Just try moving basic color correction decisions made on one platform
to another. Tough job right? The American Society of Cinematographers'
Technology Committee is trying to change that. Chaired by two
non-cinematographers (Lou Levinson, senior colorist at Post Logic
Studios, and Josh Pines, vice president of imaging R&D at
Technicolor Digital Intermediates), the Digital Intermediate
Subcommittee is focused on creating an open Color Decision List (CDL)
that will ensure interoperability between color correction platforms
for use during principal photography/dailies, at secondary color
correction and for restoration. That means basic color correction lists
can be moved between vendor platforms and still contain meaningful
information.
To keep it simple – and therefore fairly painless – the ASC's DI
Subcommittee has focused on tools similar to standard telecine's lift,
gamma and gain, each in red, green and blue, to define a total of nine
parameters. After nearly eight months of work, the DI subcommittee just
tested what they'd developed by sending vendors "a picture and
instructions of what to do with it." The results, says Levinson, are
better than expected. "Not all the kids have turned in their homework,
but from the ones who did turn it in, it looks good so far," he says.
Next up is a decision on the mechanism usable for moving the list
between platforms. Vendor suggestions range from incorporating the CDL
in the CMX list to various schemes involving XML. Levinson hopes that
the CDL will have "some real functionality" by the end of the year.
Once that's working, the Subcommittee plans to up the ante by adding a
second level of parameters.