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1.12.01
Homing Beacon #26 Away!
Today the latest Homing Beacon gives us a look into what it takes to print Episode II.
Though Episode II is being shot without film -- the new Sony Panavision 24-fps camera shoots everything digitally -- the movie will be put on film for its distribution to traditional movie theaters in 2002. Although it's still over a year away from its premiere, tests are already underway to see how the all-digital production will look when its struck to film for a release print.
"That's been very successful," says Producer Rick McCallum. "We're very excited, because this new process allows us to skip two stages." Traditionally, a film starts off as an original negative, then is processed to become an interpositive (IP) and then an internegative (IN) and then a release print.
"Each time you go through another process, there's an enormous amount of degradation to the image," explains McCallum. "Now we can go from data, skipping past the original negative and the IP stage, and go straight to an IN, and then the release print."
The end result is greater picture quality that holds up after repeated printings. "When you normally make a film," says McCallum, "you might be able to scratch six or eight release prints, or 'show prints,' off the original negative. And those are the very best, pristine prints out there. We can basically do 5,000 now, so we're really excited about that."
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