Lowepost

During pre-production, I remember DP, Philippe Le Sourd getting in touch with me regarding the best format to use on this commercial. He was shooting with the Alexa and wanted to know if they should shoot ProRes or ARRIRAW. I strongly suggested ARRIRAW considering the amount of post that was involved and also the greater details in highlights and lows. But at the time, the ARRIRAW was a lot more expensive to work with throughout production and post. During the first session, we referenced a few spots that Fabien Baron had directed: Giorgio Armani 'Acqua Di Gio' and Calvin Klein 'Collection'. These references were used more as a warm up, as the Encounter spot was a new fragrance so we needed to have a new vision and look for this product. A visual treat From the beginning, Fabien's vision was to make a scene that could have been taken from a movie. A visual treat more than a commercial. The color palette was found pretty quickly, and I think the palette is what makes it special. The main objective was to make a very moody and interesting look that was sensual and mysterious but not menacing or scary. It's a very dark spot and what I would call a silvery night. The amount of saturation is very low and the colors are very restricted, yet not monochromatic. As per Fabien's vision, this should look like a sequence taken from a movie so the look had to be very unified and consistent throughout the spot. I usually use the snapshot function or wipe every shot with the master reference shot, to make sure they all stay consistent. It's important to always have a sort of double proof, so I use the hero beauty shot to match everything and then I use the surrounding shots to check the consistency. Grading technique I work mostly on Baselight, and I started the session without pre-balancing the shots. We established the look on a few shots and then matched it all. Sometimes I'll use the AlexaV3_ K1S1_Log to Rec709 LUT, but on this, I probably used a film grade or curve to get the Log to Rec709 stretch. The curve controls are insanely powerful, and when not using a LUT, this is where I do my main look. I also use curves at the back end when doing minor tweaks because it's more precise than the video grade or film grade. READ: Mitch Bogdanowicz about LUTs I think the level of darkness was the most challenging part of this job. The amount of contrast and black level were adjusted and changed so that it would play nicely on multiple platforms. We had four sessions where we went back and forth with the levels. Playing it safe and lifting the blacks was not a solution, and we certainly didn't want to lose details and have the picture completely buried. Beauty We wanted the skin tones very desaturated so it would fit very well with the dark grey night, and they were isolated in every shot to be matched as close as possible. I used a Lum to Lum S-curve, kept the blacks dark and stretched the gamma. The sweet spot is hard to get but by slowly adjusting the curve you'll find it. I used the curve to clip the highlights at a low level using a luminance curve in both the background and the skin tone, which is the reason why it looks very silvery. But it's a controlled clipping so for some elements I added another layer unclipped to add a bit of shine. I think it fits the mood very well, but it's very unusual for an American beauty/fragrance brand. I also enhanced the contrast in her hair and lifted the skin tones a bit. I only remember one exterior shot where we used a window and a few key frames, and that was because Fabien wanted to increase the headlights on a rock when the car arrives at the house. On beauty work, we tend to over analyze and put windows everywhere. At the same time, I hate when clients walk in my room asking for three different passes before we've even graded the first shot. To me, separate passes are something from the past and the last resort. The picture will always look better in one pass. Damien Van Der Cruyssen All images and clips copyright © 2016 Baron + Baron

I was brought on board when they started scouting. I spoke to the DP, Adam Arkapaw during the testing stages and he sent various looks that he liked and thought would work for the show. We also had some in-depth conversations about what he was looking for. One of the references we spoke of, was the movie "Seven". I didn't have any interaction with the director, Cary Fukunaga prior to him coming to NY to do post. Grading Technique True Detective was shot on Kodak negative, mostly 5219 and 5207, and color corrected on DaVinci Resolve. I chose not to use any LUTs for the show as we wanted to have the most flexibility and didn't want to fight any curves. We scanned all the negatives to 2K DPX frames which I then graded. I work differently depending on the show, the look and feel they are going for. For this show both Cary and Adam wanted everything to be very real and organic. After sitting with both of them I found it faster to use printer points and basic Log controls to get the primary balance done. READ: Dan Muscarella about Printer Lights Once we had the primary balance where we wanted, I then watched it back with audio to see if the look matched the tone. I then used Linear controls to dig in and create some subtle differences in the separate areas of the image. As well as adjusting exposure and color temperature. Matching shots After I had what I felt was a good overall balance of color and brightness, I started paying attention to skin tones throughout. I was also looking if I needed to shade, vignette or pull anything out of the image. Matching skin tones is a big part of making the scene look good. When you are watching these scenes, the object you are focused on from shot to shot is the actor's face and expression. If they are not matching from shot to shot, it's going to be very noticeable and quick for any one of us to point out. I didn't do much beauty work in color on this season. We did an occasional sharpening of eyes or softening of backgrounds but that was about it. The most challenging scene was probably the one in episode 4. Cary and Adam did an amazing shot that lasted 6 minutes without a cut. They were going in and out of apartments, thru windows, in the light and dark. Cary had a very specific thought for how he wanted