have been won by movies shot completely or mostly digitally in 2009 and 2010.
In 2009, the Academy Award for Best Cinematography
was awarded for a movie mostly shot digitally, Slumdog Millionaire
. Another nominee, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
, was also shot digitally.
Some notable high-profile directors and producers that have shot with digital equipment include:
Some directors have expressed an openness for either format, such as Jean-Jacques Annaud
who used 35 mm and HDCAM together for Two Brothers
, or Quentin Tarantino
, who, while he ended up shooting his contribution on film, expressed an interest in digital acquisition for Grindhouse. Tarantino, however, has also indicated that he would continue shooting Grindhouse on film.
Other filmmakers haven't directed digitally acquired films, but have produced them. For instance, Ridley Scott produced the 2007 series "The Company," which was shot on the Arri D-20.
Lower-budget and limited-release movies have adopted digital cinematography at a somewhat faster pace, although some filmmakers still choose to shoot such productions on 16 mm film, the traditional medium for that market segment.
As the digital intermediate
process gains wider use for finishing movies shot on film, and as digital acquisition technology continues to improve, it seems likely digital cinematography will continue to gain wider acceptance.
Digital technology has eclipsed analog alternatives in many other content creation and distribution markets. On the content creation side, digital photo cameras
significantly outsell film photo cameras, digital video tape formats like MiniDV have superseded analog tape formats, digital audio workstation
s have almost entirely replaced multi-track tape recorders
, digital non-linear editing systems have displaced Moviola
/Steenbeck
equipment as the standard means of editing movies, and page layout software running on desktop computers has come to dominate the graphic design industry. On the distribution side, CD
s have largely replaced LPs
, DVD
s have largely replaced VHS
tapes, and digital cable systems are displacing analog cable systems. According to all major manufacturers of cameras it seems likely that despite resistance on the part of some few users in the industry, digital technology will eventually be similarly successful in the feature film acquisition and theatrical exhibition markets. In the exhibition market of the USA, the three market leading chains, AMC, Regal and Cinemark are converting all of their cinemas to digital since 2009. According to their business plans 2012 the process shall be completed and the majority of all American cinemas then will be digital.
Digital image
A digital image is a numeric representation of a two-dimensional image. Depending on whether or not the image resolution is fixed, it may be of vector or raster type...
s, rather than on film
Photographic film
Photographic film is a sheet of plastic coated with an emulsion containing light-sensitive silver halide salts with variable crystal sizes that determine the sensitivity, contrast and resolution of the film...
. Digital capture may occur on video tape, hard disks, flash memory
Flash memory
Flash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data...
, or other media which can record digital data. As digital technology has improved, this practice has become increasingly common. Many mainstream Hollywood movies now are shot partly or fully digitally.
Many vendors have brought products to market, including traditional film camera vendors like Arri
Arri
-History:Arri was founded in Munich, Germany as Arnold & Richter Cine Technik in 1917, named after founders August Arnold and Robert Richter. They produce professional motion picture equipment, digital and film cameras and cinematic lighting equipment...
and Panavision
Panavision
Panavision is an American motion picture equipment company specializing in cameras and lenses, based in Woodland Hills, California. Formed by Robert Gottschalk as a small partnership to create anamorphic projection lenses during the widescreen boom in the 1950s, Panavision expanded its product...
, as well as new vendors like RED and Silicon Imaging
Silicon Imaging
The Silicon Imaging is a 2K digital video camera based around a single 16mm-sized CMOS sensor. It can record direct to disk in the compressed CineForm RAW format, and is notable for its tiny detachable camera head, which can be positioned up to 100m from the recording unit...
, and companies which have traditionally focused on consumer and broadcast video equipment, like Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
and Panasonic
Panasonic
Panasonic is an international brand name for Japanese electric products manufacturer Panasonic Corporation, which was formerly known as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd...
.
Digital cinematography's acceptance was cemented in 2009 when Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British epic romantic drama adventure film directed by Danny Boyle, written by Simon Beaufoy, and co-directed in India by Loveleen Tandan. It is an adaptation of the novel Q & A by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup...
became the first movie shot mainly in digital to be awarded the Academy Award for Best Cinematography
Academy Award for Best Cinematography
The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...
and the highest grossing movie in the history of cinema, Avatar, not only was shot on digital cameras as well, but also made the main revenues at the box office no longer by film, but digital projection. In 2010 the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
, El secreto de sus ojos
El secreto de sus ojos
The Secret in Their Eyes is a 2009 Argentine crime thriller, directed by Juan José Campanella, based on Eduardo Sacheri's novel La Pregunta de Sus Ojos...
, was won by a movie shot digitally.
History
Beginning in the late 1980s, SonySony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
began marketing the concept of "electronic cinematography
Cinematography
Cinematography is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...
," utilizing its analog Sony HDVS
Sony HDVS
Sony HDVS was a range of high-definition video equipment developed in the 1980s to support an early analog high-definition television system thought to be the broadcast television systems that would be in use today...
professional video camera
Professional video camera
A professional video camera is a high-end device for creating electronic moving images...
s. The effort met with very little success. In 1998, with the introduction of HDCAM
HDCAM
HDCAM, introduced in 1997, is an High-definition video digital recording videocassette version of Digital Betacam, using an 8-bit DCT compressed 3:1:1 recording, in 1080i-compatible downsampled resolution of 1440×1080, and adding 24p and 23.976 PsF modes to later models...
recorders and 1920 × 1080 pixel digital professional video cameras based on CCD
Charge-coupled device
A charge-coupled device is a device for the movement of electrical charge, usually from within the device to an area where the charge can be manipulated, for example conversion into a digital value. This is achieved by "shifting" the signals between stages within the device one at a time...
technology, the idea, now re-branded as "digital cinematography," began to gain traction in the market.
In 1994 Sony executives approached "Party of Five
Party of Five
Party of Five is an American teen drama television series that aired on Fox for six seasons, from September 12, 1994, until May 3, 2000.Critically acclaimed, the show suffered from low ratings and after its first season was slated for cancellation...
" (FOX) producer Ken Topolsky and director of photography Roy H. Wagner
Roy H. Wagner
Roy H. Wagner , A.S.C. is a two-time Emmy-winning cinematographer known for dramatic, dark imagery. Named by Kodak as one of the "Top 100 Directors of Photography in the World" Wagner's career has spanned 35 years in the motion picture and television industries...
, ASC, in an effort to photograph side by side tests with Sony's prototype High Def camera and 35mm film. This resulted in one of the first network broadcast television series, FOX Pilot PASADENA
Pasadena (TV series)
Pasadena is an American primetime soap opera originally broadcast in the U.S. from September to November 2001 on Fox.-Summary:The series starred Alison Lohman as Lily McAllister, an initially naïve young woman who witnesses a stranger's suicide and begins to investigate the secrets being hidden by...
(2001), directed by Diane Keaton
Diane Keaton
Diane Keaton is an American film actress, director, producer, and screenwriter. Keaton began her career on stage, and made her screen debut in 1970...
, photographed by Wagner. The results were so successful, shown to directors and Industry decision makers at the Directors Guild of America
Directors Guild of America
Directors Guild of America is an entertainment labor union which represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry...
and Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers
Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers
The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE , founded in 1916 as the Society of Motion Picture Engineers or SMPE, is an international professional association, based in...
(SMPTE) meetings, that many were encouraged by the film like images. Soon many series were considering HD originated image capture.
In May 2001 Once Upon a Time in Mexico
Once Upon a Time in Mexico
Once Upon a Time in Mexico is a 2003 action film written, edited and directed by Robert Rodriguez. It is the final film in the "Mariachi Trilogy", which also includes El Mariachi and Desperado. Antonio Banderas reprises his role as El Mariachi...
became the first well known movie to be shot in 24 frame-per-second high-definition digital video
Digital video
Digital video is a type of digital recording system that works by using a digital rather than an analog video signal.The terms camera, video camera, and camcorder are used interchangeably in this article.- History :...
, using a Sony HDW-F900 camera, following Robert Rodriguez's introduction to the camera at George Lucas
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
's ranch whilst editing the sound for Spy Kids 1. In May 2002 Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones is a 2002 American epic space opera film directed by George Lucas and written by Lucas and Jonathan Hales. It is the fifth film to be released in the Star Wars saga and the second in terms of the series' internal chronology...
was released having also been shot using a Sony HDW-F900 camera. Two lesser-known movies, Vidocq
Vidocq (2001 film)
Vidocq is a 2001 mystery film, directed by Pitof, starring Gérard Depardieu as historical figure Eugène François Vidocq pursuing a supernatural serial killer...
