LightIron and Pablo get together for The Social NetworkComplete file-based workflow provides a roadmap for the future of digital cinema

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Director David Fincher’s film The Social Network describes the foundingof Facebook, which, along with making its founder Mark Zuckerberg abillionaire, changed the way millions of people communicate every day.

In the future, film historians may point to Fincher’s production as havingmade a similar impact on the way entertainment media is created. TheSocial Network was produced, from shooting on the set through deliveryto digital theaters, entirely with file-based digital media.

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Digital all the wayIn fact to call The Social Network a “film” issomething of a misnomer, as it was conceivedfrom the start as a wholly digital product. Theinnovative production techniques andworkflows employed by Fincher and his team(including color grading via Quantel’s Pablo4K) were never meant to emulate traditionalfilm processes, but rather were intended totake advantage of the practical and creativebenefits of file-based digital technology.Although film prints were eventually made foruse by theaters not equipped with digitalprojectors, those prints were derivatives of thedigital cinema master, rather than the otherway around. The Social Network can thus beviewed as a “true” digital cinema production.

“The Social Network was produced digitally fordigital,” explains Pablo Colorist Ian Vertovec,of LightIron Digital, Los Angeles. “Althoughmany people who experience it in theaters willbe watching a film version, it was really madewith the future in mind, when everything isdigital.”

Nimble workflowsFincher has a history as an early adopter ofdigital technology and shot several previousfilms with digital cameras. The Social Networkwas shot at 4K with RED One camerasequipped with the manufacturer’s newMysterium-X chip, whose superior low lightperformance is clearly evident in thecrispness and detail of the many scenes shotin dark environments.

The small size of the RED camera (it’s notmuch bigger than a consumer camera)allowed the production team to remain lighton their feet, particularly while working onlocation. Similarly, because RED’s R3D files,even at 4K, are relatively small, the camerasdid not have to be tethered to large, immobiledisk arrays. Additionally, Fincher and hiscinematographer, Jeff Cronenweth ASC, shot everything at a single ASA setting andrecorded all of the camera data in its rawstate. No time was spent applying cameralooks or grading on the set. As a result, theproduction moved along at impressive speed,wrapping in 68 days, several days ahead of schedule.

Cover and left: Stills from The Social Network

Inside cover: Ian Vertovec gets to grips with David Fincher’s vision in The Social Network

That nimbleness carried through to the postproduction workflow: the raw R3D files wereprocessed by 1st Assistant Editor Tyler Nelsonand transcoded to ProRes 422 LT (in near realtime) for offline editorial, performed in FinalCut Pro by longtime Fincher collaboratorsAngus Wall and Kirk Baxter. Editorial thenprepared a fully conformed and stabilizedversion of the film for delivery to LightIron’sVertovec in the form of uncompressed 2KDPX files.

The projector was stunningand the environmentallowed you to work in a theatre atmoshphererather than a DI suite

Jeff Cronenweth, ASC cinematographer

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Above: Scenes from The Social Network

Grading to goFinal grading, conducted under the supervision of Fincherand Cronenweth, was done on a ‘mobile’ DI theater setup at RED Studios in Hollywood. The theater included aPablo 4K, made mobile from LightIron’s Los Angelesfacility, along with a Sony T420 4K digital projector and a40-foot wide screen.

Setting up a DI theater on a soundstage was madepossible by the small size of the Pablo 4K, its low powerrequirements, and its physically small, yet efficient Dylandisk array. All iterations of the film, including multipleversions of 1,000 visual effects shots, were stored locallyon the Pablo in a 4-foot tall mobile cart.

Cronenweth, for one, considered the unusual gradingenvironment to be a boon to creativity. “I enjoyed the process very much,” he says. “The projector wasstunning and the environment allowed you to work in a theater atmosphere rather than a DI suite that, in turn, gave a more accurate perspective whenevaluating images.”

Sophisticated realityBecause The Social Network was being mastered fordigital cinema as a first choice, the approach taken inthe final grade was different from other films. “We didnot use a film emulation LUT,” Vertovec notes. “That wassomething unique to our process as normally filmemulation is used throughout. I feel that we would nothave gotten the most out of the digital image if we hadbeen twisting it through a film LUT.”

Fincher has a reputation for creating dark, moody filmsand The Social Network continues in that vein, althoughits look is predicated on the substance of the story andthe world inhabited by its characters. Cronenwethdescribed the look as “sophisticated reality,” observing,“It’s a contemporary yet classic style that stayed true tothe lifestyles these kids lived.”

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The Social Network was produced digtitally fordigital. Although many people who experience itin theatres will be watching a film version, it wasreally made with the future in mind

Ian Vertovec, Pablo Colorist at LightIron

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Above : Film promotion

Above right: Still from The Social Network

Creative colorVertovec notes that Fincher and Cronenweth had donea superb job of capturing the look they wanted on set,and as a result he was able to devote most of his time inPablo to refining details rather than to setting looks.Even so, that left considerable work to do. Vertovec saidthat he used windows to manipulate details of nearlyevery frame of the film—in some cases a dozen or more.

“We were never totally relighting, because it was all litcorrectly on set, but we did a lot of enhancements, liketaking down a wall or lightening something up,” herecalls. “For example, we wanted to be sure that thewood in some of the Harvard buildings didn’t look toored as it would feel too fresh. So, we put a bit of blueinto it to make it look aged—that’s something youcouldn’t do on set.”

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Time for perfection One of the advantages of working in a fully digitalworkflow, in general, and working with Pablo inparticular, is that it affords time to make those types of subtle adjustments. Time that would be spent intranscoding files or rendering scenes can instead bedevoted to creative work. For that reason, Vertovecexpects many more films to emulate the workflow usedon The Social Network. “The technology is great, but it’s really about liberating creative people,” Vertovecsays. “More and more people are beginning to makethat connection.”

At a glance

• The Social Network was produced,from scene to screen, with entirelyfile-based digital media

• LightIron were able to create a DItheater on the soundstage thanks toPablo’s small size and power needs

• Raw data was recorded so no timewas spent applying camera looks orgrading on set

• All the color grading was carried out by Ian Vertovec on LightIron’sPablo 4K

• The result is ‘sophisticated reality’which perfectly captured theDirector’s vision