One of the most popular and profitable movies ever made, George Lucas's Star Wars (1977; winner of seven Academy Awards) changed movies forever with its gangbusters technology. The core characters have already been absorbed into American cultural mythology: Luke Skywalker (played by Mark Hamill), disciple of the Force; Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher); the sardonic adventurer Han Solo (Harrison Ford); Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness), the great Jedi master who opposes Darth Vader (David Prowse), servant of the evil Empire who has a voice like doom (actually the voice of James Earl Jones); and two androids and a Wookie: R2D2, C-3PO, and Chewbacca. Although some critics complained about the volume or the pacing or the lack of a sense of wonder, most now consider Star Wars a great work of popular art. Lucas had originally mapped out a seven-part series, but the sequels in the 1980s included only The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). He released a special edition of Star Wars in 1997, with 4.5 minutes of new computer-generated images (costing $15 million) and new master prints. This new version—and the accompanying marketing of new products—proved to be a box-office bonanza.
After a 16-year hiatus the series returned in 1999 with Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace, starring Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor. While the film garnered lively box-office returns, it also received a cool critical response. Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones (2002) likewise had fans and detractors. Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith opened in 2005. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) is a continuation of the saga—about 30 years after Return of the Jedi takes place.
Film Production Table of Contents
How to Cite This Article
As a general term, film production is all the work that goes into the making of a film, including its planning and realization. What is actually produced during this period is an approved, final negative. During the distribution phase that follows production, multiple prints are struck from the negative, and the movie is released, marketed, and exhibited.
As a more specific term, production is one phase of overall production activity, essentially the shooting phase. Whether it is made by one person or a whole studio, every film goes through the following stages: development, when the project is conceived, written, and financed; pre-production, when the shooting is prepared for; production, when most of the script is staged, shot, and recorded; and post-production, when the picture and sound are edited and polished.
TerminologyA shot is a continuously exposed piece of film, or the continuous view that is presented between one cut and another. One may not get a perfect shot on the first trial, or take. A take is an attempt to photograph and/or record a particular shot. Most industry cinematography is done on 35-mm negative film. Takes approved by the director are printed, evaluated (in the form of dailies or rushes—that is, daily rolls of rush-produced picture and transferred synchronous sound—so that the director, cinematographer, and actors can see and hear the results of the previous day's shooting), and eventually cut by the editor into a work print (a trial version of picture and sound, to which the original camera negative may be matched and cut). A shot, then, may also be thought of as a printed and edited take. A particular shot is taken by one camera, equipped with one lens, from a particular vantage point—that is, from a particular camera setup. An entire scene could well be photographed from three or four setups and then edited into ten or twenty shots.
In an edited film a scene will usually consist of more than one shot, and a full-fledged dramatic encounter in a given location (in dramatic and narrative terms, a scene) may entail a variety of setups and as many shots as desired. A sequence is a consecutive series of shots and/or scenes, and it is not restricted to covering action in a single location. In the climactic baptism sequence in The Godfather (1972), for example, the scene in the church is cut together with scenes of several murders in widely dispersed locations. Each of those scenes comprises several shots, and all the shots and scenes together make up that particular sequence. On the other hand, a sequence may also be any group of consecutive shots that relate significantly to each other, whether or not they are part of any scene. This offers a cinematic rather than theatrical or dramatic model for the sequence, which might be as short as the three-shot flashback that occurs within a scene in Alain Resnais's Hiroshima, Mon Amour (1959) or as long as the avalanche of images that concludes Abel Gance's Napoléon (1927).
Independent and Studio ProductionIn the "Golden Age of Hollywood" (approximately 1925–55), a major studio had vast resources, a regular audience, and self-contained facilities that allowed it to develop, produce, and release as many as fifty pictures a year. A studio like MGM, for example, had a lot the size of a small town, and it included the studio office buildings, the script vaults, a film laboratory, thousands of costumes, a lumberyard, propmaking shops, standing outdoor sets, editing and mixing rooms, a restaurant, and a large number of sound stages (windowless, soundproofed buildings in which interiors—and some apparent exteriors—are shot) lined up like great concrete barns.
