Filmmaker Mode - UHD Alliance

[Phil Holland]

I've written a lot about this topic over the years and it's a conversation among the filmmaking community that has been growing in momentum as HD and UHD televisions have become in many ways apart of the premiere experience when it comes to watching films, more relevant now than ever in this streaming era. But this topic has had a long history.
This is an extension of a conversation among filmmakers back when film projection was the primary way to experience a project. Frustrations grew about print variation, degradation, and inconsistent theatrical experiences.

We're now at a point where filmmaker's intentions towards how an audience should experience a project can be provided somewhat consistently in the comfort of their home. I fully agree and have even had the chat with a couple of the filmmakers here, this is long overdue and the overall efforts have my full support.

Though the broad impact and exposure of Tom Cruise's crusade against Motion Smoothing certainly helped build general awareness. This is also about accurate Color, and Aspect Ratio as well as Frame Rate. We've seen a few efforts on this front already, but now it's nice to see a bit more of an organized concept being put forth.

Some of this will indeed be counter intuitive towards where technology might be going in showing off every feature of a modern television, but this growing effort will be extremely positive in the quality of the ideal viewing experience loaded with the intents of how the filmmakers want you to see what they've put very hard work in producing.

https://www.slashfilm.com/filmmaker-mode-details/

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/behind-screen/martin-scorsese-christopher-nolan-launching-filmmaker-mode-tv-setting-1234968

There has always been a noticeable difference of seeing a finished painting in person versus a reproduced print. Same content that you enjoy, but certainly a different experience when you really see it. On the filmmaking side many have been yearning to get people closer to the actual finished image even in reproduction. Slowly but surely, we are getting there.

With films premiering via streaming it's incredibly important. With films that have been around for decades it's extremely important. And I'll add one more, for discerning fans of films they may have seen many times and will re-watch many times in the future, this is potentially most important to them.

 

[Peter Lyons Collister ASC]

This is the best news ever. I have been on a crusade to adjust studio execs TVs for some years. This is certainly a huge step forward

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

Hi-Fi video

Hi-Fi video

Improving the fidelity of viewer's experiences is overdue. Filmmaker Mode looks to be a significant step in the right direction. What about the rest of the PQ equation?

UHD HDR displays >65" (nominally rec 2020 compliant, 98% of P3 please) provide the potential for legit home viewing experiences previously capped by limitations in display tech. As prices drop and older sets are replaced, the population of viewers with devices capable of reproducing high fidelity images is likely to expand dramatically.

IAC, it's actually the delivery chain that typically mauls picture quality, primarily via over compression and concatenation (common artifact of re-compressing compressed material). Broadcasters, cable/satellite distribution infrastructure and other stakeholders have resisted anything that might increase their costs with no promise of commensurate increases in revenue. With heavyweights like Apple and Disney jumping into streaming, the era of multi-channel linear distribution topologies as the dominant model is ebbing fast. If the streamers see PQ, or at least UHD resolution, as marketing leverage - perhaps the days of compressing material to 5mb/s will mercifully end.

As companies tend to do, the major MSO players have been busy developing point to point solutions based on IP (Internet Protocol) at the same time that they were milking the last revenue out of their existing infrastructure. Providing bandwidth (and perhaps a low cost local TV feed), for whatever purpose, will be their value add. Fortunately for US consumers, the impending roll out of 5G has the potential to provide broadband competition to wired services that have been the only game in most towns for years. Unfortunately, to potentially avoid real competition that could impact margins, both vertical and horizontal consolidation in the media & entertainment space is the new normal.

IAC, I don't expect actual costs at the consumer level to go down much or for long. What we should all expect, and frankly demand, is that the content we are served over IP is distributed at a minimum of 20mb/s for UHD (AFAIK, typical network feeds are around 4mb/s for HD) with premium services >40mb/s. Even newer codecs require a certain amount of bandwidth to avoid artifacts from bit starvation, especially since UHD is four times more pixels than HD.

I'll close my rant with a plea for displays, codecs, distribution infrastructure, etc to make 10 bits the minimum standard. I've yet to see nice looking HDR from 8 bit sources and I'm dubious that any effort to deliver what Filmmaker Mode, UHD Premium, etc promise will exist without leaving 8bit land. BTW, 12 bits "should" be the standard for premium fare...

