The DI Subcommittee from the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Technology Committee is closing in on the development and implementation what it calls an ASC Colour Decision List (CDL), an open method of communicating colour information between technologies from different manufacturers which operates in a similar manner to an editor’s EDL, writes Carolyn Giardina.
During IBC, the initiative continued and a growing number of manufacturers of technologies in the DI/colour grading space expressed support for the system. “There is no doubt the CDL works,” reported Post Logic Studios colourist Lou Levinson, who chairs the DI subcommittee. “Now the biggest issue facing us is agreement on a standard transport mechanism.” He said he hopes to have this solved by year’s end.
Steven Poster, ASC, who is vice chair of the ASC technology committee, said, ‘I think it does a tremendous amount of good… the CDL allows us to get basic information from creation through finishing.”
Technicolor’s SVP of worldwide technology Terry Brown, who is also involved in the ASC Technology Committee confirmed that sister company Grass Valley has tested the CDL and would support it in its Bones system. Noting that today manufacturers each have their own method of communicating colour information, Brown said, “This allows a cinematographer to communicate his vision without error…It’s a decision list that any manufacturer can import.”
DVS’ Erik Balladares reported that DVS had already tested the CDL system and that it would incorporate CDL support in a future version of its Clipster. “It gives everybody a standard to follow,” Balladares said. “It’s important that we have standards that can be transferred from system to system.”
“We want to forward this process,” added da Vinci’s Bill Robertson. “They have solidified the parameters and we know that we can implement this throughout our product line.”