(2001) and Russian Ark
Russian Ark
Russian Ark is a 2002 Russian historical drama film directed by Alexander Sokurov. It was filmed entirely in the Winter Palace of the Russian State Hermitage Museum using a single 96-minute Steadicam sequence shot...
(2002), had also previously been shot with the same camera, the latter notably consisting of a single long take
Long take
A long take is an uninterrupted shot in a film which lasts much longer than the conventional editing pace either of the film itself or of films in general, usually lasting several minutes. It can be used for dramatic and narrative effect if done properly, and in moving shots is often accomplished...
(no cuts).
In parallel with these developments in the world of traditional high-budget cinematography, a digital cinema
Digital cinema
Digital cinema refers to the use of digital technology to distribute and project motion pictures. A movie can be distributed via hard drives, optical disks or satellite and projected using a digital projector instead of a conventional film projector...
revolution was occurring from the bottom up, among low budget filmmakers outside of the Hollywood studio system
Studio system
The studio system was a means of film production and distribution dominant in Hollywood from the early 1920s through the early 1960s. The term studio system refers to the practice of large motion picture studios producing movies primarily on their own filmmaking lots with creative personnel under...
. Beginning in the mid-1990s, with the introduction of Sony's DCR-VX1000, the digital MiniDV format began to emerge. MiniDV offered much greater quality than the analog formats that preceded it, at the same price point. While its quality was not considered as good as film, these MiniDV camcorder
Camcorder
A camcorder is an electronic device that combines a video camera and a video recorder into one unit. Equipment manufacturers do not seem to have strict guidelines for the term usage...
s, in conjunction with non-linear editing software that could run on personal computer
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
s, allowed a large number of people to begin making movies who were previously prevented from doing so by the high costs involved with shooting on film.
Today, cameras from companies like Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
, Panasonic
Panasonic
Panasonic is an international brand name for Japanese electric products manufacturer Panasonic Corporation, which was formerly known as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd...
, JVC
JVC
, usually referred to as JVC, is a Japanese international consumer and professional electronics corporation based in Yokohama, Japan which was founded in 1927...
and Canon
Canon Inc.
is a Japanese multinational corporation that specialises in the manufacture of imaging and optical products, including cameras, camcorders, photocopiers, steppers and computer printers. Its headquarters are located in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan.-Origins:...
offer a variety of choices for shooting high-definition video with less than $10,000 worth of camera equipment. Additionally, some under $1,000 digital SLR photo cameras from vendors like Canon and Nikon
Nikon
, also known as just Nikon, is a multinational corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, specializing in optics and imaging. Its products include cameras, binoculars, microscopes, measurement instruments, and the steppers used in the photolithography steps of semiconductor fabrication, of which...
have added 24, 25 or 30 frame per second video modes in HD (1920x1080) resolution.
At the high-end of the market, there has been an emergence of cameras aimed specifically at the digital cinema market. These cameras from Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
, Vision Research
Vision research
Vision Research is a peer-reviewed scientific journal specialising in the neuroscience and psychology of the visual system. The journal is abstracted and indexed in PubMed. The journal's impact factor for 2008 is 2.051 and its 5-year impact factor is 2.385....
, Arri
Arri
-History:Arri was founded in Munich, Germany as Arnold & Richter Cine Technik in 1917, named after founders August Arnold and Robert Richter. They produce professional motion picture equipment, digital and film cameras and cinematic lighting equipment...
, Silicon Imaging
Silicon Imaging
The Silicon Imaging is a 2K digital video camera based around a single 16mm-sized CMOS sensor. It can record direct to disk in the compressed CineForm RAW format, and is notable for its tiny detachable camera head, which can be positioned up to 100m from the recording unit...
, Panavision
Panavision
Panavision is an American motion picture equipment company specializing in cameras and lenses, based in Woodland Hills, California. Formed by Robert Gottschalk as a small partnership to create anamorphic projection lenses during the widescreen boom in the 1950s, Panavision expanded its product...
, Grass Valley
Grass Valley (company)
Grass Valley, previously known as Grass Valley Group, is a privately held company based in California, USA. Grass Valley produces technology for the video and broadcast industry. On January 29, 2009, Thomson announced its intention to sell the Grass Valley business unit...
and Red offer resolution and dynamic range
Dynamic range
Dynamic range, abbreviated DR or DNR, is the ratio between the largest and smallest possible values of a changeable quantity, such as in sound and light. It is measured as a ratio, or as a base-10 or base-2 logarithmic value.-Dynamic range and human perception:The human senses of sight and...
that exceeds that of traditional video cameras, which are designed for the limited needs of broadcast television.
Technology
Digital cinematography captures motion pictures digitally, in a process analogous to digital photographyDigital photography
Digital photography is a form of photography that uses an array of light sensitive sensors to capture the image focused by the lens, as opposed to an exposure on light sensitive film...
. While there is no clear technical distinction that separates the images captured in digital cinematography from video
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...
, the term "digital cinematography" is usually applied only in cases where digital acquisition is substituted for film acquisition, such as when shooting a feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
. The term is seldom applied when digital acquisition is substituted for analog video
Analog video
Analog video is a video signal transferred by an analog signal. An analog color video signal contains luminance, brightness and chrominance of an analog television image...
acquisition, as with live broadcast
Live broadcast
A live broadcast generally refers to various types of media broadcast without a significant delay.It could refer to:*Live radio*Live television*Internet television*Internet radio*Liveblogging*Streaming media...
television programs.
Sensors
Digital cinematography cameras capture images using CMOSCMOS
Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor is a technology for constructing integrated circuits. CMOS technology is used in microprocessors, microcontrollers, static RAM, and other digital logic circuits...
or CCD
Charge-coupled device
A charge-coupled device is a device for the movement of electrical charge, usually from within the device to an area where the charge can be manipulated, for example conversion into a digital value. This is achieved by "shifting" the signals between stages within the device one at a time...
sensors, usually in one of two arrangements.
Single chip cameras designed specifically for the digital cinematography market often use a single sensor (much like digital photo cameras
Digital camera
A digital camera is a camera that takes video or still photographs, or both, digitally by recording images via an electronic image sensor. It is the main device used in the field of digital photography...
), with dimensions similar in size to a 16 or 35 mm film frame or even (as with the Vision 65) a 65 mm film frame. An image can be projected onto a single large sensor exactly the same way it can be projected onto a film frame, so cameras with this design can be made with PL
Arri PL
Arri PL is a lens mount developed by Arri for use with both 16 mm and 35 mm movie cameras. The PL stands for "positive lock". It is the successor mount to the Arri bayonet; however, unlike the bayonet mount, it is incompatible with older Arri-mount lenses, due to the larger diameter...
, PV
PV mount
A PV mount is a lens mount developed by Panavision for use with both 16 mm and 35 mm movie cameras. It is the only mount offered with Panavision cameras and Panavision-designed lenses, and since the company only rents its equipment, this is likely to remain an exclusive arrangement for the time being...
and similar mounts, in order to use the wide range of existing high-end cinematography lenses available. Their large sensors also let these cameras achieve the same shallow depth of field
Depth of field
In optics, particularly as it relates to film and photography, depth of field is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects in a scene that appear acceptably sharp in an image...
as 35 or 65 mm motion picture film cameras, which many cinematographers consider an essential visual tool.
Other cameras use three 1/3" or 2/3" sensors in conjunction with a dichroic prism
Dichroic prism
A dichroic prism is a prism that splits light into two beams of differing wavelength . They are usually constructed of one or more glass prisms with dichroic optical coatings that selectively reflect or transmit light depending on the light's wavelength. That is, certain surfaces within the prism...
, with each sensor capturing a different color. Camera vendors like Sony and Panasonic, have leveraged their experience with these designs into three-CCD cameras targeted specifically at the digital cinematography market. The Thomson Viper also uses a three-chip design. These designs offer benefits in terms of color separation, and rolling shutter
Rolling shutter
Rolling shutter is a method of image acquisition in which each frame is recorded not from a snapshot of a single point in time, but rather by scanning across the frame either vertically or horizontally...
, but are incompatible with traditional cinematography lenses and are incapable of achieving 35 mm depth of field unless used with depth-of-field adaptors
Depth-of-field adapter
A depth-of-field adapter is used to achieve shallow depth of field on a video camera whose fixed lens or interchangeable lens selection is limited or economically prohibitive at providing such effect...
, which result in some loss of light. New lines of high-end lenses such as the Zeiss DigiPrimes have been developed with these cameras in mind.
