Understanding The Future Of Post Production and Color Grading: Part 1

What are the forces driving (or stunting) technological innovation in Color Grading?

In 2016 and 2017 I gave a presentation on the future of color grading at several conferences. I looked at emerging Wide Color Gamut standards and innovation with High Dynamic Range images. This year I put a pause on conference presentations. And on Mixing Light we recently decided that I should take this Future of Color Grading ‘Pat Talk’, update it, and bring it to Mixing Light. And that’s what this Insight series is about.

Setting the foundation for more in-depth teachings of emerging technologies

On a website like Mixing Light, we try to make our individual Insights stand-alone. But we don’t want to keep repeating the same fundamental concepts every time we dig into new and emerging topics. Instead, this series serves as a foundational set of Insights we can refer members to, when we start digging down. It allows us to jump in the deep end, with this Series being a life raft for those who need it.

This Insight series talks about innovation across 5 specific aspects of moving digital images. It explores historical precedents explaining how we got to where we are. What are the forces driving technological innovation? And what forces act as a brake to innovation? The idea is to find a gut-check metric for assessing innovative ideas. This way, you know what innovations you need to study and prepare for – anticipating the needs of your clients. You move from being reactive to being proactive, in your professional development.

And here in Part 1, is there is one term you should walk away with? Yes: Presence.

Further Reading for Part 1

• In this Insight I make heavy use of BBC White Papers. You can find the BBC White Paper archive on their R&D website. If you want to read specific white papers related to the topic of this Series, a good place to start is their HDR & Hybrid Log Gamma Project Page. And here’s a list of the search results for HDR in their research database.
• The Technicolor Presentation is behind the Siggraph paywall. But the link will take you to the proper page, just do a search for their company name and log in to access it.
• I went through quite a bit of source material and here are a few of the more notable articles on High Frame Rate creation, exhibition, and audience reactions:
  • The Hobbit: An Unexpected Masterclass in Why 48 FPS Fails (Gizmodo.com)
  • The Hobbit: Weta returns to Middle-earth (FXGuide.com)
  • Ang Lee’s new film shows the peril and incredible promise of high-frame rate movies

Enjoy!

-pi