every turn to look. So needless to say we had a lot of color rides and tracking windows and dissolves throughout that scene. Organic feel Every scene is different. Whether it be the lighting, atmosphere, exposure or temperature. So my technique changes depending on what's needed. I try to use windows more than keys. I feel like when you over use keys, it takes you away from the natural feel of what the DP actually captured. I think most people can feel when something is over keyed and too perfect. I prefer the organic feel myself. That's not to say I don't key and won't. Or that I didn't on this show. I definitely did. My preference is to get a good balance of color from the primary balance and then use shading and subtle windows or keys to just accentuate what the DP has done. I also always try to maintain some shape in my highlights. I do everything in my power to not have a clipped white sky or highlights. This obviously depends on the scene and how it was shot. A softer highlight at times is nice. Again it's all personal preference and the feel of the scene. Every colorist works a little different and there is no one way to get something done. We work in a very subjective field. It's all about helping the director and DP see their vision in the end. This was an amazing series to be a part of. From the DP and director to the editors and post staff. Steven Bodner All images and clips copyright © HBO

Paul Thomas Anderson was getting closer to the final stage of his movie The Master, and the question of the DI came up. For how much he wanted to release the movie only in film form, the distributor needed the digital DCI for general distribution. Most of the theaters at that point where converting to digital projection and it was imperative for the distributor to fill the seats. I met Anderson during the final stages of the editing, did some VFX pulls (there are a grand total of three effects and two opticals in the movie) and we started to talk about how to approach the final DI. We wanted to work in real-time, and at that point in time we could work in 4K but the platform we had (Quantel Pablo) was not fast enough, so, we went on and built a full 4K Linux Resolve for this task. The challenge The challenge for us was to copy the 65mm answer print that he was timing in the lab. We have a room in FotoKem where we can screen the 5perf 65mm prints and I sat with Lab Timer Dan Muscarella to watch the prints go by during the part of the color timing. We did some research and calibrated the film emulation LUT to the 65mm contact print to better represent the final answer print, we did some tests with Dan and were ready to work. The 35mm was scanned from the original negative and the 65mm was scanned from the 65mm cut IP. The feel of a 1960s movie For the look of the movie, I searched through images of films from the 50s and 60s, to see how the film emulsion was developed at that moment in history, and how the lenses were deforming the image. The set of lenses and cameras, if I remember correctly was the one used for Kubrick's 2001 Space Odyssey. The idea behind it was to have the audience feel like they were looking at a 1960s movie, not a 2000s movie that looked like the 60s. Most of it was done in camera, and we were very careful to preserve it during the digital process. I sat with Dan during the screening of the answer prints and he sat with me during the color timing. We did the color mostly with a logarithmic color correction, pre-matching the 65- and 35mm scans then got closer to the answer print and refined it with Dan and Paul Thomas Anderson in the room. We spent a few hours in the same scene adding and taking away printer points of corrections until the feel for the scene was about right. READ: Dan Muscarella about Printer Lights The Master has a certain aura to it that you cannot describe but feel. It is a clever use of light and backlight that emphasizes the relationship between him and the disciple, and the color had to obey that statement. Technically, I used Log offset controls (or printerlights) for the most part, and just a touch of saturation and contrast to better blend some 35mm negative with some of the 65mm IP scenes. Although I used pretty much only logarithmic corrections, there was this one scene where the wall was a bit too close to the color of the subject. We isolated the wall and ever so slightly changed the color a bit. Paul Thomas Anderson is a fan of trying, playing and trying something just a bit different, and then playing again. He is very visual and he likes to see different options even if they are just a touch different from each other. We also have moments in the movie where a color tone plays a role in the psyche of the main character. If you think about the scene in the lab when he drinks the exposure chemicals, those are very strong colors and we went a bit further from the print on those occasions. Skin tones I needed to be really consistent throughout the movie about the skin color of all the three main actors, and we were going back and forth through the reels to constantly checking their coherency. I never use secondary correction for skin tones, as I’m under the assumption that the director of photography put a light in the set for a reason. And most of the time, that reason is to make the face of the subject to fall in a very specific place. So in my timing, I always want to go to the color of the skin tone we establish with the minimum amount of correction possible (more often than not it's just an Log offset) and see how the rest of the world plays. Even if I have to put a window there, I will still try to use a logarithmic offset or a white color balance to put it where I like it. I always feel that a secondary correction (or vector, whatever the machine calls it) will reduce the amount of subtle variations that exist in the natural skin, and make everything look a little too plastic to my eyes. Having said that, no power windows have been harmed in the making of this movie. I’m not a fan of looks, but I’m a huge fan of representing and capturing the reality as it is. Letting the audience be dragged into the movie's storytelling without being bombarded by stimulus. 65mm is a great format and I love digital cameras (Alexa is my favorite), but I find the large format are still a step above all. When the Blu-ray master coloring was done, I played the final DCP movie with Kostas, the Color Timer, and he sat with Paul Thomas Anderson again to give a slightly different interpretation for the Blu-ray. So they are somewhat the same and different at the same time. Walter Volpatto All images and clips copyright © 2016 Annapurna Pictures