Video formats
Unlike other video formats, which are specified in terms of vertical resolution (for example, 1080p1080p
1080p is the shorthand identification for a set of HDTV high-definition video modes that are characterized by 1080 horizontal lines of resolution and progressive scan, meaning the image is not interlaced as is the case with the 1080i display standard....
, which is 1920x1080 pixels), digital cinema formats are usually specified in terms of horizontal resolution. As a shorthand, these resolutions are often given in "nK" notation, where n is the multiplier of 1024 such that the horizontal resolution of a corresponding full-aperture, digitized film frame is exactly
pixels. Here the 'K' has a customary, improper meaning: it should be the binary prefixBinary prefix
In computing, a binary prefix is a specifier or mnemonic that is prepended to the units of digital information, the bit and the byte, to indicate multiplication by a power of 2...
"kibi
Kibi
Kibi may refer to:* kibi, one of the binary prefixes for units of digital information* Kibi District, Okayama is a district located in Okayama Prefecture, Japan...
" (ki) instead.
For instance, a 2K image is 2048 pixels wide, and a 4K image is 4096 pixels wide. Vertical resolutions vary with aspect ratios though; so a 2K image with a HDTV (16:9) aspect ratio is 2048x1152 pixels, while a 2K image with a SDTV or Academy ratio
Academy ratio
The Academy ratio of 1.375:1 is an aspect ratio of a frame of 35mm film when used with 4-perf pulldown. It was standardized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as the standard film aspect ratio in 1932, although similar-sized ratios were used as early as 1928.The Academy ratio is...
(4:3) is 2048x1536 pixels, and one with a Panavision
Panavision
Panavision is an American motion picture equipment company specializing in cameras and lenses, based in Woodland Hills, California. Formed by Robert Gottschalk as a small partnership to create anamorphic projection lenses during the widescreen boom in the 1950s, Panavision expanded its product...
ratio (2.39:1) would be 2048x856 pixels, and so on. Due to the "nK" notation not corresponding to specific horizontal resolutions per format a 2K image lacking, for example, the typical 35mm film soundtrack space, is only 1828 pixels wide, with vertical resolutions rescaling accordingly. This led to a plethora of motion-picture related video resolutions, which is quite confusing and often redundant with respect to nowadays few projection standards.
All formats designed for digital cinematography are progressive scan
Progressive scan
Progressive scanning is a way of displaying, storing, or transmitting moving images in which all the lines of each frame are drawn in sequence...
, and capture usually occurs at the same 24 frame per second rate established as the standard for 35mm film.
The DCI
Digital Cinema Initiatives
Digital Cinema Initiatives, LLC or DCI is a joint venture of major motion picture studios, formed to establish a standard architecture for digital cinema systems.The organization was formed in March 2002 by the following studios:* Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer...
standard for cinema usually relies on a 1.89:1 aspect ratio, thus defining the maximum container size for 4K as 4096x2160 pixels and for 2K as 2048x1080 pixels (either 24fps or 48fps). When distributed in the form of a Digital Cinema Package (DCP), content is letterbox
Letterbox
Letterboxing is the practice of transferring film shot in a widescreen aspect ratio to standard-width video formats while preserving the film's original aspect ratio. The resulting videographic image has mattes above and below it; these mattes are part of the image...
ed or pillarboxed as appropriate to fit within one of these container formats.
In the last few years, 2K has been the most common format for digitally acquired major motion pictures however, as new camera systems gain acceptance, 4K is becoming more prominent (as the 1080p format has been before). During 2009 at least two major Hollywood films, Knowing
Knowing (film)
Knowing is a 2009 American-British science fiction film directed by Alex Proyas and starring Nicolas Cage. The project was originally attached to a number of directors under Columbia Pictures, but it was placed in turnaround and eventually picked up by Escape Artists. Production was financially...
and District 9
District 9
District 9 is a 2009 South African science fiction thriller film directed by Neill Blomkamp. It was written by Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, and produced by Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham. The film stars Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, and David James...
, were shot in 4K on the RED ONE camera, followed by The Social Network
The Social Network
The Social Network is a 2010 American drama film directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin. Adapted from Ben Mezrich's 2009 book The Accidental Billionaires, the film portrays the founding of social networking website Facebook and the resulting lawsuits...
in 2010.
Data storage
Broadly, two workflowWorkflow
A workflow consists of a sequence of connected steps. It is a depiction of a sequence of operations, declared as work of a person, a group of persons, an organization of staff, or one or more simple or complex mechanisms. Workflow may be seen as any abstraction of real work...
paradigms are used for data acquisition and storage in digital cinematography.
Tape-based workflows
With video tape based workflow video is recorded to video tape on set. This video is then ingested into a computer running non-linear editing software, using a deckVideo tape recorder
A video tape recorder is a tape recorder that can record video material, usually on a magnetic tape. VTRs originated as individual tape reels, serving as a replacement for motion picture film stock and making recording for television applications cheaper and quicker. An improved form included the...
. Upon ingestion, a digital video stream from tape is converted to computer files. These files can be edited directly or converted to an intermediate format for editing. Then video is output in its final format, possibly to a film recorder for theatrical exhibition, or back to video tape for broadcast use. Original video tapes are kept as an archival medium. The files generated by the non-linear editing application contain the information necessary to retrieve footage from the proper tapes, should the footage stored on the computer's hard disk be lost.
File-based workflows
Digital cinematography is gradually shifting towards "tapeless" or "file-based" workflows. This trend has accelerated with increased capacity and reduced cost of non-linear storage solutions such as hard disk drives, optical discs, and solid-state memory. With tapeless workflows digital video is recorded as digital files onto random-access media like optical discs, hard disk drives or flash memory-based digital "magazines". These files can be easily copied to another storage device, typically to a large RAIDRAID
RAID is a storage technology that combines multiple disk drive components into a logical unit...
(array of computer disks) connected to an editing system. Once data is copied from the on-set media to the storage array, they are erased and returned to the set for more shooting.
Such RAID arrays, both of "managed" (for example, SAN
Storage area network
A storage area network is a dedicated network that provides access to consolidated, block level data storage. SANs are primarily used to make storage devices, such as disk arrays, tape libraries, and optical jukeboxes, accessible to servers so that the devices appear like locally attached devices...
s and NASs) and "unmanaged" (for example, JBoDs on a single computer workstation), are necessary due to the enormous throughput required for real-time (320 MB/s for 2K @ 24fps) or near-real-time playback in post-production
Post-production
Post-production is part of filmmaking and the video production process. It occurs in the making of motion pictures, television programs, radio programs, advertising, audio recordings, photography, and digital art...
, compared to throughput available from a single, yet fast, hard disk drive. Such requirements are often termed as "on-line" storage. Post-production not requiring real-time playback performances (typically for lettering, subtitling, versioning and other similar visual effects) can be migrated to slightly slower RAID stores.
Short-term archiving, "if ever", is accomplished by moving the digital files into "slower" RAID arrays (still of either managed and unmanaged type, but with lower performances), where playback capability is poor to non-existent (unless via proxy images), but minimal editing and metadata
Metadata
The term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...
harvesting still feasible. Such intermediate requirements easily fall into the "mid-line" storage category.
Long-term archiving is accomplished by backing up the digital files from the RAID, using standard practices and equipment for data backup from the IT
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
industry, often to data tapes
Tape drive
A tape drive is a data storage device that reads and performs digital recording, writes data on a magnetic tape. Magnetic tape data storage is typically used for offline, archival data storage. Tape media generally has a favorable unit cost and long archival stability.A tape drive provides...
(like LTOs).
Compression
Digital cinema cameras are capable of generating extremely large amounts of data; often hundreds of megabyteMegabyte
The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...
s per second. To help manage this huge data flow, many cameras or recording devices designed to be used in conjunction with them offer compression
Data compression
In computer science and information theory, data compression, source coding or bit-rate reduction is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation would use....
. Prosumer cameras typically use high compression ratio
Data compression ratio
Data compression ratio, also known as compression power, is a computer-science term used to quantify the reduction in data-representation size produced by a data compression algorithm...
s in conjunction with chroma subsampling
Chroma subsampling
Chroma subsampling is the practice of encoding images by implementing less resolution for chroma information than for luma information, taking advantage of the human visual system's lower acuity for color differences than for luminance....
. While this allows footage to be comfortably handled even on fairly modest personal computer
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
s, the convenience comes at the expense of image quality.
High-end digital cinematography cameras or recording devices typically support recording at much lower compression ratios, or in uncompressed formats. Additionally, digital cinematography camera vendors are not constrained by the standards of the consumer or broadcast video industries, and often develop proprietary compression technologies that are optimized for use with their specific sensor designs or recording technologies.