Today, however, many studios survive by renting out their facilities to independent filmmakers and to those in the business of making movies for television. It is common for a studio to participate in the financing of a picture or to buy it when it is completed, and then to release it under the studio logo. Thus a virtually independent production, or even a foreign import, may well be released as "A Paramount Picture," even if Paramount had little creative input. Nevertheless, most of the studios do release approximately a dozen of their own pictures each year, and they usually control every element and aspect of those movies. "The studio system" way of doing things still prevails in Hollywood, but the studio system's "stable" of talent and empire of dedicated facilities no longer survive. It is the agents who now have access to pools of talent: the writers, directors, and performers they represent. Most film professionals, from camera operators to sound designers, now work on a freelance basis, hired by a studio or by an independent producer for one project at a time.
A truly independent producer is one who finances and realizes a picture without help from a studio, and who is then free to license the film to an independent distributor. Many independent producers raise money by borrowing against presold distribution rights, and by showing the script, budget, and proposed talent package—usually the director and the stars—to a bank or a loan company. An independent production typically costs much less than a studio production—thanks to studio accounting practices and the studios' recent emphasis on blockbusters. That means the creators of an independent film can take creative risks and still earn a profit; a film can take in $20 million and be considered profitable because it cost $6 million to produce, while the star-packed action thriller that cost $90 million must gross at least $270 million to cover production, distribution, and other expenses. That's why studios usually back formula pictures that offer more and better of the same rather than films that are socially or artistically challenging.
DevelopmentDevelopment begins when someone gets an idea for a movie. That person might be the head of a studio's story department, a producer who anticipates demand for a certain type of picture, or even a director. Most often, it is a writer. Legally, development begins when the producer hires a writer.
The writer may begin with a treatment, or scene-by-scene story outline, which is eventually expanded into a full-length screenplay. In addition to making up the story, the characters, and the dialogue, the writer's key contribution is to structure the narrative. While the director is more responsible for the style of the movie, the writer is the one who determines the tale to be told. The screenwriter has far less creative autonomy than the director, however, and surrenders all control over the script when it is sold.
The script is then broken down, or analyzed as to its production requirements: how much each scene is liable to cost, what props and costumes will be necessary, and how efficiently the scenes may be arranged into an economical shooting schedule. It is normal for the scenes in a movie to be shot out of sequence—that is, in an order that is convenient rather than in the order of the script. All the scenes on a given set or location, for example, will most likely be shot at one time.
Once the script has been written, researched for libel or other actionable qualities, approved, and broken down and budgeted, and once financing has been secured, a start date is set—or the project is denied final approval and put in turnaround (offered to anyone who will reimburse the costs of development).
Pre-ProductionPre-production is the period of converting the screenplay into a blueprint for the production of specific scenes; finding locations, hiring the cast, fixing the final budget, and determining the shooting schedule; designing and constructing the sets; making or buying the costumes and designing the makeup; researching to determine the accuracy of details; and working out the mechanical special effects—those which can be staged before the camera, as opposed to optical special effects, which are done in the laboratory.
The essential collaboration during the development period is between the writer and the producer. During pre-production the creative collaborators are the director, the designer, and the cinematographer. The work of breaking down the script and drafting the shooting schedule is done by the first assistant director and the production manager, who is the producer's representative on the set.
The production designer integrates the sets, costumes, and color schemes into a comprehensive design. Although the bulk of the creation of a soundtrack takes place in post-production, the sound design begins in pre-production. At this time, the cinematographer evaluates and tests how well the sets, costumes, locations, and performers will look on film.
Of particular importance are the casting of the principal actors and the determination of the shooting location. A sound stage may be made to look like anything; it is ideal for the control of lighting and for the recording of a perfectly synchronized ("lip sync") soundtrack that is free of background noise. It is also an artificial environment and may offer a poor substitute for the natural and authentic. The majority of nonfiction films are shot on location—outside the studio—and so are many narrative films.
ProductionProduction is the period of principal photography—essentially the shooting and recording, by the first unit, working under the supervision of the director, of the scenes in the script that involve the principal actors. A second or third unit, each with its own director and crew, may shoot other scenes with crowds or stunt doubles, action sequences, or landscape shots. An insert unit shoots close-ups that are cut in, such as tight shots of maps and clocks.
