hello... DI Monitoring issues...

[Mohammed El Sharqawy]

Hi everyone,

well, this thread actually is not only related to RED camera, but, its related to the DI workflow itself... reall, this is the first forum that came to my mind for discussing this issue, I hope I don't bother anyone...

its all about printing from Digital data to film and release to theatres.. weather we got the digital data from RED ONE, other digital camera or a scanned film.. all the data goes throw the DI software/hardware we are aiming to use... we grade, work, maybe some VFX or any creative we do on the picture... while then we watch on a calibrated monitor (should be) using a look-up-table that simulates our final product... and here comes all my confusions...

we are going to have negative stocks, or clearly Internegatives.. these which will go later to print on release prints... while the Look-up-tables of the DI systems (the ones I've seen including SpeedGrade, CM RisingSunResearch) supports only the print stocks for example: Kodak 2383 ...

how can I gurantee my out-put while I'm monitoring a print film stock that will be generated from an internegative stock? when using internegative I get confused about conrast issues coz they're normally low contrast.. and while monitoring the work using print stock LUT you're lowering your conrast by a big deal, coz it should gain this contrast back when printed on the print stock coz print stocks have a high contrast...

I'm confused... what I thought about it as a solution, is I can print on a 2383 stock from the film recorder directly, then generate my internegatives so I can guarantee what's on the 2383 print stock, then go on making the dupes then back to print stocks for mass prod..

or, maybe there is something in the process which I really don't understand about printing negatives directly from the film recorder.. that I can monitor the two processes on one step,, digital to internegative then internegative to release print....

please help!! my mind is going to blow!

hope I didn't bother a lot about this issues!

 

[Jeff Brue]

Well....where to start. You're getting into a deep dark subject with much voodoo. Read the Cinespace manual, than read it again, and then one more time. Then read the bit about printing a test calibration LUT every week, sending the film to Australia, getting back your LUT and then praying that they don't drastically change the bath at the Lab. The LUT that RSR generates is what it will somewhat sort of take to make a print that will end up looking like what you color corrected. Providie you lad aims are on.

After all that well are you going to work in Rec 709 or P3, and then I hope you wrote some custom DCI pack encoding software.

 

[Mohammed El Sharqawy]

when it comes to Rec 709 I feel we're working on HD color spaces, which we don't want to use,, we might want to use sRGB or Adobe RGB instead.. or mabe I miss understand it...what is a custom DCI pack encoding software???
I'll read the RSR manual three times a day.. I promise to do that..
but, you think its really hard to control what the lab will give you? then wha's all the big talk about WUSIWUG DI monitoring using LUTs?
hope we are going to be able doing it in the end!!

 

[mezmo]

Hi Mohammed,
The way you ensure WYSIWUG DI display using LUT's it to work
in tandem with the post house assigned the task of producing the DI and
the LAB. These guys will determine the color management system required.
It needs to be indentical to the one they use for best results.
This is not a simple process as you know, It takes tests and tweaking, burns, printing, screenings and a lot of stuffing about.
Start working with them sooner, rather than later.
Cheers Mezmo