I only got involved with this film during the post-production process. I was assigned the project through my employee, Technicolor, in London and met the DP, David Tattershall a few weeks before we were due to grade. David had brought some images on his laptop that he took on the shoot. This gave me an early insight into what he wanted to do in the grade and we discussed the look we wanted to go for. I personally enjoy playing with the different natural colours that this kind of production design gives us. Wonderful natural light, lavish costumes and gorgeous set designs gave us a lovely base to work from. Although this show was shot digital, my general technique was to aim for a classic film look. Grading technique We graded from ARRIRAW Log files and added a proprietary LUT that I trimmed based on the latest Kodak film stock made. This became a favourite of mine and I subsequently used it on other projects. The contrast curve and saturation mirror 35mm film nicely. READ: Mitch Bogdanowicz about LUTs I enjoy working with the filmic Log toolset. This way I keep the natural balance of colours throughout the shadows, mids and highlights on the first pass. My first pass is always kept very simple, using Log printer lights, saturation and subtle contrast tweaks. From there I review, take notes and prepare for the second pass which involves a lot more secondary work. Add to that, any kind of mix of hue, sat, curves, keying, windowing etc. whatever is needed, really. I try not to overcomplicate the grade unnecessarily but using windows can be incredibly helpful in making the image more interesting or lifting areas which otherwise would be lost. Mostly, we tried to keep the general look rich and lush but obviously certain scenes lent themselves to be a colder or darker palette. I always try and ensure we have achieved the right balance throughout the beginning, middle, and end of the film in terms of colour and light. Often, we need to review the whole film a couple of times through the process to know we have achieved the correct overall feel. Fantasy sequence Only during the fantasy sequence in the final tragic scene did we introduce an unnatural colour scheme and defocused the edges of the image for effect. The reason was to tell the audience the scene was a ‘flash forward’ in time. Here, I would accentuate a particular colour whilst removing other colours from the palette – creating more of an unnatural wash – far different to anything else in the movie. The director was also looking to introduce more camera movement to a lot of scenes and in this final scene, we often introduced a subtle camera push in or out to make the shots a little more dramatic. This was a very important moment in the movie so we spent a lot of time making this scene just right. Balcony scene In the famous balcony scene at night, we were keeping a natural darkness whilst introducing power windows to help train the eye into the correct areas of the frame which is an important skill to master. A combination of cool moonlight and warm candlelight is always a nice look and this scene looks beautiful. The first point of reference We tried to keep natural flesh tones whilst saturating the overall colour to make the image shine. Skin tones are literally the first point of reference for every scene. I always try and keep these consistent and they are an excellent barometer of how the scene wants to naturally look like from the shoot. I start on the 'master' shot of each scene - grab a still and constantly reference to this to match skin and other colours. I try not to mess too much with skin if I want to keep it natural looking. I’d rather set the tone of the shot using the skin and deal with any colour issues that arise around that separately. I’m also not a huge fan of keying but I use it when I have no other option. I’d rather get there using cleaner Log or sat curve controls. I enjoy the challenge of doing subtle beauty fixes around eyes using a window with slight blur or lifting contrast. Also, if a shot is soft I tend to avoid sharpening the whole image but just concentrate on the actual part of the image we want in focus. Paul Ensby All images and clips copyright © 2016 Amber Entertainment

At some point, they chose to leave the facility where they did the color for season 1 and 2. I did seasons 3-5 and I am about to start season 6. By the time the show got to me there was already somewhat of an established look to the show. Not to say that the look hasn't evolved over the past few seasons, but when it got to me the look was already there. The Pilot When I started my first episode, we referenced the pilot a lot. They spent a lot of time getting the pilot just the way they wanted, so we looked at that and also talked about the documentary nature of the series. Being set in an apocalypse of sorts, the photography and realism of the lighting were really going to drive the look of the show. For this show, though, I really kept the idea of documentary / photo journalism in mind. I tried not to overthink it. I really tried to be honest and true to the captured image without affecting it too much. Granted, there were times when it was shot and lit more dramatically and I, of course, don't fight that. We intentionally didn't have any real stylized looks, unless it was something very special that needed to be differentiated story wise. I describe the show sometimes as looking at the world through blood-shot eyes. Sometimes it's dirty and yellowy green, and sometimes it's really quite pretty. The dirty and yellowy green look is defined by lower contrast, a little color in the shadows (probably yellowy) and also desaturated yellow high-lights. This show was shot on 16mm film and the scans that I got already had somewhat of a gamma curve in them, unlike Alexa Log-C or Sony S-Log. I primarily use just the basic RGB primary color corrector in any box I'm working on. On Davinci