Digital Intermediates for Film and Video

3

Photographic Film

Since the end of the nineteenth century, people have been able to watch moving pictures through the medium of photographic film. It’s a medium that has changed surprisingly little during the past century, particularly compared to the progress of video and similar technologies, but film is still widely considered to produce the highest-quality images in the motion picture industry.

3.1 Film Image Formation

A length of photographic film consists of light-sensitive crystals bound together in a transparent material. There are other aspects to most common film formats, such as “sprockets,” “dye layers,” and “key numbers” (each of which will be covered later in this chapter), but the crystals and binding agents are the only requirements ...