Digital cinematography
Digital cinematography is the process of capturing a motion picture using digital image sensors rather than through film stock. As digital technology has improved in recent years, this practice has become dominant. Since the 2000s, most movies across the world have been captured as well as distributed digitally.
Many vendors have brought products to market, including traditional film camera vendors like Arri and Panavision, as well as new vendors like Red, Blackmagic, Silicon Imaging, Vision Research and companies which have traditionally focused on consumer and broadcast video equipment, like Sony, GoPro, and Panasonic.
As of 2023, professional 4K digital cameras were approximately equal to 35mm film in their resolution and dynamic range capacity. Some filmmakers still prefer to use film picture formats to achieve the desired results.
History
The basis for digital cameras are metal–oxide–semiconductor image sensors. The first practical semiconductor image sensor was the charge-coupled device, based on MOS capacitor technology. Following the commercialization of CCD sensors during the late 1970s to early 1980s, the entertainment industry slowly began transitioning to digital imaging and digital video over the next two decades. The CCD was followed by the CMOS active-pixel sensor, developed in the 1990s.Beginning in the late 1980s, Sony began marketing the concept of "electronic cinematography," utilizing its analog Sony HDVS professional video cameras. The effort met with very little success. However, this led to one of the earliest high definition video shot feature movies, Julia and Julia.
Rainbow was the world's first film to utilize extensive digital post production techniques. Shot entirely with Sony's first Solid State Electronic Cinematography cameras and featuring over 35 minutes of digital image processing and visual effects, all post production, sound effects, editing and scoring were completed digitally. The Digital High Definition image was transferred to a 35mm negative via an electron beam recorder for theatrical release.
The first digitally videoed and post produced feature was Windhorse, shot in Tibet and Nepal in 1996 on the Sony DVW-700WS Digital Betacam and the prosumer Sony DCR-VX1000. The offline editing and the online post and color work were also all digital. The film, transferred to 35mm negative for theatrical release, won Best U.S. Feature at the Santa Barbara Film Festival in 1998.
In 1997, with the introduction of HDCAM recorders and 1920 × 1080 pixel digital professional video cameras based on CCD technology, the idea, now re-branded as "digital cinematography," began to gain traction in the market. Shot and released in 1998, The Last Broadcast is believed by some to be the first feature-length video shot and edited entirely on consumer-level digital equipment.
In May 1999, George Lucas challenged the supremacy of the movie-making medium of film for the first time by including footage filmed with high-definition digital cameras in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. The digital footage blended seamlessly with the footage shot on film and he announced later that year he would film its sequels entirely on hi-def digital video. Also in 1999, digital projectors were installed in four theaters for the showing of The Phantom Menace.
In May 2000, Vidocq, which was directed by Pitof, began principal photography shot entirely using a Sony HDW-F900 camera, with the video being released in September the next year. According to the Guinness World Records, Vidocq is the first full length feature filmed in digital high resolution.
In June 2000, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones began principal photography shot entirely using a Sony HDW-F900 camera as Lucas had previously stated. The film was released in May 2002. In May 2001 Once Upon a Time in Mexico was also shot in 24 frame-per-second high-definition digital video, partially developed by George Lucas using a Sony HDW-F900 camera, following Robert Rodriguez's introduction to the camera at Lucas' Skywalker Ranch facility whilst editing the sound for Spy Kids. A lesser-known movie, Russian Ark, was also shot with the same camera and was the first tapeless digital movie, recorded on HDD instead of tape.
In 2009, Slumdog Millionaire became the first movie shot mainly in digital to be awarded the Academy Award for Best Cinematography. The highest-grossing movie in the history of cinema, Avatar, not only was shot on digital cameras as well, but also made the main revenues at the box office no longer by film, but digital projection.
Major movies shot on digital video overtook those shot on film in 2013. Since 2016 over 90% of major films were shot on digital video., 92% of films are shot on digital. Only 24 major films released in 2018 were shot on 35mm. Since the 2000s, most movies across the world have been captured as well as distributed digitally.
