Company Announces Free-to-Use 90-Day Student License of Baselight
At NAB, FilmLight showed upgraded v5.0 releases of all of its products, including Baselight, Baselight Editions, Daylight, and Prelight, a new application for color-critical monitoring on set.
Included in the new Baselight software is FilmLight’s Base Grade color system — which moves away from traditional lift/gamma/gain color-correction and was first demonstrated at NAB last year — alongside new features including paint, perspective tracking, warping, depth keying and relighting.
The new Prelight 5.0 for Max OS is integrated with the ARRI Alexa SXT, the ARRI Alexa Mini, and the Panasonic VariCam. It was used on Disney’s Magic Camp, where it helped cinematographer Theo van de Sande manage color. Prelight can simply be used to verify that the desired LUTs and reference looks are working as intended; it can also be used to make color decisions on set, which are captured as Baselight Linked Grade (BLG) metadata for retrieval in post.
A free version of Prelight allows looks to be applied to still pictures and exported as BLG files. The full version ($995) enables real-time color management, LUT export, and the ability to embed BLG metadata in Alexa and Varicam recordings.
“Prelight is an indispensable tool for previewing what the color will eventually look like in the DI grading suite,” said colorist Bobby Maruvada in a prepared statement. “We used it on every shot on set, incorporating a full ACES color pipeline. It performed well under pressure, and we were more than happy with the results.”
Baselight’s software was on demo at Dolby’s booth, where it was being used to show Dolby Vision HDR workflow, and at the Sony booth, a full HDR 4K workflow for X-OCN F5/F55 footage was being shown, including Prelight, Daylight, and the final Baselight grade. Prelight was also seen at the ARRI booth, where on-set monitoring for the Alexa SXT using Canon’s DP-V2420 HDR monitor was demonstrated.
Completely new at NAB was Baselight Student, a software-only Baselight version for Mac OS that’s intended to be used as a learning tool for colorists in training for up to 90 days. The application will render only H.264 files or JPG images, but it outputs them without watermarks, so they can be used for school projects. It’s not just a download-and-use proposition, though; Baselight will contact each potential licensee individually to assess their needs and provide support. To register for the Baselight Learning Program, apply online.