Lossless vs. lossy compression
A lossless compression system is capable of reducing the size of digital data in a fully reversible way—that is, in a way that allows the original data to be completely restored, byte for byte. This is done by removing redundant information from a signal. Digital cinema cameras rarely use only lossless compression methods, because much higher compression ratios (lower data rates) can be achieved with lossy compression. With a lossy compression scheme, information is discarded to create a simpler signal. Due to limitations in human visual perception, it is possible to design algorithms which do this with little visual impact.Chroma subsampling
Most digital cinematography systems further reduce data rate by subsampling color information. Because the human visual system is much more sensitive to luminance than to color, lower resolution color information can be overlaid with higher resolution luma (brightness) information, to create an image that looks very similar to one in which both color and luma information are sampled at full resolution. This scheme may cause pixelation or color bleeding under some circumstances. High quality digital cinematography systems are capable of recording full resolution color data (4:4:4) or raw sensor dataRAW image format
A camera raw image file contains minimally processed data from the image sensor of either a digital camera, image scanner, or motion picture film scanner. Raw files are so named because they are not yet processed and therefore are not ready to be printed or edited with a bitmap graphics editor...
.
Bitrate
Video and audio compression systems are often characterized by their bitrates. Bitrate describes how much data is required to represent one second of media. One cannot directly use bitrate as a measure of quality, because different compression algorithms perform differently. A more advanced compression algorithm at a lower bitrate may deliver the same quality as a less advanced algorithm at a higher bitrate.Intra- vs. Inter-frame compression
Most compression systems used for acquisition in the digital cinematography world compress footage one frame at a time, as if a video stream is a series of still images. This is called intra-frameIntra-frame
Intra-frame coding is used in video coding . It is part of group of pictures with inter frames.The term intra-frame coding refers to the fact that the various lossless and lossy compression techniques are performed relative to information that is contained only within the current frame, and not...
compression. Inter frame
Inter frame
An inter frame is a frame in a video compression stream which is expressed in terms of one or more neighboring frames. The "inter" part of the term refers to the use of Inter frame prediction...
compression systems can further compress data by examining and eliminating redundancy between frames. This leads to higher compression ratios, but displaying a single frame will usually require the playback system to decompress a number of frames from before & after it. In normal playback this is not a problem, as each successive frame is played in order, so the preceding frames have already been decompressed. In editing, however, it is common to jump around to specific frames and to play footage backwards or at different speeds. Because of the need to decompress extra frames in these situations, inter-frame compression can cause performance problems for editing systems. Inter-frame compression is also disadvantageous because the loss of a single frame (say, due to a flaw writing data to a tape) will typically ruin all the frames until the next keyframe occurs. In the case of the HDV
HDV
HDV is a format for recording of high-definition video on DV cassette tape. The format was originally developed by JVC and supported by Sony, Canon and Sharp...
format, for instance, this may result in as many as 6 frames being lost with 720p recording, or 15 with 1080i. An inter-frame compressed video stream consists of groups of pictures
Group of pictures
In Video coding, a group of pictures, or GOP structure, specifies the order in which intra- and inter-frames are arranged. The GOP is a group of successive pictures within a coded video stream. Each coded video stream consists of successive GOPs...
(GOPs), each of which has only one full frame, and a handful of other frames referring to this frame. If the full frame, called I-frame, is lost due to transmission or media error, none of the P-frames of B-frames (the referenced images) can be displayed. In this case, the whole GOP is lost.
Digital acquisition codecs compared
| Format | Bit depth | Resolution | Chroma sampling | Bitrate | File size | Inter-frame? | Algorithm type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DV DV DV is a format for the digital recording and playing back of digital video. The DV codec was launched in 1995 with joint efforts of leading producers of video camcorders.... |
8 bits | 720×480 (NTSC), 720×576 (PAL) | 4:1:1 or 4:2:0 | 25 Mb/s | 217 MB/min. | No | DCT Discrete cosine transform A discrete cosine transform expresses a sequence of finitely many data points in terms of a sum of cosine functions oscillating at different frequencies. DCTs are important to numerous applications in science and engineering, from lossy compression of audio and images A discrete cosine transform... (lossy) |
| DVCPRO50 | 8 bits | 720×480 (NTSC), 720×576 (PAL) | 4:2:2 | 50 Mb/s | 423 MB/min. | No | DCT Discrete cosine transform A discrete cosine transform expresses a sequence of finitely many data points in terms of a sum of cosine functions oscillating at different frequencies. DCTs are important to numerous applications in science and engineering, from lossy compression of audio and images A discrete cosine transform... (lossy) |
| AVCHD AVCHD AVCHD is a file-based format for the digital recording and playback of high-definition video.... |
8 bits | 1920x1080, 1440x1080, 1280x720 | 4:2:0 | 24 Mb/s | Yes | DCT Discrete cosine transform A discrete cosine transform expresses a sequence of finitely many data points in terms of a sum of cosine functions oscillating at different frequencies. DCTs are important to numerous applications in science and engineering, from lossy compression of audio and images A discrete cosine transform... (lossy) |
|
| AVC Intra | 10 bits | 1920x1080, 1440x1080, 1280x720 | 4:2:2 | 50 or 100 Mb/s | No | DCT Discrete cosine transform A discrete cosine transform expresses a sequence of finitely many data points in terms of a sum of cosine functions oscillating at different frequencies. DCTs are important to numerous applications in science and engineering, from lossy compression of audio and images A discrete cosine transform... (lossy) |
|
| HDV HDV HDV is a format for recording of high-definition video on DV cassette tape. The format was originally developed by JVC and supported by Sony, Canon and Sharp... |
8 bits | 1280×720, 1440×1080 | 4:2:0 | 19-25 Mb/s | 142 MB/min. (720p), 190 MB/min. (1080i) | Yes | DCT Discrete cosine transform A discrete cosine transform expresses a sequence of finitely many data points in terms of a sum of cosine functions oscillating at different frequencies. DCTs are important to numerous applications in science and engineering, from lossy compression of audio and images A discrete cosine transform... (lossy) |
| XDCAM HD422 | 8 bits | 1280x720, 1920×1080 | 4:2:2 | 50 Mb/s | Yes | DCT Discrete cosine transform A discrete cosine transform expresses a sequence of finitely many data points in terms of a sum of cosine functions oscillating at different frequencies. DCTs are important to numerous applications in science and engineering, from lossy compression of audio and images A discrete cosine transform... (lossy) |
|
| XDCAM EX | 8 bits | 1280x720, 1920×1080, 1440×1080 | 4:2:0 | 25-35 Mb/s | 190 MB/min., 262 MB/min. | Yes | DCT Discrete cosine transform A discrete cosine transform expresses a sequence of finitely many data points in terms of a sum of cosine functions oscillating at different frequencies. DCTs are important to numerous applications in science and engineering, from lossy compression of audio and images A discrete cosine transform... (lossy) |
| DVCPRO HD | 8 bits | 960×720, 1280×1080, 1440×1080 | 4:2:2 | 100 Mbit/s | 423 MB/min. (720p60), 835 MB/min. (1080i60) | No | DCT Discrete cosine transform A discrete cosine transform expresses a sequence of finitely many data points in terms of a sum of cosine functions oscillating at different frequencies. DCTs are important to numerous applications in science and engineering, from lossy compression of audio and images A discrete cosine transform... (lossy) |
| HDCAM HDCAM HDCAM, introduced in 1997, is an High-definition video digital recording videocassette version of Digital Betacam, using an 8-bit DCT compressed 3:1:1 recording, in 1080i-compatible downsampled resolution of 1440×1080, and adding 24p and 23.976 PsF modes to later models... |
8 bits | 1440×1080 | 3:1:1 | 144 Mb/s | No | DCT Discrete cosine transform A discrete cosine transform expresses a sequence of finitely many data points in terms of a sum of cosine functions oscillating at different frequencies. DCTs are important to numerous applications in science and engineering, from lossy compression of audio and images A discrete cosine transform... (lossy) |
|
| HDCAM SR | 10 bit | 1920×1080 | 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 | 440 or 880 Mb/s | No | DCT Discrete cosine transform A discrete cosine transform expresses a sequence of finitely many data points in terms of a sum of cosine functions oscillating at different frequencies. DCTs are important to numerous applications in science and engineering, from lossy compression of audio and images A discrete cosine transform... (lossy) |
|
| Panavision SSR | 10-bit PanaLog | 1920×1080 | 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 | up to 3 Gb/s | No | Uncompressed | |
| CineForm RAW (SI-2K) | 10-bit Log | 2048×1152 | Raw Bayer | 100-140 Mb/s | 900 MB/min. | No | Wavelet Wavelet A wavelet is a wave-like oscillation with an amplitude that starts out at zero, increases, and then decreases back to zero. It can typically be visualized as a "brief oscillation" like one might see recorded by a seismograph or heart monitor. Generally, wavelets are purposefully crafted to have... (lossy) |
| Dirac | 8bits, 10bits, 12bits, 16bits | multi resolution | 4:2:0, 4:2:2, 4:4:4 | (both options in different implementations) | Wavelet Wavelet A wavelet is a wave-like oscillation with an amplitude that starts out at zero, increases, and then decreases back to zero. It can typically be visualized as a "brief oscillation" like one might see recorded by a seismograph or heart monitor. Generally, wavelets are purposefully crafted to have... (lossy and also lossless) |
||
| REDCODE REDCODE REDCODE RAW is a proprietary multimedia audio/video file format owned by Red Digital Cinema Camera Company and featuring lossy compression for video contents and lossless for audio contents... RAW |
12 bits | 4520x2540, 4480×1920, 4096×2304 | Raw Bayer | 224-336 Mb/s | 1.6-2.5 GB/min. | No | Wavelet Wavelet A wavelet is a wave-like oscillation with an amplitude that starts out at zero, increases, and then decreases back to zero. It can typically be visualized as a "brief oscillation" like one might see recorded by a seismograph or heart monitor. Generally, wavelets are purposefully crafted to have... (lossy) |
| ARRIRAW | 12 bits | 2880×2160 | Raw Bayer | ~ 5.6 Gb/s | 42 GB/min. | No | Uncompressed |
| "DALSA" RAW | 16 bits | 4096×2048 | Raw Bayer | ~ 3.2 Gb/s | No | Uncompressed | |
| Viper Filmstream | 12-bit linear, 10-bit log | 1920x1080, 1280x720 | 4:4:4 | up to ~2.24 Gb/s | No | Uncompressed | |
| Drama RAW | 12-bit linear | 1920x1080 | Raw Bayer | 600Mbit/sec | 4.5GB/min | No | Uncompressed |
Distribution Formats
Movies shot digitally may be released theatrically, on DVDDVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
or in a High Definition format like Blu-Ray.
