See how Cinematographer-Director duo, Dane Lawing and Tommy Bentz used AI to colour grade "The Negative"
Film
The Negative
Director
Tommy Bentz
DP
Dane Lawing
Genre
Horror/Thriller
“The Negative” is a horror/thriller short film written and directed by Tommy Bentz taking place deep in California’s Sierra National Forest, far from any cell service or Wi-Fi. The film was shot on RED Komodo in IPP2 using Zeiss Master Prime Lenses and Schneider Hollywood Black Magic filters.
Before principal shooting would take place, cinematographer Dane Lawing set out to establish the show look using fylm.ai, knowing the LUTs would be used on set, in camera as well as in post for the colour grading.
AI Colour Extract
For the creation of the show looks Dane used fylm.ai AI Colour Extract Tool.
Tommy had film references that he felt strongly about the color and tone. I was able to easily and convincingly extract color for most of them and then alter them to our specifications and needs.
AI Colour Extract tool allows you to harness the power of AI deep learning and neural networks to effortlessly extract a colour grade from any image. Our deep learning neural networks model, trained exclusively on millions of cinematic frames creates a 3D LUT from any supplied image.
The workflow couldn’t be any simpler. First, you load the reference image and save it as a Match. Then you load the image that you want to colour grade and open the AI Colour Extract tool. AI Colour Extract tool will ask you to select your reference Match. Simply select the Match you saved earlier and click APPLY.
Explore fylm.ai advanced features.
With features such as AI Colour Extract, AI Colour Match, AI Auto Correct, Subtractive Colour model, ACES Print Film Emulations and much more, fylm.ai makes colour grading a breeze.
Creative Decisions
AI Colour Extract tool allows you to manually adjust the white balance point or the tint of the look. Alternatively you can use any one of the presets shown on the right under the Previews tab.
Let us quickly explore the available presets. The first option, called the Magic Look is the look that the AI Colour Extract tool has created for us. This option matches the overall appearance of the reference as well as white balance point, contrast and exposure.
The second option is the colour gamut that the AI Colour Extract tool has extracted from our reference. In simplified terms this look simulates the colour gamut of the print film used for the creation of the look without further creative decisions.
Other options include the Magic Look in a combination with different white balance points. You may combine any one of the presets with manual white balance and tint adjustments.
The Workflow
With the references from director, Dane set out to establish the show look.
Dane took the advantage of fylm.ai ability to create LUTs for post production as well as monitoring in camera. As the material was shot on RED Komodo in IPP2, Dane created two versions of the show LUTs – one, in IPP2 for monitoring in camera and the other for post production and colour grading.
The nice thing about LUT creation in fylm.ai is that you don’t have to pre-select the type of the LUT that you are creating. You simply create the look that you want and then download the LUT that suits your desired workflow.
Since the look creation takes place in ACEScct, colour grading tailored sub-space of the linear ACES-2065-1 colour space, the looks are independent from the ACES Input and Output Device Transforms. In other words, you create the look once and repurpose it for different workflows or viewing devices as needed with a single click.
Creating a LUT for a different types of camera, is very easy. All you have to do is select a different type of ACES Input Transform and the look that you have created will convert seamlessly to the new camera specifications.
Collaboration
Dane says that collaboration was a breeze.
I created the LUTs in fylm.ai and shared my Candidates with the director who chose the favorite four, which we narrowed down to two on set. It's an excellent 1-2 punch for a DP/Director team workflow and opens all sorts of new possibilities and control.
fylm.ai allows anyone to collaborate with their team anywhere on the planet easily and efficiently.
To achieve that, fylm.ai allows you to add Users or Guests to your account. Users are members of your organisation and they have editing capabilities. They see all of the assets in the projects they participate in. Every user requires a paid seat.
Guests on the other hand are external to your organisation and are added for free. They do not have editing capabilities and they can see only the assets that have been explicitly shared with them.
Both Guests and Users can have a conversation in-app.
Do you want to experience how easy colour grading can be?
Try it for free . Start your free trial today.
