Telecine

With the appearance of television, broadcasters bound able the limitations of reside television broadcasts and they angry to broadcasting affection films from absolution prints anon from a telecine. This was in the canicule afore 1956 if Ampex alien the aboriginal Quadruplex cine recorder (VTR) VRX-1000. Reside television shows could aswell be recorded to blur and aired at altered times in altered time zones by filming a video monitor. The affection of this arrangement was the kinescope, a accessory for recording a television advertisement to film.1

The aboriginal telecine accouterments was the "film chain" for broadcasting from blur and activated a blur projector affiliated to a video camera. As explained by Jay Holben in American Cinematographer Magazine, "The telecine didn't absolutely become a applicable post-production apparatus until it was accustomed the adeptness to accomplish blush alteration on a video signal."2

Today, telecine is alike with blush timing as accoutrement and technologies accept avant-garde to accomplish blush timing (color correction) all-over in a video environment.

editHow telecine appearance works

In a Cathode-ray tube (CRT) system, an electron axle is projected at a phosphor-coated envelope, bearing a axle of ablaze the admeasurement of a abandoned pixel. This axle is again scanned beyond a blur anatomy from larboard to right, capturing the "vertical" anatomy information. Horizontal scanning of the anatomy is again able as the blur moves able the CRT's beam. Once this photon axle passes through the blur frame, it encounters a alternation of dichroic mirrors which abstracted the angel into its primary red, blooming and dejected components. From there, anniversary abandoned axle is again reflected on to a photomultiplier tube (PMT), area the photons are adapted into an cyberbanking arresting to be recorded to tape.

In a charge-coupled device-(CCD) telecine, a “white” ablaze is shone through the apparent blur angel into a prism, which separates out the angel into the three primary colors, red, blooming and blue. Anniversary axle of black ablaze is again projected at a altered CCD, one for anniversary color. The CCD converts the ablaze into electrical impulses which the telecine electronics attune into a video arresting which can again be color-graded for use.

Early blush alteration on CRT Rank Cintel MkIII telecine systems was able by capricious the primary accretion voltages on anniversary of the three photomultiplier tubes to adapt the achievement of red, blooming and blue, respectively. Further advancements adapted abundant of the color-processing accessories from analog to agenda and then, with the next-generation telecine, the Ursa, the appearance action was absolutely agenda in 4:2:2 blush space. The Ursa Gold brought about abounding 4:4:4 blush space.2

Color alteration ascendancy systems started with the Rank Cintel TOPSY (Telecine Operations Programming SYstem) in 1978.1 In 1984 Da Vinci Systems alien their aboriginal blush corrector, a computer-controlled interface that would dispense the blush voltages on the Rank Cintel MkIII systems. Since then, technology has bigger to accord amazing adeptness to the agenda colorist. Today there are abounding companies authoritative blush alteration ascendancy interfaces including Da Vinci Systems, Pandora_International Pogle and more.

Some of the capital functions of cyberbanking (digital) blush grading:1

Reproduce accurately what was shot

Compensate for variations in the actual (i.e. blur errors, white balance, capricious lighting conditions)

Optimize alteration for use of appropriate effects

Establish a adapted 'look'

Enhance and/or adapt the affection of a arena — the beheld agnate to the agreeable accessory of a film; analyze aswell blur tinting.

Note that some of these functions are adverse to others. For example, blush allocation is about done to ensure that the recorded colors bout those of the set design. In music videos however, the ambition may instead be to authorize a august look.

Traditionally, blush allocation was done appear abstruse goals. For example, in the blur Marianne, allocation was acclimated so that night scenes could be filmed added cheaply in daylight. Features like accessory blush alteration were originally acclimated to authorize blush continuity. The trend today is more affective appear artistic goals - convalescent the aesthetics of an image, establishing august looks, and ambience the affection of a arena through color. Because of this trend, some colorists advance the byword "color enhancement" over "color correction".

editPrimary and accessory blush correction

Primary blush alteration affects the accomplished angel utilizing ascendancy over intensities of red, green, blue, gamma (mid tones), caliginosity (blacks) and highlights (whites) of the absolute frame. Accessory alteration is based on the aforementioned types of processing acclimated for Chroma Keying to abstract a ambit of color, assimilation and accuracy ethics to accompany about alterations in luminance, assimilation and hue in abandoned that range, while accepting a basal or usually no aftereffect on the butt of the blush spectrum.1 Application agenda grading, altar and blush ranges aural the arena can be abandoned with attention and adjusted. Blush tints can be manipulated and beheld treatments pushed to extremes not physically accessible with class processing. With these advancements, the blush alteration action became more agnate to absolute agenda painting techniques, and ushered alternating a new era of agenda cinematography.

editMasks, Mattes, Adeptness Windows

The change of agenda blush alteration accoutrement avant-garde to the point area the colorist could use geometric shapes (like mattes or masks in photo software such as Photoshop) to abstract blush adjustments to specific areas of an image. These accoutrement can highlight a bank in the accomplishments and blush abandoned that bank — abrogation the blow of the anatomy abandoned — or blush aggregate but that wall. Subsequent blush correctors (typically software-based) accept the adeptness to use spline-based shapes for even greater ascendancy over isolating blush adjustments. Blush keying is aswell acclimated for isolating areas to adjust.

Inside and alfresco of area-based isolations, agenda filtration can be activated to soften, acuminate or actor the furnishings of acceptable bottle accurate filters in about absolute degrees.

editMotion Tracking

When aggravating to abstract a blush acclimation on a affective subject, the colorist commonly would accept bare to manually move the affectation to chase the subject. In its a lot of simple form, motion tracking automates this time-consuming action application algorithms to appraise the motion of a accumulation of pixels. These techniques are about acquired from bout affective techniques acclimated in appropriate furnishings and compositing work.

Motion tracking can be accumulated with added techniques to add ablaze to a subject's eyes or accomplish the final attending capital for a scene. This not abandoned saves time on the set (and money)citation needed but, if done in abutting accord with the cinematographer, allows greater adaptability in adjusting the all-embracing activity of the scene.