Here’s a quick follow up to yesterday’s post for those who want to see the Technicolor CineStyle Color Assist workflow in action with Adobe Premiere CS6.  You can see how well integrated this workflow is in Premiere CS6 and how easy it would be to integrate this with your existing workflow, or with a DP on set setting initial looks for their editor/colorist.   The beauty of this is that you can send the small sidecar .XCSL file via e-mail which makes this very attractive for people constantly on the move. 

CineStyle™ Color Assist: Premiere Pro Workflow Tutorial from Technicolor CineStyle™ on Vimeo.

Technicolor – a company that has been around for over 95 years dealing with the science of film coloring – is entering the DSLR world once again.   

Their first foray into digital cinema game happened when they introduced the CineStyle Camera Profile for use with Canon HDDSLRs, and that was quite a success given how well adopted that picture style has become.  

Now they are introducing a color correction tool that I think many of you will find of interest:  CineStyle Color Assist and it’s available for an incredibly reasonable $99.00 on their new website.  Additionally CineStyle Looks packages are also available for $19.00.

We all know there are many tools out there for color correction – from great plug-ins to full featured grading suites.    Technicolor has taken a pretty interesting move here in that they’re trying to fill that gap in between – for those that want to set a look on set for example – and allow that look to travel all the way to their non-linear editors (FCP/Premiere) in a non-destructive way.    Let’s face it – not all of us have the time to spend over a dozen hours taking tutorials on high end grading tools such as Davinci Resolve…   The beauty of this software is that it allows you to do only as much as you want, or need to.   You can get quite far in terms of how far you push an image within this software – or you can do some very quick adjustments on set and send those over to your colorists with a sidecar file – if you’re a DP on set for example.    CineStyle Color Assist does all of this – but stops short of going into secondary windows and nodes – something that you’ll find in full-featured grading software.

CineStyle Color Assist Tool operates as a stand-alone application that also integrates with Final Cut Pro 7 or Adobe Premiere Pro 5.5/ 6, linking your color correction profiles back to your editing timeline.  The program has an incredibly friendly interface and comes with 25 pre-packaged "looks" that were designed by Technicolor’s colorists.  Of course, you can also design your own grades and presets.  

The tools packed with Color Assist include your basic color correction using three-way controls for Shadow, Midtone, Highlight, and Saturation adjustment.  There is also a secondary color correction function called the "Key Selector," which allows for defining and adjusting specific colors or ranges of colors.  Lastly, there is also a curves adjustment control.  

As I have stated in the past many times on this blog, I highly recommend shooting with a flat picture profile, such as the Technicolor CineStyle Profile.  This essentially let’s you shoot in a flat curve that gives you more range to work with in the color correction process.  So If you did shoot with this profile, or something similar, Color Assist has a pre-fashioned S-Curve that you can throw on your flat image that places your clip in a more cinematic color space.  You can then use the tools mentioned above to further stylize the look of your image.  CineStyle is designed to work perfectly with their CineStyle picture profile preset of course.    However, if you did not shoot with a flat color profile, you can apply a number of pre-made Log curves (2.2 Gamma, 2.4 Gamma, or Inverse S-Curve), which will flatten your image and better suit it for applying CineStyle Looks.

Still – it is absolutely BEST that you shoot with a flat picture profile to retain the most detail and dynamic range in your original footage.

The entire program is set up around the creation of .XCSL files, which Technicolor calls MetaColor files.  These files are metadata that are saved in the same file as your video clip and under the same name.  Each of these MetaColor files can save up to 9 different color compositions, which is handy if you are trying out a few varying grades.  Whatever composition you have set as the "master" is what will be applied to your clip when opened in the Color Assist viewer or you non-linear editing software.  There is also the ability to save a composition you have created as a .CSL file.  These are custom "looks" which the user creates, and are saved with the pre-packaged "looks" under the CineStyle Looks tab.

It’s important to note that all of your corrections must be done within the Color Assist program; they cannot be done within the effects window of either FCP 7 or Premiere Pro.  However, because of the MetaColor file being saved to the root director of your clips, you can easily link your footage back to these files with the Color Assist plug-in in either of those programs and effectively do round-trips.

I can’t help but think about how this workflow allows your DIT (if you have one!) or DP to begin doing basic color corrections on set.  S/he can simply open all of the raw footage within Color Assist and begin a basic color pass or apply a basic curve to each clip.  The MetaColor files are then saved alongside the original video clip, and when your editor gets the footage, s/he can link to the first pass at color correction and work with nice-looking footage.   You can even take the footage w / you after a shoot, do basic color correction, and e-mail only the .XCSL files to your editor/ colorist for example.    While your colorist may end up using a different piece of software for the final grade – they will have a great reference for the creative direction in which you are trying to push the footage.

Given the low cost of this software this is actually an extremely realistic workflow for many of us that don’t have access to the higher end solutions that Technicolor offers on set.   In fact this is the equivalent of you doing a basic first pass without the bells and whistles (and cost) of doing a grade in a coloring suite  – and can be quite a time saver (albeit make sure you’re aware that you need to pay close attention to your scopes if you’re not working with a calibrated monitor, and you should do your best to calibrate your laptop/cinema etc display regardless.)

Of course you can launch Color Assist straight from your editing software as well if you don’t want to touch the color grade until after the edit is complete.  It’s a very similar workflow to working with RED RAW files and the RED plug-in in Premiere and now FCP X.

