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Color Me Corrected: 3cP Program
Offers a Unified Image Control Standard from Production to Post
by Michael Kunkes

The list of new industry tools proclaiming themselves to be “standards” is a long one, especially in the post industry. However, Gamma and Density Co.’s new 3cP (Cinematographer’s Color Correction Program) on-set color correction program may truly live up to that term. Introduced at NAB 2005, 3cP addresses a need that has existed since the introduction of the digital intermediary (DI) and the proliferation of high-definition (HD) shooting. The system bridges the gap between the appearance of printed dailies and digital dailies and eases the frustration and miscommunication that develops all the way down the DI line from cinematographers to telecine and DI colorists and, of course, to picture editors and assistants.

Developed by one-time Soviet cinematographer Yuri Neyman (Liquid Sky, D.O.A., Civil Brand), 3cP (not an abbreviation for CCCP, despite the nationality of Neyman) is a formalizing of home-grown techniques for calibrating digital dailies already being utilized by cinematographers to bring some kind of unified standard between the set and the director of photography’s (DP) vision and information distribution to the colorist and DI suite. “3cP is a working concept of a unified image control standard that allows the DP’s true vision to translate from the set to the screen through a portable, user-friendly package,” Neyman says.

The software/hardware package is comprised of a digital still camera (the DP can choose profiles from a variety of still cameras), on which the DP takes a digital still of a set-up on a given shoot day. The shot or shots are placed on a Mac G4 PowerBook on the set that is loaded with Gamma and Density’s 3cP software and a specially calibrated display monitor. The DP then color corrects the still images one by one through side-by-side comparison of the original still camera image with the new image as it is being color corrected. He saves them and, when satisfied with the final look of his corrected images, outputs a report that is sent to the post facility via the internet or on CD-ROM.

The 3cP report the colorist receives consists of a JPEG of the original camera still, the corrected still, and a host of log-based metadata in terms the colorist can understand—the shooting day, scene, take, waveform and vectorscope readings for the corrected image, color timing numbers, notes about the stock, process and print stocks, and even a quality-control ‘bug’ superimposed on the corrected image that allows the colorist to see if the image was manipulated or corrupted since it left the DP’s control. With the DP’s intention thus defined, the colorist can quickly and efficiently deliver video dailies and a first pass of a DI that will be extremely close to that intention.

The lynchpin of the 3cP system is Gamma and Density’s custom-designed Telecine Color Control Chart, which Neyman and company co-founder Sacha Riviere originally developed several years ago. Calibrated in telecine language, the chart eliminates guesswork for DPs in their communications with colorists and ensures uniform calibration of all input and output devices between the system and post facilities. According to Neyman, the chart has been adopted by DPs in over 30 countries.

But what about the editors? “The 3cP color control chart is a far superior reference standard,” claims Rolf Fleischmann, a veteran assistant editor. “It makes setting up systems and calibrating by eye a lot easier than SMPTE color bars or some other kind of color chart that you might get in a lab.”

Fleischmann, currently working with editor Steve Rotter on Yours, Mine and Ours, starring Dennis Quaid and Renee Russo (a remake of the 1968 comedy that featured Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball), first heard about 3cP from the film’s DP, Theo Van De Sande. “During pre-pro, he was playing with it on his laptop,” Fleischmann explains. “I got excited over it as well and said, ‘Great, get me frames so I can be in sync with you.’ So now every day I get a CD with his color-corrected digital photos, which I open in PhotoShop. I have an automated correction that I make with the color settings in the DPX files [although reports can be prepared in any image format]. That gives me a color reference that I can compare on my own calibrated LCD or NTSC monitor. There’s absolutely no such thing as a perfectly calibrated monitor, but my set-up comes pretty close.”

Which leads to the question of keeping editors in the DI loop, a problem which continues to plague the evolving DI process. “The problem with digital workflow is that there is really no standard,” Fleischmann says. “With film, we had prints and the DP would sign off on the print; we’d send it to the optical house and we’d have a workprint for the timer to use when you matched your negative, then you would color correct on your first or second pass.”

Fleischmann believes 3cP is a groundbreaking product, but that tightening up the communication between DP and DI colorist is not enough. “They need to include more people in their workflow, especially editors,” he says. I don’t think they thought that through when they designed the system. They understand the eye of the DP, but the editors are the people who get the film where it has to go, and they have to talk to us too.” Still, Fleischmann feels that 3cP is an invaluable tool. Once they work out the bugs and get editors more involved, it will be amazing. It’s about time someone did this; anything that can add consistency to the look of our work is great.”

