Working with ALEXA footage in Baselight

W O R K F L O W G U I D E L I N E

Date: 19 March 2014

Table of Contents
Table of Contents ............................................................................................................. 2  
Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 2  
Workflow overview ........................................................................................................... 3  
Native ProRes support ..................................................................................................... 4  
Colour space management .............................................................................................. 4  
Overview ................................................................................................................... 4  
Film grade ................................................................................................................. 5  
Video grade .............................................................................................................. 5  
Dailies and conform/grading with Baselight .................................................................. 6  
Setting the working colour space .............................................................................. 6  
Setting the Display Rendering Transform ................................................................. 6  

Introduction
The Baselight range—incorporating Baselight DAILIES, Baselight Editions and the Baselight colour grading
system—provides full and easy-to-use workflows for dailies and conform/grading operations. With the
release of Baselight 4.4, Baselight can encode and decode ProRes files natively on-the-fly, and perform
colour space conversions with greater accuracy and without the need for external LUTs or Truelight profiles.
The ALEXA camera can capture more dynamic range than is available in HD-SDI video colourspace—if you
want to use this extended range, you may want to use a workflow where LogC is encoded in the HD-SDI
stream. The generalised colour space functionality in Baselight provides bespoke transformation from LogC
to any desired colour space if your workflow requires it.

The processes in this document refer to Baselight 4.4.

For more information about using Baselight, see the Baselight documentation on the FilmLight web site.

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Workflow overview

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Native ProRes support
Baselight now has native support for many more codecs, without the need for separate licences or
equipment, and can encode/decode the Apple ProRes family of codecs on-the-fly.

In Baselight versions prior to 4.4, Baselight produced legal-range image data when it read in ProRes
QuickTime files.
From Baselight 4.4, Baselight produces full-range image data for ProRes QuickTime files; this means that
ProRes source files can use exactly the same colour space treatment on the Baselight timeline as ARRIRAW
files.

Colour space management

Baselight 4.4 introduces a new colour space infrastructure with generalised colour spaces.
Building on the existing format colour space functionality, it provides for a more rigorous colour space
description. This allows Baselight to handle natively most of the colour management operations that formerly
required LUTs or Truelight profiles. This new approach can dramatically simplify most workflows as well as
improve rendering accuracy and system performance.

Overview
In order to take advantage of Baselight’s new colour management infrastructure it is important that you
understand the colour spaces involved in your preferred workflow. This will help you make the right choices
when you set up a new scene, when you import data into your scene, and when you render.
The places where Baselight instigates a colour space conversion have not changed with the modifications
introduced in 4.4, but the nature of the conversions is different and the colour spaces are no longer bound to
formats. Here are the main places where
conversions can take place (illustrated in the
diagram below):
• Between the sequence input and the
working colour space.
The Sequence operator has controls to define
the format and colour space of the imported
data (the input), and also one to specify the
format that is assumed for the subsequent
grading operations (the output). In most cases
the output is left at the default, which is the
working format (and colour space) specified
when the scene was created. When the input
and output colour spaces differ, a conversion
is applied.
• Between the working space and the cursor
view colour space.
After the grade operations in the timeline are
applied, a number of cursor operations may
be applied from the Cursors panel. The colour
space of the cursor view may be set to reflect
the colour space of the display and if this
differs from the working colour space of the
sequence (which is usually the working colour
space of the scene) then a conversion is
applied.
• Between the working space and the render output space.

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The Render Manager allows the colour space of the render output to be specified in same way as for the
cursor view, and the same rules apply.

Colour space transforms (shown in green) in a grading workflow

The options you select in Baselight depend on your preferred workflow, which can be broadly distinguished
as either film or video.
Note that this naming convention only reflects traditional workflows and in no way precludes using a film
grade workflow for a video project or a video grade for a film project.

Film grade
The source data is in a high dynamic range form (such as ARRI LogC Wide Gamut) and a viewing transform
(traditionally a LUT) is used at the cursor in order to present a ‘normal’ view. The grade operations are
applied in the high dynamic range space and rendering a deliverable usually requires ‘burning in’ of a
transform. For example:

ARRI ALEXA LogC film grade

Data colour space: ARRI LogC Wide Gamut
Working colour space: ARRI LogC Wide Gamut
Display Rendering Transform: ARRI Photometric

When the cursor view or render output colour space is either Rec. 709 Video or P3 Native White, the data
view transform that Baselight generates automatically is the same as the corresponding ‘photometric’ LUT
that you can download from the ARRI web site. Using Baselight’s colour management is therefore a
particularly convenient way to follow ARRI’s recommended workflow with the added advantage of being able
to render to (or view in) colour spaces that are not offered in ARRI’s LUT archive. Moreover, any non-ARRI
shots brought into this scene can be converted to LogC in the Sequence operator—a feature not possible
without the colour space conversions provided in Baselight.

