feature post production
Image Systems’ Nucoda range of grading and mastering solutions has been used on many of the best known films, commercials, documentaries, music videos and television programmes across the globe. The company develops leading toolsets to create sophisticated look enhancements. The Nucoda product line works with multiple camera and file formats, allowing a collaborative workflow and delivering finished content for different viewing platforms including stereoscopic 3D.
that are available now. We’re going through a transitional period where people are trying to cut corners, which is understandable given the current economic climate, but it’s quickly becoming apparent that you can’t undervalue the grading process if you want a high-quality finish.” Another factor of the low budget
trend is the fact that pretty much anyone can shoot a movie these days, which has seen the emergence of a huge new market. The vast majority of this market has a limited knowledge of post production processes and almost never budgets for colour correction. However, if 1% of this new market decides to take their project to a specialised facility that can grade and finish it professionally then again that’s positive step for the industry. Broadcasters, as we know, are
facing huge budget constraints resulting in a proliferation of fast turnaround programming with the emphasis on speed. This again highlights the fact that a lot of people are still working in a very linear post production workflow meaning that they shoot, edit and grade sometimes as little as 12 hours before broadcasting so there’s minimal or no time for colour correction. In the fast-paced broadcast environment colourists unfortunately don’t always get the time to utilise all the tools in the grading system. The toolset isn’t
Despite the current climate the market is opening up to new ideas and is seeing some extremely talented colourists coming through who will continue to push the creative boundaries and the toolset of the grading system.
maximised due to tight deadlines or because the safety net to explore while working isn’t there. The pressure to get the job done as quickly as possible can make it hard for the creative side of the industry to advance. On the flip side, in some instances
Image Systems has seen facilities invest in software colour correction not because they want to deliver data, although that’s obviously a huge benefit, but because they want to be able to make editorial changes right up to the last minute in the grading suite with a high-end software grading system. The fact that you can grade before the edit and VFX are completed is a huge benefit for broadcasters and allows more time for creativity. The technical development for
grading manufacturers is a balancing act between solving workflow issues and building new colour tools. Manufacturers are required to continuously update their software to accommodate the proliferating file structures and codecs from ingest through digital intermediate, delivery and archive. This is applicable to all forms of production from feature film to broadcast where workflows are multiplying, individual and constantly changing and software providers need to be able to adapt to meet the demands of this process. Facilities catering to the demands of broadcasters will employ different
workflows for ingest, editorial, finishing, delivery and archive with multiple vendors involved in this process. These needs will vary from country to country, region to region and case by case. Most broadcasters and production companies are still learning about file-based processes so there is a great deal of education needed in the field to help them devise robust pipelines. Shaw comments: “It’s a big
problem. Everyone wants to get ahead and the way that they seem to do that is by creating their own unique standards, which colour correction manufacturers then have to accommodate. It’s the same with deliverables. With the world moving towards data formats you would think that we could agree on a standard delivery system but we’ve still got different frame rates, we’ve got field and frame-based formats and we’ve got different aspect ratios. The number of deliverables now has gone from half-a-dozen to probably 10 times that! The upside is that facilities make a bit of money doing all of those deliverables but on the downside it doesn’t add to creativity.” One of the key elements to consider
within the workflow is the regular updates to camera SDKs and firmware. Again, where there were once a handful of camera choices and tape options there are now up to 20 different digital models and all sorts of possible format recording routes making it arguably the biggest change to impact production in recent times. Manufacturers can’t just incorporate the latest version and expect it to be automatically backwards compatible. A new SDK can completely break the previous version so manufacturers have to be prepared to invest time testing legacy files with each release. It’s important for companies such as Image Systems to communicate to customers very clearly what the software can support so that when they research workflows and specify cameras for a project they can make an informed decision. The DI workflow has made a huge
impact on the industry creating benefits and challenges for manufacturers, post facilities and colourists. Despite the current climate the market is opening up to new ideas and is seeing some extremely talented colourists coming through who will continue to push the creative boundaries and the toolset of the grading system.
68 l ibe l september/october 2011 l
www.ibeweb.com
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