Hi guys,
After watching the excellent THR cinematographers roundtable, I feel compelled to draw more attention to one of the key issues they discuss - the lack of control of the final image in todays modern world of different screens and projector standards. I've been lucky enough to have a few films I've shot recently coloured by Rob Pizzey and Adam Glasman at Co3 in London and we've achieved results I've been delighted with in their colouring sweet, both in the P3 space on their projector, and in Rec709 on their Dolby monitors.
The problem however, is when we output to home deliverables in Rec709 h264, the image is so drastically different on my home macbook, iPad, TV that I find when sharing it I'm constantly having to explain and apologise for the final quality. Personally I've found this much less of a problem with DCPs in theatres, but modern displays at home are surely capable of better.
It strikes me that rec709 (created in 1990 for TV) surely can't still be the answer for grading to a standard that will look good across all devices. Of course the issue is in two parts here, but is there a push anywhere to standardise a modern colour space and standard across hardware, that can reap the benefits of more dynamic range, contrast and better colour representation?
I've heard about rec2020, but as far as I can see this seems to be just for 4K TVs?
Would love to hear your thoughts and hopefully there's an answer out there in the works, to ensure a more modern and standardised presentation of the work we do in peoples homes and on their devices. Eben