Filmlight + John Daro in Japan

A big thanks to Filmlight and Restar for getting us all together.


https://www.instagram.com/p/DbX10CFiV69/?hl=en

ALE to CCC Converter: A Quick Workflow Utility

I had a need for this the other day while prepping a timeline and couldn't find anything quickly. I needed a straightforward way to rip CDL data—Slope, Offset, Power, and Saturation—out of an Avid Log Exchange (.ale) file and pack it into a standard Color Correction Collection (.ccc) XML for the pipeline.

Usually, extracting this metadata means firing up a heavy piece of software or navigating a massive proprietary pipeline tool, but I just wanted a lightweight, standalone utility. Since Python is the only language I code in, I threw together a script to parse the formatting and wrapped it in a basic GUI so others wouldn’t need to hit a terminal.

What It Does

The tool is incredibly simple but handles the core pipeline hazards:

  • Reads the ALE: It locates the Column and Data sections and parses out the ASC_SOP and ASC_SAT values.

  • Formats the Math: It converts the raw ALE tuple strings into properly structured XML nodes.

  • Namespace Protection: If a source clip is cut multiple times in your timeline, it auto-increments the ID strings so your downstream conform tools don't overwrite duplicate CDL tags.

It runs locally, requires no external dependencies (the GUI uses standard tkinter), and outputs a perfectly formatted XML tree ready for OpenColorIO or your finishing system of choice.

Here is the download if anyone needs it:

ALE to CCC Converter

happy to help,

JD

What Is Too Bright? Navigating Creative Intent in the HDR Era

If there’s one question that constantly comes up in the grading suite, it’s this: How spicy is too spicy?

We are living in an era of rapidly evolving display technology, where managing HDR standards and pushing the limits of contrast are just part of the daily workflow. But as we navigate these massive dynamic ranges, maintaining a perceptually equal creative intent across every platform—from a premium theatrical projection to a smartphone screen—has never been more challenging.

I’m excited to be part of an upcoming event co-hosted by the Colorist Society Hollywood and SMPTE to dive deep into this exact topic. We’ll be exploring both the subjective and quantifiable nature of brightness across a wide range of viewing environments.

Whether you're finishing large-format theatrical features or mastering for the web, this is a conversation you won't want to miss. Come grab a drink, catch up with peers, and join the debate.

Event Details:

  • Date: Wednesday, May 27th, 2026

  • Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

    • 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM: Reception and Check-in

    • 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM: Presentations & Panel Discussion

  • Venue: The Culver Theater | 9500 Culver Boulevard, Culver City, CA 90232

Important Logistics for Attendees:

  • Mandatory Registration: Advance registration is required for everyone attending. Please ensure the name you use to register exactly matches a valid government-issued ID for security check-in.

  • Food & Drink: The Culver Theater lobby features a full no-host bar. You can grab a bite in the lobby or at any of the great spots in Downtown Culver City—and yes, food and beverages are allowed inside the theater.

  • Parking: Click here for parking instructions.

Looking forward to seeing you there and diving into the physics and philosophy of modern color grading!

Click Here to Register

Spinning in Style: Coloring a 360° RED Camera Rig for Balenciaga

I had a very cool project this spring that I wanted to share. Let’s talk about high fashion, high resolution, and the high-difficulty world of 360-degree video.

Recently, I had the pleasure of jumping into the trenches for Balenciaga’s Fashion Week presentation. The setup was as ambitious as the clothes: a massive 360-degree rig, fully loaded with RED cameras, all feeding into a Disguise system to power a mind-bending visual experience.

My official job title for this gig? Just the colorist.

But anyone who has ever touched a multi-camera array knows that "just the colorist" is a trap. If you grade each camera feed in a vacuum, you are going to hand back a beautiful, completely disjointed mess. To ensure the color handed off seamlessly from one camera's field of view to the next, I had to step slightly out of my lane and build a temp stitch.

Here is a deep dive into how I tackled it, along with a few tips for anyone staring down the barrel of a multi-cam 360 project.

The Problem with 360 Color

When you have a ring of RED sensors pointing in every direction, they are never going to see the world the exact same way. One camera is staring straight into a harsh sun; the next is catching the shadowy falloff. Even with perfectly matched settings, lenses have different characteristics, and sensors have micro variances.

