ABSTRACT
There are various processes that need to follow the completion of the editing process. If you have been editing from Digi Beta copies, the original camera tapes will have to be conformed to the Edit Decision List (EDL), thus producing a continuous stream of shots that make up the movie. Just as it is with film it is prudent to keep to a minimum the number of times the High Definition (HD) information is re-recorded, so the grading process might be combined with the conform, thus taking out one copying process. If you have been editing on a platform that has been working in full HD standard and the material was played in from the camera tapes, then the material will in all probability have been stored on a disk array. This means that there will have been a zero loss of quality during the edit and a fully edited version lies in the disk array, thereby removing the need to conform. In these circumstances, and assuming they have the facilities, you might prefer to grade and add all the effects within the same post house directly from the original disk array. In some post houses you might even be able to play out from the edit suite disk array directly into the laser printer, always assuming you have never come out of the HD format, thereby maintaining a very high quality. If this is practical it is an excellent way to proceed. If this is not possible then one way or another you must arrive at a fully conformed and graded HDCAM tape, or possibly a tape format of even higher quality and stability, which contains all the effects and titles, etc. This tape will, most likely, be fed into a disk array associated with the printer, for it takes up to 2.5 seconds to print each frame. Pausing each frame on the tape is impractical, so the material must reside on some kind of drive capable of random access of individual frames. The first photographic copy that is struck can be of various types – negative film stock or intermediate film stock – just as with the traditional film process. If the printer uses a cathode ray tube (CRT), then most likely the first copy will be made onto slow-speed camera negative. If a laser scanner is being used it is more common for intermediate stock to be used – then you have the choice of writing either a negative or a positive image.
