4K for TV

4K for TVCase Study of Sony Pictures Television efforts in 4K Production

Phil Squyres, SVP, Technical OperationsSony Pictures TelevisionWith assistance and comments from Bill Baggelaar, SVP, Technologies, ColorworksAnd Rebecca Moon, Project Coordinator, Colorworks----- Meeting Notes (2/18/13 19:26) ------Deliver a presentation on 4K for TV. Now weve all read the articles about how 4K for the home is just plain stupid.-Followed by a seemingly scientific examination of resolution dependent on viewer distance, screen size and arc minutes, and on and on.-Im not here to talk about whether 4K is appropriate or viable for the home viewer...insteadits about How do you shoot and post in 4K...todayif you want to hedge your bets and make sure your content is protected against future tech advancements in display and distribution.14K the new 3D ?is it our new benchmark for the future ?4K was the big topic at CESIt certainly seems it might be MORE viable than 3DThere is already serious movement to extend the broadcast & distribution sections of our industry out to support 4K and even 8KThere is a healthy industry in signage and digital display that will no doubt drive the growth of 4K Digital Cinema has adopted it to an extentIts much easier to extend production & post to 4K than to 3DIncremental instead of geometrical in terms of effort & gearEasier to visualize the added value of a very high or ULTRA high resolution master in your vault There are several reasons to believe that it is.2SPT has shot 5 productions in 4KMade In Jersey 1 hr drama for CBS pursued at the request of the DPDP Daryn Okada Sony F65 completed 8 episodes (finished in HD only @ Technicolor)Save Me hr comedy for NBCDP Lloyd Ahern Sony F65 8/13 completed (all 4K finish @ Colorworks)Masters of Sex 1 hr period drama for Showtime (all 4K finish @ Colorworks)DP Michael Weaver Sony F65 - 2/10 completedMichael J Fox hr comedy pilot for NBC (4K finish @ Colorworks) complete all 22 episodes in 4K (at a lab, yet to be chosen, in NYC)DP Michael Grady Sony F65

PLUS JUSTIFIED Season 3 & 4 shot on the Red Epic in 4K (HD) DP Francis Kenney4K RemasteringBreaking Bad 1 hr drama for AMCShot 35mm 3 perf currently being remastered in 4K @ ColorworksCurrently working on season 2SPT will shoot 3-5+ pilots in 4KComedy pilot LA hr. all F55Comedy pilot NYC hr. F65/F55Drama pilot LA 1 hr. all F55Big Drama pilot LA 1 hr. probably all F55Big Drama pilot outside LA 1 hr. F55/F65Possibly 1-2 more comedy hrs. 4K

Why 4K for TV?Business future proof your library against technical advancements - UHDTV & consumer displays capable of 4K resolutionCreative 4K raw (especially on the F65 & F55 gives us incredible exposure latitude, color space, resolution for reframing & blowups)Technical 4K raw is not only closer to film so that you can begin treating it like filmbut its workflow* is more efficient than film *once you figure it out.4K for TVCover what weve learned producing TV episodes in 4K with details in these key areas.ONSET ISSUESDAILIESCONFORMGRADINGTITLINGARCHIVE24P Dailies Lab / Colorworks Operated by Sony Pictures Television to support dailies for our single camera productionsProcess dailies for editorial archive footage to LTO and do some visfx pulls offer color management support either in preproduction or limited amount of nightly dailies color gradingConnected to Colorworks /TV Production Backbone via 10gigE pipe

Operated by Sony Studios to support mastering and finishing of features and TV productSupports 4K and 2K transfers, conforms, grading and titlingTV Finishing is a separate operation geared to faster pace production and post of TV episodics and moviesThe two facilities work together to complete our 4K productions for TVBill BaggelaarSVP, Technologies, ColorworksColleague and Partner in Crimeif you will in the 4K revolution94K IssuesSize of the data and the bandwidth to move files around in your facility is something you have to pay attention to- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Camera packages - should NOT cost moreCost of media can be moderated (by investment)Movement of large files can be minimized by workflow designNew options reduce costs of grading and finishing 4K

10ON SET - CamerasThe F65 is smaller & lighter than the F35 or GenesisIt is bulkier than the Alexa, but shorter front to backThe Red Epic and F55 are smaller and lighter than Alexa, F65, F35, or 35mm filmRegardless4K is easier to shoot and deal with as compared to 3D productionLooking at combination F65 & F55 packagesON SET - MediaLOCAL SHOWS Send the camera media directly to the lab with no onset backupOur typical F65 shows shoot with 4-1TB cards per day ***At the dailies lab, those cards can be downloaded, archived and returned to set by the next afternoon using lab-sized systems. Eliminates the need for on set data wrangling saves time and moneyConsider purchasing these cards rather than renting which reduces the cost of camera package.ON SET - MediaOUT OF TOWN Were experimenting with 2 optional workflows to protect us against the catastrophic loss of the original 4K files.

Previously - We never had a cost effective option to backup film or linear tape and the only experience we ever had with loss was with film (xray), never on videotape.

ON SET - MediaParallel Backupusing HD recorders, which can trigger to record each time the 4K recorders start and stopwe capture the camera output in HD only which we can uprez back to 4K for inclusion in the 4K master if need be.