Resolve that would be Lift Gamma Gain. On my Nucoda it's a combination of the Balance tool, Lift Gamma Gain, and the levels tools that are very similar to Photoshop Levels. On Nucoda we don't have specific Log only tools, but I have a huge tool set that would work in Log or Linear. One continuous story I think with any well-established series, one of the biggest challenges is keeping a show consistent from season to season and keeping it looking like one continuous story. Sometimes it can be a challenge to keep it tied together, but you have to let the story and the photography dictate how the show is going to look. If something is dark, I keep it dark. If the edit jumps between 2 distinctly different looks, it's usually because the location has changed. I like that sort of thing personally. As long as it flows smoothly at one location or during a conversation, it can have an abrupt jump to another scene or location. Generally speaking, The Walking Dead is slightly desaturated and a little more "real" looking. Not too crushed or contrasty. That is hopefully a consistent theme throughout the show. Each actor has their natural flesh tone color. For example, Rick has a lot of color in his skin and Carol has very little color in her skin. A fair amount of work is needed to make sure everyone remains consistent throughout an episode. Sometimes mattes are needed to keep things as consistent as possible throughout a scene, or to keep it consistent with another camera. I would try and use HLS tools to adjust the color, but sometimes I use primary RGB controls to adjust as well. Sometimes I do need to sharpen the image in some areas, usually if the focus is slightly missed on the eyes in a tight or medium shot. In Nucoda, I have a really nice sharpening tool, it's much cleaner and more adjustable than a simple aperture tool. I never need to do any softening. Horrendous looking zombies The zombies are usually walking around set for hours before they're filmed. Inevitably some of the makeup either on hands or necks is rubbed off somehow. So you'll get a perfectly horrendous looking zombie with a bright pink spot on the back of a hand or on a neck. Those can be tricky to fix, but with today's tracking software, it's not that big of a deal. I draw a custom shape around the area and track it. I then make a good solid matte of the area and remove all the color. I then tint the area whatever color it needs to be. Usually, it's a slightly gray/green flesh tone. The challenges of shooting a modern TV show in the US are always time and money. A show like The Walking Dead has to move unbelievably fast. Also, if you'll notice, a lot of the show is shot out-doors. Example: In a low light situation, the DP knows he can over light a scene (so that no moments are missed) and rely on me to use as many windows and shapes as I need to pull it back down into the dark. Not to say that this is the case all the time, but we used many, many windows in every episode. Jeremy Sawyer All images and clips copyright © 2016 Gene Page/AMC Unit Still Photography

I was introduced to Cinderella during the DI grade on "Jack Ryan Shadow Recruit" as the Director Kenneth Branagh and Cinematographer Haris Zamabarloukos were going to work together again on the film. I had worked with Haris previously on other films so we already had a great grading shorthand and understanding of how each other worked. Inspired by Fragonard We started off looking at paintings by the French artist Fragonard and used this as a template for the very early grade tests. We liked the painting titled "The Swing"; the way the main character stood out as if in a soft pool of light, with the background darkened almost like a soft vignette. When we presented to Ken he liked the idea but wanted it backed down a bit. He wanted a classic look; colourful, sumptuous and rich. He was also adamant that the film should be very saturated at the beginning when life was good and everything was perfect. As time goes by and the mother dies, the saturation should not be so pushed. The grade was going to reflect the narrative arc of the story being told. With a production like Disney’s Cinderella, there is obviously an awful lot of testing to be carried out; make-up tests, costume tests, etc., so we used these to try a few things out. The sets and costumes were spectacular. Haris' cinematography was superb, and it was my job to pick out all of the detail and enhance it. Cinderella was shot on 35mm Kodak film stock using anamorphic lenses. I graded using Blackmagic Resolve through a Kodak print emulation film stock and started by balancing the shots. There are no rules on how you achieve this or what controls you use. I tend to power through a scene or reel and then finesse with creating the look on top of the balanced grade. Apart from the basic grading tools I use the wipe function all the time to check the consistency of shots. It's great creating an interesting grade on a shot but you have to make sure it carries on correctly on a scene. The Ballroom scenes The Ballroom scenes were shot on the Bond stage at Pinewood. Huge scene, big area to light. Lots of actors in the shot and I had to make the principles stand out in the scene but keep the feel that the whole ballroom was being lit by the candle chandeliers. I started by making a balance, setting the contrast etc., created a rich looking feel, darkened off areas of the frame to make Cinderella and the Prince stand out. I had to key Cinderella's dress to make it the desired colour blue. I keyed the chandeliers to add a little more warmth and made sure that the top of the frame was reduced in luminance whilst the two leads were dancing. I also carried out beauty work on eyes, sharpening, a bit of teeth whitening, and softening of highlights on faces. The end result was very satisfying. Another interesting scene is early on where the Prince meets Ella for the first time in the forest. It was shot in different light conditions. The actors were on horseback and didn't stop circling around and round talking to each other throughout the scene. The sun was hot one side and down on the other side. I keyed into the highlights to try and match up the overall feel of the sunlight and mood of the scene whilst not making it feel false. Cinderella's pink