Color Grading, Titles and Reel Breaks

Now that everything is in the DI state, all the final color correction (grading) can begin. The advantage to color correcting in this format is that you have many more options than in traditional optical printing which relies on a series of printer lights to set contrast / brightness / color, etc.
The DI is kind of like Photoshop for video in that you can create power windows, specific looks, glows, primary and secondary color correction, etc. Of course this can also be a bit of a curse if you spend too much time on it.

After all the scenes are colored to your specs, titles are added. In our case we provided a word doc with all the opening and closing credits. The Quantel editor, John, looked at my reference movie to see where everything went. I did provide him with an EDL of the titles layer which showed all the start / ends but he did it by eye. We also had an opening animation that was created in 4K in AfterEffects / Maya and imported into the DI as a .tiff image sequence.

Next come the reel break points. This was a new concept to me and I needed a little primer. Basically when you create a 35mm film it is done in multiple reels - either 1500 feet (16 minutes) or 2000 feet (22 minutes). Check with your lab to see what reel lengths they will be using. These reels are then labeled and sent to the movie theatres to be assembled together in order on a platter which feeds into the projector. You, as the editor, need to tell the digital conform house where these breaks fall. They should not occur over the top of music, dialogue or with anything white or light in the background. You want to maximize the amount you can fit onto each reel so you don't end up with a short reel at the end of the line.