PROD.

Answer Print

FILM PRODUCTION AND COLOUR GRADING · ADELAIDE

We shoot commercials and documentaries, and grade pictures for other productions.

ROLL: A002
SCENE: SALT LAKE
LOOK: WARM DAY

A test still, shot for this page. On the left, the frame as the camera recorded it; on the right, our warm day grade. The desk is yours now: turn a wheel and watch the scopes answer.

On the left, everything sits in a grey band: no true black, no clean white. That is the log, keeping it all for later.

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A woman in a mustard coat and grey headscarf stands on a white salt lake under a pale sky, looking away to the left: the frame as the camera recorded it, flat and grey. — As the camera recorded it: log, flat on purpose.

The same salt-lake frame in our warm day look: the salt white, the sky clear and her coat back to mustard. — Our warm day look.

WARM DAY · LIFT R −0.010 G +0.000 B +0.020 · GAMMA R 1.03 G 1.00 B 0.97 · GAIN R 1.06 G 1.01 B 0.94 · SAT 1.05 · HAL 0.35

Compare with the camera log

Start from a look FLAT WARM DAY COLD DOCUMENTARY DAY FOR NIGHT

Drag the picture to wipe

WAVEFORM 100500

Brightness, column by column: black on the floor, white on the top line.

VECTOR

0.35

HALATION

MASTER 1.00log to picture SATURATION 1.05how much colour

Colour by direction and strength. Faces fall along the skin line.

Show one wheel LIFT GAMMA GAIN

LIFT the darks

Lift: all the darks lighter or darker

GAMMA the middle

Gamma: the middle lighter or darker

GAIN the brights

Gain: the brights lighter or darker

Most pictures need less than you’d think. A little out of the shadows, warmth back in a face, the sky brought down so the eye goes where the story is.

02 · COMMERCIALS · 01:00:03:18

Thirty seconds, and it has to look like it means it.

A young man in a wide hat carries a crate of oranges towards the camera down a row of citrus trees, backlit by morning sun.

EXTRACTION GUIDES · WHERE THE FRAME IS CUT 2.39cinema 16:9television and the web 4:5a feed 9:16a phone held upright

We shoot short work for businesses in and around Adelaide, with a small crew and a short list of what matters. The grade starts before the shoot does: where the sun will be when we roll, which colour the product has to hold, how the frame survives being cut tall for a phone.

On the day we frame for every screen the film will play on, with the guides marked in the viewfinder. Then we cut and grade each version on its own, so none of them feels like a crop of another.

Try the guides on this frame. The crate stays in all four.

03 · DOCUMENTARIES · 01:00:05:12

Real light, left mostly alone.

An older man in a canvas apron planes a length of timber at a bench inside an open shed, lit by the daylight from the door.

[ WINDOW ON ][ WINDOW OFF ] WINDOW · ON HIS HANDS

We film people where they work, in the light that is already there, with a crew small enough to be forgotten. The grade stays honest to the room and the weather: we’ll lift a face out of the shade, and we won’t paint a sunset onto a grey morning.

The hard part is matching. A scene shot across different days has to play like one afternoon, so the cloud on the second day is met halfway rather than hidden, and nobody’s skin changes colour between two cuts.

The sun did half the work. We did the rest with a shape you’re not meant to notice.

04 · GRADING FOR OTHER PRODUCTIONS · 01:00:07:03

Bring us the cut. We’ll bring the room.

WHAT TO BRING

The locked cut, with its edit list and a reference movie.
The camera originals, not an export, because the grade lives in what an export throws away.
A reference or two you love: a film, a photograph, a painting.
Notes on each scene, and where the eye should go.
Who approves. One voice in the room.

WHAT COMES BACK

A first pass to react to.
A session in the suite with you in the chair, or a review you watch and answer with notes against timecode.
The answer print, for your approval.
Masters for each screen it will play on.
A look sheet, with the numbers and a frame for every scene, so a later edit can match.

We grade films we didn’t shoot as carefully as the ones we did. We don’t name them: they’re yours.

An empty grading room with grey walls: a monitor showing the salt-lake frame, a low desk with three trackballs, and a chair.

05 · THREE LOOKS · 01:00:10:20

One frame, three answers.

The same salt-lake frame, taken three ways. Each is a place to start, not a filter to finish on: the numbers under it are the whole recipe.

Warm day

For sun that should feel like sun.

