An essential technology used in the film world is the Hazeltine console, which is an analyzer used in film labs for determining what grade of color and density should be applied to the printing of a distinct length of negative. Precise levels of these grades are communicated through three standard numeric “printer light” settings–three numbers that range from 1-50 and represent the red, green and blue levels in an image. These settings are universally recognized by cinematographers and the application of these settings begins with film dailies.
“It helps me to keep consistency, and it’s easy to isolate and remedy any anomalies,” says American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) president Richard Crudo about the importance of printer lights settings. “But in electronic dailies, there is no way to quantify [the grade] and control the consistency. You have to go through a lot of hoops for them to mean anything.
“Print dailies are so simple,” he continues. “For electronic dailies, sitting in on a [color correction] session is the only way [to accurately control the grade], but you don’t have the time to be there for dailies.”
Crudo and other leading cinematographers have longed for an equivalent of printer lights in the electronic realm. Crudo even wrote a white paper to share his viewpoint with the industry, explaining why he sees a vital need for such a development.
This development has arrived, and cinematographers such as Crudo who have previewed the system are thrilled.
Technicolor Content Services (TCS) is beginning to introduce for select projects Digital Printer Lights, which offer the ability to emulate in the digital realm exactly what a release print would look like at given printer lights settings in a film lab. In its basic form, the system operates within a subset of Technicolor’s DI workflow, emulating the release print look on an HD monitor. Yet its possibilities for applications extend well beyond the dailies process.
The architect of the digital printer lights system is Burbank-based Technicolor Digital Intermediates (TDI) VP of Imaging Joshua Pines, who worked with TDI’s director of imaging production Chris Kutcka to refine the system and develop practical applications for filmmakers.
A prototype of Digital Printer Lights was first previewed last year at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Convention in a closed door, after-hours meeting attended by a select group of cinematographers and industry representatives. Pines presented the demo, showing the graphical user interface (GUI) on his laptop. Since then, it has been used on two features, and is building positive word of mouth in the cinematography community.
“This is a colossal step in the right direction,” enthuses Crudo. “This is the big overriding issue we are facing. The ASC is clamoring for a universally interoperable system of color management.”
“This is bringing the control back to the directors of photography, even if they don’t supervise [the dailies or color correction session],” says Pines, who is vice chair of the ASC Technology Committee’s Digital Intermediate (DI) subcommittee and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. “It gives them control to make creative decisions and [obtain] feedback about exposure–It also reestablishes a vernacular already used by directors of photography.”
In fact, this capability has many applications from dailies to DI/color correction, to the creation of final deliverables. It also tackles the critical areas of communication and color management.
Pines explains that for dailies, the process begins by putting the film footage on a telecine specifically calibrated to produce log output. From here, the footage would traditionally go through a color correction system such as a da Vinci. Instead, using this new process, the images would go through printer lights correction, meaning that the only correction is achieved using the printer light controls and settings. Pines created a GUI to input these setting, and applying the setting involves the creation and application of a series of Look-Up Tables (LUTs). With proper color space conversion, the system is able to emulate exactly what a release print would look like at those settings, but on an HD monitor. This would be the suggested workflow for using digital printer lights to create electronic dailies, Pines explains.
Yet he is quick to point out that there are a variety of applications for this capability. For instance, he suggests that one could use the digital printer light settings as a starting point for a color correction session, either by building on what is already done or by throwing it away and going for a new look. “It’s like coming to a DI session and having already done the first preview,” he says.
Other system configurations could be used for applications such as creating digital previews, or for a simple DI–what Pines calls a “DI Lite” function. A color space conversion at the tail end of a session could also complete a workflow for generating multiformat deliverables.
FIRST USE
ASC VP Daryn Okada–whose recent credits include Just Like Heaven and Mean Girls–was the first cinematographer to use the digital printer lights system on an actual production. That film, Touchstone Pictures’ Stick It, is scheduled for an April 21 release via Buena Vista Pictures Distribution. Directed by Jessica Bendinger, the film tells the story of a 17 year-old who deals with personal problems while living in the world of competitive gymnastics. It stars Missy Peregrym, Vanessa Lengies and Jeff Bridges.
“A frustration many cinematographers have about HD dailies is it doesn’t represent what a film print looks like,” restated Okada. “With digital dailies, you don’t know what is happening with your work.”