The director is the coordinator of the production team and works closely with the actors. The director is primarily responsible for the integration of camerawork, performance, and editing, and his or her creative control extends until the completion of the first edited version. The composition and photographic technique of a given shot may be chosen by the cinematographer or the director. In consultation with the director, the cinematographer determines how the shots will be lit. The actual work is executed by electricians under the supervision of the gaffer (the principal electrician). Most of the moving and hauling is done by grips, who are supervised by the key grip. Live sound is recorded by the production sound team. The script supervisor keeps track of which scenes have been shot, as well as of continuity, the details within scenes that must match (or relate together logically) from one shot to another. The actors, too, are concerned with continuity, but in their case the challenge is to perform their roles in fragments and out of sequence.
Post-ProductionThe fragments of picture and sound that have been so carefully planned and executed are assembled into a whole during post-production. The rolls of negative film exposed by the production camera are printed and then broken down into labeled scenes. The editor chooses, assembles, and trims the shots, creating a work print out of fragments of celluloid (the cut-up, printed dailies) or out of electronic files (digital copies of the printed dailies). The daily sound rolls (reels of magnetic tape in sync with the camera rolls) are transferred to magnetic filmstock (sprocketed film base coated with magnetic oxide), so that there is one frame of sound for each frame of picture. The sound can be cut and spliced just as easily as the picture. The mag track—usually dialogue recorded during shooting—is cut along with the picture by the film editor. In addition to some dialogue (often marred by background noise in the original), virtually all music and the majority of effects are post-synchronized. In the past, actors post-synchronized their dialogue one shot at a time, in a process that was called looping because a loop, or spliced circle, of picture ran repeatedly through a projector in sync with a loop of sound (usually on mag film) in a dubber. From the first half of the sound loop, the dubber played the original dialogue that had been recorded in sync with the camera, and on the second half it recorded the performer's new attempt. Dialogue is now commonly post-synchronized one scene at a time in a process called ADR (automatic dialogue replacement). ADR may save money and yield a more integrated reading of the scene, but it rarely achieves perfect lip sync. Dolby noise-reduction technology is used at all stages of sound recording, re-recording, and playback.
When the work print has been edited—or recut to the satisfaction of the film editor, director, and producer—the original negative footage that corresponds to the work-print footage (and bears the same numbers along its edge) is trimmed and assembled. The work print may be spliced and respliced until each cut has been perfected. No one experiments with the negative, however, which is handled as little as possible and is spliced permanently. Titles (prepared by the art department) and many special-effects shots are cut into the negative at the last minute.
The composer usually begins to score a movie only when it has reached the work-print stage. The composer works with the music editor, who prepares, times, and cuts the music track. The sound effects editor, who works with the greatest number of tracks, assembles all the sounds that are neither dialogue nor music. When all of the tracks have been edited and rerecorded, the final soundtrack is assembled, or mixed, in sync with the final work print. For different projection and marketing formats, the same elements may be combined into a monaural soundtrack or a variety of stereophonic soundtracks, including those with surround sound. Then the final product of the mix, a sound composite on mag stock, is transferred to a soundtrack master, from which the soundtrack on the release print is photographically copied (an optical soundtrack), or rerecorded (a magnetic soundtrack).
Once the negative has been cut, its light and color values are corrected so that they will match from scene to scene. The negative is copied, with computer-triggered changes in printing exposure, to produce a corrected intermediate positive (IP), from which an intermediate negative (IN) is generated. The IN, and subsequent IPs and INs, may incorporate further corrections. Ideally, very few intermediates separate the release print from the negative, because contrast increases and detail is lost with each printing generation.
The cinematographer, the director, and the editor work closely with the laboratory until a final trial composite print, or answer print, meets their approval. The negative that produced that print becomes "the negative" from which, at the onset of the distribution phase, release prints will be struck.
Special EffectsOptical special effects are made by an independent unit. Simple visual devices such as fades, dissolves, and wipes—and more complex ones, such as mattes or composites made of elements taken from separate shots—are created in the laboratory on an optical printer.
