FilmLight and GrundyUFA FLIP for On-Set Preview

As one of Europe’s larger producers of original TV content, GrundyUFA looks for ways to control costs and enhance production values. Over the last five years GrundyUFA and FilmLight have been developing their expertise together in on-set colour management resulting in a new on-set preview system called FLIP, designed to help film and television productions save time and money on the set and in post, as deliver a better product.

GrundyUFA has been using FLIP during the production of two daily dramas, ‘Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten’ (Good Times, Bad Times) and ‘Verbotene Liebe’ (Forbidden Love). The shows are two of the most popular of their type in Germany and as they are both broadcast five days a week, their production schedules are demanding.

In total, GrundyUFA produces four daily dramas at its facilities in Cologne and Berlin, with a variety of other film and television content, and it has developed its own approach to production and post-production in order to maintain a high pressure schedule.

One on-going issue was the need to set lighting and adjust cameras each time a production moved to a new set, in order to maintain a consistent look. Forbidden Love, for example, employs more than 50 sets. This issue also affected post-production because establishing looks on the set was fairly imprecise. Colourists often had to devote a lot of effort to addressing inconsistencies from shot to shot and set to set, leaving little time for artistic fine-tuning.

FLIP was developed by FilmLight to make the on-set production process more creative and efficient, and continue the decisions made on set through to finishing. The process starts with the colourist who generates a database of looks on Baselight, which are loaded into FLIP as Open EXR format Baselight grade files, BLG. These files contain all of the grading metadata for each look.

FLIP is then used on the set to apply the appropriate pre-established looks to live camera HD-SDI monitoring feeds, which can then be further adjusted using FLIP's Baselight grading tools. Consequently each shot is seen on-set, close to its final form after final colour grading has been applied. By using FLIP a DP can quickly judge if lighting and camera settings are correct, potentially reducing costs and delays during the transition from set to set. Footage delivered to post-production is more consistent and closer to the desired final look, allowing more time for polishing the look and making aesthetic enhancements.

The new workflow was implemented on both ‘Forbidden Love’ and ‘Good Times, Bad Times’, by GrundyUFA Senior Colourist Oskar Kammerer and DP Supervisor and Visual Consultant Jens Tukiendorf. Oskar used Baselight to create looks for each of the dozens of sets used by the two soaps.

"In the past, maintaining a consistent look for each show had been a major challenge. Week to week we had to deal with a wide range of raw material," he said. "It took a long time on-set and it took a long time in post-production. Each DoP who worked on the shows brought in certain ideas about lighting, but that often conflicted with our desire to maintain a certain look for our product.

"FLIP allows us to maintain a database of pre-designed looks for each of these daily dramas. We can apply those looks live, adjust each grading element if required and make sure that the lighting and camera settings are perfect. Once the look is set it is logged against the relevant shot and returned to the colourist as grading metadata in exactly the same Open EXR format as the original database look. It is then a simple process to load the BLG look files into the Baselight timeline, in which the on-set grades are automatically applied to the raw camera data. Starting with reference looks that are as close to final as possible means we can save time and achieve higher production values."

Interms of stry and target audience, there are differences between the two shows that the team has to deal with. ‘Forbidden Love’ looks into the world of an upper middle class family and their secrets and intrigues that cause new dramas every day. It is shot with an ARRI Alexa camera and produced as though it were a prime-time drama. "The Alexa has a 35mm chip, so it looks close to film," explained Oskar. "We are working with big lenses. The show has a glossy, glamorous film look.

“‘Good Times, Bad Times’, by contrast, looks more like a documentary or reality TV series. We shoot that with Panasonic studio cameras. There's a lot of desaturated footage. The settings are the streets of Berlin and its rousing environment – it shows the modern, fast moving life."

FLIP can be used to achieve both the glamorous, filmic look of ‘Forbidden Love’ and the unpolished look of ‘Good Times, Bad Times’. "It creates various possibilities," Oskar said. "FLIP creates a bridge between production and post. In television, production and post-production normally have distinct roles, but our colourists often talk about looks and lighting with the camera crews. FLIP provides a basis for their conversations."

Oskar said that FLIP is useful not only for camera and lighting settings, but also for making judgments about make-up, costumes and sets. "Previously, we often had to make compromises, and make sure things were safe for shooting. By using FLIP we can take aesthetic choices further – we can review make-up and costumes on the set and know if they will work."  www.grundyufa.de   www.filmlight.ltd.uk