So in production of Stick It, Okada relates that the lion’s share of the dailies were created two ways: Using traditional film dailies and using the digital printer lights process to create electronic dailies. “I thought this was a perfect opportunity to test the process because I had print dailies to verify what we were doing,” Okada explains.
Both sets of dailies were created by providing the same printer light settings to the lab for the film dailies and to TCS Hollywood (Complete Post), where the digital dailies were created. “I was amazed in the first week,” Okada says. “What we were getting back on HD and film was identical. I also intentionally shot some under exposed and some over exposed, and it responded exactly the same.
“It’s an entirely new and different way of doing digital dailies,” he continues. “There’s a magic about being able to communicate finally about doing HD dailies. “Saying ‘three points’ is exact; you can’t get that anywhere else.”
Running the test, Okada explains, was ultimately about trust in the people behind the technology. “I was confident because I knew Josh and Chris, and I trusted them,” he says. “The only person I know who looked at [this scenario] and went full circle was Josh–And I knew if I got from the beginning to the end on a feature, it would instill confidence in the system.”
Okada was already pleased with the test. Then during post, an unexpected benefit surfaced when a decision was made to take the film through the DI process, which was completed at TDI with colorist Trent Johnson. “I thought it was another opportunity to test the concept, because now my film was going to be rescanned at film resolution,” Okada explains. “I was pleasantly surprised that the printer lights settings derived during dailies worked with the rescanned film and was used as a reference to start to build the DI….I think my session went so much faster because of that.
“For me, the main issue was there is an electronic color correction look and a film look, and I wanted my film to look filmic,” he adds, explaining that he was able to achieve his desired result. “I will absolutely use it on my next film. I want to know where I’m at– and at that point, I can use the DI process to make it better, not repair something that is wrong,” Okada concludes.
With regard to the approach to using this new tool, TDI’s Kutcka explains, “You have to ask on each job, ‘what do you want to do?’ Then you have to take the process and apply it to the workflow…The greatest part about Daryn being involved is having the idea become reality. He felt he got what he wanted.”
ON SET PREVIEWS
Already, new applications for the digital printer light capabilities are being realized by fellow ASC member cinematographers. “It’s a fabulous development,” relates David Stump, ASC, who chairs the ASC Technology Committee’s camera subcommittee.
Stump recently tapped the digital printer lights functionality to assemble an on-set monitoring system for a shoot using digital cinematography cameras. This setup essentially enabled him to see, on set, what the dailies would look like if printed to film. It was used for the production of indie feature What Love Is, a dialogue-driven film from Los Angeles-based production company Big Sky, directed by Mars Callahan, lensed by Stump and starring Cuba Gooding Jr.
Stump, who has put many of the emerging digital cinematography cameras through their paces, explains, “There has never been a great way to look at the [camera] output on set and critically judge it. [Digital printer lights functionality] enabled me to get a good look at how [the images] can be color corrected in post, and to double check lighting.”
Stump relates that his journey with the system began at TDI as he was readying for production. “Josh Pines was doing a quick demo for Daryn and Curtis Clark [ASC, chair of the ASC Technology Committee]. I asked Josh to bring it for a look-see on set. When he brought it by, I wouldn’t let him take it back.
“I had a LUTher [Thomson’s Grass Valley color space converter] box for each camera and had Josh Pines’ prototype control panel as part of my engineering station on set. The program that Josh has developed looks like the control panel for a Hazeline machine–so I was able to print up, print down, and change the color and look to my monitoring stations. And by keeping a log of the settings, I was able to give the numbers to Technicolor. They were able to take same settings and see exactly what I was seeing on set….Because they trusted me, they brought four LUThers on set [What Love Is was a four-camera shoot] so I’d have one for each camera, and we kept them there for the run of the show.”
This workflow, Stump concludes, not only allowed him to better view his work on set, but it also allowed him to communicate very quickly to postproduction.
Pines adds that for the on-set work, a conversion LUT was required to get the digital camera output to log form similar to that of scanned film. “Everything else holds,” he says.
“It means we are finishing the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge,” Stump says. “On one shore we have cameras, on the other is the DI process. The bridge is being completed in terms of management of look and color.”
Like Okada, Stump is sold on the digital printer lights development, and says he will use it again on his next movie. “I see this becoming something sort of like the Walkie Talkie,” he sums up. “Once you have it as a tool, you will wonder how we ever did without this.”
