◗ Go with the FlowThis diagram shows how the Image Interchange Framework-Academy Color Encoding Specification,better known as IIF-ACES, functions with three different capture devices.struggle to move toward file-basedworkflows on the post houses themselves,”Cioni declares. “It’s not that thecrews on set are resistant to it, or thatthe cinematographers can’t get a goodlookingimage out of it. In fact, workflowproblems usually do not occur onset, but in post. It’s the post house thatis slow to upgrade and change. For somefacilities, getting a file-based workflow[going] is like sucking a golf ballthrough a garden hose, but they willthrow time, manpower and horsepowerat a problem, and if they apply enoughsuction, they will get that golf ball all ofthe way through. Or, instead, they couldjust invest in a separate pipeline rightnext to that one that is twice as wide!”Restructuring an entire posthouse’s pipeline can be a massive undertaking,especially if that pipeline is basedon legacy standards. “For a digitallycaptured production to look its best, andto get the most out of the camera, anall-digital path is the best way to go,”says Most. “If you believe film is theonly acceptable aesthetic, or the mostdesirable one, then you should try tofind a way to shoot film. Manipulatingdigitally captured images in a ratherdestructive way in order to make themlook ‘not digital’ is, to my mind, counterproductive.The advantage to all ofthese digital formats only really materializesif you hand that file over to thefinal colorist, and in many cases, thatjust isn’t happening.”In an effort to ingest all the variousformats, resolutions, codecs and bitdepths, many post facilities have engineeredtheir own solutions for theirparticular hardware/software pipelines.“Secret sauces arenot helping theworkflow situation.”In fact, many use this “secret sauce” topromote their services. “Secret saucesare not helping the workflow situation,”says Cioni. “I’ll admit that there arethings I don’t know about post, but Ihave not been able to find anything inwhat we do that I wouldn’t share withsomeone else. I find that if you shareinformation with your clients, they aremore likely to come back to you.”A discussion of workflow canquickly get bogged down in technicalterms such as color space, color gamut,linear, log, bit depth and so on, but theseimage parameters play a crucial role inthe quality of the images they display. Itis vital to understand that differentdevices and post steps “speak” in differentcolor-space languages, and that inorder to move an image through aspecific workflow, it is often necessaryto transform the image from one colorspace to another.In fact, transforms can occur atalmost every step in the post process.The original camera files, for example,must be ingested into a color-correctorplatform in order for the images to begraded. If you’re shooting on an Alexain Log C to ProRes files, for instance,you must choose what color space toperform your color corrections in, suchas Rec 709 for HD broadcast or Blu-rayfinish, or the DCI P3 standard fortheatrical exhibition. Either way, atransform occurs.The process of transforming animage can significantly impact theresults. Cioni explains, “When youtransform from one color space intoanother, the result cannot be exactly thesame. The only way for it to be exactlythe same is for it to be in the same colorspace. So when doing a transform, therehas to be some percentage of change. Ifit’s less than 1 percent, it’s probably notan issue, and if it’s less than 1 percent inthe highlights, that’s even less of anissue.“For example,” he continues, “if Ishowed you a series of pictures and saidthe difference between them is that onehas white at 100 percent, one has whiteat 95 percent, and the final image haswhite at 90 percent, you probablywouldn’t see much of a difference. But ifI were to show you images with black atzero, black at 5 percent and black at 10percent, you’d probably be throwing upby the time we got to 10. It’s the sameamount of variation, but where you put[that variation] changes the perceptionof what you see. When transformingbetween color spaces, you want to makesure that the transforms upset areas inthe image that are the least detectable.”A loss of image quality can occurwhen transforming imagery capturedby a modern digital-cinema camera,Diagram courtesy of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.80 January 2012 American Cinematographer
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