Broadcast Safe Filter – Please help me understand

[David Battistella]

Wayne,

You are describing two very different scenario’s. A proper color correction as well as a proper sound mix can lift the quality and content of any film. This is obviously because we are affected by what we see and what we hear, and a skilled colorist and sound designer can bring a TON to a production.

If it is your aim to get the film you are working on “into spec” then the broadcast safe filter will do that. It will put the blacks at 7.5 and clamp the LUMA at 100 units. The FCP broadcast safe filter does introduce artifacting and noise which can be rejected by a stict QC tester at a network. More and more networks are handing tapes you submit to third party Quality Control company and they will provide you with time code accurate lists of “dropouts, artifacting, vertical blanking, VITC or LTC time code errors.

You should check teh deliverables spec sheet of the broadcaster you are submitting to.

While broadcast safe sounds like a handy all in one solution it may not solve all of your problems.

I know that of time and budget permitting anything can be done, but it may look better if you use teh three way CC, you can always create a balanced look with that and then scroll through the timeline to look for out of range shots and fix them individually.

I am sure that Joes’s broadcast safe is cleaner than the FCP one.

David

[David Jones]

[Wayne K.] “For instance, I’m working on a feature-length documentary with literally thousands of shots – from countless sources, and on many of them, I’ve got some very wild gradings. It would take me literally weeks to go through each shot and bring it into spec. “

That is what separates the boys from the men, so to speak.

[Arnie Schlissel]

[Wayne K.] “For instance, I’m working on a feature-length documentary with literally thousands of shots – from countless sources, and on many of them, I’ve got some very wild gradings. It would take me literally weeks to go through each shot and bring it into spec. “

Yes, well without trying to sound flippant, that’s why it’s called “work”. And that’s why you should charge rates that reflect the fair market value of your level of experience & expertise for the service. Or deliver a service that fairly reflects what you are being paid.

[Wayne K.] “2. If there IS a great Broadcast safe plug-in that works, please let me know what it is. “

It’s called a “colorist”. 😉

Seriously, there is no plug in that can substitute for the eye of a skilled, talented colorist to interpret the material on the monitor and scopes to get it to look its best & be “legal”.

FWIW, large budget features, created with material that was properly exposed to begin with, typically take a couple of weeks to be graded in state of the art suites operated by the best colorists in the business.

Arnie
https://www.arniepix.com

[Walter Biscardi]

Excellent post Arnie and I’ll add one more thing. There is a product called Final Touch HD which brings to the FCP editor color correction controls almost on par with a daVinci. I’m testing it here right now and am hoping to get a colorist in here shortly to see what they think.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Now in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Walter Biscardi]

[Wayne K.] “For instance, I’m working on a feature-length documentary with literally thousands of shots – from countless sources, and on many of them, I’ve got some very wild gradings. It would take me literally weeks to go through each shot and bring it into spec.”

If you’re going to do the color correcting, then that’s what you’re being paid to do. This is what a colorist will do as well.

I just delivered 7 High Def network episodes with upwards of 1,000 edits between all the shows. I color corrected each scene individually with a combination of the 3-Way CC, Broadcast Safe, Levels and Proc Amp. About half of the shots have keyframes in the CC to adjust for camera moves from very dark portions of the set to the light portions of the set. I was asked to be the editor and colorist and billed accordingly.

It’s a tedious process to be sure, but it’s the only way to know for sure if your levels are correct. I much prefer full manual control, especially something going to a network in HD.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Now in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Arnie Schlissel]

Thanks, Walter! I hope that you’ll share your experience & opinions on Final Touch. I’ve heard a little about it, & I’m really intrigued to know more.

Arnie
https://www.arniepix.com

[Glenn Chan]

Hi Wayne,

Perhaps the following information can help.

I’m just a student studying Radio and Television Arts right now and that information is what I’ve figured out so far from my own research.

#1: Figure out what your goal of your color correction is

From a technical standpoint, you should make sure your video levels are broadcast-safe. As well, color correction usually includes fixing any image problems (white balance, exposure).

