Colorist Society Hollywood recently hosted an event in tandem with Barco on the latter’s Lightsteering Technology for HDR projection. The new technology, which promises to improve the picture quality of films shown in theaters, includes a color grading plug-in optimized HDR color grading that integrates into DaVinci Resolve and FilmLight Baselight.

More than two dozen colorists attended the event held at Barco’s demo facility in Hollywood. After an introductory presentation from Barco’s Joachim Zell, Iris Wu and Anders Ballestad, attendees were given a chance to test drive the system themselves.

CS Hollywood’s Troy Smith, CSI says that most people came away impressed. “For me, the biggest takeaway was how vastly different HDR projection is from current theatrical projection,” he observes. “I hope it’s adopted by more theaters. It might give people a reason to return to movie theaters. The HDR image combined with Atmos sound makes for a different theatrical experience.”

John Daro, CSI had attended demonstrations of Barco’s HDR projector before, but this was the first time he’d had a chance to try out the color tools himself. “It was cool to have the Resolve setup and be able to turn the wheels, see what the projector is actually capable of,” he recalls.

Daro foresees intriguing possibilities for HDR color grading. “It opens up a different way to work,” he explains. “Say I’m doing a Barco HDR grade, and I notice the image is clipping out on an actress’s face. Instead of bringing down the entire picture, I could bring down just a hot spot in the background to shift more range to the actress. It allows you to pull and push light where you want it.”

He cautions, however, that adding Barco HDR to a film mastering workflow means more than a simple trim pass. “To get all that you can out of that projector, it has to be a regrade,” he observes. “That adds time to the grade, which may get pushback from those who control the purse strings. Hopefully HDR theatrical versions will take over, and the 48nit pass will become the trim.”

Budget considerations notwithstanding, Smith says most of the colorists in attendance agreed that HDR projection comes with a “wow” factor. “If you have a chance to see a demo, you should definitely do it,” he insists. “It’s the coolest thing I’ve seen in a while. I want to see more and hope we can host an event like this again.”