London-based postproduction facility The Look is relying on the color management capabilities of LightSpace CMS as part of a new remote grading service being offered direct to production companies and agencies that have their own in-house postproduction capabilities with Blackmagic‘s DaVinci Resolve software. LightSpace CMS ensures the images seen on the client’s display match the images being graded live at The Look.
The Look performs a large range of grading work across multiple industry sectors, including commercials, TV drama, feature films and documentaries, all using LightSpace CMS for in-house color management. Using the new remote grading services means that production companies and agencies can now edit a project at online resolution, upload it to The Look and work with the colorist to grade the project remotely while communicating using standard video conferencing. With all project settings saved both remotely as well as locally, the production company or creative agency can make changes without needing The Look to reapply a grade if the edit changes.
To manage the color at the client location The Look has developed a series of custom wedges, which are used with LightSpace CMS to ensure the client’s display is correctly calibrated ahead of a grade.
The Look’s lead colorist and company CEO Thomas Urbye understands the need for accurate display calibration and color management. “Without the ability to have total confidence in your display’s colorimetry you can never be certain what you are seeing is what the client wants, or what you, as the colorist, expect to see,” explained Urbye. “We have relied on Light Illusion‘s renowned LightSpace color management system (CMS) for all in-house display calibration for a number of years, and it lends itself perfectly to remote grading color management for those clients serious about calibration, extending our color guarantee capability into the client’s own location.”
“Being able to use an experienced internationally renowned colorist, as is available with The Look’s remote grading service, has obvious benefit for the end client, but requires the client’s displays to guarantee color reproduction in the same way as The Look’s displays – something LightSpace CMS has developed to perform in the simplest way possible,” explained Steve Shaw, CEO of Light Illusion.
“Color guarantee is critical to any postproduction operation, ensuring that all displays, monitors, and projectors show images exactly as they should be seen,” Urbye added. “When operating a remote grading session such color management quality needs to extend into the client’s facility as well, and this has been made possible only through the extremely accurate and simple way LightSpace CMS manages color and calibration.”