Digital Theatrical Distribution
For the over 4,000 theaters with digital projectors in the USA, digital films may be distributed digitally, either shipped to theaters on hard drives or sent via the Internet or satellite networks. Digital Cinema Initiatives, LLCDigital Cinema Initiatives
Digital Cinema Initiatives, LLC or DCI is a joint venture of major motion picture studios, formed to establish a standard architecture for digital cinema systems.The organization was formed in March 2002 by the following studios:* Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer...
, a joint venture of Disney, Fox, MGM, Paramount, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal and Warner Bros. Studios, has established standards for digital cinema projection. In July 2005, they released the first version of the Digital Cinema System Specification, which encompasses 2K and 4K theatrical projection. They also offer compliance testing for exhibitors and equipment suppliers.
Distributors prefer digital distribution, because it saves them the expense of making film prints, which may cost as much as $2000 each. Digital projection also offers advantages over traditional film projection such as lack of jitter, flicker, dust, scratches, and grain.
Theater owners initially balked at installing digital projection systems because of high cost and concern over increased technical complexity. However new funding models, in which distributors pay a "digital print" fee to theater owners, have helped to alleviate these concerns. Digital projection also offers increased flexibility with respect to showing trailers and pre-show advertisements and allowing theater owners to more easily move films between screens or change how many screens a film is playing on, and the higher quality of digital projection provides a better experience to help attract consumers who can now access high-definition content at home. These factors have resulted in digital projection becoming an increasingly attractive prospect for theater owners, and the pace of adoption has increased.
In the UK 300 cinema screens were converted to digital projectors as part of a UK film council initiative, the Digital Screen Network (DSN) to advance digital theatrical distribution in the UK funded by National lottery money. The first film to be screened digitally on the DSN was King's Game, a Danish film.
Film-based Theatrical Distribution
Since not all theaters currently have digital projection systems, even if a movie is shot and post-produced digitally, it must be transferred to film if a large theatrical release is planned. Typically, a film recorderFilm recorder
A Film Recorder is a graphical output device for transferring digital images to photographic film.All film recorders typically work in the same manner. The image is fed from a host computer as a raster stream over a digital interface...
will be used to print digital image data to film, to create a 35 mm internegative
Internegative
An internegative is a motion picture film duplicate. It is the color counterpart to an interpositive, in which a low-contrast color image is used as the positive between an original camera negative and a duplicate negative....
. After that the duplication process is identical to that of a traditional negative from a film camera.
Digital cinematography cameras
Professional cameras include the Sony CineAlta(F) Series, RED ONE, ArriArri
-History:Arri was founded in Munich, Germany as Arnold & Richter Cine Technik in 1917, named after founders August Arnold and Robert Richter. They produce professional motion picture equipment, digital and film cameras and cinematic lighting equipment...
flex D-20
Arriflex D-20
The Arriflex D-20 is a film-style digital motion picture camera made by Arri first introduced in November 2005. The camera's attributes are its optical viewfinder, modularity, and 35mm-width CMOS sensor. The camera was discontinued in 2008 and the Arriflex D-21 was introduced.- Overview :The D-20...
, D-21
Arriflex D-21
The Arriflex D-21 is a film-style digital motion picture camera introduced by Arri in 2008 to replace their earlier generation Arriflex D-20.- Overview :...
and Alexa
Arriflex Alexa
The Arri Alexa is a film-style digital motion picture camera made by Arri first introduced in April 2010. The camera marks Arri's first major transition into digital cinematography after smaller previous efforts such as the Arriflex D-20 and D-21...
, Panavisions Genesis, Silicon Imaging SI-2K, Thomson Viper, Vision Research Phantom, Weisscam
Weisscam
The Weisscam Company manufactures digital high-speed cameras. The cameras are mainly used in commercials, imagefilms and in shootings of athletic activities.The Weisscam Company was founded by Director of Photography Stefan Weiss.- History :2005...
HS-1 and HS-2, GS Vitec noX, and the Fusion Camera System. Independent filmmakers have also pressed low-cost consumer and prosumer cameras into service for digital filmmaking.
Digital vs. film cinematography
Predictability
When shooting on film, response to light is determined by what film stock is chosen. A cinematographer can choose a film stock he is familiar with, and expose film on set with a high degree of confidence about how it will turn out. Because the film stock is the main determining factor, results will be substantially similar regardless of what camera model is being used. In contrast, when shooting digitally, response to light is determined by the CMOS or CCD sensor(s) in the camera, so the cinematographer needs familiarity with the specific camera model.With digital cinematography, however, on-set monitoring allows the cinematographer to see the actual images that are captured, immediately on the set, which is impossible with film. With a properly calibrated high-definition display, on-set monitoring, in conjunction with data displays such as histogram
Histogram
In statistics, a histogram is a graphical representation showing a visual impression of the distribution of data. It is an estimate of the probability distribution of a continuous variable and was first introduced by Karl Pearson...
s, waveforms
Waveform monitor
A waveform monitor is a special type of oscilloscope used in television production applications. It is typically used to measure and display the level, or voltage, of a video signal with respect to time....
, RGB parades, and various types of focus assist, can give the cinematographer a far more accurate picture of what is being captured than is possible with film, where a final image cannot be viewed until the film stock is processed. However, some of this equipment may impose costs in terms of time and money, and may not be possible to utilize in difficult shooting situations.
Film cameras do often have a video assist
Video assist
Video assist is a system used in filmmaking which allows filmmakers to view a video version of a take immediately after it is filmed.Originally a small device, called the video tap, was installed inside a movie camera that allows the director to see approximately the same view as the camera...
that captures video through the camera lens to allow for on-set playback, but its usefulness is largely restricted to judging action and framing. Because this video is not derived from the image that is actually captured to film, it is not very useful for judging lighting, and because it is typically only NTSC-resolution, it is often useless for judging focus.