dress The biggest technical challenge of the film was being able to pull out the desired colour of Cinderella's pink dress before the transformation scene, Cinderella's ball gown colour and Kate Blanchett’s stepmother ball gown. Firstly, Cinderella's pink dress was very close in colour to her skin tone, so I had to carry out a lot of intricate shapes with keys to make it work. Cinderella's ball gown was a problem; it was made of two layers of material on top of each other. From the get go when we carried out early tests the gown photographed more pinky than blue. It meant that I would be working heavily on every shot with the dress in to correct the colour. Kate Blanchett’s green dress was made up of two different materials. A darker green for the top half and a more yellowy green for the bottom half. Halfway through the DI it was suggested that we match the bottom half to the top half creating a more emerald dress. I carried out the work to do this over three film reels, then it was decided to do the reverse, match the top half to the bottom half, which the costume designer preferred, all good fun. Rob Pizzey All images and clips copyright © 2016 The Walt Disney Company Nordic Unit Still Photography

I was given the honor to time Saving Private Ryan because of my work on Amistad. The creators vision' for the film, at first, was something like an old newsreel war footage look. A distressed look, not a warm and cozy look. Also, it had to be a clean look, not muddy. Not only was it completed all on film but, it was the first of its kind to use a "Bleach By Pass Negative” and the ENR Developing process at 100% IR rating on Eastman Premier Stock. These three steps created the Saving Private Ryan color space that allowed me to shape the film's look. This format was used on every print of the entire film which was 9 full reels long. Every sequence has its own look by design. The biggest challenge was developing the print that I would be showing Steven, Janusz, and Michael. To get the ENR 100%, IR rating took time to set up and once done the entire print was developed at the same time. This took a production developer off line for many hours and was costly to the lab. This was a hard thing to set up at peak production times. Also, I was working on “Six Days and Seven Rights” for Ivan while timing Save Private Ryan. Two very different looking films. Color timing As far as color timing tools are concerned, I had the standard Global RGB + or - and Global Density + or - and that is it. Only 4 buttons to work with. The bad news is that the 4 buttons don’t change the image as you’re watching it like it would if you were making a digital color correction. With film color timing everything is done with the eyes. My 4 buttons only allow me to record my correction so that it can be applied to the next print. Film timing corrections are not applied to the actual negative but, are recorded in a printer file and then the newest file is used to make the next print. That is when the color timer gets to see if his corrections were right or wrong. When you are working on a very high-profile film project like Saving Private Ryan, you cannot afford to waste prints due to sloppy or timid corrections. Your guesses must be very accurate. Yes, i said Guesses! You can not see the corrections you are making except in your mind so, they must be very experienced guesses. In my day, there were two major groups of color timers and many rankings within each group. One group was "Screen Timers", and the others were called "Comparator Timers". Screen Timers Screen timers used the assistant timer method. Screen timing is done as the film is running in the theater. The assistant would call out a description of the shot (Cu Man), then the timer would call out the correction (+1+1+3) (adds 2 points of yellow and a point darker.) and the assistant would write down the correction then, call the next shot. This method was only used by two film labs, MGM Labs and Movie-lab. This required a very high skill level and only a few were able to master it. When these two labs closed, screen timing died which left only comparator timing. I was a confirmed screen timer when it died and had to readjust to the comparator. Too slow for my taste but, Screen timing was too expensive for the labs. Personally, I never gave up my screen timing skills. I used them every time I viewed a reel by myself or with a client and then applied them later at the comparator. Kind of cheating but not really. Comparator Timers Comparator timing was the industry standard so most labs used it. A Comparator uses two slide projectors that have been modified to handle a 2000 foot reel of film. One side held the “clip” which was the color and density reference. and the other held the reel that was being corrected. With the comparator you could wind through the reel and stop on any frame to figure out your correction. This would allow the timer to hold up color filters to help see the correction before they make it. Not completely accurate but useful. Recreate the look with digital tools The look of Saving Private Ryan is not just in one shot or one sequence. It is a whole work, designed to tell the whole story with color and light. This look worked well for the type of story being told. To try and recreate this look today, using digital tools would be tough but not impossible. Also, it would not need to be in every area of your movie as it did with the film. To recreate this look for a project you would need a reference clip from SPR for matching each aspect of the look that you want to copy. Your images that you would be applying this to would need the range to accept the look. You will need to be able to change the color and intensity of your LIFT-GAMMA-GAIN. You will need to be able to desaturate the image at least globally, better if in LGG also. The silver retention aspect might be very hard to recreate but, you could get close enough, I think. You don’t have to make an exact copy of the look to give it the same effect. Just get close and make it look great on its own and remember, it’s a silvery blue with neutral flesh tones and normal looking backgrounds. It was a great honor for me to time Saving Private Ryan and so many other projects as well. Dale E. Grahn All images and clips copyright © 2016 Amblin Entertainment / Paramount Pictures