Warm day, the numbers
	R	G	B
LIFT	−0.010	+0.000	+0.020
GAMMA	1.03	1.00	0.97
GAIN	1.06	1.01	0.94
MASTER	1.00
SAT	1.05
HAL	0.35

Cold documentary

For facts, kept honest and a little cool.

Cold documentary, the numbers
	R	G	B
LIFT	+0.000	+0.006	+0.018
GAMMA	0.97	1.00	1.03
GAIN	0.96	1.00	1.04
MASTER	0.92
SAT	0.82
HAL	0.10

Day for night

Made in daylight and taken down to moonlight: the old way to film a night without the night.

Day for night, the numbers
	R	G	B
LIFT	−0.020	−0.010	+0.020
GAMMA	0.80	0.88	1.05
GAIN	0.50	0.58	0.72
MASTER	1.10
SAT	0.55
HAL	0.00

06 · HOW A GRADE GOES · 01:00:12:21

How a grade goes.

Set out the way an editor lists a cut, one event to a line. There is an order, and you are in the room for it.

TR is the transition into each event: C is a cut, D a dissolve, with its length in frames.

001C
Spotting
We watch it through together and talk about each scene: what it is for, and where the eye should go.
002C
Conform
We rebuild your edit, shot for shot, from the camera originals.
003C
Balance
Every shot brought to neutral, so they all start equal.
004D 012
Look
We find the feel on a handful of key shots, with you.
005C
Match
Every shot in a scene brought to its neighbours, so the cuts stop showing.
006C
Review
You watch it through and leave notes against timecode.
007D 024
Answer print
The finished grade, for your approval.
When films were finished on film, the lab struck one graded print and sent it back for approval. It was called the answer print: the lab’s answer to “is this what you meant?”
008C
Deliver
Masters for the cinema, for television, and for the web and phones.

07 · PLAIN WORDS · 01:00:15:04

Plain words for the suite.

Log: The flat, grey picture a camera records when it keeps everything, the deepest shadow and the brightest sky pressed into the middle. It isn’t meant to be watched. It’s meant to be graded.
Timing and printer lights: A lab timed a print with a number each for red, green and blue light, 25 in the middle; one point is a small step, and we still use the word. The printer lights on this page are worked out from each frame’s grade.
Lift, gamma, gain: The three wheels. Lift moves the darks, gamma the middle, gain the brights. Push a wheel towards a colour and that part of the picture leans that way; the slider under it makes it lighter or darker.
Waveform: Brightness for every column of the picture, left to right: black on the floor, white on the top line. It tells the truth after our eyes have got used to the room.
Vectorscope: A circle for colour. The direction is the hue, the distance from the centre is how strong it is. A grey picture is a dot in the middle.
Skin-tone line: The line on the vectorscope where faces of every complexion land in natural light. When a face drifts off it, you notice before you know why.
Halation: The red-orange glow film makes around a bright highlight, when light passes through and bounces back. We like a little of it. The dial at the desk sets it for this whole page.
Open gate and frame lines: Open gate is the camera’s whole frame, before anyone cuts it to a shape. Frame lines mark where the cinema, the television or the phone will cut it, so nothing important falls outside.
Power window: A soft shape drawn over part of the picture and graded on its own: a little brighter, warmer or calmer. Done well, all you notice is where your eye went.
Day for night: Filming in daylight and grading it down to moonlight: darker, cooler, quieter. The old way to film a night without the night.
Timecode: Hours, minutes, seconds and frames; on this page it counts one second for each frame-height you scroll, starting at one hour, the way a programme starts on a reel. The slate at the top runs on time of day, from your own clock, the way a slate is set to match the camera.
Answer print: Once, the first fully graded print sent back from the lab for approval. Now, the finished grade you sign off before the masters are made.

08 · QUESTIONS · 01:00:17:13

Before you send us anything.

What should we send?

The cut, its edit list, the camera originals and your references. If the originals are large, send the cut first and we’ll talk about the rest.

Can you shoot as well as grade, or only grade?

Both. Or just the grade, if the shoot is done and the film arrives cut.

Can I sit in?

Yes, and we’d rather you did for the look. The matching we can do while you get on with your week.

How long does a grade take?

It depends on the running time and how many scenes need matching. Tell us both and we’ll give you an honest estimate before anything starts.

What will it cost?

We quote from the running time, the versions you need and the days in the suite, once we’ve seen a cut.

How do we start?

Send us your notes. The form is just below.

09 · YOUR NOTES · 01:00:19:01

Send us your notes.

Tell us what it is and what the picture needs. We’ll write back with questions before we write back with a price.

END OF REEL 1

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