Portability
35 mm film cameras cannot be sized down below a certain size and weight, as they require space for a film magazine and a film transport mechanism that have a minimum size effectively determined by the physical size of the film. While some digital cinematography cameras are large and bulky, even compared to full-sized film cameras, others are extremely compact, and offer features such as the ability to detach the camera head from the rest of the camera, allowing high quality images to be captured with an extremely compact package. The tapes, hard drives and flash memory magazines that digital cameras record onto are also far more compact than the film magazines used by film cameras. These factors can result in substantial portability advantages for digital cinematography systems.Dynamic Range
The sensors in most high-end digital video cameras have less exposure latitude (dynamic range) than modern motion picture film stocks. In particular, they tend to 'blow out' highlights, losing detail in very bright parts of the image. If highlight detail is lost, it is impossible to recapture in post-production. Cinematographers can learn how to adjust for this type of response using techniques similar to those used when shooting on reversal film, which has a similar lack of latitude in the highlights. They can also use on-set monitoring and image analysis to ensure proper exposure. In some cases it may be necessary to 'flatten' a shot, or reduce the total contrast that appears in the shot, which may require more lighting to be used.Some more recent digital cinema cameras attempt to more closely emulate the way film handles highlights and are used by many high-budget productions intercut with film. A few cinematographers have started deliberately using the 'harsh' look of digital highlights for aesthetic purposes. One notable example of such use is Battlestar Galactica
Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)
Battlestar Galactica is an American military science fiction television series, and part of the Battlestar Galactica franchise. The show was developed by Ronald D. Moore as a re-imagining of the 1978 Battlestar Galactica television series created by Glen A. Larson...
.
Digital acquisition typically offers better performance than film in low-light conditions, allowing less lighting and in some cases completely natural or practical lighting to be used for shooting, even indoors. This low-light sensitivity also tends to bring out shadow detail.
Resolution
Substantive debate over the subject of film resolution versus digital image resolution is clouded by the fact that it is difficult to meaningfully and objectively determine the resolution of either. However the huge majority of all blockbuster-movie of the first decade of the 21st century have been finished in 2K - which can easily be surpassed by mechanical as well as digital camera systems.Unlike a digital sensor, a film frame does not have a regular grid of discrete pixels. Rather, it has an irregular pattern of differently sized grains
Film grain
Film grain or granularity is the random optical texture of processed photographic film due to the presence of small particles of a metallic silver, or dye clouds, developed from silver halide that have received enough photons. While film grain is a function of such particles it is not the same...
. As a film frame is scanned at higher and higher resolutions, image detail is increasingly masked by grain, but it is difficult to determine at what point there is no more useful detail to extract. Moreover, different film stocks have widely varying ability to resolve detail.
Determining resolution in digital acquisition seems straightforward, but is significantly complicated by the way digital camera sensors work in the real world. This is particularly true in the case of high-end digital cinematography cameras that use a single large bayer pattern CMOS sensor. A bayer pattern sensor does not sample full RGB data at every point; each pixel is biased toward red, green or blue, and a full color image is assembled from this checkerboard of color by processing the image through a demosaicing algorithm. Generally with a bayer pattern sensor, actual resolution will fall somewhere between the "native" value and half this figure, with different demosaicing algorithms producing different results. Additionally, most digital cameras (both bayer and three-chip designs) employ optical low-pass filters to avoid aliasing
Aliasing
In signal processing and related disciplines, aliasing refers to an effect that causes different signals to become indistinguishable when sampled...
. Such filters reduce resolution.
In general, it is widely accepted that an original film camera negative exceeds the resolution of HDTV formats and the 2K digital cinema format, but there is still significant debate about whether 4K digital acquisition can match the results achieved by scanning 35 mm film at 4K, as well as whether 4K scanning actually extracts all the useful detail from 35 mm film in the first place. However, from 2000 to 2009, the overwhelming majority of films that used a digital intermediate
Digital intermediate
Digital intermediate is a motion picture finishing process which classically involves digitizing a motion picture and manipulating the color and other image characteristics. It often replaces or augments the photochemical timing process and is usually the final creative adjustment to a movie...
were mastered at 2K, independent of their budget. Additionally, 2K projection is chosen for most permanent digital cinema
Digital cinema
Digital cinema refers to the use of digital technology to distribute and project motion pictures. A movie can be distributed via hard drives, optical disks or satellite and projected using a digital projector instead of a conventional film projector...
installations, often even when 4K projection is available.
One important thing to note is that the process of optical duplication, used to produce theatrical release prints for movies that originate both on film and digitally, causes significant loss of resolution. If a 35 mm negative does capture more detail than 4K digital acquisition, ironically this may only be visible when a 35 mm movie is scanned and projected on a 4K digital projector. The most limiting factor when not using digital cinema however is the end of the exhibition chain: For mechanical projection, the SMPTE allows flutter and weave up to 0.2%, which reduces projected resolution down to 1K. Well maintained mechanical projectors however can operate at 0.05%, which can almost reach 2K resolution.
Grain & noise
Film has a characteristic grainFilm grain
Film grain or granularity is the random optical texture of processed photographic film due to the presence of small particles of a metallic silver, or dye clouds, developed from silver halide that have received enough photons. While film grain is a function of such particles it is not the same...
structure. Different film stocks have different grain, and cinematographers may use this for artistic effect.
Digitally acquired footage lacks this grain structure. Electronic noise
Image noise
Image noise is random variation of brightness or color information in images, and is usually an aspect of electronic noise. It can be produced by the sensor and circuitry of a scanner or digital camera...
is sometimes visible in digitally acquired footage, particularly in dark areas of an image or when footage was shot in low lighting conditions and gain
Gain
In electronics, gain is a measure of the ability of a circuit to increase the power or amplitude of a signal from the input to the output. It is usually defined as the mean ratio of the signal output of a system to the signal input of the same system. It may also be defined on a logarithmic scale,...
was used.
Since most theatrical exhibition still occurs via film prints, the clean look of digital acquisition is often lost before moviegoers get to see it, because most major releases are in the 35mm film format and all film stocks have film grain.
Digital Intermediate Workflow
The process of using digital intermediateDigital intermediate
Digital intermediate is a motion picture finishing process which classically involves digitizing a motion picture and manipulating the color and other image characteristics. It often replaces or augments the photochemical timing process and is usually the final creative adjustment to a movie...
workflow, where movies are color graded
Color grading
Color grading or colour painting, is the process of altering and enhancing the color of a motion picture, video image, or still image either electronically, photo-chemically or digitally. The photo-chemical process is also referred to as color timing and is typically performed at a photographic...
digitally instead of via traditional photochemical finishing techniques, has become common, largely because of the greater artistic control it provides to filmmakers. In 2007, all of the 10 most successful movies released used the digital intermediate process.
In order to utilize digital intermediate workflow with film, the camera negative must first be processed and then scanned to a digital format. High quality film scanning is expensive (up to $4 a frame, although the costs of this are continually dropping). With digital acquisition, the scanning step is not necessary. Footage can go directly into a digital intermediate pipeline as digital data, although with some digital acquisition systems, it may need to be processed into suitable formats before it can be worked with.
Some filmmakers have years of experience achieving their artistic vision using the techniques available in a traditional photochemical workflow, and prefer that finishing/editing process. While it would be theoretically possible to use such a process with digital acquisition by creating a film negative on a film recorder, in general digital acquisition is not a suitable choice if a traditional finishing process is desired. However, traditional photochemical finishes have become extremely rare for Hollywood features.
Sound
Films are traditionally shot with dual-system recording, where picture is recorded on camera, and sync soundSync sound
Sync sound refers to sound recorded at the time of the filming of movies, and has been widely used in movies since the birth of sound movies.-History:...
is recorded to a separate sound recording device. Picture and sound are then synced up in post-production. In the past this was done manually by lining up the image of the just-closed clapper board sticks with their characteristic clap on the sound recording. Today it is often done automatically using timecode data burnt onto the edge of the film emulsion and timecode displayed on digital clapper slates.
Most cameras used for digital cinematography can record sound internally, already in sync with picture. In theory this eliminates the need for syncing in post, which can lead to faster workflows. However, most sound recording is done by specialist operators, and the sound will likely be separated and further processed in post-production anyway. Moreover, high-end dedicated audio recording devices typically can record better quality sound than the audio recording subsystems of cameras, so most higher end production uses dual system recording even with cameras that are capable of recording sound internally. On such productions, internal camera audio may be used to record "scratch tracks" as an aid to the editor when syncing with the separately recorded master audio, to allow footage to be edited or viewed with sound prior to being synced with the master audio, or as a backup in case something is wrong with the master audio. Like modern film cameras, digital cinematography cameras can typically accept timecode data from external devices and record it with each frame of footage. Digital clapper slates are also commonly used.