The commercial 'Disney Playmation’ was directed by Misko Iho and I was involved early in the project. Knowing that the film would include scenes with Iron Man and Star Wars immediately got me excited. We referenced both the look of the Iron Man and Star Wars movies, but we mainly got inspired by the latest Star Wars trailer. We also worked closely with ILM and Marvel to get the look right. I guess I've had an inspiration to grade these kind of images ever since seeing the 'Empire Strikes Back' when it first came out and Star Wars right after on a re-run. Before seeing those movies, even more importantly, I was bitten by the sci-fi visuals bug after seeing the '2001 Space Odyssey’ back in 1978. Stripped down color settings I used Assimilate Scratch for grading and material management. The commercial was shot on RED Epic with the Dragon sensor, and with RED material it’s important to strip down all the color settings chosen during the shoot. Those settings are for viewing pleasure only. For grading, you want to get to the colors the sensor actually captured. In fact, for this project, I made a PDF to make sure everyone in the post pipeline would be sure how to decode raw data. DOWNLOAD: Decode raw date brief After you have made the correct decoding settings you can treat the image like any Log file. It will look dull and flat to start with but you can pull out all the colors available and thus have the best freedom to tweak it. You might want to make a Log to Linear conversion of the VFX shots before you send them to the VFX guys. The Embassy, who made a spectacular job with the 3D and VFX, has a Linear workflow. I got Linear EXR files back from them, which I again converted on the fly to Log for tweaking the final grade. First balance Sometimes, I feel like it’s important to first balance the shots throughout the film. I try to keep things simple, adjusting gamma values of the Log data while looking at it through a pleasing contrast curve. Maybe some lift and gain tweak. For some reason, I use the colorist panels and balls less and less and rather look at the numbers of the RGB components. Like one click lesser green... one click more blue... READ: Dan Muscarella about Printer Lights Sometimes, if the shots are very different, I don’t feel it's necessary to first balance them at all. This can be the case when working with commercials. Then I would start tweaking every shot individually from scratch without comparing too much and just aiming to pull a pleasing look. Exposure levels In grading, proper exposure levels are in your eye and mind. Nothing is proper or everything is. Sounds like fake philosophy now doesn’t it? However, I tend to feel I shouldn’t clip available blacks or highlights. You can have a contrasty look without clipping. But then again, sometimes the narrative of the film seems to tell "clip everything, make it hard, destroy the image"... then I obey. At least I will explore where that road leads. On 'Disney Playmation' we avoided having a grade that was too rough, and a video look. We put our bets on beauty and a smooth cinematic look, whatever that might mean. I usually try to avoid too many LUTs along the way and try to do things as simple as possible so that I can check what was really there in the original material. For me, LUTs might be needed at the end of the pipeline and of course, when doing VFX you need some viewing LUTs to be able to see how the shot was intended to look. Creating the look Colorists tend to have unique approaches for getting the results they want. For me, it’s important to first create a preliminary look, then re-evaluate the chances of succeeding with it, next taking a break and hopefully sleeping over it, and eventually, coming back and tweaking it to what we feel suits the film best. Usually, director’s, DOP’s, agencies’, end clients’ opinions matter a lot and define which path you will eventually take. Those people usually know better what they had in mind when starting the whole process. They can also decide whether some of the grading choices I give might be better or worse for the whole big picture. This might include brand colors and all sorts of opinions or plans made for the whole campaign way earlier than when I was involved in the project. Living postcards I have worked a lot with director Misko previously, and he likes his films to feel like living postcards with a very fictive look. One of the main choices for creating this look is using anamorphic lenses, and usually slightly global smoke added on location of the interior shots. Considering grading, we might have slightly lifted blacks and highlights never reaching 100%. We often separate the characters from the backgrounds by tweaking the skin colors and clothing to be more colorful and try to simplify the palette as much as possible. We usually avoid anything with high contrast or color saturation. On pixel level tweaking I do grain reducing for chrominance channels while decoding raw (to get clean skin tone keys, for example) but during grading, we usually add some grain, fuzziness and then sharpening to get what we call 'film scan' look to avoid a too clean and lifeless high-quality digital camera look. I might use blurred luminance keys to get things visible on dark areas. I might do the same to compress highlights. It might be a good idea to use drawn masks to push or pull things less or more visible. A vignette with slight darkening and desaturation towards image edges might do. Above are just examples. You never know what will work. On other films with other directors, production companies, DOPs, etc. there are usually really different types of approaches and then you go with that. The beauty of this profession is that one technique or theory does not make any other obsolete Skin tones I do grain removal on chrominance channels to get clean and peaceful keys from skin tones. Neatvideo is an excellent software to handle the grain reducing. You can easily separate the luminance and chrominance grain. If you have a good grain sample and leave the luminance grain untouched the effect is nonvisible to the eye, meaning all fine detail, hair, eyelashes, etc. are well visible. Regarding artistic choices on skin tones, I usually try not to