From an article about Star Wars: Attack of the Clones and the THX Theater Alignment Program:
> But this > history-making project is far from routine -- for the first time > every theatre showing the 35mm film version of the movie will get a > first generation print -- a print with a level of quality that is > typically delivered on just a handful of "show" prints. > > The mass production of such high quality prints, which TAP is charged > with checking, is one benefit that comes with the decision to shoot the > movie digitally, because transferring digital footage to film involves > fewer duplication steps than the traditional process. "Image quality > suffers slightly with each generation in the film duplication process," > explained Ted Costas, Sales and Operations Manager for TAP and the > Digital Mastering Program (DMP). "Traditionally, there is one original > negative, and from the original negative an interpositive is made, and > from that, multiple internegatives are created. These are used to > produce the prints that are distributed to theatres. But starting with > a digital file -- and it�s a pristine digital source master, certified > by THX -- we can produce multiple original negatives, and then go > straight to the final prints. This way, we're releasing first > generation prints to all screens. That's never been done before." So, depending on the quality of the digital cameras used to shoot the film, the resulting traditional print could be much better than what we are used to. Interesting! -Aaron - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
