Los Angeles—Mar 19, 2004
DCI Announces Completion and Availability of “StEM Mini-Movie” for Digital Cinema Testing
Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) has completed post-production work on the
Standardized Evaluation Material (“StEM”), which will be used for a wide variety
of digital cinema testing programs. The “StEM”, or “Mini-Movie” project was a
collaborative effort between DCI and the American Society of Cinematographers.
The “StEM Mini-Movie” is now available in several formats to other companies and
organizations to use in a wide variety of compression, projection, transmission
and other test bed applications.
“We expect this DCI test material will be widely used by vendors and standards
organizations from around the world for years to come,” said Walt Ordway, DCI’s
Chief Technology Officer. “We feel that with the completion of this project, DCI
has made another significant contribution to furthering the ‘digital future.’”
“Our purpose is to help DCI assure that standards recommended for digital cinema
enhance the movie-going experience and maintain the integrity of the art form,”
said Curtis Clark, ASC, Chairman of the organization’s Technology Committee.
“This test material will provide a standard way to evaluate the capabilities of
digital projectors and compare them to film, along with image compression
technologies critical for digital cinema distribution.”
DCI began this project by identifying what would be needed to test various
aspects of the DCI technical specification. “We established two primary
criteria,” said Howard Lukk, DCI’s Director of Technology and the project’s
post-production executive. “First, we wanted elements in the image that would be
technically challenging for the compression test. Second, we wanted the original
images to be captured on film from which we would digitally scan the completed
‘Mini-Movie’”.
A world-class team of ASC cinematographers artistically designed and filmed the
“Mini-Movie” during a two-day shoot last August on the back lot at Universal
Studios. More than two hours of film were captured in both 35 MM and 65 MM
formats. This footage featured a number of scenes with a variety of lighting
conditions, colors, textures and other variables of photographic definition
including confetti, rain, fog and others. During the carefully managed
post-production process, the thousands of feet of film were edited down to the
12-minute “Mini-Movie,” which was processed and scanned at 6K horizontal
resolution to retain the richness of the details in the film images. It was then
down-resolved to both 4K and 2K digital formats, which DCI will use in its
testing. An HD version is also available, as well as a 35MM answer print
version.
There is no plot in the completed “StEM Mini-Movie,” but the wedding scenes,
shot during daylight, at night, during rain and in other variable settings, will
serve as a robust test of image quality for digital projectors, compression
systems, and other elements of a digital cinema system. The “Mini-Movie” also
includes a 30-second segment of 4K CGI material from Walt Disney’s “Treasure
Planet.”
Information regarding the StEM Mini-Movie or the DCI Technical Specifications
can be obtained by contacting Walt Ordway, DCI’s Chief Technology Officer.
