The project in question wanted to use a telecine based dailies workflow, using a digital projector to display the dailies at the studio.

The problem was that the digital dailies always looked dark (very) when compared to the film prints...

The reason is very obvious, but only if you understand the workflow in use, and where mistakes were being made.

The following outlines the workflow being used, and follows with a description of a better workflow that would work correctly...

Existing Digital Dailies Workflow

• Film shot, processed and delivered to telecine transfer house for HD transfer and grading.
• Telecine transfer performed via a ‘normal’ video setup, with video monitor and linear (TV gamma) grading.
• Monitor set to approx 30ftl and 6500K as for normal TV video monitor specifications (film projector spec is 14ftl and 5400K).
• Grading performed dynamically, which means making more adjustments than available to a film grader, resulting in images that may not represent the actual underlying cinematography.
• Grading not done through a D-LogE ‘print curve’ (LUT), relying on standard TV gamma settings. This means the shadow and highlight detail of the HD image will not match that of a final film print, with image colour temperature set to a display white point of D65 as well as expecting to be viewed via a very bright monitor, rather than a duller projector. Room ambient brightness also a lot brighter than a theatre.
• As the final film look was to be dark and moody, the digital dailies were graded dark. The lack of a D-LogE print curve compounding this issue, especially within shadow detail as TV gamma shows more shadow detail than a film print curve.
• The editorial team was operating in a very bright environment - almost standard living room brightness, with un-calibrated LCD monitors with anywhere from 50ftl to 150ftl brightness – also necessary as the dailies images were very dark due to the required final look of the film – and they also ran unknown colour temperatures.
• Obviously, any dailies digital projection environment needs to be set to match the HD video monitor at the telecine house to be a truthful representation of the image grade performed there. But, this will not match a film print for the reasons outlined above.
• It is also impossible to calibrate any projector – digital or film – to accurately match a video monitor running at 30ftl or more as this will lift the blacks excessively. Using a linear TV gamma based telecine grading workflow again compounds this as shadow detail will appear artificially light - forcing the telecine operator to grade the images darker to compensate, with highlight detail clipped too early due to no roll-off within the TV gamma profile compared to a film print's D-LogE curve.

In an effort to help stabilize this dailies workflow a selection of calibrated TV gamma images were provided to editorial to be shown prior to any digital dailies screening. These images represent perfectly exposed film material, perfectly processed and printed 25 across, as seen on a 'TV' monitor with TV gamma.

The idea behind these images is that if these image look correct when viewed on any monitor or projector they represent a datum against which the following dailies images can be judged.

This helps in defining the relative brightness and colour of images compared to the reference frames, but the process will still suffer the issues of digital/film projection brightness and different colour temperature (white point) when compared to the HD video dailies workflow, due to the brighter settings of the video monitors, ambient room brightness, as well as the lack of D-LogE curve within the telecine transfer environment.

So, in an effort to better control the dailies process the following workflow is suggested...

Suggested Improved Digital Dailies Workflow

• Film shot, processed and delivered to telecine transfer house for HD transfer and grading.
• Telecine setup at transfer house to be a normal HD D65 monitor, but with contrast set to approximately 16ftl, and with brightness set to match 'film' blacks, with ambient room brightness also set to match a theatre, and transferred using a print based LUT to grade through to set film colour temperature and the correct print ‘S’ shaped profile.
• Ideally the base telecine setup should be for a 10bit Log (Cineon) transfer, using the LUT to present a 25 across image prior to any dailies grading being performed. This would match a film scanner, but within a telecine environment, and with the possibility of additional 'grading' being performed.
• The telecine monitor needs to be set to approx 14 to 16ftl to enable the default brightness (contrast in monitor speak) of the dailies digital projector to be set similarly to prevent lifted blacks when attempting to match the much brighter setting of a ‘normal’ video monitor setup. If the monitor were left at 30ftl and the LUT used to limit brightness to film print levels the projector would need to be set to 30ftl to match – not practical due to blacks lifting unacceptably within the projector.
• The grading process should ideally utilize no more than ‘Printer Light’ controls, mimicking the normal film dailies grading process, so ensuring the dailies are a true representation of original cinematography. However, the desire to grade to match the final look as closely as possible (as will be gained through the final full 2K/4K DI process) is understood, and this suggested workflow would make this easier and more understandable.
• The HD dailies to be recorded via the print LUT to maintain the correct film print profile and colourimetry.
• Using a LUT on the telecine output would present print matched shadow and highlight detail – no video clipping or crushing as is evident on the present dailies images, making the digital projected dailies much truer to the original film cinematography and final print image.
• When viewed on editorial LCD monitors, which are set to be much brighter due to the light conditions within editorial (anywhere from 50ftl to 150ftl), the images will appear much more detailed and less dense, helping the editorial process, especially lip-sync and while evaluating on-screen action for shot selection.
• Editorial monitors should be match calibrated to make sure everyone knows what they are looking at, and how the images they see will differ from the dailies screening room.

The above proposed workflow is very simple and should result in a far better understanding of the actual images been captured on-set. All it requires is for the telecine operation to be aware of what is required of them, and for the telecine room to be setup and calibrated as specified.

See the following Digital Dailies Workflow diagram for a better understanding.

Even performing more in the way of grading during the dailies transfer will be less of a problem as the workflow calibration will be understood throughout, although the images will then not represent truthfully the underlying cinematography.

It's also worth noting that the provision of TV gamma reference images to editorial in the first part of this workflow description is a limited attempt to help stabilize the then existing dailies workflow, but does not provide any final guarantees such as are provided by the improved digital dailies workflow.