Color management is one of those terms that every filmmaker nowadays has most likely heard of. But hardly anyone really understands the inner workings, let alone the need to implement such a workflow properly. Netflix has released an easy-to-understand 7-minute video on the basics of color management workflows to help us out. Modern filmmakers have to deal with myriads of strange (and rather technical) terms like color space, log formats, LUT, ACES, REC.709, color-managed workflow or HDR… all these terms may sound familiar and all these terms relate to one common thing: Color. More specifically, they all revolve around the question of how to ensure that what filmmakers see on set looks exactly like what the audience will see on their TV/tablet or in the cinema. Understanding Color Management The fact that more recent cameras can capture images of stunning quality in terms of both image fidelity and dynamic range is great. The downside, however, is that screens used to display the resulting video cannot handle the high fidelity and dynamic range in most cases, so the footage will look different on these devices. So filmmakers face a problem here: the captured footage must pass through many hands, departments and workstations before the final video can be delivered. And since every screen, professional or consumer, processes video signals slightly differently, the result at the end of the post-production pipeline is unpredictable. A non color-managed workflow. Things can get messy. Image credit: Netflix When color grading a given timeline, how can...
Published By: CineD - Monday, 3 January, 2022