Video grade
The source data is viewed and manipulated without a viewing transform. The grading display usually
represents the primary deliverable so there is no requirement for a cursor transform or for a transform to be
‘burnt in’ during render.
Where the source data is in a high dynamic range colour space, a transform is applied at the outset to
convert the data to the working colour space in such a way that the starting view appears ‘normal’ on the
grading display. A simple example might be an ARRI Alexa LogC ProRes workflow using the LUT obtainable
from the ARRI web site to convert the source data to the grading timeline. In Baselight this workflow can now
be accommodated without an explicit use of the LUT:

ARRI ALEXA LogC video grade

Data colour space: ARRI LogC Wide Gamut
Working colour space: Same as grading display (e.g. Rec. 709 Video or P3 Native White)
Display Rendering Transform: ARRI Photometric

Here Baselight generates and applies, in the Sequence operator, the transform from ARRI LogC Wide
Gamut to the working (display) space, and by specifying the ARRI Photometric DRT this transform is
identical to the LUT obtainable from ARRI. A significant advantage over working with the LUT is that shots
from different camera types may be included in the scene and will automatically be balanced correctly with
the same starting view.

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Dailies and conform/grading with Baselight
Setting the working colour space
The working colour space is selected when you create a scene:
1. Open the Job Manager and create a new scene.

2. When the New Scene window opens, type in a name for it.

3. If the default Working Format is not what you want to use for this scene, tap the Working Format
list and select one of the available formats.

→ Select a format with an appropriate frame size and frame rate for your project.

4. If the default working format does not specify the colour space you want to grade in, tap the
Working Colour Space list and select your preferred grading colour space.

5. Once the new scene has been created, close the Job Manager.

Setting the Display Rendering Transform

To set the Display Rendering Transform:
1. Open the Scene Settings View by selecting it from the Views menu or pressing <Ctrl><S> on the
keyboard.

1. Select the Format & Colour tab.

2. Check the Display Rendering Transform setting near the bottom of the panel.

→ The Display Rendering Transform (DRT) is used in conversions between scene-referred colour
spaces and display-referred colour spaces. To replicate the data view transform that you would get
using ARRI’s ‘photometric’ LUT, select ARRI Photometric from this list.

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Importing footage into the scene with the appopriate data colour space
Before importing footage, you should take a look at the options available for the data colour space in the
Sequence operator.

The data colour space

Each input sequence is assigned an appropriate input format and colour space when it is added to the
timeline.
To view the colour space that has been assigned to a sequence, select the input layer in the timeline. The
Sequence operator is usually selected by default as it appears first in the layer. The Colour Space list is at
the top right of the operator.

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As well as the colour spaces, this list has several other options that you should understand.
Option Description

From Input Format The colour space is taken from the input format assigned to the sequence
and shown in blue next to this option.

This means that image data is converted from the input format’s colour space
to the output format’s colour space.

Automatic This option is only available if the input is either R3D, ARRIRAW or
Sony RAW.

If this is the case, then the image data is decoded directly into the colour
space of the declared output format for the sequence (usually the same as
the scene’s working colour space). As a consequence, the colour space
controls in the RAW Decode operator are not available.

From Metadata This option is only available if the colour space is included in the metadata in
the source material; for example, ARRI ProRes, Sony XAVC and OpenEXR
file types all contain colour space information within their metadata.

No Conversion The data colour space is assumed to be the same as the output colour
space, which means that no colour management conversion is applied.

The default option that is applied to sequences as they are added to the timeline is specified in the Scene
Settings View; the option that is assigned to each sequence can be changed later in the Sequence operator.
The following sections explain how to perform these actions.

Setting the default data colour space strategy

The default data space for each input sequence is determined by the Default Input Colour Space option in
the Scene Settings View:
1. Open the Scene Settings View by selecting it from the Views menu or pressing <Ctrl><S> on the
keyboard.

2. Select the Format & Colour tab.

3. From the Default Input Colour Space list, select one of the following options:

Option Description

From Input Format The From Input Format treatment is always applied (described above).

Automatic/From Metadata This option makes a ‘best guess’ at the appropriate colour space,
depending on your source material:

If the input sequence consists of raw digital camera footage such as

ARRIRAW, then the Automatic treatment is applied (described above).

If the input sequence contains colour space information within its metadata
(for example, ARRI ProRes), then the From Metadata treatment is applied.

For all other cases, the From Input Format treatment is applied unless the
input format uses a legacy colour space, in which case the No Conversion
treatment is applied.

No Conversion The No Conversion treatment is always applied.

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Changing the data colour space of sequences
Once you have imported footage into your timeline, you can change the data colour space manually from the
Sequence operator.
Select the input layer in the timeline. The Sequence operator is usually selected by default as it appears first
in the layer.
1. Tap the Colour Space button at the top right and select the colour space you want to identify with
this sequence.

2. The options are described in the previous section.

To change the data colour space of multiple sequences at the same time:

1. Position the cursor within one of the shots you want to modify and then select all the input sequence
strips to modify.

2. Enable Grouped Grading by pressing the Offset All button on the Blackboard, <Ctrl><G> on the
keyboard or selecting Grouped Grading from the Edit menu.

3. Select the Sequence operator in the shot that contains the cursor.

4. Tap the Colour Space list and select the required colour space. Note that the Automatic and
From Metadata modes are only available if they are applicable to all selected sequences.

→ The colour space of all selected input sequences is updated.

More information
For more information about the colour space functionality in Baselight see the Workflow Guide,
GradingWorkflows with Generalised Colour Spaces, on the FilmLight web site.

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