A lot of films are using Digital Intermediates, for CGI and image quality, and presumably for the blu-ray and/or cable transfers. How many pixels are in a 2k DI? 1920x???, depending on the aspect ratio? I assume a 4K DI is 2x that.

Does the number of horizontal pixels in the DI vary for the different 35mm formats having different film widths, like anamorphic vs super-35 2.35:1, and 1.85:1? Is there a difference between a DI and HD telecine for 16:9 television?

First of all a DI isnt better then the scanning equipment that put the movie on the DI.

2K is 2048x1495 for Academy, 2048x1108 for Flat, 2048x852 for Super35
4K is 4096x2990 for Academy, 4096x2216 for Flat, 4096x1706 for Super35

William, if Super35 is stored as 2,40:1 do they frame the movie during the scanning process, or do they use a Academy scan first?

William, if Super35 is stored as 2,40:1 do they frame the movie during the scanning process, or do they use a Academy scan first?

I'm no insider or expert (even though I play one on the Internet:D) but I think most Super35 masters are made at 2.40 because most CGI is rendered at 2.40. Also many directors only frame for 2.40 and there would be too much "junk" in frame for Academy. There are exceptions like The Recruit.

Wonder how they did when they screwed up POTC framing.

2K is 2048x1495 for Academy, 2048x1108 for Flat, 2048x852 for Super35
4K is 4096x2990 for Academy, 4096x2216 for Flat, 4096x1706 for Super35
Super-35 is wider though (24mm, as far as I can tell), than Academy (21mm wide, as far as I can tell). A 2048 pixel scan on Super-35 would be about 1800 pixels on Academy. I guess that's really my question. And then my next question was going to be, do they scale that down from 2048 to 1920 for super-35 to blu-ray, and do they scale up from 1800 to 1920 for academy to blu-ray?

I'm no insider or expert (even though I play one on the Internet:D) but I think most Super35 masters are made at 2.40 because most CGI is rendered at 2.40. Also many directors only frame for 2.40 and there would be too much "junk" in frame for Academy.

The full frame is scanned to allow for multiple versions to be made (2.35:1, 1.78:1, 1.33:1, etc). Nowadays directors try to keep most or not all of the frame usable.

Regarding cgi, most is rendered at 1.78:1 or even the full 1.33:1, again to allow for multiple aspect ratios. Very rarely do you see cgi hardmatted to 2.35:1 unless in the odd instances (ie some shots in The Matrix).

Is there a difference between a DI and HD telecine for 16:9 television?
Usually yes. HD telecine sticks to HD standards (color gamut, 1920*1080,10 bit). DI sticks to cinema standards (cinema color gamut, 2K or 4K, >= 10 bit). DI data is higher quality than 1080p HD data. DI is often done on dedicated film scanners that output better quality than real time telecines (and are slower).

The full frame is scanned to allow for multiple versions to be made (2.35:1, 1.78:1, 1.33:1, etc). Nowadays directors try to keep most or not all of the frame usable.

Regarding cgi, most is rendered at 1.78:1 or even the full 1.33:1, again to allow for multiple aspect ratios. Very rarely do you see cgi hardmatted to 2.35:1 unless in the odd instances (ie some shots in The Matrix).

Freddy vs. Jason is another example of cgi hardmatted to 2.35:1. In the scene when Freddy's glove comes out of the magazine and rips the girls nose off, the fullframe version has cgi that gets cut off right at the section that the 2.35:1 framing would frame out.

I'm no insider or expert (even though I play one on the Internet:D) but I think most Super35 masters are made at 2.40 because most CGI is rendered at 2.40. Also many directors only frame for 2.40 and there would be too much "junk" in frame for Academy. There are exceptions like The Recruit.

When I was working on the Super-35 movie DOGMA as an assistant editor way back in 1998-1999, I can tell you that all the CGI shots were rendered full Super-35 aperture with no matting at all. I held the workprint for the CGI shots in my hand and they were all full-aperture 4-perf Super-35mm with no hard matting at all.

Vincent

The only Super-35 movie I can recall that had all hard matted visual shots was The Fifth Element. The rest of the movie is opened up in the 4x3 and 16x9 versions but the vfx shots are cropped to hell.

If I dont remember wrong, Independence day had special effects hard matted.

You can compare the fullscreen copy to the widescreen copy. The fullscreen only crops the side during special effects shots.

The only Super-35 movie I can recall that had all hard matted visual shots was The Fifth Element. The rest of the movie is opened up in the 4x3 and 16x9 versions but the vfx shots are cropped to hell.

Constant width is pure junk and a terrible compromise for 2.40 with Super35 and Panavision. Why couldn't Vista Vision constant height have been successful and become the standard (other than having to replace the entire infrastructure and using more film to boot :eek: )?