ROUND TABLE
DEF: As productions become more technically complex, how is the relationship between lighting, camera, colour and post evolving on-set? TK: The virtual production boom ushered in by the pandemic led to the adoption of Image Based Lighting (IBL), a CGI lighting concept by the professional motion picture lighting community. Although enthusiasm for VP has recently waned in favour of the current AI boom, IBL continues to endure and now mature as a philosophy and practice. It’s not just pixel mapping, which has existed for a while – IBL introduced post-production colorimetry concepts and technology to control lighting fixtures on-set, so lighting technicians now must learn a whole new skillset and lexicon for their work. For example, the colorimetry concept of ‘CIE 1931 xy chromaticities’ (or ‘xy’ for short) forms the basis of all colour language in contemporary camera and post- production technology.
camera and lighting teams to work together towards advancing the workflows between the two departments. In its most basic form, FrameSync lets us eliminate artifacts and torn frames when shooting with a rolling shutter camera. On the more advanced side, FrameSync unlocks the ability for frame remapping workflows – think being able to achieve multiple lighting states in a single take. This allows for multi-track lighting and the ability to capture day/night looks in one take. The lights know exactly when the camera’s shutter is open or closed, and we enable crews to take advantage of that for the benefit of the art . DEF: Where are the biggest friction points when integrating fixtures, control systems and colour pipelines on-set? How might these be made smoother? TK: Matching multiple fixtures to output even the same value of white light on camera is a massive roadblock to productions of any budget size for a few reasons. First and foremost, different and outdated spectral approaches in LED engine designs between companies sits at the heart of the problem. Most lighting companies have used the perception colour concept of mixing red, green and blue to create colour, but cameras expect the physics of reflected illuminants to create colour signals, not these RGB light analogues. As a result, colour mismatches often occur between how filmmakers and cameras perceive the same light. Secondly, lighting technicians and DOPs confuse an ideal colour control interface concept with an ideal colour communication language to lights. Lighting technicians have arbitrarily sent RGB or Hue/Saturation/Brightness (HSB) values as ‘colour information’ protocols, but these concepts differ in definition and execution wildly between companies. Many savvy lighting technicians now try to solve the colour language confusion with communication protocols that employ CIE 1931 xy values coupled with brightness information as a unified colour communication control. Many caveats exist for relying only on CIE 1931 xy to solve these colour confusion issues. It throws out the spectral identity of lights,
Tech savvy lighting technicians have now adopted ‘xy’ chromaticity values to specify lighting colours instead of gel numbers, RGB values or Colour Temperature readings. Although xy values in lighting do not necessarily match xy values in post-production, learning about this concept has started to pull lighting professionals into even closer collaboration with camera and post departments. Soon, lighting crews will use colour Look Up Tables (LUTs) and other fixture device colour management ideas from camera and post-production colour departments. DW: Gaffers and cinematographers lean on DITs more than ever to ensure the continuity of the colour pipeline from start to finish. With much of the shoot being graded in real time before being sent across to a director’s monitor or to video village, the notes and LUTs developed during the shoot have become an integral part of the post- production grading process. JA: As these filmmaking technologies continue to converge, it’s important to understand not just how they affect one another, but also to respect the unique work and contributions from each department. We’ve been empowered by every piece of the pipeline being computerised, with cameras, lighting systems and colour workflows now operating as interconnected, data- driven tools, and it’s great to see how manufacturers and productions are beginning to tie all the pieces together. At Creamsource, we’ve put a great focus on colour and camera sync technology. Our Vortex fixtures can shift their colour space to better match virtual environments or the colour space of a camera’s sensor and to help streamline the workload for the post-production team. We’re also very transparent about the colour parameters and profiles around our fixtures as we believe honesty is essential when it comes to lighting, and especially colour. With our FrameSync technology, we are encouraging the
EYE FOR DETAIL Greig Fraser used Creamsource Vortex fixtures to craft the unique light from the sun in Dune (left)
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