Appendix 1

When Shooting on Film
edits called a cut list. Some fi lms still make a work print and conform the work print to the cut list
before conforming the negative to ensure the cut list is 100 percent accurate before cutting into the
camera original.
Some fi lms never edit the negative at all, but digitally scan the negative based on the cut list to a
very high-defi nition digital intermediate, and then “shoot” this back to negative fi lm and make prints.
Still other fi lms never make a fi lm print at all, but fi nish the fi lm totally on digital video. This digital
video can also be “shot” back to negative and prints made for projection. While these prints do not
look as good as prints made from a cut negative or digital intermediate, this process, known as virtual
digital intermediate, is becoming more commonplace and the look is improving.
Basic Film Workfl ow
The most basic fi lm workfl ow uses any DV video format. Perform the best possible telecine with
color correction to any DV format including DVC Pro 50 and DVC Pro HD at 29.97 FPS. As you
can capture from any DV format to a portable fi rewire drive, it is possible to capture and edit it
natively from your drive with no need for an online edit. Any DV format other than HDV can also
be edited and fi nished at 24P (23.98 frames per second) with a telecine log.
The higher bandwidth formats like HD Cam, Digi Beta, and D5 require very specialized equipment
and this requires a fi nishing step in the workfl ow.
Alternate Film Workfl ows
There are three ways to approach this fi nishing step.
• Perform a best-possible telecine with color correction to HD Cam, Digi Beta, or D5. Capture from
these tapes at a lower resolution in Final Cut Pro and recapture at high resolution later in
online.
• Capture from DVCam clones of the HD Cam, Digi Beta, or D5 tapes and recapture from the
high-resolution tapes in online.
• Perform a basic “work copy” telecine to DVCam tape and retelecine the fi lm negative later at a
higher resolution with fi nal color correction.
In the fi rst alternate workfl ow, you need to telecine with the best possible color correction to a highquality
tape format, that being your fi nishing format. You need to capture this video to your drive in
a facility that supports your fi nish format, and this can be expensive. As you read the section on batch
lists, you will see you don’t need to log the footage to create a batch list if you have a telecine log,
so this can be an unsupervised batch capture. And though the hourly rate is somewhat high, it can
be done quickly. At some facilities it is even possible to capture to your drive as you telecine. The
low-resolution setting is “off-line real-time photo JPEG.” This is available in all frame rates.
The second workfl ow also requires telecine with the best possible color correction to a high-quality
tape format. However, here you capture from DVCam tapes made during or after telecine. You capture
on your own system and on your own time, so this saves money. These tapes cannot be plain copies
of the higher-resolution tapes, they need to be “clones.” The time code on these tapes must match
your higher-resolution tapes. This system works well and is the preferred system for most projects.
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