When those images are graded, stitched together and pumped through a Disguise media server onto massive screens, any discrepancy in contrast or color balance at the seams creates a harsh, visible line. It shatters the illusion.

Enter the Temp Stitch

To fix the seams, you have to see the seams. I couldn't wait for the final VFX stitch to come back before doing my grades, so I built a quick-and-dirty temp stitch right in the color bay using Baselight’s 3x3 view mode.

Here are my top tips for managing the madness and making sure your handoffs are buttery smooth:

1. Color Management is Non-Negotiable

Before you even look at a seam, your color management pipeline needs to be bulletproof. Working in a scene-referred space (like ACES) is an absolute lifesaver here. By transforming all those RED raw files into a massive, unified working space, you ensure the math behind your exposure and contrast adjustments behaves predictably across the entire array. The next step is to build camera specific LUT’s that correct any sensor and lens discrepancies.

2. Flatten the Field (Beware the Vignette)

This is the silent killer of 360 stitching: lens vignetting. The center of a lens is always brighter than the edges. When you place two edges side-by-side in a stitch, you get a dark band down the middle of your overlap.

  • The Fix: Before you do any creative grading, you have to build a spatial correction to flatten the luminance across the sensor. Lift those edges so the base exposure is uniform corner-to-corner.

3. Grouping is Great, but Trims are Better

It’s tempting to group all the cameras together, slap a primary grade on, and call it a day. Do apply your base look at the group level, but the real work happens on the individual clip trims. The stack consisted of a grouped operator followed by and individual trim layer. I also added a key framed dynamic layer to control shadow detail as the sun set. You have to ride the offset and pivot on the adjacent cameras to feather the differences in lighting environments.

4. Build a Split-Screen Matrix

My temp stitch wasn't about perfect geometry; it was about perfect color geometry. I set up a workspace where I could view the overlapping edge of Camera A directly against the overlapping edge of Camera B in a split-screen. I just worked my way around the circle: A to B, B to C, C to D... all the way back to A. If A matches B, and B matches C, but the final camera doesn't match A, you have to go back and figure out where your exposure, contrast or color drifted.

5. Output for Disguise: The Final Bake to Notch LC

The Disguise system is incredibly powerful for mapping content to complex surfaces, but it demands technical precision. By doing the temp stitch and mocking up the final layout, I could render out test patches that matched the exact specs the Disguise operators needed.

Once the temp stitch did its job and the final grades were locked, it was time for the heavy lifting. The sheer volume of pixels in a 360 array is staggering, and for this project, we were delivering eight final outputs, each demanding pristine 4K resolution.

To get there, the pipeline was a two-step process. First, the grade was rendered out of the color bay as 10-bit DPX sequences. I love DPX for this stage because it is bulletproof—giving you uncompressed, perfect frames. Plus, if a render machine hiccups on frame 40,000, you don't lose a massive video file, you just re-render that single frame and move on.

However, if you try to make a media server play back eight simultaneous streams of 4K uncompressed DPX frames, it will simply say “computer says no.” To solve this, we took those massive image sequences straight into Adobe Media Encoder to crunch them down into the Notch LC codec. Today it’s built into Baselight, Mistika, etc, but at the time Adobe is what we needed to use. Notch is a 10-bit, GPU-accelerated video codec built specifically for media servers. It retains the immense visual fidelity and color depth of our DPX masters but plays back like absolute butter.

The Wrap-Up

Working with 360 rigs is a unique puzzle. It forces you to think spatially about your color pipeline. Building that temp stitch added a little extra time upfront, but it saved us from a mountain of headaches (and notes) on the backend. The REDs delivered gorgeous data, the fashion was couture and wonderful, and the seams? Completely invisible.

Thanks for reading and happy grading!

JD


Bit Depth Deep Dive: The Mathematics of the Digital Canvas

I recently received a great question and it made me realize that something very fundamental in color is shrouded in mystery to many, so I figured I’d open up the conversation here. As we’ve transitioned into HDR-native pipelines, the requirements for bit depth and color precision have increased significantly. The "good enough" standards of the SDR era simply break down when you start pushing dynamic range.

For any professional HDR deliverable, 12-bit is the absolute minimum. In a high-latitude HDR container (like PQ/ST.2084), 10-bit often lacks the code-value density to prevent "banding" or contouring in fine gradients, particularly at the edges of a color space.

