Cinematic color is a fine art  - AND - an applied science. 

It requires skilled artists with taste, tactics & strategies, emotional intelligence, deep knowledge of film history, understanding of the human vision system, and mastery of color science. 

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Sleepwalk Cinema proudly offers superb, comprehensive color pipeline and finishing services to top-tier motion picture, television, social media, and independent film productions.

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Establishing the "look" of a film ideally starts in pre-production; working with directors, production designers, wardrobe supervisors, cinematographers, DITs, and VFX supervisors.  In any case, once in post we carefully listen to directors, producers ,and cinematographers to narrow in on their storytelling objectives; delivering maximum visceral impact to moviegoers.

From lens to screen, we advise on all aspects of color in the filmmaking processes.

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Further, we can devise cost-effective post-production finishing strategies eliminating typical waste and overhead found at many high-end post houses.

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Sleepwalk Cinema's Expertise:

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• 2K, 4K, 8K, 16K Color grading (in DaVinci Resolve)

• Digital and photochemical (film) workflows

• Online Conform

• VFX roundtrip specifications (with NukeX and Fusion details)

• On-set LUTs, cinema camera settings

• Color Science including spectral analysis with the latest CMFs (color matching functions)

• Liaise with and advise film labs, VFX artists, 3rd party post vendors, and engineers on all matters of color

• HDR (high dynamic range) grading, workflows, and transfer functions;  ST.2084 (A.K.A. PQ) and HLG

• Full Digital Intermediate (DI) supervision including coordination of 16mm, 35mm film scanning and laser filmrecording

• Handling multiple matte, alpha, and Z channels in EXR returns.

• Lat-Long 180 and Lat-Long 360 and special venue color grading

• Projection re-mapping with ST maps.

• Design/code custom DCTL (DaVinci Color Transform Language) plug-ins for Resolve

• Recruitment of - and/or - coordination with A-list colorists

• Create/document color validation / control strategies

• Code Nuke-Python scripts to generate HDR, wide-gamut test image sequences

• Create custom 3D or 1D color LUTs (Look-Up Tables); for both technical conversions and creative show LUTs

• Full library of high-quality P3 and Rec2020 show LUTs, for both SDR and HDR deliverables

• Transcode media to social media specifications

• Master Digital Cinema Packages (DCPs) including new DCI-HDR cinema compliance

• Multichannel audio (LtRt, 5.1, 7.1) mix lay-back / synchronization within Resolve/Fairlight for DCP mastering.

• Coordination with audio re-recording engineers for proper deliverable spec compliance

• Compute/generate LED controller PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation) tables implementing ST.2084 (PQ)

• Film (photochemical) sensitometry

• Proper handling (input transforms) of all camera log and raw formats - ARRI AWG4-LogC4, RED IPP2, Sony S-Log, N-Log, F-Log, Canon-Log, D-Log, etc.

• Colorspace standards, and conversions among them; ACES, Rec709, P3-DCI, P3-D65, Rec2020, XYZ, X”Y”Z”, etc.

• Utilize OCIO nodes within Nuke and Fusion compositing systems

• SMPTE-2065-1 (AP0) and non-ACES methods

• Deep understanding of white-points, color temperature, gamuts, transfer functions (EOTF, OETF, gamma), etc.

• Characterize LEDs’ (Light-Emitting Diodes’) non-linearities with spectroradiometers

• Further color science with Octave (MATLAB) programs

• Octave, and MATLAB coding for color processing, algorithm prototyping, and other R&D

• Working with OpenEXR, DPX, TIFF, MXF, Quicktime, and myriad Camera RAW files

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Biweekly or monthly service subscriptions - via Square - give you to access our master color skills and talents. Or custom project-based quotes are available.  Reach out to Michael Lauter for current color reel and further details.

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