OT Ping Dave Plowman

[Andy Luckman (AJL Electronics)]

On some TV credits, the title of "Colourist" comes up. What do they actually do?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Most quality programmes these days are recorded in components which allows the colour balance of the pictures to be altered somewhat. Usually, just to get the flesh tones correct. The sort of lights used in TV tend to have colour temperatures which vary slightly with age. This gets ignored by the eye, but shows up on camera. As, of course, does natural light.

The normal technical term for sorting this is called grading in the UK. I'd guess 'colourist' comes from across the pond. ;-)

On at least some dramas in the UK - like say Casualty - the lighting director will grade the pictures after the show is edited. Others may use a specialist company, as the equipment to perform this task is costly.

[Owain]

I'm very glad you asked that question, and that Dave answered it, because I'd wondered that too.

I'd thought that it was something to do with turning black-and-white film into colour :-)

Owain

[Calvin]

It's much more fun than that. The colourist has the ability to change any colour into any other colour, a process known as secondary colour correction. It's an artistic skill requiring good colour vision and good judgement alongside the ability to manipulate complex controls in real time often with directors sitting behind you applying pressure and irritation. For a TV show, as Dave Plowman says, the colourist will usually just fix the colour changes due to lighting - there is a budget after all. For a movie or an advert many hours will go into getting the colours just right, you'd be amazed how picky the directors can be. The real kit is expensive and specialised but very quick to use and very powerfull. If you have access to Adobe Premier (free with some Sony laptops) you will find a less powerful version hidden in the colour controls - you can waste hours playing with it! HTH Calvin

[Frank Erskine]

Although more likely labelled as "colorist" :-)

[Andy Luckman (AJL Electronics)]

[Doctor Evil]

Also called colour balancing. Some directors like to shoot within tight f stop range and lighting to give a certain colour temperature throughout. This at times has its disadvantages, in that an outside scene can be remarkably like an inside one, which doesn't appear natural. Many 1970s US TV shows were shot that way.

In Gone With The Wind (1939), the film started out bright and colourful and gradually went darker as teh war took hold. Very clever and very effective. Mainly done with lighting and f stops.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

If you shoot at a constant colour temperature, the colours will change throughout the day. And in different types of weather and season. Also, most interiors will require some form of lighting - even in daylight. And no two lamps will be exactly the same, colour temperature wise. So you use filters to match the lamps to ambient at that time, if necessary. Of course you may wish to simulate early morning or late evening by altering the colour temperature, but as is more likely you'll alter the colour temperature at either end of the day to match your 'norm'.

So colour temperature is constantly being altered to keep flesh tones etc looking the same shot by shot. In the early days of video, this would usually be done by white balancing just before shooting each shot. Now at least with some cameras the colour temperature can be varied on the fly so can be done more quickly by eye. With a skilled operator.

Shot on film, which can and will be graded anyway. It has to be, because you can only guess at the results when it's being shot. It's a very inexact science, film. But very tolerant in some ways compared to video. With video, assuming you have a properly adjusted Grade 1 monitor and a waveform scope, it's possible to get the results required at the time with care. Same as you'd have to do on a live broadcast.

Care to speculate how much that film would cost to make in modern money? Not that it matters - lighting and exposure are key elements in any pictures - film video or stills. And it will still have had the pictures graded.

[Doctor Evil]

They shoot with exterior lights even in strong sunlight.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Most would use reflectors. Why waste money on lights when they're not needed?

[Dave Liquorice]

Especialy the big f off beggers that are needed to make any impression against direct sunlight. A 4kW HMI at 8' is a nice bit of fill.

The real problems come with interiors and large expanses of glass to the outside world. Out come the 10ks, the naffed off sparks and melting crew...

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Yes - but won't run of a 13 amp so restricted to a studio back lot or where you have a genny.

On The Bill, we've got custom made perspex NDs for CID which has acres of glass. Only takes a few minutes to fit them. But the biggest lamps the crew carry are only 2.5 HMIs, and there's rarely anywhere to put them in there due to near 360 shooting. So it just burns out a bit. ;-)

[Jim Michaels]

In US video production the "Video Engineer" "paints" or "shades" the cameras to produce the desired colors and tonal range.

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[Matt]

Ahh so that explains the appalling colour quality on NTSC then, the bloody cameras look nice in their shiny paint but the Video Engineer does sod all to ensure the image resembles reality. ;-)

[tony sayer]

Bit like UK digital TV then;(.......

[Dave Plowman (News)]

That's fine where there is one on site when shooting. But you'll not get a vision engineer on a single camera shoot in the UK - ie most quality drama. It will usually be the lighting director who does this task on a single camera shoot.

However, if you want minimum crew on location where involved lighting isn't required, it's not possible for the cameraman to do this as he's just got too many other things to operate. So he'd do an initial white balance. He'll hopefully adjust the exposure in the middle of a shot if needed, though, because once it's overexposed there's nothing you can do to correct it afterwards.

But all you've got to do is look at all the elcheapo make over progs etc to see what happens when proper standards go out the window...

[Dave Liquorice]

Drama shoot without a load carrier/generator?

Frames of scrim are available for all the windows of the buildings used for interiors up at Emmerdale. These are fitted externally. Still gets damn hot inside with just a couple of 575s. Glad I'm not down there this week, Sods Law would guarantee that the story will require a week of interior night so everything blacked out and sealed up.

Emm mostly stick to 3 wallers during a scene but then it is more "traditionally" shot than The Bill.

Charming. B-)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Yup. Only really brought in for exterior night shoots or where we can't blag some electricity. Remember at most locations you're already paying for the premises and that usually includes power.

Trouble with scrim is it's only 1? stop? IIRC, the perspex is 3.

Of course that's only the master. Once you go into singles you can usually make it a bit more pretty. ;-)

[Andy Hall]

Which explains why NTSC stands for Never Twice the Same Color.

(whether it be at the center of the theater or not).....

[Owain]

Naff Television Selling Cornflakes.

Owain