Technicolor has extended its color grading capabilities in Hollywood with FilmLight’s Baselight X system. Baselight X is the latest and most powerful implementation of the Baselight colour grading and finishing system.
HDR color grading services are available at Technicolor’s postproduction facilities globally, but its Hollywood center obviously represents a major film and television production market. The expansion in Baselight grading in this location reflects the increasing demand from the local industry to deliver an uncompromised finish that still pushes creative boundaries. Baselight X provides exceptional power and performance for HDR projects, along with color space management.
HDR is not the only technology where Technicolor is very active. Over the past few years, the group has made a significant commitment to the growth of several next-generation entertainment formats, such as 120fps stereo 4K, 8K UHD and other custom display formats. The architecture of Baselight X ensures Technicolor can rise to the challenge to work at the maximum resolution through every stage in the process–from the original source material to the final deliverables.
Technicolor’s sr. supervising colorist, Maxine Gervais, has worked with Baselight for many years. “Of the many things that are important to better serve my clients, one is to work directly from raw camera files,” she explained. “The ability to debayer these files live not only saves time, but it preserves image detail that can be accessed and manipulated during the DI.”
The Ultra HD video output – available on all Baselight systems – provides a full 4K 4:4:4 display output at frame rates up to 60p, allowing the user to view 4K work at its native resolution. Additionally Baselight X also incorporates a large, ultra high-speed storage system that connects directly to the internal image processing components, addressing Dolby’s requirement to play 4K 4096×3112 16-bit film scans and cache the results to disk at the same time.
“As camera technologies evolve, it’s become common for shows to capture and deliver 6K raw files,” added Gervais. “And some shows are moving towards a 4K VFX workflow too. The additional processing power and storage capacity of Baselight X is essential in allowing me to work with today’s larger files, without sacrificing the real-time playback with complex colour grading and compositing that my clients have come to expect.”
Technicolor and FilmLight have a long history of collaboration, with Technicolor facilities in Montreal, New York, Los Angeles and London all offering Baselight as part of their DI pipeline. This gives Technicolor’s colorists and color scientists ultimate real-time control over high-resolution, high-bit depth HDR grading and finishing.
Review: Writer-Director James Gunn’s “Superman”
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a … a purple and orange shape-shifting chemical compound?
Writer-director James Gunn's "Superman" was always going to be a strange chemistry of filmmaker and material. Gunn, the mind behind "Guardians of the Galaxy" and "The Suicide Squad," has reliably drifted toward a B-movie superhero realm populated (usually over-populated) with the lesser-known freaks, oddities and grotesquerie of back-issue comics.
But you don't get more mainstream than Superman. And let's face it, unless Christopher Reeve is in the suit, the rock-jawed Man of Steel can be a bit of a bore. Much of the fun and frustration of Gunn's movie is seeing how he stretches and strains to make Superman, you know, interesting.
In the latest revamp for the archetypal superhero, Gunn does a lot to give Superman (played with an easy charm by David Corenswet ) a lift. He scraps the origin story. He gives Superman a dog. And he ropes in not just expected regulars like Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) and Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) but some less conventional choices — none more so than that colorful jumble of elements, Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan).
Metamorpho, a melancholy, mutilated man whose powers were born out of tragedy, is just one of many side shows in "Superman." But he's the most representative of what Gunn is going for. Gunn might favor a traditional-looking hero at the center, like Chris Pratt's Star-Lord in "Guardians of the Galaxy." And Corenswet, complete with hair curl, looks the part, too. But Gunn's heart is with the weirdos who soldier on.
The heavy lift of "Superman" is making the case that the perfect superhuman being with "S" on his chest is strange, too. He's a do-gooder at a time when no one does good... Read More