Richard,
You seem to be acceptiing the Superman workflow as the optimum workflow for digital. I'm not sure this is a good assumption.
Several points:
- At the beginning the DP stated that they were all new to the digital workflow, and would undoubtedly make some mistakes
- They stated that the film workflow would usually take at least 2 days, and this is with expensive rushed processing
- It sounds like the director is requiring film prints of the dailies
- The need/purpose for color correction before reviewing the dailes is not clear
- They talk about flying the dailies somewhere - why?
- I'm not sure your comment that much of the "post work" is being pushed up to production being "the reality of the workflow" is necessary how it must be.
So it seems to me that the workflow could be greatly sped up by
- Print only the first one or two dailies to convince yourself that the digital will produce the ultimate look you want
- Setup larger HD monitors or digital projection on location for INSTANT review of the dailies
- Take one sample through the entire workflow process in the beginning to be sure you will get the final product you want
- After that you should be able to rely on just reviewing the raw HD footage
I think your conclusions that digital shooting is slower than film shooting my be premature. It may be that the crews experienced with film may not have fully adapted their workflow to be optimized for digital. The director requiring a print of the dailies is one example.
Best Regards,
Pete