The combining of picture elements has been facilitated by computers, which are sometimes used to isolate and manipulate part or all of a frame that has been converted to digital information.
The combining of picture elements has been facilitated by computers, which are sometimes used to isolate and manipulate part or all of a frame that has been converted to digital information. Whether photographed in nature and scanned from film into the computer, or digitally generated in the first place, all the picture elements can be combined into an electronic composite. That digital frame is then scanned onto a frame of film—a lengthy process, after which the film exposed in the scanner is developed, printed, and cut into the movie. To have the sharpness and detail of a frame of 35-mm film—on which the rest of the movie, which it has to match, is shot—the file for each digital frame must be at least 40 MB in size, sometimes 60 MB. Sound film runs at 24 frames per second. It would take at least 300 double-sided DVD discs (see video technology), not one, to store a 100-minute feature at 40 MB/frame, the minimum level of detail required in computer-effects houses and regularly found in movie theaters. Computerized home-and-business video formats depend on extreme compression to deliver a picture that looks sharp on a monitor but would be a jumble of washed-out dots on a full-size movie screen. And no digital projector exists with the ability to download and display a 40–60 MB image file every 1/24th of a second.
But the traditional blue-screen matte is in no way obsolete. Most visual composites are still created through painstaking re-photography on an optical printer. Some effects, however, can be achieved only with newer technologies. Morphing—making one image change frame-by-frame into another, as seen in James Cameron's Terminator 2 (1991)—is the computer's answer to the dissolve (see image processing). It was the completely computer-generated "Genesis" shot in Nicholas Meyer's Star Trek II (1982) that opened the new era of effects shots that may never have passed through a camera. There were earlier films made entirely on computers—by John Whitney, for example—and films made without cameras—by Stan Brakhage and others who have worked directly on film—but they were avant-garde and experimental wholes, not special-effects shots meant to be part of some mainstream narrative movie.
Retouching a damaged film can be done remarkably well in certain image programs and is playing a greater role in the restoration of classics. Though the process is expensive, it is good to see computers used to save old films rather than—as they first were used—to colorize them (the process of adding electronic colors to black-and-white movies).
Just as the video camera has become a standard tool on the set, primarily as an aid to rehearsal but also to show the director exactly what is being shot (if the film camera has a small video camera inside it), the computer has been widely used to control the repeated movements of certain special-effects cameras (motion-control photography). Computer technology has also found its way into the editing room, where it is now common to assemble a work print electronically, by choosing digital copies of shots (stored on an array of hard drives and coded to match the negative) and arranging them in a variety of trial sequences.
After a 16-year hiatus the series returned in 1999 with Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace, starring Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor. While the film garnered lively box-office returns, it also received a cool critical response. Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones (2002) likewise had fans and detractors. Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith opened in 2005. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) is a continuation of the saga—about 30 years after Return of the Jedi takes place.
Film Production Table of Contents
How to Cite This Article
As a general term, film production is all the work that goes into the making of a film, including its planning and realization. What is actually produced during this period is an approved, final negative. During the distribution phase that follows production, multiple prints are struck from the negative, and the movie is released, marketed, and exhibited.
As a more specific term, production is one phase of overall production activity, essentially the shooting phase. Whether it is made by one person or a whole studio, every film goes through the following stages: development, when the project is conceived, written, and financed; pre-production, when the shooting is prepared for; production, when most of the script is staged, shot, and recorded; and post-production, when the picture and sound are edited and polished.
TerminologyA shot is a continuously exposed piece of film, or the continuous view that is presented between one cut and another. One may not get a perfect shot on the first trial, or take. A take is an attempt to photograph and/or record a particular shot. Most industry cinematography is done on 35-mm negative film. Takes approved by the director are printed, evaluated (in the form of dailies or rushes—that is, daily rolls of rush-produced picture and transferred synchronous sound—so that the director, cinematographer, and actors can see and hear the results of the previous day's shooting), and eventually cut by the editor into a work print (a trial version of picture and sound, to which the original camera negative may be matched and cut). A shot, then, may also be thought of as a printed and edited take. A particular shot is taken by one camera, equipped with one lens, from a particular vantage point—that is, from a particular camera setup. An entire scene could well be photographed from three or four setups and then edited into ten or twenty shots.
