American Society of Cinematographers Motion Imaging Technology Council Progress Report 2018
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American Society of Cinematographers Motion Imaging Technology Council Progress Report 2018 By Curtis Clark, ASC; David Reisner; David Stump, Color Encoding System), they can creatively make the ASC; Bill Bennett, ASC; Jay Holben; most of this additional picture information, both color Michael Karagosian; Eric Rodli; Joachim Zell; and contrast, while preserving its integrity throughout Don Eklund; Bill Mandel; Gary Demos; Jim Fancher; the workflow. Joe Kane; Greg Ciaccio; Tim Kang; Joshua Pines; Parallel with these camera and workflow develop- Pete Ludé; David Morin; Michael Goi, ASC; ments are significant advances in display technologies Mike Sanders; W. Thomas Wall that are essential to reproduce this expanded creative canvas for cinema exhibition and TV (both on-demand streaming and broadcast). While TV content distribu- ASC Motion Imaging Technology Council Officers tion has been able to take advantage of increasingly avail- Chair: Curtis Clark, ASC able consumer TV displays that support (“4K”) Ultra Vice-Chair: Richard Edlund, ASC HD with both wide color gamut and HDR, including Vice-Chair: Steven Poster, ASC HDR10 and/or Dolby Vision for consumer TVs, Dolby Secretary & Director of Research: David Reisner, Vision for Digital Cinema has been a leader in devel- [email protected] oping laser-based projection that can display the full range of HDR contrast with DCI P3 color gamut. More recently, Samsung has demonstrated their new emissive Introduction LED-based 35 foot cinema display offering 4K resolu- ASC Motion Imaging Technology Council Chair: tion with full HDR utilizing DCI P3 color gamut. Curtis Clark, ASC Together, these new developments enable signifi- cantly enhanced creative possibilities for expanding The American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) the visual story telling of filmmaking via the art of Motion Imaging Technology Council (MITC – “my cinematography. tech”) continues its well-established 15 year tradition of proactive engagement with the motion picture and We will continue to proactively engage key technol- television industry by playing a significant leadership ogy developments that are influencing our motion imag- role influencing the development of key motion imaging ing future, including virtual production techniques, technologies to better support our filmmaking art form along with the evolution of virtual reality (VR). and the role of the cinematographer in its creation. The following reports from our Committees and The past year has been a watershed year for advanc- Working Groups cover in detail the crucial work being ing key motion imaging technologies on several fronts. done by our Council to address the growing array of We continue to see the evolution of digital motion motion imaging technology developments that are picture cameras incorporating high dynamic range impacting the art of filmmaking. (HDR) image capture in conjunction with signifi- As always, the ASC Motion Imaging Technology cant developments in both spatial resolution (4K, 6K Council is guided by its primary mission to engage and and 8K) and temporal resolution with higher frame influence motion imaging technology developments in rates, as well as large format sensors with wide color ways that best serve the filmmaker’s creative intent and gamut (WCG). the role of the cinematographer in realizing a creative HDR enables visual storytellers to expand their cre- ative canvas in terms of increased tonal contrast with vision that best serves that creative intent. As we traverse enhanced highlight and shadow detail while maintain- this radical terrain of unprecedented technology transi- ing dramatically improved blacks that utilize brighter tion, it is imperative that we persevere in our mission image display. When filmmakers shoot and master to have a path embracing the new while preserving the using the wide color gamut of ACES (the Academy artistic achievements of the past that have defined the art of filmmaking. I would very much like to thank all those who gener- ously devote their time and expertise to support the mis- Digital Object Identifier 10.5594/JMI.2018.2847998 Date of publication: xx xxx 2018 sion of the ASC Motion Imaging Technology Council. 1545-0279/18©2018SMPTE September 2018 | SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal 29 Secretary’s Comment ASC Motion Imaging Technology Council Secretary & Director of Research: David Reisner, [email protected] At the risk of repeating myself, motion picture tools and technologies have moved firmly into the digital realm and are experiencing the same type of continuous and rapid change and increased capabilities that every other digital technology shows. For ASC MITC, the past year saw an even greater interdependence in the work of our more than a dozen committees. Much of that interde- pendence has involved the themes of HDR and WCG - science, technologies, equipment, and workflows. (VR FIGURE 1. View of Samsung Onyx 2K display (background) with and Computational