Digital Print Stock Design: A Framework for the Post-Film Era

For most of cinema history, the defining factor in the post-production “look” of captured imagery was the print stock. In addition to serving the technical function of transforming scene-referred imagery for display, print stocks were engineered by color scientists to impart preferential color characteristics, and selected by filmmakers based on these qualities. — As the physical medium of the print stock has been retired from contemporary image mastering workflows, so too has the guiding principle of a global creative transform. This is neither necessary nor beneficial; in fact, modern colorists are more in need of this concept than ever. — With the expanding color gamut and dynamic range capabilities of cameras and displays, unifying the imagery of a given piece of content has become increasingly challenging. This has led to the development of systems which address the $\underline{technical}$ aspects of the challenge, most notably ACES. Such initiatives and their broad adoption demonstrate an industry-wide recognition that world-class color grading demands world-class engineering. — Yet in spite of this recognition, there exists no initiative aimed at supporting the $\underline{creative}$ aspects of unifying motion imagery at the macro level. As a result, colorists are left to either re-purpose traditional color correction tools, or to step into the role of image scientist to develop their own. — This paper outlines a proposed framework for the design of digital print stocks, composed of a set of manipulations whose parameters can be intuitively modified by artists, resulting in a global look which can be deployed within any imaging pipeline.

Published

2021-11

Content type

Original Research

Keywords

color grading, look development, film print, digital cinema, HDR, color management, ACES

DOI

10.5594/M001947