“3cp / Image Control Pro™” Q & A with Yuri Neyman and Mattias Bolliger from "FILM & TV Kameramann" Magazine www.kameramann.de

Your app “image control” brings Gamma & Density’s 3cP On-Set Color Correction System to the iPhone and iPad.  What are the advantages using your mobile system?
The mobile component of Image Control (iC) is one of its greatest advantages.  Many of color correction choices made on set are being decided in a DIT tent away from the DP who is always on-set, in the middle of the action.  What iC does is give the DIT the freedom to leave the tent, with frames of footage and the power of 3cP on an iPad, and lead to a more personal collaboration with the DP on-set.  The DP doesn’t want to leave the set to go set a look, however, with iC, the look comes to the DP.

How did you get the idea to program an on-set grading app for an iPad?
Technology has always been an important part of cinematography, and with the advent of iPhones, iPads and other personal handheld devices starting to proliferate the set, it makes sense to utilize this technology in a way that’s easy and convenient for a DP to set a look on set and establish an early communication with post.  This app combines the mobility and convenience of the iPad with the increasingly important process of on-set color grading.

How do you transfer the pictures from the camera on the set to “Image Control” on an iPad?
There are a couple ways to see pictures of your footage in iC.  The most seamless way is to sync your iPad via WIFI to your DIT’s 3cP system.  As you’re managing your footage in 3cP, you can select frames to be sent to iC, and they are transferred wirelessly (as long as the two computers are on the same wireless network).  Once in iC, the images can be graded, then sent back to 3cP (also wirelessly!) and all your grading information is transferred with the image.  So whatever choices made in the app will be read in 3cP and be ready to generate dallies and send to post!
“Image Control” also has the option of being used as a stand-alone app, without the support of 3cP.  Images can be transferred to the iPad via wired syncing with iTunes and your computer’s photo library.  Other options include uploading images from an SD card via Apple’s SD Card Reader for iPad or taking pictures directly with iPad’s built in cameras.  All of these images can be graded in iC, then exported with full reports to be sent on to post.

What are the main advantages for a DoP using your system?
A DoP greatly benefits from the advantages of “Image Control” because it puts many of the decisions regarding color grading back in the hands of the cinematographer.  In today’s system, the DoP is increasingly being considered a person who just collects raw data on-set, and post-production will manipulate this raw data to create a beautiful image.  However, this system gives the cinematographer a voice in post because the look that they are trying to achieve already accompanies the image by means of a LUT and/or metadata generated in Image Control or 3cP.

How does a DoP communicate with the colorist about the look of the pre-graded scenes using your software?
Image Control will just further strengthen the collaboration between the DoP and the colorist.  With the app, the colorist could do a first-pass of color correction either in 3cP or in iC directly, then hand over the image to the DoP for their tweaks or corrections and then give the iPad back to the colorist to work from there, or vice-versa.  The app gives the colorist and DoP the ability to speak the same visual language by means of the numerous grading tools available in Image Control.

Is it possible to work with grabbed dpx- or raw-files as well?
At this time, DPX and RAW files are not supported for stand-alone manipulation of metadata in Image Control.  However, when working in the 3cP workflow, all DPX or RAW files are fully supported in the 3cP software.  From there, 3cP can generate a still image that can be wirelessly transferred to iC and graded at that point.

What are the costs of your app?
There will be two versions of iC: the full version which will be compatible with 3cP and include all features will cost $399.  We will also be offering a lite-version that will not be able to communicate with 3cP via WIFI, and will function more as a standalone app with limited color grading options.  Cost for this version is TBD.

Which feedback did you get from testers and first users?
One of the biggest questions we’ve been getting is about the calibration of the iPad screen for color correcting work.  What we’ve done is incorporate calibration into the app itself.  One of your first setup options will be to calibrate the screen to true Rec. 709.  The process is similar to running a calibration on your computer monitor, simple to use and not time consuming.

Will it be possible to re-import pre-graded looks in the camera for on-set monitoring or to store them as LUTs?
Whatever look you create using iC can be stored as a “Profile” – a.k.a LUT.  A profile basically serves as a user created preset that can be applied and modified on any image.  This profile can also be exported back to 3cP as a LUT that can be applied to any footage or monitor.

Image Control will not be able to send out a LUT directly to a camera or monitor, but when the LUT is exported into 3cP, all of those options become available.  3cP can apply a live LUT to a monitor stream using 3rd party hardware, such as the HD Link Pro.  Looks created in 3cP or iC can also be exported to an SD card and loaded into camera as a pre-graded LUT.

Which additional functionality are you going to implement in future version of “image control”?
For future versions we will be looking at ways to capture stills from the camera directly via WIFI.  Arri, RED and Sony are all developing ways to control metadata and view live footage wirelessly via WIFI connection.  Image Control hopes to be able to take full advantage of this technology and add color grading and LUTs to the WIFI mix and talk directly to the cameras.  We are also looking into support for RAW files to add further color correction tools to the app’s already powerful arsenal.

What’s the future of apps and software-solutions for handheld devices in the filmbiz?
Handheld devices are becoming an important tool to filmmaking, be it as a director’s viewfinder, exposure calculator, depth of field calculator, sun tracking and now color-correction - these tools are becoming part of the everyday vocabulary for cinematographers.  The idea of mobility and accessibility are two very important criteria for any tool a cinematographer chooses to employ, so apps on handheld devices fit the criteria and are being used in the same way a DoP would use their light meter.  Image Control is just the first step towards many more exciting handheld apps for filmmakers to come from Gamma & Density.