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Cinema history3 min read

LESSON 135

Cinema technology 4: the digital turn

From the first sensors to the DCP.

IN THIS LESSON

  1. Sensors arrive
  2. Digital features
  3. Finishing and projection
  4. Where it stands
  5. Practice: a digital pipeline at home

Sensors arrive

Digital cameras rest on MOS image sensors. The first practical one was the charge-coupled device, the CCD, commercialised in the late 1970s and early 1980s; the CMOS active-pixel sensor followed in the 1990s and now dominates. Film and television moved to digital imaging slowly over the following two decades. In the late 1980s Sony promoted electronic cinematography with its high-definition video system, which had little success but produced one of the first features shot on HD video, Julia and Julia, in 1987.

Digital features

Rainbow, in 1996, was the first film to use extensive digital post-production, shot on Sony solid-state cameras and transferred to 35 mm negative for release. Star Wars: Episode II, shot from 2000 on a Panavision-modified Sony HD camera and released in 2002, showed the technology at the top of the industry. In 2007 prototype Red One cameras drew directors such as Peter Jackson and Steven Soderbergh. Arri's Alexa followed in April 2010 with its Log-C digital negative. In 2009 Slumdog Millionaire became the first film shot mainly digitally to win the Oscar for cinematography.

Finishing and projection

The digital intermediate brought grading and finishing into the computer, first for scanned film and then for digital camera files. On the distribution side, digital cinema replaced shipping reels with files delivered on drives, satellite links or the internet. Most cinemas converted to digital projection in the early 2010s; worldwide digital screens rose from 16,339 at the end of 2009 to 36,242 in January 2011. Films reach these cinemas as a Digital Cinema Package, with JPEG 2000 pictures in MXF files.

Where it stands

Since the 2000s most films have been shot and distributed digitally, and in 2011 Panavision, Arri and Aaton announced they would stop making film cameras. By 2019, top 4K digital cameras were judged roughly equal to 35 mm film in resolution and dynamic range. Some film-makers still choose film for its look, and Kodak still makes motion picture stock. The tools changed, but the questions of framing, light and cutting stayed the same. Digital also opened film-making to many more people.

Practice: a digital pipeline at home

This is working practice. Trace your own workflow from sensor to screen: which camera and codec, which log or colour profile, how you back up, how you edit and grade, and what you deliver. Write it as one line of arrows. Each arrow is a place where quality can be lost or kept. Look for the weakest step: a slow copy without checks, a codec that bands, a monitor that is not calibrated, an export setting nobody checked. Fix one of them on your next project and write down what changed.

Try it today

  1. 01Write your camera, codec and colour profile on a card.
  2. 02Draw your workflow from card to final file as a line of arrows.
  3. 03Mark where you back up and where you check quality.
  4. 04Find one step you could improve with what you learned here.
  5. 05Watch a film shot digitally and one shot on film, and compare.