About DI-Digital Intermediate
Digital Intermediate, usually seen abbreviated to DI, is a highly-specialized motion picture finishing process. The process changes a film from what is physically recorded during the taping process to the film experienced by viewers in the theater. The color alteration which occurs as a result of the DI process is more dynamic and has more depth than the original film copy.
Two distinct meanings
Originally the term "digital intermediate" was used to describe a much more all-inclusive process that began with film scanning and followed the film to the final recording stage. Today, however, use of the term has become more selective, used to describe the final color grading and mastering events, completed immediate before film distribution.
History
Digital intermediate is named after a photochemical processing technique which was used before film was digitized. In this process a piece of film, called the intermediate, was produced by exposing film to the camera negative. This intermediate film was then altered and used to create the films which were distributed for use in theaters. Today, these alterations are made digitally, but the term “intermediate film” remains in use.
Modern technology
The digital intermediate film alteration technique uses computerized tools to alter the film. These tools give special film editors a high degree of control over colors, and where they are placed. It also allows editors to make changes in the brightness, sharpness, grain and other features of the image.
Equipment
Historically, the actual film was actually altered but with the development of modern technology film is recorded digitally and there is no physical film. Instead the film is altered inside of a computer program frame by frame.
Digital intermediate allows films to look finished and professional. A film which is digitally remastered has undergone the digital intermediate process in order to perfect colors which were not as dynamic the first time as they could have been. Digital intermediate is an important part of any film-making process.