Cheers - #19

 

[Karim D. Ghantous]

Better late than never! Took them fucking long enough to do something like this, though. I'd be happy enough if those stupid frame interpolation modes were turned off by default.

BTW I do very much like listening to Scorsese's voice. He's a terrific narrator.

 

[jake blackstone]

A while ago, there was already testing done for something very similar to a proposed "Filmmaker mode", where all visual enhancements, including motion smoothing, were disabled. Unfortunately, many viewers complained, because they wanted to be able to adjust those settings themself.
Consumers want what consumers want...

 

[Marc Wielage]

A while ago, there was already testing done for something very similar to a proposed "Filmmaker mode", where all visual enhancements, including motion smoothing, were disabled. Unfortunately, many viewers complained, because they wanted to be able to adjust those settings themself.

Actually, the ISF mode on the LG sets also turns off most of this stuff, including motion-compensation, noise-reduction, and enhancement. I've never heard any complaints from anybody when these unnecessary modes were turned off.

I'm 100% for the Filmmaker Mode, and anything that at least pushes the image closer to where it needs to be is a good thing.

 

[jake blackstone]

Actually, the ISF mode on the LG sets also turns off most of this stuff, including motion-compensation, noise-reduction, and enhancement. I've never heard any complaints from anybody when these unnecessary modes were turned off.

I'm 100% for the Filmmaker Mode, and anything that at least pushes the image closer to where it needs to be is a good thing.

The info I provided comes directly from well respected authority in the monitor manufacturer. They already had done the research and their market research doesn't support your conclusions based on a couple of anecdotal responses. If you ask anyone here, myself included, 99% of respondents will reply in the affirmative to the question of FilmMaker mode. Unfortunately, no one gives two shits what you or anyone here feels. Majority of home users want bright, colorful, HFR imagers and no alliance is going to change that. You can't legislate taste or respect for the original images. Manufacturers will only listen to what market tells them. Occasionally they will read market wrong (3D) but at the end of the day TV manufacturers will make TV sets with features users want and from the research I mentioned, buyers do not like to be told how they MUST watch pictures on TVs they own.

 

[Björn Benckert]

I though dolby vision already did this, plus hdr and best possible color setting for the given tv model, no? Seams like this filmakermode is a bit short in comparision, no?

 

[Misha Engel]

Give people both the "filmmaker mode" and the "soap opera mode", everybody happy.

 

[Karim D. Ghantous]

buyers do not like to be told how they MUST watch pictures on TVs they own.

Nobody is saying this.

Give people both the "filmmaker mode" and the "soap opera mode", everybody happy.

Agreed. If motion smoothing is an option (which ought to be off by default) then Filmmaker Mode can be an option, too. Life can be simple.

 

[jake blackstone]

Nobody is saying this.

When you disable ALL controls, that means "That is the only way you can watch the movie", no exceptions. I despise HFR, but that is beside the point. If consumer wants it, you can't tell them how to watch the material on their own TVs. In the movie theaters, sure, but at home? Sorry...

 

[jake blackstone]

I though dolby vision already did this, plus hdr and best possible color setting for the given tv model, no? Seams like this filmakermode is a bit short in comparision, no?

Yes, that is correct, but HDR is brand new technology, which is still work in progress. DolbyVision V4 TV sets are still very few out-there and V4 needs a couple of years to fully roll out. For example, at this point, only Nucoda and Resolve support V4, so DolbyVision has a long way to go before it is considered mainstream. Again, in the theaters it is much more established technology and, unlike in TV, filmmakers have full control as to how to display it there.

 

[Les Hillis]

Not against it, but it does seem like a 'Preservation Mode' to me.

Go to an art gallery.
Go to the theatre.
Read a book.
Listen to a radio play.
Watch a movie.
Watch commercial TV.

All valuable forms of entertainment and expression imo, which should be preserved. But they are all products of the time they grew out of, and that time is, ever increasingly, not now.

There are core factors that run through all those mediums, and those factors are still in effect in the newer means of entertainment and expression that already exist and that are currently emerging. The new forms are just as valid.

Luckily it doesn't have to be an either/or thing, and with initiatives like this, the creators intent can become more evident and help allow a more accurate perception and assessment of their work (for better or worse).

 

[Karim D. Ghantous]

When you disable ALL controls, that means "That is the only way you can watch the movie", no exceptions. I despise HFR, but that is beside the point. If consumer wants it, you can't tell them how to watch the material on their own TVs. In the movie theaters, sure, but at home? Sorry...

