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Cinelab: Film Processing & Dallies

What to know about Film workflow?
Jan 18
What are the main production routes for film dallies workflow when shooting on film?

Basically, there are three routes:

Route 1 is usually used by higher budget productions, such as Features and Commercials, but not exclusively.  

  • The film is shot, processed and assembled into Lab Rolls (LR) for the dailies/rushes.
  • Each LR is scanned, graded and sound synced (if required) to provide lower resolution (typically compressed HD) offline editorial files (typically Avid media or QT), each file contain a unique LR number, with a corresponding Time Code (TC).
  • These files are then sent to editorial via our secure FTP service.
  • When the edit is locked, editorial send us an EDL that contains all the LR and TC info for the editors chosen shots. Each LR and its EDL information are loaded onto the scanner where only the selected shots are scanned at the required high resolution.
  • The selected shots, now as high resolution (2K,4K,6K) un-compressed, un-graded, Log, DPX files are online conformed ready for the fine grade, VFX and finishing of the film.


Route 2 is usually used by higher/medium budget productions, such as Features and Commercials, but not exclusively.

  • The film is shot, processed and assembled into Lab Rolls (LR) for the dailies/rushes.
  • Each LR is scanned at the required finishing resolution (2K,4K,6K) as un-compressed, un-graded, Log, DPX files. They are now stored until required for the online conform, fine grade, VFX and finishing of the film.
  • From these high resolution master DPX files, graded, sound synced (if required) lower resolution (typically compressed HD) offline editorial files (typically Avid media or QT) containing a unique LR number, with a corresponding Time Code (TC) are produced.
  • These files are then sent to editorial via our secure FTP service.
  • When the edit is locked, the stored DPX files are online conformed ready for the fine grade, VFX and finishing of the film.

Route 3 is usually used by medium/lower budget/fast turnaround productions, such as Short films, Commercials, Music Promos, Artists, Students, but not exclusively. 

What are the main differences between the scanners?

DFT Spirit 4K – This scanner has been the mainstay of film scanning for many years, and continues to provide excellent quality, industry standard scans. The Spirit 4K has a 4K line array sensor that can scan 16/S16mm, 35/S35mm film at HD/2K/4K resolution.

DFT Scanity HDR – This Scanner is the successor to the Spirit 4K. One of it’s many features is that it has at no stationary parts, like a skid plate. Instead the Scanity has an ingenious rolling film gate that rotates with the film, which is extremely kind to fragile archive material. The Scanity’s HDR function is particularly useful when scanning high contrast archive Black and White print that has a contrast range too high for some scanners to retrieve all the available information. The Scanity has a 4K line array sensor that can scan 8/S8mm, 16/S16mm, 35/S35mm film at HD/2K/4K resolution. It also has the nice feature of being able to over- scan by 10% revealing a small area of the frames before and after, this is popular as a creative effect.

Arri Scan – Still the industries premium scanner! The Arri sets the gold standard for film scanning. It mainly differs from other scanners in that it utilizes a pin registered full frame sensor. Other scanners have a line array sensor, which scans the film by building up the image line by line as the film travels over the sensor. The Arri Scan stops each frame in the gate and physically pin registers the frame (pins engage into the films sprockets effectively clamping the frame into the correct position) over the CMOS full frame 6K sensor. This results in incredible stability and perfect edge to edge focus. The Arri Scan also benefits from Double Flash HDR, and Digital ICE (real time IR dust concealment).

Written by Cinelab

Last Updated 28/07/2021

This article was kindly contributed by Cinelab London