Continuity/matching: Shots that are too inconsistent from each other can cause color continuity problems. When there’s a cut, the viewer may think there was a change in location. This can happen when intercutting different consumer cameras. Another example is shots taken at a different time of a day. Generally I don’t think you need to worry about this, although it seems like something colorists spend time on.
Some colorists also spend time on ensuring the consistency of color throughout the film, and matching the video image to real life colors (i.e. for a product). In my opinion, don’t bother.

Artistically, there is a lot you can do to enhance your images.
Aesthetics: make images look better.
Draw focus onto particular things in a shot.
Apply a stylistic look (i.e. Sin City, film noir, Pleasantville, etc. etc.)
Enhance the meaning of a film through color (i.e. Schindler’s List / the girl in red jacket)

If you shoot on a DV format, you can (in my biased opinion) get huge increases in image quality. An example of my own color work: https://www.glennchan.info/Proofs/dvinfo/EFP1-CC-comparison.mov

#2: Suppose your goal is making your video broadcast legal. Note: This information does not apply to non-broadcast (i.e. DVD, projection, film out, etc. etc.).

That 7.5IRE setup/pedestal thing:
Ok this is a big source of confusion. Here’s my attempt at clarifying things.
For NTSC signals, 7.5IRE is black level and 100IRE is maximum white. When converting from digital to analog, you want to have black and white levels translated correctly. For DV (an 8-bit format), black should be at 16 and whites at 235. In RGB values (i.e. you’re making a title in Photoshop), black should be at 16 16 16 (RGB) and whits should be at 235 235 235 (RGB).

Digital-analog conversion:
Decks can convert 16 (digital) to 7.5IRE. *OR* Your deck can convert 16 (digital) to 0IRE (which is typically wrong, and lead to clipped blacks where you lose shadow detail and the image is a little too dark). Professional equipment can typically toggle between the two. Prosumer and consumer equipment (i.e. Sony DSR11) typically puts blacks at 0IRE. Some cameras can “compensate” for equipment putting blacks at 0IRE by recording digital blacks at 32. However, the tape shot in that camera will give improper levels when put into equipment that translates 16 (digital) to 7.5IRE (black, recorded at 32 digital, will end up at 15IRE instead).

IRE is an analog unit and doesn’t apply to the digital domain. If your computer program talks about IRE, it is just guessing what your video levels will end up as in IRE units.

EXCEPTIONS: Japan NTSC and PAL have 0IRE black.

CAVEAT 1: In Final Cut, 255 sometimes gives 235 235 235 (RGB) and sometimes gives 255 255 255 (RGB). If you’re making titles, watch out for this. 255 255 255 (RGB) gives an illegal white (which may not be that big of a deal if you use the broadcast safe filter on top).
CAVEAT 2: Many computer programs may talk about IRE and show levels on a computer-version of a waveform monitor. Unless it’s properly configured, don’t trust it. It doesn’t know whether your gear puts blacks at 0IRE or 7.5IRE.

What to do:
Know your gear and read up on it. Toggle 7.5IRE/0IRE if necessary. If you’re using a consumer/prosumer deck, you will need to do something special to make a proper analog master.

Illegal colors:
Colors can be illegal in three ways.

Luminance/brightness out of range
For NTSC composite signals, 7.5IRE is black level and 100IRE is white (*Japan NTSC and PAL have 0IRE black). Anything below 7.5IRE likely will not be seen by your audience. Anything over 100IRE will cause buzzing in the broadcast audio (and possibly some other things). Most TVs will display detail for things over 100IRE, but the broadcaster will likely clip those values off to avoid the audio buzzing problem.

Use the 3-way color corrector and adjust the left and right sliders. You typically want to retail detail in bright and dark areas. Also, you may want to maximize the exposure range available in the target medium (synonymous with increasing control) because things look better that way. If you look at the histogram, you usually want to have it so the big white blob there just kisses 0 and 100. There are exceptions to this! Do what looks right.
You will want to clip off the values that are too bright/dark. The broadcast colors filter does this. You can toggle it to see how your image looks like with illegal values clipped off.

Chroma/saturation out of range
Pull up the vectorscope in FCP. If there’s stuff outside the largest circle, it’ll probably be a problem (it may not necessarily be over-saturated). This generally doesn’t ever happen with real-world images although computer-generated elements can easily be illegal.
Reduce saturation with the 3-way CC (you can use the saturation limiter to only affect saturated colors) or the broadcast colors filter (I think that filter fixes this).