Archiving
Some studios opt for a film negative master for archival purposes. There are after all numerous extant examples of original 19th century film footage which were manufactured under primitive conditions, with no consideration given to archival value, but whose original images are still clearly visible and recoverable with relatively simple equipment. As long as the negative does not completely degrade, it will always be possible to recover the images from it in the future, regardless of changes in technology, since all that will be involved is simple photographic reproduction. In contrast, even if digital data is stored on a medium that will preserve its integrity, highly specialized digital equipment will always be required to reproduce it. Changes in technology may thus render the format unreadable or expensive to recover over time. For this reason, film studios distributing digitally-originated films often make film-based separation masters of them for archival purposes.Low-budget / Independent Filmmaking
For the last 25 years, many respected filmmakers like George LucasGeorge Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
have predicted that electronic or digital cinematography would bring about a revolution in filmmaking
Filmmaking
Filmmaking is the process of making a film, from an initial story, idea, or commission, through scriptwriting, casting, shooting, directing, editing, and screening the finished product before an audience that may result in a theatrical release or television program...
, by dramatically lowering costs.
For low-budget and so-called "no-budget" productions, digital cinematography on prosumer
Prosumer
Prosumer is a portmanteau formed by contracting either the word professional or less often, producer with the word consumer. For example, a prosumer grade digital camera is a "cross" between consumer grade and professional grade...
cameras clearly has cost benefits over shooting on 35 mm or even 16 mm film. The cost of film stock, processing
Photographic processing
Photographic processing is the chemical means by which photographic film and paper is treated after photographic exposure to produce a negative or positive image...
, telecine
Telecine
Telecine is transferring motion picture film into video and is performed in a color suite. The term is also used to refer to the equipment used in the post-production process....
, negative cutting
Negative cutting
Negative Cutting is the process of cutting motion picture negative to match precisely the final edit as specified by the film editor. Original camera negative is cut with scissors and joined using a film splicer and film cement...
, and titling for a feature film can run to tens of thousands of dollars according to From Reel to Deal, a book on independent film
Independent film
An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
production by Dov S-S Simens, based on his 2-day film course. Costs directly attributable to shooting a low-budget feature on 35 mm film could be $50,000 on the low side, and over twice that on the high side. In contrast, obtaining a high-definition prosumer camera and sufficient tape stock to shoot a feature can easily be done for under $10,000. Typically, costs for both methods are significantly less if the camera is rented.
Most extremely low-budget movies never receive wide distribution, so the impact of low-budget video acquisition on the industry remains to be seen. It is possible that as a result of new distribution methods and the long tail
The Long Tail
The Long Tail or long tail refers to the statistical property that a larger share of population rests within the tail of a probability distribution than observed under a 'normal' or Gaussian distribution...
effects they may bring into play, more such productions may find profitable distribution in the future. Traditional distributors may also begin to acquire more low-budget movies as better affordable digital acquisition eliminates the liability of low picture quality, and as they look for a means to escape the increasingly drastic "boom and bust" financial situation created by spending huge amounts of money on a relatively small number of very large movies, not all of which succeed.
On higher budget productions, the direct cost advantages of digital cinematography are not as significant in relation to the total budget, primarily because the costs imposed by working with film typically account for no more than a few percent of such large budgets.
Digital acquisition, however, offers numerous significant advantages on high-budget shoots, such as the ability to work faster (with fewer magazine changes and less concern over shooting large amounts of footage), to back up footage on set for additional safety, and to check important shots immediately, potentially avoiding costly reshoots. Digital workflow may also allow shots to be delivered to post production pipelines for color grading, visual effects work or editorial assembly even before principal photography ends. Some of these functions may even be performed on set so that, for instance, if a cinematographer has a specific stylized look in mind for color grading, he or she can see almost immediately how footage will appear with that look applied, and take this into account while shooting it.
Rick McCallum
Rick McCallum
Richard "Rick" McCallum is a German-born American film producer mostly known for his work on the The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles as well as the Star Wars Trilogy: Special Edition and prequel trilogy...
, a producer on Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones is a 2002 American epic space opera film directed by George Lucas and written by Lucas and Jonathan Hales. It is the fifth film to be released in the Star Wars saga and the second in terms of the series' internal chronology...
, has commented that the production spent $16,000 for 220 hours of digital tape, where a comparable amount of film would have cost $1.8 million. However, this does not necessarily indicate the actual cost savings percentage, as the very low incremental cost of shooting additional footage may encourage filmmakers to use far higher shooting ratio
Shooting ratio
The shooting ratio in filmmaking and television production is the ratio between the total duration of its footage shot and that which results from its final final cut....
s with digital.
Industry acceptance of digital cinematography
In the 20th century, virtually all movies were shot on film, and film students learned how to handle 16 mm and 35 mm film. While many major motion pictures are still shot on film, digital cinematography gained widespread acceptance early in the 21st century and gained market share year by year. At the Berkeley Digital Film InstituteBerkeley Digital Film Institute
The Berkeley Digital Film Institute is the newest addition in San Francisco Bay Area film schools. The program is an intense, 16-month, total immersion with emphasis on Producing and Directing for Motion Pictures, Television, Commercials and Music Videos. The institute was founded in early 2007 by...
, the first school in the United States to offer only digital training, the issue is all but moot.
Digital cinematography accounts for a larger fraction of feature movie shooting every year, especially in A-budget productions, and seems destined to eventually eclipse film-based acquisition, much as digital photo cameras have largely replaced film based photo cameras in the still photography world. The majority of American episodic TV-series already are produced digitally.
Sales of mechanical cameras have been declining at least since 2007. The once market-leading manufacturers of mechanical cameras, Panavision
Panavision
Panavision is an American motion picture equipment company specializing in cameras and lenses, based in Woodland Hills, California. Formed by Robert Gottschalk as a small partnership to create anamorphic projection lenses during the widescreen boom in the 1950s, Panavision expanded its product...
, Arri
Arri
-History:Arri was founded in Munich, Germany as Arnold & Richter Cine Technik in 1917, named after founders August Arnold and Robert Richter. They produce professional motion picture equipment, digital and film cameras and cinematic lighting equipment...
and Aaton
Aaton
Aaton is a motion picture equipment manufacturer, based in Grenoble, France. Aaton was founded by Eclair engineer Jean-Pierre Beauviala, whose efforts have been primarily focused on making quiet, portable motion picture hardware suitable for impromptu field use, as for documentaries...
, have only introduced and developed digital cinema cameras since then. All newly introduced cinema cameras since 2007 are digital. All new manufacturers of cinema cameras, silicon imaging, red, Sony, vision research only offer digital cameras. The Academy Award for Best Cinematography
Academy Award for Best Cinematography
The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...
have been won by movies shot completely or mostly digitally in 2009 and 2010.
In 2009, the Academy Award for Best Cinematography
Academy Award for Best Cinematography
The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...
was awarded for a movie mostly shot digitally, Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British epic romantic drama adventure film directed by Danny Boyle, written by Simon Beaufoy, and co-directed in India by Loveleen Tandan. It is an adaptation of the novel Q & A by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup...
. Another nominee, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (film)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a 2008 American fantasy-drama film directed by David Fincher. The screenplay by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord is loosely based on the 1922 short story of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald...
, was also shot digitally.
Some notable high-profile directors and producers that have shot with digital equipment include:
- Robert AltmanRobert AltmanRobert Bernard Altman was an American film director and screenwriter known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award.His films MASH , McCabe and...
– A Prairie Home CompanionA Prairie Home Companion (film)A Prairie Home Companion is a 2006 ensemble comedy elegy directed by Robert Altman, and was his final film, released just five months before his death... - Jean-Jacques AnnaudJean-Jacques AnnaudJean-Jacques Annaud is a French film director, film producer and screenwriter.- Biography :Annaud was born in Juvisy-sur-Orge, Essonne...
– Two BrothersTwo BrothersTwo Brothers is a 2004 adventure family film directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud. It is about two tigers who are separated as cubs and then reunited years later.-Plot:...
, His Majesty Minor - Danny BoyleDanny BoyleDaniel "Danny" Boyle is an English filmmaker and producer. He is best known for his work on films such as Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours, 28 Days Later, Sunshine and Trainspotting. For Slumdog Millionaire, Boyle won numerous awards in 2008, including the Academy Award for Best Director...
– Slumdog MillionaireSlumdog MillionaireSlumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British epic romantic drama adventure film directed by Danny Boyle, written by Simon Beaufoy, and co-directed in India by Loveleen Tandan. It is an adaptation of the novel Q & A by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup...
, 28 Days Later28 Days Later28 Days Later is an acclaimed 2002 British horror film directed by Danny Boyle. The screenplay was written by Alex Garland, and the film stars Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Brendan Gleeson, Megan Burns, and Christopher Eccleston... - James CameronJames CameronJames Francis Cameron is a Canadian-American film director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, environmentalist and inventor...
– Ghosts of the AbyssGhosts of the AbyssGhosts of the Abyss is a 2003 documentary film released by Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media. It was Disney's first film produced in 3-D and was directed by Academy Award winning filmmaker James Cameron after his Oscar winning film Titanic...