Today, cameras from companies like Sony, Panasonic, JVC and Canon offer a variety of choices for shooting high-definition video. At the high-end of the market, there has been an emergence of cameras aimed specifically at the digital cinema market. These cameras from Sony, Vision Research, Arri, Blackmagic Design, Panavision, Grass Valley and Red offer resolution and dynamic range that exceeds that of traditional video cameras, which are designed for the limited needs of broadcast television.
Technology
Digital cinematography captures motion pictures digitally in a process analogous to digital photography. While there is a clear technical distinction that separates the images captured in digital cinematography from video, the term "digital cinematography" is usually applied only in cases where digital acquisition is substituted for film acquisition, such as when shooting a feature film. The term is seldom applied when digital acquisition is substituted for video acquisition, as with live broadcast television programs.Recording
Cameras
Professional cameras include the Sony CineAlta Series, Blackmagic Cinema Camera, Red One, Arriflex D-20, D-21 and Alexa, Panavision Genesis, Silicon Imaging SI-2K, Thomson Viper, Vision Research Phantom, IMAX 3D camera based on two Vision Research Phantom cores, Weisscam HS-1 and HS-2, GS Vitec noX, and the Fusion Camera System. Independent micro-budget filmmakers have also pressed low-cost consumer and prosumer cameras into service for digital filmmaking.Flagship smartphones like the Apple iPhone have been used to shoot movies like Unsane and Tangerine and in January 2018, Unsane's director and Oscar winner Steven Soderbergh expressed an interest in filming other productions solely with iPhones going forward.
Sensors
Digital cinematography cameras capture digital images using image sensors, either charge-coupled device sensors or CMOS active-pixel sensors, usually in one of two arrangements.Single chip cameras designed specifically for the digital cinematography market often use a single sensor, with dimensions similar in size to a 16 or 35 mm film frame or even a 65 mm film frame. An image can be projected onto a single large sensor exactly the same way it can be projected onto a film frame, so cameras with this design can be made with PL, PV and similar mounts, in order to use the wide range of existing high-end cinematography lenses available. Their large sensors also let these cameras achieve the same shallow depth of field as 35 or 65 mm motion picture film cameras, which many cinematographers consider an essential visual tool.
Codecs
Professional raw video recording codecs include Blackmagic Raw, Red Raw, Arri Raw and Canon Raw.
Video formats
Unlike other video formats, which are specified in terms of vertical resolution, digital cinema formats are usually specified in terms of horizontal resolution. As a shorthand, these resolutions are often given in "nK" notation, where n is the multiplier of 1024 such that the horizontal resolution of a corresponding full-aperture, digitized film frame is exactly pixels. Here the "K" has a customary meaning corresponding to the binary prefix "kibi".For instance, a 2K image is 2048 pixels wide, and a 4K image is 4096 pixels wide. Vertical resolutions vary with aspect ratios though; so a 2K image with an HDTV aspect ratio is 2048×1152 pixels, while a 2K image with a SDTV or Academy ratio is 2048×1536 pixels, and one with a Panavision ratio would be 2048×856 pixels, and so on. Due to the "nK" notation not corresponding to specific horizontal resolutions per format a 2K image lacking, for example, the typical 35mm film soundtrack space, is only 1828 pixels wide, with vertical resolutions rescaling accordingly. This led to a plethora of motion-picture related video resolutions, which is quite confusing and often redundant with respect to the relatively few available projection standards.
All formats designed for digital cinematography are progressive scan, and capture usually occurs at the same 24 frame per second rate established as the standard for 35mm film. Some films such as The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey have a High Frame Rate of 48 fps, although in some theatres it was also released in a 24 fps version which many fans of traditional film prefer.
The DCI standard for cinema usually relies on a 1.89:1 aspect ratio, thus defining the maximum container size for 4K as 4096×2160 pixels and for 2K as 2048×1080 pixels. When distributed in the form of a Digital Cinema Package, content is letterboxed or pillarboxed as appropriate to fit within one of these container formats.
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In the early years of digital cinematography, 2K was the most common format for digitally acquired major motion pictures however, as new camera systems gain acceptance, 4K is becoming more prominent. The Arri Alexa captured a 2.8k image. During 2009 at least two major Hollywood films, Knowing and District 9, were shot in 4K on the Red One camera, followed by The Social Network in 2010., 4K cameras are now commonplace, with most high-end films being shot at 4K resolution.