These colors will likely get clipped by the broadcaster.

Composite of luminance+chroma is out of range
Colors that are bright+saturated or dark+saturated can be illegal. Dark+saturated colors can cause interference with TV sync signals, so the broadcaster typically clips them at -20IRE to prevent that. You usually don’t have to worry about this case.

Bright+saturated colors can cause transmission equipment to overheat (happens at around 133IRE), so the broadcaster should be clipping these values off. At what value this occurs depends on the boradcaster, and how high they let your values get depends on the broadcaster. There is no standard value. 110IRE is conservative and sacrifices a little of the color space available. A higher limit (115IRE~120IRE) will create a great color range/gamut/space. As I already mentioned, the maximum allowed varies from broadcaster to broadcaster. The easy answer is to be conservative and stick with 110IRE.

You deal with these values as follows:
Use a waveform monitor as a guide to what’s happening. The WFM needs to be in composite mode. I think FCP’s WFM can do this.
A- Use secondary color correction to lower the brightness and saturation of these colors.
B- Use the broadcast colors filter to clip any remaining illegal values off. FCP’s broadcast colors filter has a smoothness option that will smoothly roll off illegal values instead of clipping them. I don’t know if it lowers both brightness and saturation, or just saturation.
The broadcast colors filter has to be set at the appropriate level. There are presets for 100IRE, 110IRE, 120IRE, etc. **If I remember correctly, the broadcast colors filter would give artifacts on one of the settings.

What you do here is a bit of an aesthetic judgement.

DIGRESSION: Some people say that chroma should not exceed the targets on a vectorscope (example: https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/cc_legal_fcp4.html ). This is not true.

White balance:
Fix white balance with the 3-way CC. Click on the eyedropper, click on something that’s supposed to be white, and you’re done. Watch out for off-white colors (walls, clothing, etc.). I would generally double check with your own eyes. If the picture looks off, it IS off.
Aesthetically, you may intentionally want a tint to your image. Night scenes can look wrong if they don’t have a blue tint to them.

Suggested workflow:
A- Apply the broadcast colors filter to everything. You can either apply it to a nested master sequence (this is better for performance, and for composites), or to each clip.
Put the right settings into the broadcast colors filter before applying it.
B- Look through your footage. If any shot looks off, go in and fix it. You may want to toggle the broadcast colors filter to see how it affects the colors.
While you’re doing this, you should view your footage on a broadcast monitor. The image you see in Final Cut is very innacurate compared to what your video will look like to a broadcast audience.

Monitor calibration:
see https://www.videouniversity.com/tvbars2.htm

That calibration only fixes the analog circuitry in your broadcast monitor. It does not account for other things you need to pay attention to.
A- Color temperature. The color temperature of all light source in your room should be 6500k.
B- The space in your eyeline around the monitor should be a neutral grey.
C- Phosphor wear in your broadcast monitor can cause “burns” and color shifts in dark areas. Phosphor wear comes from chemical changes when electrons hit the phosphors in the CRT.

[Glenn Chan]

Wayne, to clarify a few things:

#1- Making your footage look better through color correction/grading is a whole art onto itself. It may be best to hire a colorist for this. *No idea where’d you should go. If you have the money, a telecine facility can do it.

If you want to do things yourself, Magic Bullet Editors is the easiest to pick up. It by no means gives you the best quality (talent and experience does IMO), it takes a really long time to render, and it costs money. Nattress’ FIlm Effects and Stib’s film curves plug-in + FCP’s filters can be a good alternative.

2. I know that it’s always best to color correct your footage using the 3-way color corrector tool & the scopes, etc. but what is the problem with using the FCP or ‘Joes’ Broadcast Safe filter.

No. I would recommend applying a broadcast colors filter as the first thing you do.

As far as Final Touch HD goes, it’s unnecessary. You can make your video in spec within Final Cut, and it’s probably fastest to do it from within Final Cut.
However, Final Touch can be a very good creative tool that is good for “artistic” color correction. You just need to add talent.

[Graeme Nattress]

https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/video_levels_nattress.html

For more info on black levels, and what happens when you import a photoshop image into FCP.

Graeme

– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects and Standards Conversion for FCP