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July 2018

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www.postmagazine.com 31 POST JULY 2018 I know most of Post's audience is aware of what HDR is, but for those who don't, here's a quick brief. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. It's a video format with an expanded color space, al- lowing for a richer palette of color tones and much more luminance to play with. Your average consum- er might have a passing familiarity with the term thanks to their phones including an HDR setting, but it's important to understand that we're talking about a different format and a different process when it comes to moving imagery in HDR. The other acronym to be aware of is SDR, or Standard Dynamic Range. This is the color space for HD. I know. It's confusing. At this point, when there isn't widespread adoption or awareness of HDR, most projects will be delivering in both HDR and SDR. This is a very important aspect to be aware of and consider as you're preparing your workflow for this format. Currently, the main platforms for HDR content are streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon, viewable via HDR-capable monitors and stream- ing devices such as the Apple TV, Roku, Fire Stick, PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X. DirecTV has also made select content available to subscribers. DYNAMIC RANGE, DYNAMIC CREATIVITY As the launch of HDR has coincided with the launch of 4K-capable displays, the two technologies are of- ten discussed hand-in-hand. However, 4K resolution is the smaller part of the equation. HDR color space means you and your colorist have more control over the imagery than ever before. There's more possibil- ity. Think expanded creativity. HDR LAUNCH One of our earliest HDR projects had us partnering with Samsung in an effort to promote the technol- ogy nationwide. The content we graded was on display at every Best Buy across the country. We were given really rich, dramatic imagery to play with to help convince consumers to invest in these new displays. The target audience got a chance to see what a difference HDR can make to the viewing experience. It was an interesting challenge, as in ad- dition to our professional displays, we were actually grading to hit the exact specs of these particular Samsung televisions, and their ultimate placement in well-lit Best Buy stores. ALL OR NOTHING: THE MICHIGAN WOLVERINES Amazon has been one of the pioneers in delivering HDR content to its viewers. Nearly every one of its series is available to its audience in HDR, and when it was preparing to do the post on All or Nothing: The Michigan Wolverines, it wanted it delivered to the same high standard. We collaborated with Amazon and The Montag Group to color grade and deliver the series with a stunning, rich HDR look. However, as many viewers don't possess HDR ca- pable devices, it was also necessary to create SDR deliverables as well. As with many projects these days, there was a time crunch. We had eight episodes of about forty minutes each. Creating two different deliverables from scratch would be far too time consuming to meet Amazon's deadlines. Grading for both HDR and SDR, which would be available for standard displays, would have added time to the schedule, which we simply did not have. Working with Colorfront, we were able to shape a workflow, which expedited the entire process. Each episode was mastered in HDR, then we'd apply minor tweaks to create the SDR deliverable in a timely manner. A funny part of this process was that our post supervisor from The Montag Group, Christopher Rohlfs, is an experienced colorist. It was interesting and very creatively rewarding to be collaborating with a partner that knew color as intimately as I do. The executive producer, Jim Jorden also has an HDR - WHAT IT IS (AND WHAT IT ISN'T) BY LENNY MASTRANDREA 4K HDR AND SPECIAL REPORT: Netflix's All or Nothing

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