A 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 consistent, and universally recognized by cinematographers. As the industry explores the promise of digital technology, many leading cinematographers have asked for the equivalent of printer lights in the digital realm, as part of a universally interoperable system of color management.
A significant breakthrough occurred earlier this year when Technicolor Content Services (TCS) introduced for select projects its Technicolor Digital Printer Lights system, which offers the ability to emulate in the digital realm exactly what a release print would look like at given printer light settings in a film lab (SHOOT, 3/24, p. 37). The system may be used for dailies or extend beyond this function.
Newly named ASC president Daryn Okada and David Stump, ASC, were the first to use the new system on actual productions, Stick It and What Love Is, respectively, and both gave the system high marks. Okada is using it again for digital dailies on his next feature, Sex and Death 101, which is currently in production. And David Tattersall, BSC is currently using the Digital Printer Lights system on the feature Next.
Meanwhile, development continues on the system and Burbank-based Technicolor Digital Intermediates (TDI) VP of imaging Joshua Pines–the architect of the digital printer lights system–recently shared a preview of what’s ahead.
For starters, the operator of the system may move from a laptop to a control panel that looks and feels like one that would be found in a color correction suite–and is more robust than a laptop for use on set. The system’s software would run on a standard Grass Valley LUTher box.
A key development relates to the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Technology Committee’s DI subcommittee work on what it calls an ASC “Color Decision List” (CDL)–a developing open method of making color correction data interchangeable between systems made by different manufacturers.
Pines–who incidentally co-chairs the ASC Technology Committee’s DI subcommittee–is currently adding full ASC CDL support to the Digital Printer Lights system. “The intended purpose of the CDL was to be able to set a look at one point in the production process and have that look be transmitted easily and effortlessly to postproduction without baking the look into the image itself,” he explained, relating that Digital Printer Lights would exist as a sort of subset of the CDL.
Pines is also working on a method of embedding the printer lights settings directly in a dual link video stream as metadata. If this feature is used, it would mean that information would stay with camera footage as it moves from dailies to postproduction.
Lastly, Pines has created a set of options in which the user would select a digital cinematography camera model, launching a version of the printer lights system that is designed specifically for the individual characteristics of the selected camera. (This feature is already available on the laptop version of the technology.)
“There’s a magic about being able to communicate finally about doing HD dailies,” Okada said of using the Digital Printer Lights system. “Saying ‘three points’ is exact; you can’t get that anywhere else.”
SHOOT senior editor, technology and postproduction, Carolyn Giardina can be reached at 310-822-0211 or at cgiardina@shootonline.com.
