Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/551510
49 SUMMER 2015 / CINEMONTAGE efficient for the simple reason that Westerman and her crew didn't have to step back and take an extra day to color-correct preview versions. "That saved us a lot of time and energy," she says. "We were able to output an HDCAM-SR tape directly from the Avid and take it straight to a theatre. In the past, we would never preview an Avid cut without having someone do a color-timing pass first. Now, with ACES, it's not an issue because the dailies color grade or on-set look has already been applied." Similarly, for visual effects' collaboration, Westerman says that the utilization of ACES "streamlined our process in that our assistants would create EDLs with CDL information included. The digital intermediate vendor would pull the plates and provide the CDL information and a viewing LUT to our visual effects producer and his team, and they could get to work immediately. We didn't have to set aside time to pre-color- time the plates, which was a definite plus. If an adjustment did have to be made without editors present to give input about the look of the show, our colorist Trent Johnson already had the information about the DP's intended look — since we were utilizing ACES." Furthermore, the editor's relationship with the colorist regarding the digital intermediate process did not change creatively, according to Westerman, but became more efficient. In her career, she says she has traditionally participated in the DI and in "helping to create a foundation for the final DI work" during the editing process. However, "As ACES streamlines the process, the amount of time we need to spend in the color- timing sessions decreases," she adds. "With this process, it is much easier for the colorist to do his own pass, then call us in for a review session. He already has a clearer understanding of what the DP, director and producer intended, with adjustments from editorial reflected in the Avid QuickTime reference. We used to camp out in the DI room or the lab. Now, we color- time the movie in significantly shorter time than we used to, because ACES allows things to fall into place more efficiently." Colorist Trent Johnson handled that job on both projects that Westerman edited. In fact, he worked on some seven movies between 2013 and 2014 that were done using a pre- release version of the ACES spec. "ACES is no panacea, but while it is not an auto-color-corrector, it certainly is an auto-confidence-enabler, " he says. "It's a huge benefit to have confidence that I'm seeing the same images as everyone else working on the movie and, in some areas, enjoying a huge time savings as well." According to Johnson, the beauty of ACES is that it is transparent to him as the colorist. "I simply see the same color they saw on set, as it was baked into the dailies," he explains. "When I start a show, ACES is turned on in my Baselight color corrector, and any on- set color corrections — CDLs — are already in my color list, as they are imported from the client's EDL. The visual effects vendors see the same color on their monitors, as they can use an ACES LUT as well, even if they aren't using Baselight. When I receive Trent Johnson.