The Digital Intermediate - Digital Acquisition

Foreword

Predictions for the demise of film from digital technology have been greatly exaggerated. Film has continued to hold its own as an acquisition and presentation medium, it is also ultimatley being returned too as backup. Hard drives and digital tape formats are all very well but what happens when a disk corrupts or the tape is chewed? Film inherently records single images, not a string of 1's and 0's, this allows for a far superior reliable archival material. We can still access million of reels from many years, will we be able to access these digital records in 85 years time?

Even with the advent of D-Cinema, the digital revolution has not fully halted the film juggernaut. Ultimately the cost of converting existing cinemas to fully digital operations is an expense that some 600 independent cinemas cannot justify nationwide, it is still not viable to fully adopt an entirely digital philosophy and infrastructure.

Digital capture is heralding in a new wave of acquisition and presentation; however despite advances in resolution and colour depth, they still can not match the quality of 35mm. It is generally accepted a digital format would need at least 4K pixel resolution to match a fine grained negative.

The use of HD cameras for final output to film is growing. Ultimately they are popular because of their ease of operation: the results are instantly available on set, the equipment is lighter, plus your rushes do not need to go through a lab or additional telecine procedures; this has the potential to save in production, time and money.

Video Killed 'The Film' As A Star (Or Did It?)

Video was hailed as the new medium for conservation and recording of images, however we now know tape deteriorates over time! Like film, its early incarnations are not fool proof - this degrading process, again like film is affected by many different factors, including temperature, humidity, electro-magnetic interference plus radiation and ultimatley wear and tear from normal playback or faulty playback equipment, sounds familiar does it not?

Conservative estimates place a lifespan of around ten to fifteen years on magnetic tape before it begins to deteriorate. This could prove something of a surprise if twenty years after your wedding, you wanted to relive the memory and were presented with a screenful of static or a picture that was in poor colour. 

So, apart from putting your videotapes in a temperature-controlled, radiation-proof lead box, what are you to do? If you are saving the video so you can view it in the future, your storage medium will be different than if you need to save the video so you can edit it again in the future.