Technical justification of the project

Technical justification of the project is intended to provide, in simple terms, answers to questions and highlight potential issues and solutions related to film production, reduce the time and cost of solving problems before release, and avoid disruptions in the schedule. Communication and technical skills are required in order to help solve creative challenges using the available means and improve the viewer’s experience.

• Equipment to be used: cameras, lenses, and lights, including the models of the main and auxiliary cameras, lens class and type (spherical/anamorphic lenses), and basic distances. If you are planning to use vintage lenses or unconventional optical unit installation methods, say so in advance and demonstrate a test. The effective number of image sensor photosites with cropped lens must be at least 4K; the optical resolution of a lens should not significantly reduce image sensor capability. If colored lights are to be used on set, run a test using a dedicated set of equipment and configurations to demonstrate that no color information is lost in the source content.
• Shooting format and film format: recording format, resolution, frame rate, and aspect ratio. The effective number of image sensor photosites should be at least 4K. The aspect ratio must remain the same over the entire film or series.
• Data storage and recording: memory cards and backups, directories and file names, the person responsible for MHL and backing up files. It is important to avoid losing data or creating situations where all the available drives are full.
• Preview on set: what displays and settings are used for control, who is monitoring camera signals and registering issues. Camera configuration and signal characteristics and recording should be monitored. Also, there must be a way to watch HDR video on set. This does not require a reference display. A professional monitor with HDR support will be sufficient (for example, Blackmagic Video Assist 12G HDR, Atomos Sumo, or ARRI viewfinders, which support HDR mode, or native LUTs from the camera manufacturer to match shooting modes to avoid clipping).
• Graphics pipeline: what is important is how VFX supervisors interact on set with the film crew and the format for exchanging data between VFX and the color grading lab.
• Color pipeline: what is the process to make video master files in 4K HDR, which is our main format.
• Crew list.
• Showing how complex scenes are staged: technical description, implementation references for the film (selection of groups based on common issues). Also, key scenes that are recurrent in the film need to be demonstrated:
• Shooting in natural light/exterior shooting—an example of the image in ideal conditions.
• Shooting in limited light conditions—avoid excessive digital noise when shooting at the limits of image sensor capability. This step can help with selecting an additional lighting solution.
• Backlight—avoid overexposure for objects that don’t emit light (e.g., sky or window blinds) and underexposure of key objects that are shot in long scenes or everyday scenes, especially in HDR. This step can help with selecting a solution to compensate for lighting of key objects.
• Shooting in restricted conditions—using drones, action cameras, or phone cameras or shooting in confined spaces or hostile environments. Recordings made using such cameras should be compared against the main content to understand what post-production processing they might need and what creative goals they serve that cannot be reached using the main cameras.
• Compositing. It is necessary to understand what solutions will be required for studio shooting using chroma key or a virtual studio. Any complex unconventional methods should be tested from the set to the color grading lab. This can help detect studio and lighting issues.
• Crowd scenes. It is necessary to understand whether graphics will be used.

These examples can be replaced with a reference or test shooting/pilot to provide a final look, including the resolution and aspect ratio, color design, texture (grain), and image sharpness. It is important to understand how the image will look prior to shooting and, even more so, its release.

• What equipment will be used to record audio on set (dialogue, noises, background sounds) and in what sequence.
• How the soundtrack will be synchronized.
• How the recording is stored (memory cards and backups, directories and file names).
• What 5.1 sound solution will be used—background sound must be recorded on set as much as possible. Original music must be initially recorded in 5.1. Whether to upmix fragments initially unavailable in 5.1 should be discussed in advance.
• Redubbing—it is important to understand how much of the recording from the set will be used for production.
• How audio master files will be created, since we need to simultaneously obtain master files for distribution and prepare MnE master files for dubbing in foreign languages. Is audio post-production prepared to provide global versions based on redubbed dialogue.
• Crew list.

• Cameras need to be tested for bad pixels prior to the other tests. It is important to ensure that cameras’ image sensors have no defective photosites, as this can affect the entire footage. Also, we expect you to check your equipment’s health before each filming session.
• We do not request results of lens tests using calibration charts, but you can provide them. We expect you to run these tests.
• Pre-shoot/test shooting in conditions close to actual filming, as well as test color grading in SDR and HDR should be provided once they are ready. The goal is to ensure that no issues arise after the footage leaves the set and before its release from the color grading lab and that we see the image intended by the director.

We can send you the technical requirements for video, graphics, and sound, as well as our comments upon request.

We appreciate your answers in advance.