Apple Vision Pro will be the first home entertainment device offering Disney's HFR versions of James Cameron's movies at home. In the future, Pixelworks intends to establish a logo certification program for TVs and other consumer devices featuring TrueCut Motion, ensuring that devices like TVs play the HFR version of the movie exactly as intended,... Continue Reading →
Create Textural Depth Redux
From time to time, we go back and see if we can't improve upon some of the color grading techniques in the Monster Guide. This is an easier way to create textural depth. During an appearance on Cullen Kelly’s Grade School, the brilliant colorist Jill Bogdanowicz revealed a secret to accentuating texture without it looking... Continue Reading →
Perceptually Matching Displays In Post Production
https://youtu.be/aQ2jK13-P5U?si=ymgPsB_3_8eRCNIO David Abrams, along with colorist Josh Petok, demonstrates how to correct for observer metamarism. The shots they’re looking at are from “Meridian” (2016), a 4K 60p HDR test video with a peak brightness level of 4,000 nits created for Netflix in partnership with Sony, Dolby and RED Studios. The video includes old, grainy footage... Continue Reading →
YouTuber Makes Preposterous Claims Following Sony’s New MiniLED Event
A popular YouTuber, discussing Sony’s remarkable new 4,000-nit miniLED TV, makes the following outlandish claims: 1. Sony says that OLED isn’t good enough 2. Sony’s 4,000-nit miniLED TV has completely destroyed Korea’s OLED TV industry 3. Sony Pictures could dictate that colorists grade peak highlights to 4,000 nits 4. Netflix and Amazon could charge an... Continue Reading →
Run Calman On Mac: How To Install Fusion 13.5
Calman announced back on Oct. 5, 2023, “While there are Apple Silicon specific versions of VMWare Fusion and Parallels, they rely on an ARM-specific build of Windows that lacks comprehensive driver support, impacting several devices Calman interfaces with. At this time Calman must be used on Windows-based PC.” VMWare Fusion 13.5, released just weeks after Calman’s... Continue Reading →
Introducing Fusion 13.5 Pro and Player
For those who need to run virtual Windows on a Mac, there's been a pretty huge upgrade to VMWare Fusion. Major features include: All new Get Windows Feature for Macs with Apple silicon Download and install Windows 11 on the latest Macs with ease. VMware Tools on Windows 11 for ARM Drag-Drop, Copy-Paste, DirectX 11... Continue Reading →
HDR Quiz
It’s that time of year again! 1. The creator of Rec.2020 was a. Colonel Sanders b. Kenichiro Masaoka c. Alexander Graham Bell 2. According to Tony D’Amore, Senior Colorist, Picture Shop, one of the worst practices in the industry is a. putting highlights at 200 nits b. crushing shadows c. shooting with digital cameras 3.... Continue Reading →
Cinematographer On The Dynamic Use Of ISO
Here’s an excerpt from an interview with cinematographer Powell Robinson published by PostPerspective, focusing on the DP’s dynamic use of ISO with the ARRI Alexa Mini. We found it interesting because over the years, some cinematographers have claimed that shooting at low ISOs on an Alexa hurts dynamic range in the highlights and produces digital-looking,... Continue Reading →
Apple Log/ACES/Dolby Vision/HDR IG Reels Workflow
Apple Log is vastly superior to the over-processed HDR video we've become accustomed to since the iPhone 12. Clips uploaded to Dolby Vision compatible apps will display the Dolby Vision logo, while Instagram Reels will process the video as HDR without dynamic metadata. Several of our videos have turned into SDR since uploading to IG,... Continue Reading →
Widening Color Gamuts and Metamerism
"Widening the color gamut is often marketed as an unconditional improvement, when in reality there are downsides like increased metamerism that need to be considered. More education is needed so consumers understand this." "For professional use cases like color-critical work, metamerism is a major concern. Displays optimized for wide gamuts may not be suitable. Selecting... Continue Reading →
Gerald Undone Curve vs. Reducing ISO In Post
Online tutorials insist on making an S-curve, but the correct way to normalize ETTR footage is to create a gentle convex curve. It's also possible to reduce ISO in post. Which method is better? The clip normalized with a curve (on the right), is less saturated and has greater highlight detail. The clip on the... Continue Reading →
Apple ProRes 4444 Disappears From Blackmagic Camera App
ProRes 4444 has disappeared without a trace from Blackmagic's Camera app with no word yet as to whether it's a bug or some other reason.
Were you aware that film grain synthesis is mandatory in the AV1 codec?
"In the entertainment industry, film grain is widely present in the motion picture and TV material and is considered part of the creative intent. The grain is inherent in analog motion picture film due to the process of exposure and development of silver-halide crystals dispersed in photographic emulsion [2] as randomly distributed grains appear at... Continue Reading →
Bill Ferwerda of Company 3: Clark
The Netflix limited series Clark featured the most inventive use of HDR we'd ever seen, so we just had to reach out to colorist Bill Ferwerda to ask if he'd be willing to talk with us about his workflow. What camera was used on Clark? [The] Sony Venice. Was an HDR monitor used on set or during... Continue Reading →
ARRI Log Not Suitable For Grading?
Team 2 Films uploaded a color management master class to YouTube a few months back, and in their zeal to promote an ACES or RCM/DWG workflow, they say that ARRI Log C was designed solely for camera capture, not for grading, which might have been true of ARRI's old Log C, but is not true... Continue Reading →
Deep Render Says Its AI Video Compression Tech Will ‘Save the Internet’
AI compression tech could deliver 50x smaller files than technologies like H.264. According to flatplanelshd, ‘the team behind the MPEG standards is currently developing an AI-based codec with the aim of releasing it before the end of this decade.’ Read the story here.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry Awarded for Discovery of Quantum Dots
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2023 to: Moungi G. BawendiMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, USA Louis E. BrusColumbia University, New York, NY, USA Alexei I. EkimovNanocrystals Technology Inc., New York, NY, USA “for the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots” They planted an... Continue Reading →
Bad Timing
Not sure when the marketing department over at Blackmagic Design decided to use a Sandisk Extreme Pro to illustrate the ability of their new full frame Cinema Camera to record to external disks, but it seems like unfortunate timing, given that Western Digital is facing multiple class-action lawsuits over its defective portable SSDs.
“We can no more shoot for HDR and SDR simultaneously without serious compromise than we could shoot for 16:9 and protect for 4:3.”
Steven Poster, ASC, President, International Cinematographers Guild IATSE Local 600 Presentation to the ICS at the ASC Clubhouse on 2018-06-07 (excerpt from the presentation, incl. a powerful, incontrovertible statement about the aesthetics of HDR) Little has changed since Steven Poster’s impassioned presentation five years ago. Few are monitoring HDR on set. And at NAB 2023,... Continue Reading →
The Daejeon Chronicles 