The following excerpt is taken from an article titled, All the Rage. It concerned the feature 28 Days Later (directed by Danny Boyle; photographed by Anthony Dod-Mantle, ASC, BSC) and appeared in the June 2003 issue of American Cinematographer.
During the subsequent time, the application of technology has only gotten more complex.
But I’d rather light a candle than curse the darkness, so allow yourself to appreciate the poetry of its moment.
And if you’re able, think back to when all we had to do was write on a camera report: Develop Normal. Print at 28-36-30.
“All footage was upconverted to D-1 tapes (125 in all) by Clear Ltd., who also handled the visual FX. D-1 provides 4:2:2 uncompressed PAL images (the PAL Canon XL1 is 4:2:0). After editing and conforming, the seven D-1 masters were handed off to MPC, where Dod Mantle spent almost a month in tape-to-tape grading with colorist Jean Clement Sorret, who used a PoglePlatinum and a Cintel DSX with the PiXi secondary color corrector. The graded masters were captured onto a digital disk recorder for treatment on a Linux Shake workstation. Running through MPC’s proprietary FilmTel software, the 16×9 images were enhanced and interpolated to 2K files, blown up slightly to 1.85:1, then recorded onto grain-free Kodak Vision Color Intermediate 5242 stock via the Arrilaser. The answer print was created by Technicolor London on Fuji HighCon 3519D. DeLuxe handled the release prints on Vision 2383.”
It would interesting to learn the cost differential between shooting with a more robust format (film?) or a higher end video camera instead of the “PAL Canon XL1 … 4:2:0” vs. the money spent in post.
The best part is the ending; they shot on digital only to print back on film.
Luigi – By that point, they had probably forgotten how they started!