In an edited film a scene will usually consist of more than one shot, and a full-fledged dramatic encounter in a given location (in dramatic and narrative terms, a scene) may entail a variety of setups and as many shots as desired. A sequence is a consecutive series of shots and/or scenes, and it is not restricted to covering action in a single location. In the climactic baptism sequence in The Godfather (1972), for example, the scene in the church is cut together with scenes of several murders in widely dispersed locations. Each of those scenes comprises several shots, and all the shots and scenes together make up that particular sequence. On the other hand, a sequence may also be any group of consecutive shots that relate significantly to each other, whether or not they are part of any scene. This offers a cinematic rather than theatrical or dramatic model for the sequence, which might be as short as the three-shot flashback that occurs within a scene in Alain Resnais's Hiroshima, Mon Amour (1959) or as long as the avalanche of images that concludes Abel Gance's Napoléon (1927).
Independent and Studio ProductionIn the "Golden Age of Hollywood" (approximately 1925–55), a major studio had vast resources, a regular audience, and self-contained facilities that allowed it to develop, produce, and release as many as fifty pictures a year. A studio like MGM, for example, had a lot the size of a small town, and it included the studio office buildings, the script vaults, a film laboratory, thousands of costumes, a lumberyard, propmaking shops, standing outdoor sets, editing and mixing rooms, a restaurant, and a large number of sound stages (windowless, soundproofed buildings in which interiors—and some apparent exteriors—are shot) lined up like great concrete barns.
Today, however, many studios survive by renting out their facilities to independent filmmakers and to those in the business of making movies for television. It is common for a studio to participate in the financing of a picture or to buy it when it is completed, and then to release it under the studio logo. Thus a virtually independent production, or even a foreign import, may well be released as "A Paramount Picture," even if Paramount had little creative input. Nevertheless, most of the studios do release approximately a dozen of their own pictures each year, and they usually control every element and aspect of those movies. "The studio system" way of doing things still prevails in Hollywood, but the studio system's "stable" of talent and empire of dedicated facilities no longer survive. It is the agents who now have access to pools of talent: the writers, directors, and performers they represent. Most film professionals, from camera operators to sound designers, now work on a freelance basis, hired by a studio or by an independent producer for one project at a time.
A truly independent producer is one who finances and realizes a picture without help from a studio, and who is then free to license the film to an independent distributor. Many independent producers raise money by borrowing against presold distribution rights, and by showing the script, budget, and proposed talent package—usually the director and the stars—to a bank or a loan company. An independent production typically costs much less than a studio production—thanks to studio accounting practices and the studios' recent emphasis on blockbusters. That means the creators of an independent film can take creative risks and still earn a profit; a film can take in $20 million and be considered profitable because it cost $6 million to produce, while the star-packed action thriller that cost $90 million must gross at least $270 million to cover production, distribution, and other expenses. That's why studios usually back formula pictures that offer more and better of the same rather than films that are socially or artistically challenging.
DevelopmentDevelopment begins when someone gets an idea for a movie. That person might be the head of a studio's story department, a producer who anticipates demand for a certain type of picture, or even a director. Most often, it is a writer. Legally, development begins when the producer hires a writer.
The writer may begin with a treatment, or scene-by-scene story outline, which is eventually expanded into a full-length screenplay. In addition to making up the story, the characters, and the dialogue, the writer's key contribution is to structure the narrative. While the director is more responsible for the style of the movie, the writer is the one who determines the tale to be told. The screenwriter has far less creative autonomy than the director, however, and surrenders all control over the script when it is sold.
The script is then broken down, or analyzed as to its production requirements: how much each scene is liable to cost, what props and costumes will be necessary, and how efficiently the scenes may be arranged into an economical shooting schedule. It is normal for the scenes in a movie to be shot out of sequence—that is, in an order that is convenient rather than in the order of the script. All the scenes on a given set or location, for example, will most likely be shot at one time.
Once the script has been written, researched for libel or other actionable qualities, approved, and broken down and budgeted, and once financing has been secured, a start date is set—or the project is denied final approval and put in turnaround (offered to anyone who will reimburse the costs of development).