Local Backup with parallel proxy recordingUse external device to capture a dnx115 copy during shooting send that to the lab via internet or courier for dailies creationSend 4K cards to a local near set operation for downloading and backup overnight or.. 4K files held on a local RAID until the 4K shuttle drive arrives at the lab (2x a week via Fed EX instead of an expensive nightly courier drop)

DAILIESWe learned quite early on that processing dailies (logging, syncing, color, trimming) using the full size original 4K files was anathema! Requires expensive hardware, netware, and hogs all the resources you have. We opted to make a proxy copy of the 4K early in the dailies process.NOT a proxy to use for HD mastering - were mastering in 4KThis is specifically a proxy to use for creating HD editorial dailies.This then is a challenge for onset systems

DAILIES WORKFLOWDownload 4K from SR Memory cards using 2 Sony D1 readers into a Resolve workstation attached to a very fast raid via SAS. (max out the speed of the D1s)Raid serves as a temporary storage location and keeps the 4K files off of our WIP SAN.If were doing dailies color grading at the lab Resolve can be used working directly off the fast raidprior to transcoding the filesResolve is used to transcode the 4K (with or without color) to dnx115 which is then pushed onto the Dailies SAN

DAILIES WORKFLOWThese dnx115 files are used in our dailies system to organize, log, sync, apply color (if color is done on-set or by presets), and to trim the clips.The processing to editorial dnx36 is pushed off to a faster workstation for the actual transcode to 36.The editorial dnx is consolidated and the bins and ales are merged to facilitate re-linking.Finally, h.264 & MPEG2 files are transcoded from the finished and confirmed dnx36 editorial files.4K FILES FOR CONFORMImmediately after ingest of the 4K files into the fast raidThe cards are sent to ARCHIVE for copying onto a Post Raid portable 12TB raids for moving camera original files around to other labs, visFX pulls and as the source for our 4K LTO archival tapes.After the 4K-to-DNX115 proxy is completed, the 4K files are pushed from that fast raid over 10 gig lines to Colorworks for eventual conforming the 4K master. EditorialCreative editing progresses as usualdnx36 files on the Avid (assistant editors know they have greater latitude with blowups and repositions for HD release)VisFX pulls are done as neededtypically as dpx sequencesStock footage is pulled as HD or 2K and uprezzed for inclusion into the 4K master

Finishing in 4K?Some might question the necessity of finishing in 4K at this point in timeWhy not just capture 4K, use a mezzanine or proxy copy to finish in HD and hold the 4K for later remasteringAfter all, no one is viewing 4K today Actually what we did on Made in Jersey.

But that suggests remastering at some point.20RemasteringDoing the work twice cost = 2XDoing it the second time is more difficult, especially if its done much laterWere learning about that lesson on the remastering project for Breaking Bad 6 seasons of shows in HDRescanning and remastering BB in 4KIssues faced in later remasteringIn ANY TV show, there are last minute discoveries noted during the final stages of posttypically during grading. Then last minute fixes are inserted to meet the creative intent, cover goofs and to meet deadlines.Often these fixes are last minute, seat of the pants, coverups that arent well documented if even noted in some paperwork.In any episode, there may be severalin 100 episodes = there can be several hundred hidden undocumented fixesRebecca MoonProject Coordinator, 4K TV Finishing & Remastering, ColorworksRemember were now working in 4K for 4K releaseThe viewer will now be able to SEE more of these bitsThe remastering will HAVE to deal with themThe reconform process that MIGHT have been automatic stops while creative humans study the problem and try to figure out WHAT was doneAnd then theyll have to mimic a 4K version of the HD fix or decide to uprez the 2Kwhich, at best, will add time in completing the project and additional costs.PREFERENCE then for todays productions becomes:Finish in 4K - IF YOU CAN.Conforming 4KColorworks was designed from the beginning to be able to handle 4K workChoices in infrastructure, including storage and tools were scaled to deal with 4K featuresExtensions of that concept were applied to the buildout of a TV oriented finishing facility completed just prior to start of the current TV season enabling a quickstart for 4K TVConforming 4KConsists of 3 platformsAvid Media Composer to read & organize the edls and bins sent over by editorialSmoke to conform from the Avid cuts and to insert various fixes and effects in 4KBaselight to complete the final conformConforming 4K4K files moved from dailies to TV Backbone4K files are pulled into the active Colorworks SAN after the edls are scanned on an Avid MC.4K fixes (as needed) are done on SmokeConformed on Baselight from the raw 16 bit original camera master footage

Grading & TitlingAfter conform grading is also handled on the Baselight (also from raw 16 bit files - conformed)Titling in 4K is created in various Adobe products (at 8K resolution, if necessary, dependent on font style & serifs)Traditional stages of finishing are followedas files.Online Master / VAM / CTM / Completed titled masterA final 4K IMF is the target finished product

SPT 4K TV WorkflowBaselight8

2k VFX4K VFXEditorial

Sony F65 CameraF65RAWF65RAW Lite24P FacilitySony PicturesProduction BackboneALEDNxHDDailies Process4KF65RAW

LTO Archive

4KF65RAWVFX

HD OutputRender 4k DPX &4K IMF (MXF)SmokeConform/VFXAvid

Conform

AvidBinsReview 4k on Sony VPL-VW1000ES4k ProjectorHD Color Reference Dolby PRM-4200Final Archive 4K FootageDuring post production 2 separately created sets of archival LTOs are createdIn dailies 2 archival sets of LTOs are madeLTO set of the 4K OCMLTO set of the HD proxies made from the 4K plus editorial dnxOnce the 4K footage is pushed to the TV Backbone, archival LTOs are made of all of the footage and any intermediate mastering copies created during finishingRebecca MoonProject Coordinator, 4K TV Finishing & Remastering, Colorworks

FINAL COMMENTS ON THE 4K EXPERIENCE.

Sources for more infoJoel Ordesky Sony DMPC information on F65 & F55Peter Postma Filmlight information on 4K in Baselight