, Aliens of the DeepAliens of the DeepAliens of the Deep is a 2005 documentary film, directed in part by James Cameron alongside fellow cameraman Steven Quale, who would later go on to direct Final Destination 5 six years later, and filmed in the IMAX 3D format. It was produced by Walden Media and Walt Disney Pictures...
, Avatar - Francis Ford CoppolaFrancis Ford CoppolaFrancis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
– Youth Without Youth, TetroTetroTetro is a 2009 drama film written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Vincent Gallo, Alden Ehrenreich and Maribel Verdú. Filming took place in 2008 in Buenos Aires, Patagonia, and Spain... - David FincherDavid FincherDavid Andrew Leo Fincher is an American film and music video director. Known for his dark and stylish thrillers, such as Seven , The Game , Fight Club , Panic Room , and Zodiac , Fincher received Academy Award nominations for Best Director for his 2008 film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and...
– ZodiacZodiac (film)Zodiac is a 2007 American mystery-thriller film directed by David Fincher and based on Robert Graysmith's non-fiction book of the same name. The Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros...
, The Curious Case of Benjamin ButtonThe Curious Case of Benjamin Button (film)The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a 2008 American fantasy-drama film directed by David Fincher. The screenplay by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord is loosely based on the 1922 short story of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald...
, The Social NetworkThe Social NetworkThe Social Network is a 2010 American drama film directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin. Adapted from Ben Mezrich's 2009 book The Accidental Billionaires, the film portrays the founding of social networking website Facebook and the resulting lawsuits... - Mel GibsonMel GibsonMel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson, AO is an American actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney, Australia when he was 12 years old and later studied acting at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art.After appearing in...
– ApocalyptoApocalyptoApocalypto is a 2006 American epic action-adventure film directed by Mel Gibson. Set in Yucatan, Mexico, during the declining period of the Maya civilization, Apocalypto depicts the journey of a Mesoamerican tribesman who must escape human sacrifice and rescue his family after the capture and... - Anthony HopkinsAnthony HopkinsSir Philip Anthony Hopkins, KBE , best known as Anthony Hopkins, is a Welsh actor of film, stage and television...
– SlipstreamSlipstream (2007 film)Slipstream is a 2007 American science fiction film starring, written, scored, and directed by Anthony Hopkins, which explores the premise of a screen writer who is caught in a slipstream of time, memories, fantasy and reality. The film premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival... - Peter JacksonPeter JacksonSir Peter Robert Jackson, KNZM is a New Zealand film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter, known for his The Lord of the Rings film trilogy , adapted from the novel by J. R. R...
– Crossing the LineCrossing the Line (short)Crossing the Line is a 2008 short film by Peter Jackson set in World War I. It is the first film made with the Red One camera. The film has no dialog apart from the incidental speech of background characters....
, The Lovely BonesThe Lovely Bones (film)The Lovely Bones is a 2009 American drama film directed by Peter Jackson. It is a film adaptation of the award-winning and best-selling 2002 novel of the same name by Alice Sebold. The film stars Saoirse Ronan as Susie Salmon, alongside Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz as Susie's parents Jack and... - Spike LeeSpike LeeShelton Jackson "Spike" Lee is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films since 1983....
– BamboozledBamboozledBamboozled is a 2000 satirical film written and directed by Spike Lee about a modern televised minstrel show featuring black actors donning blackface makeup and the violent fall-out from the show's success... - Aditya ChopraAditya ChopraAditya Chopra is an Indian film producer, screenwriter and director. He is most known for directing his only three films Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge , Mohabbatein , and Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi...
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Some directors have expressed an openness for either format, such as Jean-Jacques Annaud
Jean-Jacques Annaud
Jean-Jacques Annaud is a French film director, film producer and screenwriter.- Biography :Annaud was born in Juvisy-sur-Orge, Essonne...
who used 35 mm and HDCAM together for Two Brothers
Two Brothers
Two Brothers is a 2004 adventure family film directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud. It is about two tigers who are separated as cubs and then reunited years later.-Plot:...
, or Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
, who, while he ended up shooting his contribution on film, expressed an interest in digital acquisition for Grindhouse. Tarantino, however, has also indicated that he would continue shooting Grindhouse on film.
Other filmmakers haven't directed digitally acquired films, but have produced them. For instance, Ridley Scott produced the 2007 series "The Company," which was shot on the Arri D-20.
Lower-budget and limited-release movies have adopted digital cinematography at a somewhat faster pace, although some filmmakers still choose to shoot such productions on 16 mm film, the traditional medium for that market segment.
As the digital intermediate
Digital intermediate
Digital intermediate is a motion picture finishing process which classically involves digitizing a motion picture and manipulating the color and other image characteristics. It often replaces or augments the photochemical timing process and is usually the final creative adjustment to a movie...
process gains wider use for finishing movies shot on film, and as digital acquisition technology continues to improve, it seems likely digital cinematography will continue to gain wider acceptance.
Digital technology has eclipsed analog alternatives in many other content creation and distribution markets. On the content creation side, digital photo cameras
Digital camera
A digital camera is a camera that takes video or still photographs, or both, digitally by recording images via an electronic image sensor. It is the main device used in the field of digital photography...
significantly outsell film photo cameras, digital video tape formats like MiniDV have superseded analog tape formats, digital audio workstation
Digital audio workstation
A digital audio workstation is an electronic system designed solely or primarily for recording, editing and playing back digital audio. DAWs were originally tape-less, microprocessor-based systems such as the Synclavier and Fairlight CMI...
s have almost entirely replaced multi-track tape recorders
Multitrack recording
Multitrack recording is a method of sound recording that allows for the separate recording of multiple sound sources to create a cohesive whole...
, digital non-linear editing systems have displaced Moviola
Moviola
A Moviola is a device that allows a film editor to view film while editing. It was the first machine for motion picture editing when it was invented by Iwan Serrurier in 1924.-History:...
/Steenbeck
Steenbeck
Steenbeck is a brand name that has become synonymous with a type of flatbed film editing suite which is usable with both 16 mm and 35 mm optical sound and magnetic sound film.The Steenbeck company was founded in 1931 by Wilhelm Steenbeck in Hamburg, Germany...
equipment as the standard means of editing movies, and page layout software running on desktop computers has come to dominate the graphic design industry. On the distribution side, CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
s have largely replaced LPs
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
, DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
s have largely replaced VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
tapes, and digital cable systems are displacing analog cable systems. According to all major manufacturers of cameras it seems likely that despite resistance on the part of some few users in the industry, digital technology will eventually be similarly successful in the feature film acquisition and theatrical exhibition markets. In the exhibition market of the USA, the three market leading chains, AMC, Regal and Cinemark are converting all of their cinemas to digital since 2009. According to their business plans 2012 the process shall be completed and the majority of all American cinemas then will be digital.
List of major films shot in digital
In the last decade a large number of movies have been shot digitally. Some of them are independent, low-budget productions, while others are major Hollywood- and Europe-based productions.See also
- Digital versus film photographyDigital versus film photographyDigital versus film photography has been a topic of debate since the invention of digital cameras towards the end of the 20th Century. Both digital and film photography have advantages and drawbacks...
- FilmizingFilmizingFilmizing is a process that makes video productions seem to have been shot on film. The term is generic and informal. The process is usually electronic, although filmizing can sometimes occur as an un-intentional by-product of some optical techniques, such as telerecording.-Differences between...
- List of motion picture topics
- Motion picture film scannerMotion picture film scannerA motion picture film scanner is a device used in digital filmmaking to scan original film for storage as high-resolution digital intermediate files.A film scanner scans original film stock: negative or positive print or reversal/IP...
- Russian ArkRussian ArkRussian Ark is a 2002 Russian historical drama film directed by Alexander Sokurov. It was filmed entirely in the Winter Palace of the Russian State Hermitage Museum using a single 96-minute Steadicam sequence shot...
- The first feature film shot completely in uncompressed high-definition.
External links
- Digital Cinematography News, Reviews and Resources
- VIEW Conference Digital Cinema
- American Cinematographer article about Star Wars: Episode II
- American Cinematographer article about Collateral
- DigitalCinemaNow article about "HD 2K 4K Digital hi-end cameras"
- HD Magazine "All about HD in all its guises - capture to distribution"
- Official Panavision Media Center & Reference Library
- Light Illusion Various Tech Papers about Digital Cinematography and Digital Film
- Official Sony Professional Website
- White papers about Digital Cinematography
- “Movie Makers Go Digital” Tayfun King, Click, BBC World News (2005-05-20)
- Digital Cinematography – Can it still be topped ?