Don Zimmerman, ACE, was introduced to 3cP by Neyman and director of photography Jerzy Zielinski at the beginning of production on Fun With Dick and Jane, director Dean Parisot’s remake of the 1977 comedy which starred George Segal and Jane Fonda. “It’s potential value to the post process became very clear shortly after production started,” Zimmerman says. “3cP is very appealing for editors because it allows them to be more closely aligned with a DI environment and keep the integrity of the DP’s vision, and that puts you miles ahead. It allows the editor’s work environment to look as close as possible to what will ultimately be the final product. It’s a huge benefit to be able to achieve the look of the film without consuming a DP’s time in a color timing bay for weeks.”

Zimmerman, a highly respected editor and Oscar nominee for Coming Home in 1978, also believes that the editor needs to be more in the loop with the process. “I think an editor should be involved from day one,” he says. “This will allow an editing team to further the process and input ideas, right up to color timing; not to mention the benefits to timing visual effects plates.”

For Fleischmann, 3cP also is an essential tool for dealing with the visual effects team. “Depending who’s working on a show, I am planning in the future to convert my DPX image files to an appropriate format and then hand them off to the visual effects company as my equivalent of a timing clip. They desperately need some kind of color correction. In the past we were forced to give them QuickTimes out of the Avid because that was all we had.”

Another potential pitfall is the somewhat proprietary nature of DI suites; few post facilities have the same system, especially when it comes to software controls. “There are different workflows in the DI digital paradigm, but the result must be the same,” explains Neyman. “The final needs to look like a print from an original negative, even if the Intermediate negative was made from a digital file. Our 3cP files are serving as a technical and visual guide to how the final DI result must be seen.”

But with two patents secured and others pending, Gamma and Density is already shifting more of its focus to the translation of information from digital dailies to the DI suite itself. 3cP is already testing a new workflow for the DI finish of Fun With Dick and Jane that will allow the DI colorist to begin with the look already defined and eliminating the need for DP supervision.

Another reason Fleischmann believes that editors need to be more involved with 3cP is his feeling that “Avids come out of the rental companies not very well calibrated, so they’re all over the place. That’s why I bring my own high-quality LCD monitor and computer system so that I have one good reference to compare with the 3cP calibration.

“What we’ve been forced to do on our show is to take the image file, use it as a reference and match by eye,” he continues. “That’s still a lot better than what I’ve had to deal with in the past, with DPs giving me microcassettes with instructions saying, ‘make this darker, increase the contrast, etc.’ It’s not the best kind of communication. I am also importing those images directly into the Avid and comparing the quality that way, which is the only true way to compare the color from telecine.”

Like any responsive supplier, Neyman has more good news for Fleischmann and his colleagues. “We are planning very soon to calibrate the Avid monitors on Yours, Mine and Ours according to Gamma and Density standards,” he says. “Then there will be no need for our separate reference images to be sent to the editor for checking color correctness; Avid will became a part of 3cP’s color correct network. The DP on the set, the telecine colorist and editor all will see the same images, based on the color correction done by the DP on the set. We also plan on opening a dialogue with Avid to improve 3cP’s communication with them.”

At press time, Gamma and Density is announcing an update to 3cP that will allow HD and digital camera image sequences to be color corrected and played back on-set as uncompressed high-definition or standard-definition (SD) video streams. For the first time, corrections initially made on still images can be applied to motion footage and played back as real-time motion footage for review. Image sequences of Cineon and DPX files can now be corrected and played back as uncompressed HD or SD video streams.

“Editors need to know that 3cP has all the necessary tools for previsualizing an ‘after DI look’ right on the set,” adds Neyman. “So, at a very early point in the process, an editor seeing these ‘after DI look’ dailies will be in the DI loop long before the DI process actually happens.”

“With a system such as 3cP that continues to evolve and improve, I believe that color-corrected stills can be beneficial to every avenue of filmmaking,” Zimmerman reflects. “The earlier in the process that we can come close to the DP’s vision will get us that much faster down the road to our ultimate goal. Besides, what editor wouldn’t want to cut with full color-corrected dailies?

For more information or to download a 3cP demo, visit www.gammaanddensity.com.

Michael Kunkes is a freelance editor and writer specializing in animation, production and post-production. He can be reached at writermk@sbcglobal.net.

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