The BT.1886 Fallacy

“My HDR demo that’s nominally about HDR kind of almost secretly is a color space demo more than an HDR demo in a way.” Steve Yedlin, Team Deakins Podcast

This statement is the key to understanding the critical error at the root of all HDR misinformation.

The Breakdown

1.  The Root Fallacy: BT.1886 is a color space.

2.  The False Equivalence: If BT.1886 (an EOTF) is a “color space,” then:

• HLG (an EOTF) can be dismissed as “just another SDR color space.”
• PQ (an EOTF) can be equated with Rec.2100 (the UHDTV HDR/WCG standard).

3.  The Inevitable Conclusion: If you believe PQ & HLG are nothing more than SDR color spaces, you’ve entirely erased the technical and artistic definition of HDR.

This isn’t theoretical. It’s a principle Yedlin actively applies on set, explicitly instructing his collaborators to ignore the creative potential of HDR. In a podcast interview, he laid out his dogma clearly:

Ben Consoli: “In the case of Glass Onion, did you film it in HDR per se, in preparation for HDR streaming, or are you filming in SDR and then making alterations after the fact, for it to work?“

Steve Yedlin: “The way you phrase that question is a great example of the misinformation, because that’s exactly how the marketing aspect wants us to talk about it. We treat HDR as another color space, the same way that Display P3 is a color space, like BT.1886 [sic] is a color space, and Rec.2100, which is the standard for HDR, is a color space. We don’t buy into that marketing that the fact that you’re in a different color space means you have to make the movie look different.”

This is the “SDR-first” manifesto in action. It’s a complete rejection of HDR’s potential, framed not as a technical limitation but as a philosophical choice. Yedlin’s associate, colorist Cullen Kelly, has completely internalized this worldview:

“HDR is just a standard. HDR doesn’t have any creative implication or aesthetic implication. It’s just a standard.”  – Cullen Kelly, colorist, entrepreneur

If HDR has no creative implications, then there’s no reason to light for it, compose for it, or grade for it. It becomes merely a container, and the workflow crime is complete.

This is the ultimate expression of the SDR-First worldview: complete artistic surrender.

(START)→ #1: ROOT FALLACY (BT.1886 = Color Space ❌)

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│├───▶ #2: FALSE PQ (PQ = Color Space ⚖️ 🔄)

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│        └───▶ Erases HDR’s Purpose (“Why change anything?”)

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│└───▶ #3: INEVITABLE CONCLUSION (SDR-First Dogma 🗣️✋)

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WORKFLOW CRIME SCENE (SDR Lighting → Monitoring → Dailies → Edit ⚠️)

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IMPACT: BROKEN HDR & ARTISTIC BANKRUPTCY (Blown Windows, Flat Grades💥)

A flow chart tracing the root cause of HDR misinformation to its destructive conclusions.