There are the typical tools that any colorist has at his disposal: a histogram, vectorscope, and waveform monitor.  Each of these tools offers a way to visualize luminance and color values across the range of the image.  All three can be incredibly helpful in making sure that you clip has a nice tonal range, no specific color is overpowering the image, and that you haven’t crushed out your darks or blown out your highlights.

However, there are additional tools and features that don’t necessarily help with monitoring your corrections, but make the color correction process a heck of a lot easier.  The first is a Metadata Window.  This analyzes your clip for any embedded metadata: duration, frame rate, resolution, and codec type.  It will also list the number of color compositions stored within the clip and allow you to set a master.  Each color composition, when selected, also displays and allows the reset of the curve, primary, secondary, and looks that are utilized.

The second is a history window, similar to the one used in Adobe Photoshop, which features a running log of changes made to your current color composition.  I find this incredibly useful, as I will often dig myself into a hole with a grade I am creating, so it is nice to able to backtrack and find where I made a decision I didn’t like.  Additionally there is a split screen mode that allows a side-by-side comparison of the grade with the source footage, and render-free playback of your footage with an applied color correction – which is not standard to many color correction software out there.

In the coming weeks I will post a tutorial that goes in depth with explaining how to use the interface, and that delves into greater detail surrounding the different color correction controls.  For now, have a look at the video above, which gives a basic overview of Color Assist, and hop over to Technicolor’s site to check out the program. 

Technicolor Cinestyle is also doing a Facebook sweepstakes, giving away 1 Color Assist Package a week.  "Like" their Facebook page for details on how to win. https://www.facebook.com/TechnicolorCineStyle

It has been awhile since I have announced any of the new cameras and lenses coming from Canon outside of their C-EOS line.  But Canon has been incredibly busy developing new products that they have rolled out over the past few months so it’s time to play a bit of catch up on my end!

LENSES:

1. 35mm f/2 IS USM – This is a new Standard lens from Canon.  It is not L series glass, so it will not be as sharp (or as fast) as the 35mm f/1.4L.  However, it should work great for video, especially with the added Internal Stabilization feature.   This is a great lens for videographers that want one extra stop of light and IS on the wide angle range.  At this price the 35mm and 24mm should be serious considerations for filmmakers on a budget…  that extra stop of light is a big plus.

2. 24mm f/2.8 IS USM – This is another release to the Standard line of EF glass from Canon.  Like the 35mm above, it is also not going to be as sharp as its L series counterpart, but the Internal Stabilization is hard to pass up.  I have been taking this particular lens on the road with me in my EPIC kit, as I’ve found that the IS is great for shooting handheld with the EPIC when using my Canon EF mount  – it absolutely makes a difference.   But don’t expect to get results you might get with… say a Steadicam 😉

3. 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM – This is the Series II version of the 24-70mm f/2.8.  The body is slightly redesigned and the lens has redesigned glass elements that reduce distortion at the wide angle, and chromatic aberration throughout the focal length.  Autofocus has also been improved.  The prior version of this lens has always been one of my favorites for documentary and photojournalism, especially when used with the 70-200mm as its companion.  The only thing this lens does not update is its telescopic nature, which makes it difficult to use with matte boxes when shooting video.   That being said my early tests (and other documented tests) show that this lens is quite a bit sharper than its predecessor.   If there is ONE lens I would travel the world with (if given the choice to pick only one!) this is the lens I’d go with for both stills and video.

4. 24-70mm f/4L IS USM – This is a slightly less expensive version of the lens above that has been redesigned in a smaller housing and is meant to be a kit lens with the 6D (see below).  It is still an L series lens, so the optics are sharp, but it is a stop slower than the f/2.8L II.  This lens does however contain a Macro setting, unlike the f/2.8 version.  It also offers Image Stabilization which is hard to ignore.

5. 40mm f/2.8 Pancake Lens – This is interesting as Canon does not typically make pancake lenses.  Previously we have seen this style of lens come from Panasonic and Sony.     I haven’t tested the lens first hand – but if you want an extremely compact lens to travel with – it’s one to consider.

CAMERAS:

1. Canon 6D – A smaller, lighter version of Canon’s full frame DSLR’s.  This camera also boasts GPS and Wi-Fi, but has less professional controls than say a 5D MKIII : slightly narrower range of shutter speed and ISO’s, and 11pt autofocus (as compared to the 63pt autofuocus on the new 5D MkIII).  I suspect this will be a popular camera for DSLR filmmakers, as it updates some of the 5D MkII video features, with the ability to run almost 30min of continuous footage, and 720p 60fps.

2. Canon Rebel T4i – An update to the Rebel T3i.

3. Canon Powershot G15 – The latest in Canon’s Powershot line now has the ability to shoot 1080p video unlike its predecessor, the G12, which could only shoot 720p.

4. Canon EOS-M Mirrorless Digital Camera w/ 22mm f/2 lens – This is Canon’s first entry into the interchangeable lens, mirror less camera market.  It uses the same 18MP sensor as the T4i, but instead uses the smaller EF-M lens mount, coming equipped with a brand new 22mm f/2.0 lens.  It has a 3" screen, full 1080p video capability, and auto focus tracking.  

So there’s a quick recap of the latest releases from Canon.  Now if I only had enough time to keep up with all of them… let alone test of all them!