Colour Management System Used to Set Looks During Production
FilmLight’s colour management system Truelight On-Set is currently being used by the CBS television series Criminal Minds to set preliminary colour values during production. The system allows cinematographer Greg St. John to quickly create colour looks on the set both as a means of ensuring he’s got the shots he needs and as a reference for the show’s post production team. The process saves time and facilitates better artistic communication between production and post. Truelight On-Set is provided to the series by Los Angeles-based Video Equipment Rentals (VER), one of the world’s largest leasers of production and post production technologies.
Now in its fourth season, Criminal Minds is this year making the transition from film production to digital acquisition. Truelight On-Set is being used to help ease that transition by enabling the show’s production team to ensure that they are capturing a high quality look. “There was a lot of concern among the producers about retaining the very distinctive look the show is known for,” explained VER general manager Wayne Miller. “The Truelight On-Set process allows them, on-set, to see colour looks that they previously had to wait to see until the next morning, after the dailies were processed. It allows them to work with confidence.”
Significantly, colour looks developed on the set of Criminal Minds are not “burned in” to the original media. Truelight On-Set colour data are stored separately from the original media and dailies are transferred uncorrected, preserving their full range. Truelight colour values are retained for use during final grading, providing the colourist with an accurate representation of the cinematographer’s creative intent.
Truelight On-Set colour data is also applied to off-line media given to the show’s editorial team. Show editors are more sensitive to mood changes and the atmosphere of scenes because they are working with imagery that is “close to final.”
“Truelight On-Set allows the production team to lock timecode to the image manipulation,” noted Miller. “They can literally, in the course of a shot, change the LUT and the timecode will note those changes. They can then send the file to post and have it married to the imagery supplied to editorial with the LUT applied in exactly the right place.”
FilmLight provided technical support to Criminal Minds‘ production team to help them integrated Truelight On-Set into their production workflow and get the results they desired. “On-set colour correction is new to a lot of television shows,” said Miller. “FilmLight was there every step of the transition. They worked with the production, ensuring they knew how to manipulate images and manage files, and then in post facility, to help them translate it correctly in the post facility. It was invaluable.”
Contact – Mike Grieve ([email protected]) +44 20 7292 0400
