Due to time constraints about 80% of the film was scanned as cut neg. (i.e., the editing was performed traditionally) with the actual scanning performed on a Spirit DataCine. The remaining 20% of material was scanned as selected takes and edited into the project within iQ, as were the many vfx shots that were provided as digital data on tape.

DI grading was chosen by the production team in preference to traditional chemical because a very specific look was required and was only possible this way. iQ Was chosen by CO3 as they had no previous digital film experience or equipment an need to be up and running real fast once the DI process for Bad Boys II was green-lit. iQ is the only way they believed they could meet the ever truncating time scales, especially as they were building their first DI environment from scratch.

During the project, director Michael Bay and producer Jerry Bruckheimer would review the grade and make changes, often even after the full film had been output and prepared for release - such is the power and speed of the iQ based DI environment.

Film output was performed at E-Film from hard discs supplied by CO3 of the final graded project.

Steve worked with Mike Chiado, CO3's Dir. of Eng. and Stefan Sonnenfeld, Chief Colourist and CEO/President, to assist in building the DI operation, workflow and creative/technical approach.

This often involved Mike calling Steve at home in the UK, usually at 3:00am. We began to think that was why they were called CO3! But this was such an exciting project - going from ground zero to full deliverable in a matter of weeks - that Light Illusion was happy to be involved!

From these beginnings CO3 has gone on to become one of the premier DI operations in LA.