Cinematography are getting very Sony BVM-X300 (foreground) at Roundabout West in Santa close to being in that list now.) All of our committees Monica, California. are rising to the challenge of sharing that work, knowl- edge, and resources. in establishing a scientific basis, understanding, and Once we got solidly to 4K, I had expected digital guidelines to support presentation of artistic intent on a movie camera development to slow. But this past year wide range of displays, in a wide range of display envi- has seen release of several 6K and a few 8K cameras, ronments, for a wide range of material, potentially origi- and increased performance in cameras across the nated from a single master. (As demonstrated by Chair board. To understand what has been happening, see Gary Demos in his 2018 HPA Innovation Zone demo of our Camera Committee report. For the next element, single master appearance compensation for bright and see our Lens Committee report on the comprehensive dim surround.) But before you get too confident, look work they are doing on both lenses and on filters. (For for our upcoming article that will include the daunting those of you who don’t shoot pictures, the range of lens list of appearance phenomena that need to be revisited/ looks is wonderful. Come to one of the ASC’s lens days, reexamined in light of modern HDR display and camera if you can.) The Lens and Camera Committee reports capabilities. The SSIMWave HDR Evaluation Working both suggest that we may finally be seeing useful move- Group is coordinating with a commercial effort that is ment and advances in camera metadata. In the practical trying to provide an analytical measure of how those world, that is a long-sought achievement and a big deal. image characteristics hold up through real-world deliv- In the vast majority of feature movies and scripted- ery chains. They are also participating very actively in series television shows, the image data will promptly the assembly of our HDR test material library, with and repeatedly encounter the ASC CDL (ASC Color generous and essential participation by EFILM (esp. Decision List) during production and post. The DI Joachim Zell) and by Roundabout Entertainment (esp. (Digital Intermediate) Committee is exploring how Bryan McMahon and Jerome Dewhurst). well the ASC CDL works in this HDR, WCG environ- Our Plenoptic and Computational Imaging ment and if any changes/additions are necessary. Our Committee is both helping bring the concepts and Motion Imaging Workflow Committee is working with technology of more-than-planar image capture into the the Academy’s ACESnext Working Group to refine, ASC and also helping its developers understand the improve, and educate about the ACES system, which is needs of movies and movie-makers. To make a movie still our best channel for collecting, processing, sharing plenoptically, you probably shoot with a single perspec- and archiving that content. tive, one focus, and from one position, and throw the Our UHD TV, Next Generation Cinema Display, massive amount of camera data into the cloud where and Professional Display Committees are all actively it can be worked on by large-scale cloud computation involved in helping shape how that content is ultimately resources. Then during “post” that processing allows presented to provide compelling viewing experiences the cinematographer to pick/create actual shots. To that do a good job representing the creative team’s artis- help provide some order and to give cinematographers tic intent. New, theater-screen sized emissive display a means to express, communicate, and realize artistic products may be the route that gets HDR into theaters. intent, the Committee is exploring the possibility of an (Note the match between the small OLED (organic light- ASC PDL (Plenoptic Decision List). emitting diode) and the display wall in Fig. 1.) We have On the computational theme, over the past year we an impressive set of work and results from our Advanced have seen initial but real progress in the application of Imaging Committee that is making some real progress AI (Artificial Intelligence) – or, really, ML (Machine 30 SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal | September 2018 Learning) - on the artistic side of movie making. There big news this year is that ARRI cameras now automati- are significant benefits being realized in everything cally record lens metadata to the camera data stream. from ingest, description, and search, to localization and In addition to lens data, the metadata scheme also even a little bit of look manipulation and editing. But records data such as pan tilt information on a frame we are still seeing much less ML contribution to image by frame basis! ZEISS Compact Primes provide meta- manipulation in post and mastering than I have been data that is included into DPX files or RAW files via calling for. If you think of this as the swell before you either system, depending on the camera set up, and are hit by a huge wave, you will probably have it right. some grading tools are now giving users the ability to The Joint Technology Committee on Virtual de-warp and control lens shading on set.