Rods, Cones and Standards

We all know not to confuse the tool with the talent and training. Just because you learned Final Cut Pro doesn’t make you Walter Murch. Ipso facto, just because technology now offers easy-to-learn color-correction tools doesn’t mean that color-correction is easy to learn.

And yet. Not everyone got that memo. As the DI has become a buzzword, the door is opened to anyone with a dollar (OK, a lot of dollars) and a dream to be a DI artist or run a DI facility.

Yes, time and experience will root out the hobbyists. Some ersatz colorists may become real ones.

But that’s not the sole or even most important issue at hand. What’s at stake isn’t simply the education of up-and-coming DI artists but the education of producers and directors jumping into DI waters for the first time or the 10th time.

Standards and best practices for over 100 years of filmmaking can’t always help when new digital processes and pipelines are at play. There is no manual to consult, no offline forum for questions and debate. Where do aspiring DI artists go to get their questions answered? How does a producer disentangle different workflows offered by two different DI facilities?

It’s time that we do something to help the industry catch up with what we already know about the importance of the DI. It’s all about standards and best practices, and the most proactive way to achieve and maintain them is for DI artists to form an association. We need benchmarks. We need readily accessible, consistent and accurate information. We need a forum for debate. We need to hear the voices and visions of top colorists. The new HPA Awards for outstanding color grading in feature films, TV shows and commercials are a promising development, but only a small part of what’s required in the long run.

The stakes are huge, and nobody knows that better than cinematographers. What cinematographer hasn’t experienced first-hand or heard a horror story about painstakingly crafted work irrevocably changed in the DI or telecine suite? Cinematographers are still the gatekeepers of the final look, and their best allies are now digital intermediate artists. More than ever before, the process is collaborative and the new production pipelines created by digital technology require that the DI process become an extension of the standards and practices that mark the cinematographer’s world. As cinematography and distribution become digital, all the more reason to have in place an association that can deal with the issues certain to arise.

In short: digital intermediate artists of the world unite, whether in concert with cinematographers or on your own. Let’s set standards, let’s create best practices, and let’s create a benchmark for the quality DI. Because if we don’t, no one else will.