Films shot in Dolby Vision?

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Richard Paul

To get the full effect of Dolby Vision wouldn't everything (filming, CGI, post-production) have to be made with it? Excluding conversions done after the movie is completed that sounds like it would be costly.

With modern day digital cameras, and even film (celluloid) for that matter, the RAW image already contains the extended dynamic range. Colorists can see it, it’s just that the end user doesn’t with current SDR mastering, e.g. from almost a year ago -

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

The great value of HDR for imagery comes as no surprise to colorists who have worked with Dolby’s LCD reference color grading monitor, the PRM 4200 or 4220, which some post houses use in their mastering and whose colorists have ever experimented with Dolby’s HDR ACES output display transform to allow movie content to be viewed in HDR and P3 color space while in the DYN operational mode (maximum luminance of 600 nits).

Then, afterwards, when flipping back to traditional non-HDR mode, it’s amazing how much RAW imagery (be it from the Alexa, RED, Sony--whatever high end camera be your acquisition device) is clipped at 100 nits.

The problem is that with high or extended (as Dolby actually prefers calling it) dynamic range is that it is even less forgiving than shooting in 4K which, in terms of the cost issue which you bring up, could potentially push make-up, set design, etc. to *up their game*. Additionally, I would say that in order to get ‘the full effect’ or the best effect out of Dolby Vision or any high dynamic range solution will be to light the scene in a way that would make the most out of an HDR finish…which could contribute additional cost. And the best way to check the lighting of a scene would be with the use of an HDR on-set monitor, of which, as of now, there is no practical product available for D.P.’s.

The producer can always have a colorist do an HDR pass on a good dynamic range element from a high end modern day digital camera or even film and produce something better than SDR mastering if the Director and colorist work collaboratively at it but, to get the full effect out of any HDR finish I think it would be optimal to have that finish in mind from the get-go and structure the production accordingly…which could incur additional cost. This is all new territory and the learning curve for everyone has just begun.