To repeat once more: you don't have to use this mode if you don't want to. You're over-thinking it. Chillax.

You don't have to use motion smoothing either. In fact you can de-colorize b&w films if your TV lets you completely desaturate. You can even zoom into the image of a cinemascope movie if you really want - your TV allows you to do this. You don't have to. But you can.

Not against it, but it does seem like a 'Preservation Mode' to me.

That's exactly right, because that's what it is. ;-) And it's a binary option - it's either activated or it isn't.

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

I think the one button option is an elegant solution. For the many folks who aren't hip to the why, but are aware it "doesn't look like a movie", it's perfect. Scorsese and other high profile filmmakers can even put notices on the front credits of their films advising audiences to enable Filmmaker Mode. Some will, some won't - but for those who want to, it should be easy. Just sayin'

Cheers - #19

 

[jake blackstone]

If you want to see the way creatives intended to see the movie, go to a movie theater. At home it's up to the individual to see the movie they want to see it and manufacturers will listen and deliver. You can't legislate "creative intent". All I can say is remember the time everyone lost their collective shit, when in Game of Thrones the Battle scene was too dark. Regardless of HBO protestations, viewers were furious even demanding to re-shoot the episode. What about the time when Superman look was deemed too desaturated and some were posting their own versions of grade? It's a waste of time trying to tell viewers how to watch TV, in the same way Tarantino and Nolan insist on only using film. Film is great and some living in LA can see "Once upon a time in Hollywood" as intended on film at Tarantino's own theater, but everyone else will see it in a digital form, regardless of his desire to preserve the film medium.

 

[jake blackstone]

To repeat once more: you don't have to use this mode if you don't want to. You're over-thinking it. Chillax.

That is not so clear cut as you making it out. First, right now we have no idea if selection of this mode will be mandatory. Will there be a Filmmaker mode logo, like DolbyVision and all your controls will be disabled or you will need to select this mode yourself? If it is not compulsory mode, then we already know, based on research I had mentioned, people didn't like the mode where using something like Filmmaker Mode "will disable all post-processing settings so the movie or show is displayed as the filmmaker intended". The bottom line, I think it's a big waste of time. Anyone here knows how to defeat all those needless enhancements and watch films properly already without someone disabling all enhancements for us.

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

I hear you Jake, but I believe there is a chunk of viewers between the hard cores and the misguided. People who lack the technical expertise to quickly remove all those needless enhancements (especially in the horrid menu systems of some displays) but actually do want to see a movie look like a movie.

If your point is that Filmmaker Mode is not a magic bullet, but is being portrayed as one, I support your pushback. OTOH, I do think it has real value and perhaps a secondary benefit of promoting the value of artistic intent. FWIW, I'd advocate for flags that would require the viewer to "opt out" of the recommended settings in the header - but the specter of confused Philistines with torches...

Cheers - #19

 

[jake blackstone]

Good points Blair. Unfortunately we must take technology progression into an account as well. The idea of Filmmaker Mode itself is good, until you realize, that the majority of films and shows, that were mastered in DolbyVision make Filmmaker intent completely obscured and frankly unavailable by the process itself. Let's face it, DolbyVision is quickly becoming the standard for many and soon for the majority of the movies and shows that are are mastered. In the DolbyVision process, Rec-709 version is always derived from DolbyVision and creation of Rec-709 always uses DolbyVision algorithm, that "interprets" the actual filmmaker intent. DolbyVision is pretty good at the interpretation, but L1 layer- Analisys is just that- an interpretation. Even having an L2- Trim layer introduces another layer of interpretation by the colorist. So, what exactly is the point of the FilmMaker mode then, if in Rec-709 is not the original work and in reality is a DolbyVison version, which already is a DolbyVision mode, where all controls already disabled? I just don't get it. Filmmakers who are concerned about preserving the original intent should concentrate on enticing people to go to the movie theaters and see movies there and not creating more confusion for the average viewer by introducing yet another viewing mode...

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

Ideally, all premium content would be distributed in DolbyVision and/or HDR10+, rec 2020 compliant, at decent bit rates. If your display can't accurately render the imagery, then replace it. See, that was easy ;-)

Joking aside, I'm encouraged that you are seeing DolbyVision becoming the mastering standard.

Cheers - #19