The Numbers Game

Think of it like the difference between a high-end recording versus a generic MP3. The 44k or 48k sample rate describes the amount of time slices that approximate a sound wave. Bit depth does the same thing for pictures, but for amplitude or brightness. It's essentially how many specific "steps" you have to define a gradient from absolute black to absolute white.

Here is the math on the available steps per channel:

  • 8-bit: 2^8 = 256 steps (Standard Web/SDR)

  • 10-bit: 2^10 = 1,024 steps (Broadcast HDR)

  • 12-bit: 2^12 = 4,096 steps (Cinema/Dolby Vision)

  • 16-bit: 2^16 = 65,536 steps (High-end Finishing/VFX)

Integer vs. Float: The Container vs. The Canvas

We currently utilize a 16-bit ACES (Academy Color Encoding System) pipeline for modern finishing. The reason for this is twofold, and it comes down to the difference between Integer and Floating Point math.

1. Precision vs. Quantization

While 12-bit Integer is often the delivery spec, we work in 16-bit Float to maintain mathematical precision during the color grade. Every transform we apply—LMTs, look dev, or secondary corrections—benefits from that extra headroom. If you work in 10-bit or 12-bit, you risk "rounding errors" where values get snapped to the nearest integer, creating artifacts.

It’s also worth noting that GPUs favor standard data alignments (8, 16, 32-bit). A 12-bit word often gets padded to a 16-bit word in VRAM anyway, so attempting to "save space" with 12-bit processing is often a fallacy; it is just as heavy on the machine but with less precision.

2. Linear Light Workflow

High-end animation and VFX are rendered in "Linear Light." In a 16-bit Half-Float (OpenEXR) format, we can represent values far above "white" 1.0. This allows us to store specular highlights (the sun, reflections, explosions) that might be 5.0, 10.0, or even 100.0 times brighter than "white."

If we used an Integer format (like 10-bit or 12-bit), those values would be clipped at the ceiling (1.0). By using 16-bit Float, we have a future-proof master that can be re-mapped to any current or future display standard (SDR, HDR10, Dolby Vision, or even LED walls) without clipped highlights.

The Bottom Line

Essentially, 10-bit and 12-bit are "bucket" formats usually reserved for the final "container" (the file you watch). 16-bit is the professional standard for the "canvas" we work on to ensure no data is lost during the finishing process.

I always say, "No pixels were harmed in the making of this major motion picture." ;)

Cheers and happy grading,

JD

A Big Day for "The Work We Do in the Dark": IMDb Launches the "Color Department"

It’s finally here.

After years of advocacy, IMDb and IMDbPro have officially launched a dedicated "Color Department" category. This is a monumental and long-overdue step forward for our craft.

For decades, the work of professional colorists, the artists who help shape the final look, mood, and emotional impact of a film has often been bundled under generic categories like "Additional Crew" or "Editorial Department." While we are proud collaborators with every department, this old system obscured the unique artistic and technical contributions that are core to our profession. It made it harder for audiences to find us, for producers to credit us properly, and for new talent to see a clear path.

When a change like this happens, it makes you reflect on your own body of work. I find myself thinking back to Contagion. This was back when the 'Intermediate' in Digital Intermediate really meant something. It was an intermediate step to a final film print.

We had all this text over picture that needed a very specific, saturated "warning / danger" red. It looked fantastic on the digital projector, but that red was completely out of gamut for celluloid; you just couldn't hit it on film. I'll always remember the challenge of working with my mentor and film timer, Dan Muscarella, tweaking the look-up tables to land on a red Steven was content with for the final prints. I say content, not happy or elated… content. Ahh, the good ole' days of the film lab.

That kind of problem-solving, that invisible craft, is at the heart of what we do. To know that this film, and all the unseen work that went into it, will now be correctly and clearly categorized under my primary profession with the rest of my team... that's what this is all about.

This is more than just a database update; it's about visibility and acknowledgement

To all my fellow colorists: log in to your IMDbPro account, update your page, and officially set your profession to "Color Department." Let’s make our new home visible.

Thanks for joining the "Ask the Colorist" panel at SMPTE 2025!

What a lively and insightful afternoon we had at the SMPTE Media Technology Summit! A huge thank you to everyone who joined us at the Solutions Hub Stage to participate in the "Colorist Society Presents: Ask the Colorist" panel. It was a true pleasure to engage in such a thoughtful and forward-looking discussion with my fellow colorists and our enthusiastic audience. We had a lot of great questions asked.