Pre-ProductionPre-production is the period of converting the screenplay into a blueprint for the production of specific scenes; finding locations, hiring the cast, fixing the final budget, and determining the shooting schedule; designing and constructing the sets; making or buying the costumes and designing the makeup; researching to determine the accuracy of details; and working out the mechanical special effects—those which can be staged before the camera, as opposed to optical special effects, which are done in the laboratory.
The essential collaboration during the development period is between the writer and the producer. During pre-production the creative collaborators are the director, the designer, and the cinematographer. The work of breaking down the script and drafting the shooting schedule is done by the first assistant director and the production manager, who is the producer's representative on the set.
The production designer integrates the sets, costumes, and color schemes into a comprehensive design. Although the bulk of the creation of a soundtrack takes place in post-production, the sound design begins in pre-production. At this time, the cinematographer evaluates and tests how well the sets, costumes, locations, and performers will look on film.
Of particular importance are the casting of the principal actors and the determination of the shooting location. A sound stage may be made to look like anything; it is ideal for the control of lighting and for the recording of a perfectly synchronized ("lip sync") soundtrack that is free of background noise. It is also an artificial environment and may offer a poor substitute for the natural and authentic. The majority of nonfiction films are shot on location—outside the studio—and so are many narrative films.
ProductionProduction is the period of principal photography—essentially the shooting and recording, by the first unit, working under the supervision of the director, of the scenes in the script that involve the principal actors. A second or third unit, each with its own director and crew, may shoot other scenes with crowds or stunt doubles, action sequences, or landscape shots. An insert unit shoots close-ups that are cut in, such as tight shots of maps and clocks.
The director is the coordinator of the production team and works closely with the actors. The director is primarily responsible for the integration of camerawork, performance, and editing, and his or her creative control extends until the completion of the first edited version. The composition and photographic technique of a given shot may be chosen by the cinematographer or the director. In consultation with the director, the cinematographer determines how the shots will be lit. The actual work is executed by electricians under the supervision of the gaffer (the principal electrician). Most of the moving and hauling is done by grips, who are supervised by the key grip. Live sound is recorded by the production sound team. The script supervisor keeps track of which scenes have been shot, as well as of continuity, the details within scenes that must match (or relate together logically) from one shot to another. The actors, too, are concerned with continuity, but in their case the challenge is to perform their roles in fragments and out of sequence.
Post-ProductionThe fragments of picture and sound that have been so carefully planned and executed are assembled into a whole during post-production. The rolls of negative film exposed by the production camera are printed and then broken down into labeled scenes. The editor chooses, assembles, and trims the shots, creating a work print out of fragments of celluloid (the cut-up, printed dailies) or out of electronic files (digital copies of the printed dailies). The daily sound rolls (reels of magnetic tape in sync with the camera rolls) are transferred to magnetic filmstock (sprocketed film base coated with magnetic oxide), so that there is one frame of sound for each frame of picture. The sound can be cut and spliced just as easily as the picture. The mag track—usually dialogue recorded during shooting—is cut along with the picture by the film editor. In addition to some dialogue (often marred by background noise in the original), virtually all music and the majority of effects are post-synchronized. In the past, actors post-synchronized their dialogue one shot at a time, in a process that was called looping because a loop, or spliced circle, of picture ran repeatedly through a projector in sync with a loop of sound (usually on mag film) in a dubber. From the first half of the sound loop, the dubber played the original dialogue that had been recorded in sync with the camera, and on the second half it recorded the performer's new attempt. Dialogue is now commonly post-synchronized one scene at a time in a process called ADR (automatic dialogue replacement). ADR may save money and yield a more integrated reading of the scene, but it rarely achieves perfect lip sync. Dolby noise-reduction technology is used at all stages of sound recording, re-recording, and playback.
When the work print has been edited—or recut to the satisfaction of the film editor, director, and producer—the original negative footage that corresponds to the work-print footage (and bears the same numbers along its edge) is trimmed and assembled. The work print may be spliced and respliced until each cut has been perfected. No one experiments with the negative, however, which is handled as little as possible and is spliced permanently. Titles (prepared by the art department) and many special-effects shots are cut into the negative at the last minute.
