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An Overview of Digital Intermediates

The digital intermediate (DI) is the process of conforming, grading, finishing, and mastering the picture. It brings camera originals, VFX, titles, and graphics into one managed pipeline.

The DI can also mean the company or team handling that process. It is not a job title or a specific kind of facility. On an independent film, the DI may be one colorist who also conforms and masters the picture. A larger DI team may include the colorist, DI producer or project manager, conform or finishing editor, mastering technician, engineer, and color scientist.

What the filmmaker experiences

The DI usually includes four approval stages:

  1. Turnover: Editorial supplies the current cut, reference, source media, available VFX, and instructions needed to rebuild the film. Editorial and the DI agree when pending titles, graphics, credits, VFX, and the final mix will follow.
  2. Conform review: The editor or assistant editor compares the full-quality rebuild against the offline cut. A post supervisor or television associate producer may also review it. They check cuts, speed changes, framing, titles, and intended VFX versions.
  3. Creative grade: The director and cinematographer work with the colorist on look, continuity, emphasis, and the way the film translates to its intended display.
  4. Mastering and final QC: The DI team renders the approved picture, combines it with final sound as required, validates the deliverables, and prepares the archive.

These stages do not need to happen in a strict sequence. Grading often begins before picture lock or before the conform and VFX are complete. Filmmakers may review work-in-progress grades while editorial and VFX continue. Complete the conform review before the grade is presented for final creative approval, then lock the picture before mastering and final renders.

Approve the rebuild before approving the grade

The assistant editor compares the conformed picture with the editorial reference before final creative approval. Resolve every cut, timing, framing, title, optical, and VFX version error before mastering.

The filmmaker is responsible for creative approval. The DI team is responsible for the technical color pipeline, conform, render settings, and master assembly. The film's producer is responsible for the booking, scope, schedule, and approval process. The DI producer manages the facility's work and communication. These are different roles.

The director and cinematographer commonly work with the colorist together. They settle known creative disagreements before the session when possible. Experimentation is part of the process, but a unified creative direction protects a limited schedule and budget. If reviewers cannot attend together, send one consolidated set of notes from an authorized production representative.

See A Filmmaker's Guide to DI and VFX for preparation, review, and approval guidance.

Where the name comes from, and whether it still fits

"Intermediate" comes from the photochemical elements between the camera negative and release prints: the interpositive and internegative. The digital process was inserted between those stages. The camera negative was scanned, timed digitally, and recorded back to film. That recording created a DI internegative for contact printing, which effectively replaced the interpositive. In short: film in, digital in the middle, film out. This workflow remains in use on projects acquired on film that return to film for exhibition or preservation. It is no longer the predominant cinema workflow because most projects now finish and exhibit digitally.

The name remains useful even when no film element enters or leaves the DI. "Color grading" describes only part of the work. Films acquired on film can finish digitally and exhibit in several digital or film formats. A digitally acquired film can also be recorded to film for exhibition or preservation. The DI brings every acquisition format, resolution, color space, bit depth, VFX shot, title, master, and deliverable into one finishing process.

Responsibilities of the Colorist

The colorist is the final creative artist to work on the image. They are not solely responsible for the finished picture. They help the director and cinematographer achieve their visual goals, shape the grade, and maintain continuity across cameras, lighting, locations, and VFX.

The colorist also makes technical decisions with the DI team. These include input transforms, grading space, display transforms, reference viewing, and the treatment of VFX, titles, and archival masters. The colorist may help design and test the pipeline before production, identify limits in camera or look tests, and create a look that dailies, editorial, VFX, and finishing can reproduce.

The grade is evaluated on calibrated reference displays for its intended exhibition formats. A cinema finish normally requires a calibrated projector. Home and streaming versions require the appropriate calibrated monitor.

Remote Viewing and Color Review

A grading theater or calibrated reference monitor remains the most reliable environment for color and image-quality approval. Remote review introduces more variables. The display, ambient light, brightness, glare, playback application, operating-system color management, and compression can change or hide contrast, black detail, highlights, saturation, texture, grain, banding, and edges.

Remote viewing is still a practical part of many independent finishes. Treat it as a qualified review path instead of assuming that every reviewer sees the same image. Broad creative direction, timing, continuity, and shot-to-shot balance can survive a wider range of conditions. Subtle color, HDR highlights, black detail, noise, banding, and compression require a device and workflow that the DI has compared with the grading reference display.

A controlled tablet workflow can provide a useful lower-cost option. Published guidance for iPad Pro review uses a compatible model with fixed settings, Reference Mode where supported, a defined review file and playback method, and side-by-side comparison with the grading display when possible. It recommends 10-bit media for HDR review to reduce banding risk. Reference Mode disables Dolby Vision content mapping, so a Dolby Vision review path must be qualified separately.1

Qualify one remote review path

  • Ask the DI to name the device, operating-system version, playback application, file or stream, display settings, and decisions the path can support.
  • Disable adaptive display features unless a qualified reference mode controls them. Keep brightness fixed throughout the review.
  • Review in a dim, neutral room without direct light or screen glare. Keep the viewing position consistent.
  • Compare a representative test sequence with the grading reference display. Include dark scenes, skin tones, saturated colors, highlights, smooth gradients, grain, and VFX edges.
  • Use 10-bit review media for HDR. Confirm that the complete device and playback path supports the intended HDR format.
  • When streaming compression may have caused a problem, check the uploaded source or a full-quality frame before issuing a correction note.
  • Record the device, application, settings, review file, room conditions, and limitations with the approval. If the path has not been qualified, treat the notes as creative guidance and complete final color and image-quality approval on the reference display.

Working with Visual Effects Mattes

If the colorist needs to isolate CG elements, foregrounds, or backgrounds, provide VFX mattes. Reusing VFX mattes avoids new rotoscoping, keying, and tracking in the DI.

Agree on the matte package with the DI and test it before final delivery. Common options include:

  • one normalized linear matte in the alpha channel of a ProRes 4444 file
  • up to three normalized linear mattes packed into the RGB channels of a separate file2
  • named matte channels or parts in the OpenEXR frames

An OpenEXR layer groups named channels by convention, such as character.R, character.G, and character.B. A multipart file stores separate image parts, each with its own header, channels, and compression. Confirm that the DI can read the chosen structure before delivery.3

CG rendering can produce AOVs such as depth, surface normals, object IDs, and component passes. These do not automatically remain accurate after compositing. Paint, keying, reprojection, added elements, and other 2D work can change the final image without producing matching AOV data. A useful DI matte or AOV must be planned, rebuilt where necessary, rendered, and checked against the final composite.

Specify required mattes and AOVs during bidding and include them in the vendor agreement. They add pipeline work, render time, transfer size, and QC. Do not assume they will be available cheaply after the shot is final.

Specify DI mattes before VFX work begins

The DI identifies the mattes or AOVs it needs. Production includes them in the VFX bid and vendor agreement, then tests the chosen channel structure with the DI before final delivery.

RGB composite

RGB composite.

Three-channel DI matte

Three-channel DI matte.

Three-channel DI matte with separated RGB channels

Three-channel DI matte (separated RGB channels).

  1. Netflix, “iPad Pro For Remote Color Review.” See also “iPad Pro - Configuring Display & Brightness.” and “iPad Pro - Choosing a File Format for Color Reviews.” ↩

  2. 0.0–1.0 representing a percentage of opacity. Log mattes produce undesirable results or require pre-conversion to linear. ↩

  3. OpenEXR Project, “Technical Introduction,” “Multi-Part and Deep Data.” ↩