A special shout-out to my esteemed co-panelists: Picture Shop's Natasha Leonnet, The Foundation's Gareth Cook, the Colorist Society's own Sarah Priestnall, and FotoKem's Rory Gordon. Your contributions were invaluable!

For those who couldn't make it, here are some of the deeper takeaways from our conversation.

Delving into machine vision's role
We went beyond a surface-level look at automation and explored the specific, powerful applications of machine vision in the color suite.

  • The conversation around shot matching was particularly rich. We touched on tools from Filmlight’s presentation, which leverage machine vision and perceptual models to quickly analyze a key shot and automatically match its "look" across an entire scene. This technology streamlines the technical heavy lifting, freeing the colorist to focus on artistic direction.

  • It's not just about matching. I've previously blogged about using machine vision to create a depth channel from existing footage. This allows for advanced atmospheric effects, like subtly desaturating the background to draw the viewer's eye to the foreground action.

  • We also addressed the technical hurdles. As machine vision relies on robust image data, we highlighted challenges related to lighting changes, calibration, and managing large datasets. This reinforced the need for a precise and consistent technical foundation. Perhaps even a standard for checkpoints from SMPTE in the future.

The backbone of consistency: The ACES workflow
Another key discussion centered on the Academy Color Encoding System (ACES), which was front and center in conversations about modern post-production.

  • We discussed how this device-independent color management system is no longer a niche tool but a foundational element, especially when dealing with multiple VFX houses and camera formats. ACES simplifies matching footage from different cameras by normalizing everything into a single common space.

  • In the age of HDR, we focused on how ACES provides a predictable and consistent image display across a wide range of devices. This is essential for preserving the creative intent throughout the entire pipeline, from on-set monitoring in virtual production to final delivery.

Balancing art and technology
Ultimately, the technology is only as good as the creative eye behind it. Taste was echo’ed many times by all panelists. Machine vision is a powerful assistant, but it doesn't replace the colorist. The consensus was that our role is shifting:

  • Instead of being overwhelmed by repetitive tasks, soon use machine vision to handle the initial technical correction.

  • This allows us to dedicate more creative energy to refining the mood, shaping the story, and making those nuanced, human-driven decisions that define a project's final look. More time grading and less time “correcting.”

  • The ongoing evolution of remote workflows. The discussion touched upon the lasting changes from the pandemic and how cloud-based grading is becoming more and more common. We talked about how to strike the right balance, manage latency issues, and ensure secure, high-quality collaboration when a client is not in the same room.

  • The importance of consistency over flashiness. A great reminder that long-term success in this field isn't about chasing one viral, incredible grade. It's about consistency, repeatability, and being a reliable, trusted partner within the post-production pipeline. We touched on the importance of checking your ego at the door and focusing on the client's needs.

Thank you again to SMPTE for organizing such an excellent event and to everyone who attended. It was a privilege to share insights and discuss the incredible future of our craft. I look forward to seeing you all again soon!

Join Me for the 'Ask the Colorist' Panel at the 2025 SMPTE Summit!

I'm thrilled to announce that I will be speaking on a panel at the upcoming SMPTE 2025 Media Technology Summit this month in Pasadena.

It's an honor to be part of the "Ask the Colorist" panel, presented by the Colorist Society. This will be one of the highlights of the summit, offering a chance to connect with peers and discuss the craft we're all so passionate about. I'm looking forward to a lively discussion and answering any and all of your questions.

I'll be joined on stage by an incredible group of esteemed professionals, including Natasha Leonnet (Picture Shop), Gareth Cook (The Foundation), Sarah Priestnall (Colorist Society), and Rory Gordon (FotoKem).



Event Details

What: "Ask the Colorist" Panel

Where: The Solutions Hub Stage at the SMPTE 2025 Media Technology Summit, Pasadena Convention Center (300 E Green St, Pasadena, CA)

When: Tuesday, October 14th, 2025, at 2:00 PM

GUEST Registration Link:

https://bit.ly/4h3Yol1 

FREE Solutions Hub Pass  Promo Code

SH25CSI

The full summit runs from October 13-16 and is a must-attend event for anyone in media technology.

