Digital Picture Tocher

It seems to be working. Digital Film Group's recent transfer of the epic DV feature film" The Fast Runner" ( picked up by Lot 47 in the US) won the prestigous Camera D'or at the 2001Cannes Film Festival. In fact, Tocher's little company has blown up films that have now garnered 18 international film awards including four Oscar submissions in just over two years!

"We started out to bust this myth that you had to shoot in PAL to achieve good video-to-35mm results." Because PAL video is a 25 frame-per-second format, it has, historically, been the first choice of low budget cinematographers seeking to use video to break into 24 frame-per-second film venues.

James explains, "With NTSC, typical film conversions would throw away every other field before converting to 24 fps. This results in a 50% loss of resolution.

"When contemplating NTSC, which is 30 frames-per-second, the process of throwing away 6 frames (12 fields) ever second created disconcerting skip-motion effects. We started our research on the premise that you could at least equal the quality of PAL by not throwing any frames away. Our process, therefore, takes the 6 extra frames and blends them seamlessly back into the 24 frames of film, thereby enhancing the quality of the end result. By avoiding de-interlacing, we therefore retain greater resolution for both NTSC and PAL conversions and eliminate all motion errors." Tocher continues, "Since PAL cameras are not so easy to find in North America, the advent of our technology is making NTSC digital cinema the preferred video-to-film medium."

At a recent "Creative Digital Forum" at Manhattan Studios in New York City, sponsored by JVC, Jim Tocher demonstrated early tests he had conducted, transferring NTSC from High8, DV, DVCPro, BetacamSP, Digital Betacam and D-9. While even the primitive tests were impressive, the latest results, using Digital Betacam and D-9 drew applause and praise from the usually critical New York audience of professionals.

DFG's process boosts NTSC's 525 line interlaced video original up to 2,000 lines of resolution, pixel-by-pixel (as well as PAL). The process even adds the kind of edge blurring on moving objects that is natural in film, but never seen in video because of the interlacing of fields.

One of Tocher's tests compared a 35mm scene of a key lit dancer on a black background. As the dancer waved her arms, distinct motion blurring produced faint, ghostly, "after images" of her arms (reminiscent of another Canadian, Norman McLaren's seminal, "Pas De Deux"). Tocher then followed this scene with the same dance, shot on D-9 and converted to 35mm using the DFG's "Smooth Motion" process. Again, the same motion blurring appeared and, when combined with the authentic graining effects of the process, created a compelling film "feel." This reporter witnessed absolutely no video lines in the 35mm projection, although slight aliasing on high contrast, thin diagonal lines, such as blond hair on a dark background or a thin, gold eyeglass frame could easily be seen by a discerning eye.

"I believe that digital projectors will be in widespread use in three to five years," admits Tocher, "But our group thought there was a real market for a proprietary software process to convert NTSC and we are now enjoying a good flow of clients. There are also other reasons for transfering to film, such as giving the analog life and texture back to the video as well as the longterm high quality masters that can be stored indefinetly.

"Noroc," Tocher's first feature film, shot on D-9, employing the DFG process, directed by Marc Retailleau of Vancouver was shot under the ten rules of Dogma (a cinematic style which restricts the film maker to abide by 10 rules, such as using only available light and sound, hand holding, etc.). Made for about $100,000 Canadian and brought a line of low budget producers to Digital Film Group, eager to explore NTSC feature production.

"While a film-based crew would be really restricted under the ten rules, NTSC photography was quite easy." Recalls James, "At times we used existing sunlight, even sunsets. I recall film shoots where the crew could not set up their equipment in time to capture a "magic hour" shot. With a video equipment package, this is never a problem. On "Noroc" if some beautiful light developed, we whipped out the Sony D30WS, and got the shot. Most other times we were able to light the set with, at most, one or two practical lights. The results were superb."

Ironically, Tocher recently won a Best Cinematography award for his work on a DV short film entitled "Evirati," which successfully screened at several International festivals and has recently begun airing on Bravo. "Evirati" is an 18th century period piece, reminiscent of Kubric's "Barry Lyndon." However, where Kubric labored to render a few precious scenes using several hundred candles, Tocher managed to obtain stunning chiaroscuro effects using only one to four candles.

Clips shown by Tocher at the JVC forum featured romantic scenes with actors dressed in ornately embroidered period costume, every detail delicately painted to the screen with soft glow of paraffin combustion. Other scenes featured gentlemen in the powdered wigs and stark, white makeup of the time, yet their skin and hair had none of the sharp angularity one might expect in
video. This was the art of digital cinematography carried to the edge of current development.

"In spite of the enormous demands on gamma range, our cameras managed to draw amazing details from the blacks while never quite blowing out the hot centers of the candles which frequently appear, even in close-up.

Tocher credits JVC's D-9 format with the technical advancements that made "Evirati" possible. "Without a doubt on Evirati, we found D-9 to be every bit as good as Sony Digital Betacam but the cost savings made D-9 far superior. Its 4:2:2 digital profile, recorded to robust half-inch tape yields the best results of anything we tested, and the cost savings are realized all the way down the line."

When asked about lighting equipment, Tocher laughed, "The biggest instrument we used was a 1.2K HMI. We saved a lot on lighting equipment. We saved even more on crew, because we could shoot with less than half the personnel of a film. But we really saved on film. Where a normal feature will spend about $250,000 on just film and processing, we spent something like $800 on tape. What we saved, we put elsewhere, like dollies and steadicams." (and cranes)

Another advantage of shooting on tape was the seemingly limitless tape length. "With 35mm, the longest take you can get, even using a heavy, 1,000 foot load, is ten minutes. With D-9, for instance, you can shoot a take that's 110 minutes long. You could, conceivably, do a whole feature in one take."

While the challenge of beating Hitchcock's "Rope," (a feature composed of ten, ten-minute scenes) remains on the table, James Tocher isn't slowing down. He is looking forward to shooting another DV feature for kids this summer and of course, he will be spending time collaborating with other DP's as they discover the ease with which they can shoot with NTSC cameras and reep the savings of proprietary benefits of his Vancouver transfer service, Digital Film Group.