Feelings & Vibes & Energy: How Not To Shoot HDR

On The Cinematography Podcast, DP Adam Newport-Berra laid bare his lighting approach on the Emmy-nominated Apple TV+ series The Studio:

“I really tried not to be too fussy with the lighting in the show. There’s just no way to specifically light people with the kind of camera moves we were doing in the amount of time we had. So I really tried to keep it simple and not overthink it. And I think in a lot of ways, lighting took a backseat to the camera moves. We just kind of used what was already up there, mostly because of time and money.”

This amounts to logistical surrender: the crew prioritized speed over HDR lighting design. Newport-Berra’s acknowledgement is damning: he wasn’t “too fussy about the lighting,” didn’t “overthink it,” and let “lighting take a backseat.” He continued:

“I really liked working sort of with broad strokes. So I just very quickly learned not to fuss over things too much and to trust the camera and trust our colorists and to know that we were shooting incredible faces that had great costume design, great hair, great makeup.”

These choices seriously undermined both the show’s narrative power and HDR’s potential. 360° lighting guaranteed consistency from every angle while ensuring a flat look fatal to HDR.

Costumes, hair and makeup took precedence over lighting—leaving postproduction to deal with the shortcomings: “trust our colorists.”

When asked by the host of the Dolby Creator Talks Podcast whether he had done anything differently on The Studio (since, like all Apple TV+ productions, the show would be finished in Dolby Vision), Newport-Berra replied,

“To be quite honest, not really. I’m not the most technical DP in the world. For me, it more goes off feelings & vibes & energy than it does technical finishing aspects.”

This betrays a willful ignorance that would be shocking were it not so widespread: HDR begins during pre-production, not in post.

This mindset prioritizes SDR at every stage:

[Workflow Crime Scene]

│

└───▶ [THE CRIME: Institutionalized SDR Bias]

      │

      ├── SDR Camera Tests → The production prioritized hair, costumes & makeup over lighting. Flat, even illumination detrimental to HDR. SDR LUT determined the look. HDR considered a “finishing aspect,” not an end-to-end process.

      ├── SDR Dailies → Stakeholders signed off on low-contrast SDR look.

      ├── SDR Offline Edit → Final edit baked in SDR constraints (destructive lens flare, clipped highlights, SDR lighting ratios). “Trust our colorists” to deal with the HDR.

      │

      └───▶ Director Directive: “MAKE HDR MATCH SDR!” 💀

            │ (The damage had already been done)

            ▼

┌───▶ [THE COVER-UP: HDR as Afterthought]

│     │

│     ├── Grade SDR First → Authorial intent locked into Rec.709

│     │

│     └───▶ Stuff into Dolby Vision Container 📦

│           │ (Metadata ≠ Creative Intent)

│           ▼

└─────❌ [VICTIM: COMPROMISED HDR]

The following epitaph should precede each episode of The Studio:

“We don’t want to give ourselves a drastically better viewing experience than what the audience will actually get.”– Seth Rogen

Industry Perspective

“All of the points mentioned in the anatomy of the crime scene are what I have been trying to explain, demonstrate and help develop for the last 7 years.” Pablo Garcia Soriano, Cromorama, SMPTE member | WordPress Comment