overdo skin. Everything is relative to the dominant light color. Skin also reflects surroundings. Sometimes you want to have healthy clean skin, which often looks more stylish like it has makeup. Sometimes you want it to be more natural, leaving all the variety of the colors and faults, which makes it more documentary style, more real. A room full of people I know many people, for example, VFX artists, who would make great colorists. I don’t think it’s that hard technically if you have a good eye and some imagination. Just go for it and practice your skills. What prevents many people from liking this profession, I think, is the hassle and stress that comes with clients attending the sessions usually with a deadline right behind the corner. You might have a room full of people communicating with you and everyone will have their own opinions and wishes. Sometimes people start arguing about completely different approaches. The colorist will have to maintain objective, taking all opinions into account, giving options, looking like it's all under control and not getting confused. Most importantly, don’t start arguing because of your personal opinions. It's better to convince everybody that the best options you can give are actually their ideas. I think it is really healthy to listen to others. They might give you new ideas that will enhance your skills. Personally, in the beginning of my colorist career, I felt I wasn't social enough for this job. I am unable to hype convincingly. I am quieter than the average person. I felt I told my opinions either too straight or too complex... These days I try to make my weaknesses look like strengths with a humoristic approach. Henri Pulla All images and clips copyright © 2016 Disney / Marvel / Lucasfilm Ltd

I have been working with the team from Liaka since 2009. For The Boxtrolls, the DP John Ashlee Pratt and I started the look dev from the very first teaser. We refined the look over the last six months of their production using a set of stills and a few test clips. We transferred the linear EXRs back and forth using FotoKem's GlobalData service. GlobalData is FotoKem technology that moves large files ultra-fast anywhere in the world with just an internet connection. The inspiration and references all revolved around a rich and opulent world. Kubrick's Barry Lyndon was a picture that we looked to for the look we were going for. We wanted that feel of the rich glow of candle light. This stop motion picture was shot on DSLR still cameras. The great thing here is that Laika used a motion control slide mount system. This means that each eye went through the exact same optical path, lens, sensor, and so on. This made the need to balance the two eyes non-existent. For the curve of the show we used a GLSL function to go in and out of linear gamma 1.0 to various different delivery targets. The Boxtrolls has three distinct looks I would consider The Boxtrolls to have three distinct looks. There first is the cool blue-green of night that is at times very flat to give a feel of fog and atmosphere. Laika provided a 3d plate of fog for many of the night shots. This allowed me to dial in the color and add the proper amount of contrast to balance the shots out. Then I was able to dial the amount of atmosphere using the opacity of the fog layer. Next, we have the carnival type world of the Boxtrolls underground. We wanted to pop the colors here but still stay in the palette of the project. I kept the black a little polluted with a cold cyan blue, to still give the feel we were under ground, but at the same time, the higher code values had a lot of saturation alluding to the Boxtrolls's playful attitudes. Thirdly, we had the regal palace. This is where warmth and a somewhat pastel color tone was used. It hearkens back for me a powdered face and wig look. Skin tones were purposely de-saturated while all warm values that were not in the skintone range were increased in saturation and warmth. We used normal lift, gamma, and gain for the balance pass on all the scenes. Then there was extensive use of secondaries to bring weight in key places to propel the story. The yellow of the cheese is a good example. I'm especially proud of the scene were eggs goes into the daylight for the first time. We used a bloom on the highlights that decreases in intensity as the scene goes on. This gives the feeling of your eye "irising" down when adjusting to bright sunlight. The general challenge I had with the highlights on this show was too much range. In order to make the highlights clean and pure, I chose a point at which to soft clip the highlights in using a GLSL curve. This gave a very clean white highlight while retaining maximum detail. EXR challenge The tricky part about The Boxtrolls was two-fold. First, it was my first picture done completely with linear light EXR files. The biggest technical hurdle was creating all the GLSL scripts that made the EXR workflow possible. Some of the tools I used, for example, custom curves, behaved very differently in extended range then they normally did. I also used a lot of "dummy grades" to put the picture in a space for manipulation and then back. Another challenge was to keep a rich contrast but still feel the atmosphere and not make it too flat that it doesn't punch through at 3.5fl 3D. At the end of the process we were all very proud of the product and it turned out to be one hell of a ride. John Daro All images and clips copyright © 2016 LAIKA / Focus Features

