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Where to Start

The handbook has three layers:

  1. Core Guide: What filmmakers need to decide, assign, review, and preserve.
  2. Production Guide: How departments and vendors execute the workflow and handoffs.
  3. Advanced Technical Reference: The color science, formats, standards, and implementation details behind those decisions.

Start with the core guide. Read deeper when your project or responsibility requires it.

Director or Independent Filmmaker

  1. Read A Filmmaker's Guide to DI and VFX.
  2. Review the Production Workflow at a Glance.
  3. Use Post-Production Planning to assign people, money, dates, and approvals.
  4. Identify what to finish before a sale in Distribution Deliverables.

Producer or Post Supervisor

  1. Build the post-production plan.
  2. Review the detailed production workflow.
  3. Assign a colorist or pipeline lead to recommend a color-management approach.
  4. Issue the applicable Technical Specifications before each handoff.
  5. Before budgeting, identify the required distribution deliverables.

Editor or Assistant Editor

  1. Document the agreed upon frame rate, timecode, reel structure, and source-name metadata.
  2. Follow the VFX plate-pull turnover for effects work.
  3. Prepare the DI editorial turnover for conform and grading using the DI turnover specification.

VFX Supervisor or Producer

  1. Define the image pipeline.
  2. Issue the VFX plate, final-render, and review-media specifications.
  3. Set naming, handles, plate format, review format, and final-delivery rules.
  4. Track every revision and approval in one production-owned tracker.

VFX Artist or Vendor

  1. Read the supplied show and shot specifications.
  2. Record the working format, resolution, frame range, and color encoding.
  3. Follow the issued VFX plate, final-render, review-media, and delivery specifications.
  4. Obtain color management, naming, and versioning instructions from production.

Colorist or Finishing Artist

  1. Review the DI turnover and DI overview.
  2. Record the color-management approach.
  3. Test camera, VFX, title, HDR, and delivery round trips.
  4. Define archival masters before the final render.

Delivering to Theaters or Platforms

Start with Distribution Deliverables, then use the relevant package:

  • DCP for theatrical and festival exhibition
  • IMF for component-based platform and international delivery
  • HDR Mastering for HDR10, Dolby Vision, or HLG
  • Archival for preservation masters and project reconstruction

Reference