The composer usually begins to score a movie only when it has reached the work-print stage. The composer works with the music editor, who prepares, times, and cuts the music track. The sound effects editor, who works with the greatest number of tracks, assembles all the sounds that are neither dialogue nor music. When all of the tracks have been edited and rerecorded, the final soundtrack is assembled, or mixed, in sync with the final work print. For different projection and marketing formats, the same elements may be combined into a monaural soundtrack or a variety of stereophonic soundtracks, including those with surround sound. Then the final product of the mix, a sound composite on mag stock, is transferred to a soundtrack master, from which the soundtrack on the release print is photographically copied (an optical soundtrack), or rerecorded (a magnetic soundtrack).
Once the negative has been cut, its light and color values are corrected so that they will match from scene to scene. The negative is copied, with computer-triggered changes in printing exposure, to produce a corrected intermediate positive (IP), from which an intermediate negative (IN) is generated. The IN, and subsequent IPs and INs, may incorporate further corrections. Ideally, very few intermediates separate the release print from the negative, because contrast increases and detail is lost with each printing generation.
The cinematographer, the director, and the editor work closely with the laboratory until a final trial composite print, or answer print, meets their approval. The negative that produced that print becomes "the negative" from which, at the onset of the distribution phase, release prints will be struck.
Special EffectsOptical special effects are made by an independent unit. Simple visual devices such as fades, dissolves, and wipes—and more complex ones, such as mattes or composites made of elements taken from separate shots—are created in the laboratory on an optical printer.
The combining of picture elements has been facilitated by computers, which are sometimes used to isolate and manipulate part or all of a frame that has been converted to digital information.
The combining of picture elements has been facilitated by computers, which are sometimes used to isolate and manipulate part or all of a frame that has been converted to digital information. Whether photographed in nature and scanned from film into the computer, or digitally generated in the first place, all the picture elements can be combined into an electronic composite. That digital frame is then scanned onto a frame of film—a lengthy process, after which the film exposed in the scanner is developed, printed, and cut into the movie. To have the sharpness and detail of a frame of 35-mm film—on which the rest of the movie, which it has to match, is shot—the file for each digital frame must be at least 40 MB in size, sometimes 60 MB. Sound film runs at 24 frames per second. It would take at least 300 double-sided DVD discs (see video technology), not one, to store a 100-minute feature at 40 MB/frame, the minimum level of detail required in computer-effects houses and regularly found in movie theaters. Computerized home-and-business video formats depend on extreme compression to deliver a picture that looks sharp on a monitor but would be a jumble of washed-out dots on a full-size movie screen. And no digital projector exists with the ability to download and display a 40–60 MB image file every 1/24th of a second.
But the traditional blue-screen matte is in no way obsolete. Most visual composites are still created through painstaking re-photography on an optical printer. Some effects, however, can be achieved only with newer technologies. Morphing—making one image change frame-by-frame into another, as seen in James Cameron's Terminator 2 (1991)—is the computer's answer to the dissolve (see image processing). It was the completely computer-generated "Genesis" shot in Nicholas Meyer's Star Trek II (1982) that opened the new era of effects shots that may never have passed through a camera. There were earlier films made entirely on computers—by John Whitney, for example—and films made without cameras—by Stan Brakhage and others who have worked directly on film—but they were avant-garde and experimental wholes, not special-effects shots meant to be part of some mainstream narrative movie.
Retouching a damaged film can be done remarkably well in certain image programs and is playing a greater role in the restoration of classics. Though the process is expensive, it is good to see computers used to save old films rather than—as they first were used—to colorize them (the process of adding electronic colors to black-and-white movies).
Just as the video camera has become a standard tool on the set, primarily as an aid to rehearsal but also to show the director exactly what is being shot (if the film camera has a small video camera inside it), the computer has been widely used to control the repeated movements of certain special-effects cameras (motion-control photography). Computer technology has also found its way into the editing room, where it is now common to assemble a work print electronically, by choosing digital copies of shots (stored on an array of hard drives and coded to match the negative) and arranging them in a variety of trial sequences.