Field guide · 07

Formats, colour & metadata

The unexciting decisions that keep a film looking consistent from camera to final grade, plus an honest note on why colour is the hardest part of a cheap pipeline.

Interchange format

• EXR, DWAA (lossy), half float is the sweet spot for moving frames between Blender and DaVinci: good quality at a sensible file size.
• Keep colour transforms explicit the whole way through: sRGB and linear, mapped to your timeline's space.

Shooting format (our project)

• Camera: Sony FX6 (the FX9 is a step up if the budget allows).
• For example: 10-bit, around 2880×1080, 4:3, 4K RAW and EXR.

Colour is only as good as your monitor

A low-cost pipeline is limited by access to colour-calibrated monitors. Differences between monitors make it genuinely hard to know your colours are right. If you cannot own calibrated displays, try to book time on a partner's grading suite. This is one area where you cannot fake quality.

Metadata keeps things consistent

Record lens, format, resolution, frame rate, colour space, sensor height and subject distance for every shot. Good per-shot metadata is what lets the 3D, the comp and the grade line up. It is worth building, or even coding, proper metadata tools for this.