I began working on “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” in March 2014, during “pilot season”, but I knew ahead of time that the series was green-lighted by NBC, and that Tina Fey and Robert Carlock were the Creators/Executives, late of “30 Rock.” I was chosen to work on the series through my prior involvement with Producer Dara Schnapper and D.P. John Inwood. We had just worked together on “The Michael J. Fox Show”, and it was a good fit. For the pilot, I actually did my own dailies on OSD, using very specific CDL’s supplied by our DIT, Eric Camp. The look of the show could be described as “hyper-real”. It is definitely on the warm colorful side compared to many other dramas and comedies, and this works quite well for the innocent “world of Kimmy Schmidt”. The show employs the talents of several Directors, and like many sitcoms, the “look” of the series is more of a collaboration between myself, D.P. John Inwood, Producer in charge of Post Dara Schnapper and DIT Eric Camp. Of course, we also got very specific notes from our Executives and Directors from time to time. Netflix’s UHD Arri Alexa was the camera system of choice for the first season and until shooting was wrapped, the delivery was 1080P, with ProRes 4444 being used through and through. This all had to change eventually when the deal was struck to sell the series to Netflix. The first season’s shoot had wrapped and was well into post when this occurred, so an allowance was made for HD delivery with the understanding that future episodes must meet Netflix’s UHD specs. This led to some testing over the summer of 2015 and eventually the Red Dragon was selected as a replacement for the Alexa. Monitoring for UHD A new Linux-based Resolve (Version 11) was created at Technicolor/Postworks specifically for handling UHD in real time. One of the big changes moving up to UHD from HD was what to do about monitoring for episodic work like this. In the end, engineers at Technicolor/Postworks decided on continuing to use Panasonic 300 series plasma displays as a “down convert” (1080P) for final color decisions, while also sending the same UHD signal to a Samsung 9500 series curved LED. In this way, the project and signal is always UHD with the advantage of color decisions seen in both formats. I also have a Sony OLED UHD in the studio but generally don’t fire this up too often. The engineers got the two main monitors set up surprisingly close, given the vast difference in display technologies, formats, etc., and the fact that there really wasn’t a “standard” for UHD displays when we started out in August 2015. I generally work with the HD plasma all of the time and keep the UHD right next to me to check on the effects of complex keys, mattes, efx shots and any other aspects of UHD that might escape detection in an HD display. This is a very important step in the UHD workflow; you literally have a lot more to pay attention to with four times the pixel display and possible noise, as one example, can be hiding out in HD land. The first pass I use the CDLs that Eric creates on set which get carried through OSD dailies after initial processing of the 5K files. I place the CDL with any OSD balances in the first Resolve node on a clip per clip basis with the same Red LUT hanging off of the end in the last node. This allows me to work with the full range of the Log files from the Dragon and I always have the option to modify the CDL or LUT or simply ignore them. In this way, I’m starting with exactly the same ”looks” that everyone else up and down in the production is accustomed to seeing. The balancing that I do is fairly straightforward at the outset. I’ve been doing episodic final color work for more years than I care to admit but the new challenges are actually enjoyable. I find that I use the primaries for the most part but will occasionally use the Log controls to do minute black adjustments due to the fine specific control that they have over the normal primary slider controls. Curves and HSL controls When I first started using DaVinci Resolve, I relied very heavily on using the HSL qualifier for secondaries. Over time, I have found the curve controls much more useful and faster, once you understand the nuances and tools: very powerful! I do use the HSL constantly to pull luma keys and softening in combination with power windows. When I use HSL for secondary isolation, I'll use the full arsenal of qualifiers and key softening to ensure that the UHD image stays “clean”. Tracker and monochrome controls And, of course, the auto tracking now works wonderfully, so I use that to track everything from faces to hands, to objects, skylines, etc. I most often will start with a circular power window even to do vertical splits. I’ve always found this shape to be a great organic starting point; highly useful. The other power window tool most often used is the “power curve”. I love the freeform nature of drawing with this tool; its uses are endless. Of course, the “square” power window is great and fast for windows,doorways, and hard edges as well. I also liked using the mono controls for a black and white “old time” sequence to give it a silvery look, and these controls worked beautifully. Technical challenges with UHD Moving into UHD production this season on UKS presented some new challenges, many of which were happening upstream from my color work. My editorial partner, Pat Kelleher, had a vast change in the way he performed finishing and efx work on Flame Premium but that would be the subject of a whole other article. Matching shots in UHD was, for the most part, the same as in HD. I primarily use the timeline scratch stills for matching and speed, while only occasionally using the full stills tools/matchbox. I will use the lightbox view of timeline stills to quickly scan from time to time as well. Some of the bigger challenges involved using layers to make skies and exteriors more interesting, and again, in UHD care must be taken to keep things clean. Sometimes, having a mixture of Log and Linear files can also be challenging, particularly when being comped into the same shot. Another challenge was being kind to our actors with a very wide range of skin tones and the increased amount of detail on facial close-ups. Our D.P. John uses a bit of diffusion in camera and this helps tremendously but there are times when Pat would need to address specific concerns that Resolve just can’t handle as effectively around eyes, mouths, etc. Highlights and hard back lights are no less challenging in UHD. Sometimes it would prove useful to go back to the raw footage and scale levels down a bit to give me more range in harsh highlights. Again, using the luma qualifiers and softening image and key takes some of the edge off of this. Care must be taken with any sharpening as expected in UHD land. I think the trick is to use less than what would be normal for HD. At this point, near the season’s end, I feel very encouraged moving forward to the next chapter of posting in UHD and beyond. Roger Doran All images and clips copyright © 2016 Netflix Unit Still Photography