In 2005, the post community will be introduced to many choices in developing color correction systems and corresponding workflow tools. And with implementation already underway, agencies can expect by year’s end to be looking at some new workflow options in coloring and finishing their commercials.
The feature film arena has already taken large steps toward moving the color timing process–traditionally completed in a lab–to the data realm. And the use of digital technology to color correct films, a key part of the “digital intermediate” process, is widely expected to be applied on more than half of the major studio films completed this year. Prompted by this interest from the studios, a growing number of digital color grading suites rapidly opened in major production centers, particularly in Los Angeles, last year. And, a growing number of these color grading theaters–such as those recently built at Company 3 in Santa Monica–are also being used to complete cinema spots.
“We use our color grading theaters not just for DI, but quite frequently for commercials,” reports colorist Stefan Sonnenfeld, who is president of Company 3 in Santa Monica and New York, and who has already served as the DI colorist on features including Michael Mann’s Collateral. “Television advertisers want commercials in the cinema as well, and a lot of people want to cross market and go with multiple formats for Internet, TV and theatrical release.”
“There is no one workflow that we are going to follow,” says Bob Solomon, president of Company 3 parent company Ascent Media Creative Services, headquartered in Santa Monica. “When you start to understand the distribution medium, and what you are acquiring in and what you are delivering in, the choices for our customers have become much more complex. We’re going to an environment where no one size fits all.”
Meanwhile, post houses that are focused purely on commercials have also begun to make notable investments in this next generation workflow. All of this signals dramatic change on the horizon.
NEW WORKFLOW
Workflow may not sound so sexy, but for many it is a top priority. The industry is beginning a shift toward more datacentric workflows. The ability to manage data, as well as to manage color space, are among the most cited challenges to building a new color correction workflow.
For color correction itself, post execs are carefully watching developments in software-based color correction systems, which could offer expanded nonlinear flexibility to the colorist. The experimentation has started.
For instance, Technicolor Creative Services-Toronto (formerly Command Post) offers HD and 2k data color correction. Eric Whipp, senior colorist, reports that Discreet’s software-based Lustre color correction system is being installed and tested for commercial work. (See HPA story, p. 1, for other color correction developments).
Meanwhile, MTI’s Control Dailies system is in use at Encore Hollywood to manage the dailies process, including the color correction with a da Vinci. (The larger goal of Control Dailies is to serve as the foundation for a facility’s move to a datacentric workflow, SHOOT, 1/28, p.1).
Today, most facilities continue to rely on more traditional color correction applications, primarily from da Vinci and Pandora.
“If work is being supervised, there’s [currently] very few color correction options,” says Joe Bottazzi, partner/director of engineering at Nice Shoes, New York. He acknowledges that software developments are moving toward being viable options, but adds “they are still fairly new and fairly buggy. Some are not going to be around in a year. You have to be careful. We’re taking traditional systems [in Nice Shoes’ case, the da Vinci 2K] and maximizing their output.”
In Nice Shoes’ case, that is by using the da Vinci in combination with Thomson’s Grass Valley Specter virtual datacine, which stores and manages the images on a project as data, giving the colorists nonlinear color correction capabilities. Since introducing this workflow a year ago, Bottazzi reports that the company has color corrected over 100 spots in this manner, and clients contacted by SHOOT have given the process high marks.
But Bottazzi is not finished with his workflow exploration, and Nice Shoes is currently beta testing Grass Valley’s Bones environment that includes management tools.
Nice Shoes colorist Chris Ryan reports that beta is going well. “It allows the assistant to pre-conform and set up lists while the colorist is using the Specter–and to use Bones as a formatting station in a smaller room.”
As Nice Shoes moves further into the data realm, Ryan says that he would also like to see Bones become the facility’s data management tool. “You need a traffic cop watching the data, make sure nothing is changed without knowing it. We are looking to Bones for data and workflow management.”
Bottazzi says storage is another area that cannot be taken lightly. “SAN [storage area network] technology is changing every six months. If your timing is wrong, you could invest a lot of money in the wrong system. There’s a whole new generation of hard drives coming out. We’re holding off right now, for that reason.”
CHOICE
Facing an industry with multiple distribution requirements, Sonnenfeld explains that Company 3 consults with clients on their needs, and then offers a range of color correction choices–multiple resolutions, tape or data, linear or nonlinear. Technologies include the Grass Valley Spirit, da Vinci 2k, and Quantel’s iQ.
Solomon points out the importance of knowing your distribution medium, citing as an example that with digital cinema projectors, a growing number of theaters are accepting HD video for cinema commercials, rather than requiring film. That can affect postproduction choices and budgets.
For TV ads, Sonnenfeld contends, “It doesn’t make sense in 75 percent of cases to use data because often spots are a work in progress and there isn’t a locked cut. So you are digitizing way more shots that you need–And you have to determine what material you are going to scan. If you have to go back to film it’s more laborious than the traditional way.”
Nice Shoes’ Ryan offered a different perspective, saying that when he works with data, going back to the film has been a very infrequent occurrence. “We digitalize all the material used in the different versions with a decent amount of handles on each side. That usually gives us enough range. We suggest to clients that we digitize [material] from all versions if they’re not sure about a final cut.”
COLOR SPACE
Another key issue when building these pipelines is managing color space, which is the spectrum of available colors that the human eye can see. Film has different abilities to reproduce color than digital displays, so video and film have different color space. This means that it is difficult to reproduce film color space accurately on a digital display. Manufacturers as well as post facilities themselves develop tables of information (look up tables or LUTs) in order to calibrate color on a digital monitor, in order to ensure that what one sees in the suite is what is reproduced for an audience. The process is not yet automatic.
At Technicolor Creative Services-New York, which offers a complete pipeline for cinema commercials and features, executive producer of DI Christian Zak reports that the company is using customer LUTs, Kodak’s Telecine Callibration System and Filmlight’s Truelight to manage color space. Additional new tools include a Grass Valley Spirit 4k.
“It’s a question of control over the end product,” says Steve Coffey, VP and general manager at TCS-NY. “If we stay within our digital infrastructure, we can guarantee that the end product after film out will match color wise what a clients is seeing in post. But some clients are cherry picking between places based on talent and price, taking components of the workflow out of house. They run into color space issues that ultimately can have a negative effect on the quality of the end product.”
CROSSOVER TREND
Meanwhile, companies that traditionally service long-form clients have already constructed digital color grading theaters as part of the digital intermediate (DI) process of finishing a film. Now, they are finding new opportunities offering these services and expertise to the short form world.
Among those is Modern Videofilm, with offices in Burbank and Glendale, which handled the digital color timing and digital intermediate work on last summer’s hit I, Robot. The company is also looking to offer these capabilities for trailers and to the commercial arena–particularly for spots that are created for theatrical release.
Modern Videofilm colorist Kevin Shaw recently color graded a :30 “Mentor Program” for Fox Studios for theatrical release, produced by 1741 Productions in Hollywood. The commercial was lensed in HD video; all post was handled at Modern in 2k; and the color grading was completed with a da Vinci 2k while projected with a 2k digital projector in Modern’s digital color timing theater.