If you're attending SMPTE, please mark your calendar and come by the Solutions Hub Stage. I hope to see you there!

Niagara Takes Flight

Project: Niagara Takes Flight - An On-site Color Grading Adventure

Buy Tickets

Niagara Takes Flight opens today! Its a beautifully Immersive 4d adventure over Niagara Parks. I’m very greatfull that my long time collaborator Rick Rothschild tapped me again to make the images sing like the locations do in real life. Rick and I go all the way back to Soarin’ Over California when we first met. It’s honor to work with such a consummate professional and true leader and innovator in the space.

I've spent a lot of time in the controlled environment of the theater at Warner Bros. Water Tower Color, but sometimes a project comes along that requires you to get out in the field. This was one of those times. "Niagara Takes Flight" is an immersive ride experience that uses four laser projectors and a Seventh Sense system to warp and project the content onto a massive, curved dome.

There's just no substitute for being in the venue. The interaction between those four projectors presents a unique set of grading challenges that you simply can't solve in a standard grading suite. My goal was to create a seamless, powerful, and truly immersive experience for the audience. To do that I had to take Water Tower Color to Niagara.

The Powerhouse Duo

My portable setup was built around a MacBook Pro M3 Ultra and a 12TB IOdyne Pro Data drive, configured in RAID 0 for pure performance. The disk's speed and small footprint made all the difference; honestly, there's nothing else on the market that would have let me travel so light, and set up so fast.

My Peripherals

  • Control Surface: Tangent Elements. My first choice would have been a Slate, but the Elements' modularity made it perfect for packing.

  • I/O: A Blackmagic UltraStudio Mini 4K connected via Thunderbolt.

  • Storage: An IOdyne Pro Data 12TB array. Be sure to enable multipathing and connect the disk on two different busses, for example 1&3 not 1&2.

  • Misc: An Elgato Stream Deck for macros and a 4th gen iPad Pro used as a secondary display for scopes and stills via Sidecar.

Media and Timeline:

The footage was 60fps, 5760x4320 PIZ-compressed 16-bit half-float EXR files. I kept my Baselight project on the Mac's local database, but all the source media, caches, proxies, and renders lived on the Pro Data drive. The timeline was complex. We worked in a scene-referred grading space, which meant I wasn't doing any harm to the pixels, keeping the master as fluid as water until the final delivery targets were struck for the theater and frozen into ice, ACES archival elements, and other client versions were also rendered which insures longevity for any systems that may come along in the future.

Performance & Reliability:

Playback was a dream—60fps with no problem. I did have one render hiccup: the Mac went to sleep during a long render when it ran out of power even though it was connected to the Pro Data. The solution was simple— disconnect the panels and breakout box, since they're not needed for rendering and just plug in the power adapter in.

Shout Outs

Peter Postma and the Filmlight crew came through in a big way with early versions of Baselight M. It’s such a pleasure to have that kind of power in my backpack. Another huge thank you to Mike Gitig and the entire IOdyne team for thier support. I also want to thank NPC, Brogent, Rick Rothschild and Mike Quigley for allowing me to contribute my small part to this spectacular attraction. I have a feeling it will be there for many years to come so go check it out next time you are planning your family vacation! The falls are truly one of those bucket list places you must visit. Nothing else like it on the planet.

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LG Roadshow - A New Era of Home Entertainment: Ambient Light Compensation

Here is a promo video I was recently a part of, showcasing a technology I'm incredibly passionate about: ambient light compensation at the LG Roadshow. If you've ever wondered how we ensure the picture you see at home matches what we see in the color grading suite, this is a big part of the answer. In a way, a little bit of my eye is in every display that has this technology.

A huge thank you to Mike Zink, Annie Chang, Mike Smith and the UHDA for their tireless efforts in bringing this functionality to living rooms everywhere.

And a friendly reminder: please use Filmmaker Mode. It should be the default, in my opinion. If you care about seeing a film as the artists intended, make sure to turn it on!

Check out the video below!

ACES at Cine Gear Saturday June 7th

Join me on the ACES panel "Color Management That Can Up Your Game!" at Cine Gear Expo! Saturday, June 7th, 1:15 PM - 2:05 PM, Theater 1. Looking forward to a great discussion with Lynette Duensing, Patrick Renner, and Mark Weingartner, ASC. See you there!